Month: February 2016

A Found Treasure

Quilt #2 in the 2016 Year of Scrapfabulousness Series

This quilt isn’t beautiful so much for its fabric or pattern, but for its history. A couple of years ago, I bought a bag of fabric at a yard sale in Falcon, Colorado, and inside I found these Chinese Coin strips.

coins

There were seven or eight strips, some of them longer than the others. Someone had spent a lot of time sewing them together, but they had run out of time, ambition or ability, so the strips ended up in my hands. It felt wrong, somehow, to let them go to waste.

I dug through my scrap bucket and added enough pieces that I had eight strips of the same length. Then I picked a few low-volume fabrics and added them between the strips using the 1600 jelly roll method.

The finished top isn’t going to win any quilt show awards, but I like it. I enjoy knowing there’s one less UFO in the world. Or at least there will be as soon as I quilt it. 🙂

I hope that when I run out of time, or ambition, or ability, someone will find my UFOs and finish them. And that’s all I have to say about that.

Mahalo, y’all, for stopping by.

Gallery

Positively Scrappy

Quilt #1 in the 2016 Year of Scrapfabulousness Series

Positively Scrappy, the first in my 2016 Year of Scrapfabulousness Series, is the ultimate scrap quilt. It’s made up entirely of 2.5″ blocks – 1,440 of them to be exact. You don’t need any yardage. It’s ALL scraps. And it’s so easy to customize the look and size of this quilt.

I used my Accuquilt to cut the blocks, but you could easily do this with a jelly roll, fat quarters, whatever. I enjoyed putting it together, from start to finish. Can’t wait to get it quilted.

Skill Level: Upper Beginner

This pattern uses only 2.5″ squares. Nothing difficult about that. Really, the biggest challenge is the layout. I worked in big sections of 12 squares by 12. I laid it all out to my satisfaction and sewed, row by row. There would be unfinished pluses along each edge, so when I moved to the next section, I had to reference the adjoining ones to complete the pattern. It was an organizational nightmare, but the sewing itself was easy.

Accuquilt Friendly: Very

This quilt is comprised entirely of 2.5″ squares. The Accuquilt made cutting a breeze.

Precut Friendly: Very

If you don’t have a huge tub of scraps like I do, precuts are the next best thing. You could use jelly rolls, or charm packs, or even larger cuts like fat quarters.

Fabric Requirements

  • 3 Jelly Rolls – you would have about three-quarters of a roll left. Or…
  • 9 Charm Packs – That doesn’t leave you any wiggle room, so you might want to pick up ten. Or…
  • 26 Fat Quarters – Again, I would recommend a few extra to account for mistakes. Or…
  • 1 heaping pile of scraps – Each scrap should be at least big enough to get 5 squares @ 2.5″ each.

This quilt is 36 squares wide by 40 squares long. The finished dimensions are 72″ x 80″. And of course you can make it any size you like. That’s just what I ended up with.