Tuesday, March 26, 2013

A Vacation, Some Scraps, and a Quilt Top



A few weeks ago, I tagged along with my husband when he had a conference in Southern California.  It was my first time travelling without my kids in years and though I was sad at first, we had a fantastic time.  One of the highlights of my trip that I got to meet and spend time with one of my best blog friends - Heidi from Fabric Mutt.  (Here is her post about the visit.)  We've been emailing and even video chatting for almost a year now and I can't tell you how amazing it was to actually meet her in person!  And being the generous person she is, Heidi gave me the adorable bag above filled with a fantastic variety of scraps (there were even more than shown in the photo.)


And speaking of scraps, the day before we left for California an unexpected box arrived on our doorstep from another of my best blog friends - Nicole from Bold Goods.  I've met Nicole twice and she knows how much my daughters love to sew so she had sent them a huge box of fun fabrics!


These photos show just a small sampling of what she sent - and yes, she sent Nano Iro and HTF Heather Ross to my 8 and 10 year old!!!

As I recently mentioned, my sewing space (which I share with my daughters) is quite small so I decided a day (or two or three) of organizing was needed to fit my daughters' growing stash and my new acquisitions.  Somewhere between ironing, trimming, folding, and refolding, I thought about how I'd like to make another scrap quilt.  Thus, I started trimming a 3" x WOF strip from many of my "non-novelty print" fabrics and putting them in a pile.  And a few days later, I finished the quilt top.


I used some of the fabrics from Heidi and snipped a little rectangle from one (or two) of the fabrics Nicole sent (I worked out a trade with my 8 year old!)  Also, last week at a quilt guild sewing day, one of the lovely members - Amy from The Calico Cat - brought a bag full of scraps that she shared with the group!   There were so many fun treasures and I used many of them in this quilt.



For the quilt, I just cut the 3" strips into various size rectangles and (mostly) randomly stitched them together.  After I finished about 5 rows, I decided to add in some Kona Oyster which I also cut into strips so that I could combine it with a few low volume fabrics.  I'm excited to get this quilted (I still need to decide on quilting) and I plan on backing it in flannel - however, I have no batting at the moment so I likely won't be quilting it until next week.  Oh, well - guess that will give me time to make some more FW blocks!

Linking to WIP WednesdayCrazy Mom Quilts, and Lily's Quilts.

24 comments:

  1. Your quilt turned out really cute! What a great way to use scraps!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love how the simplicity of the pattern lets the fabric speak. Just lovely. Nice you got to tag along ; )

    ReplyDelete
  3. Looks like you had at least one nice sunny day! Loving this new scrappy quilt.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What good scraps you have, and have acquired! I love all the negative space in your scrappy quilt, and the little intrusions of the low-volume prints are very smart.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Glad you had a great time without your kids, you need that time! Love what you did with the scraps. I wish my girls were interested in sewing, maybe one day.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love the quilt top! What a fantastic use of scraps. And what lucky girls you have - they already have fab fabric stashes!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love that you added the big strips of oyster into this quilt. A spot to rest is always nice.
    I used that nani iro fabric to make dresses for my girls last year! The scraps are still safely tucked away. Actually they would look really nice in the random strips quilt that I'm doing- must go find them!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Glad you had a lovely vacation!

    Love the quilt top - great way to use up scraps but still look all organised and pretty!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh it's beautiful! Such a wonderful idea - you are clever!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. So pretty!!! And how lovely to meet Heidi!

    ReplyDelete
  11. That quilt is amazing! It is great to meet bloggy friends!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I can't imagine my daughters starting to generate some of their own fabric acquisitions. I guess that day will come. Lovely meeting a blog friend.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Lucky you to meet a friend and come home with some goodies! Your new quilt top looks beautiful! I like that Kona oyster. I had never heard of it before.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Oh, the scrappy quilt is wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Sounds like you had a great trip all round.

    Love the quilt too.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I love the quilt.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I love, love, love that quilt top, Beth! Just seeing your pictures (gorgeous, by the way) makes me want to meet you back at the beach!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Your quilt top reminds me of the quilt I'm working on. it's beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Fantastic! Cant wait to see it all quilted up!

    ReplyDelete
  20. love your quilt! A fabulous use of scraps, thanks for the inspiration!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting!