Scrappy Pleasures

About 18 months ago I finally finished a quilt for my daughter’s bed. It was one of my first really challenging projects. I am happy with the way the quilt finished up, though it was harder than I expected. I used a pattern from Natalia Bonner’s wonderful book, Beginner’s Guide to Free Motion Quilting. This book has excellent information for those that, like myself, are trying to learn to FMQ.  I am not sure the pattern that I used was really one for a new beginner.  The piecing was a challenge.  Long story short, I bit off way more than I had thought but now that it is done, I am happy I did it. Here is a picture of the quilt:

julia quilt large

The pebbling took roughly 1.5 billion hours.  Or at least, it felt that way  The spirals were really hard because I quilted this on a fairly old Janome that isn’t equipped for FMQ. I couldn’t drop the feed dogs and I was fighting the machine the whole time.  If you look closely at the quilting on this, it is painfully apparent that I was just learning. Again, glad I did this one and even happier that it is done!! (And happier yet that ,since then, I bought a newer Janome that quilts with ease!)

Once I finished this quilt I had amassed a huge pile of scraps. Cutting the lavender circles left a lot of waste. Here we are 18 months later and I finally used some of the leftover scraps.

20140708_1304I decided to make a throw pillow for Julia’s bed.  l created a checkerboard with some blue and lavender squares and then added some borders.  I love the floral print.  It is an older Kaffe Fassett print that I used for the backing of this quilt. To quilt it, I made a quick sandwich with a piece of leftover batting and some lightweight muslin. I quilted a cross hatch pattern and then added the back.

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I made the pillow cover “envelope style” so it all came together quickly.

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Pretty cute.

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I also made a little mat for Julia’s desk.  My husband made her a desk for her 12th birthday. It has a walnut top and Julia had been putting a couple of pieces of felt underneath her desk lamp and some other items so the top wouldn’t get scratched. I made a rectangular mat (11 x 18″) for her to use instead.

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This was a fun little project.  I took an assortment of scraps and just played around with them until I found an arrangement that I liked. It was my first attempt at improv piecing.  Just slicing and dicing and moving things around instead of drawing a sketch and measuring each piece. I am not one for doing things without a pattern or direction.  I (usually) cook from recipes rather than just making things up as I go.  As a kid, I colored within the lines. Get it? So playing with the fabric and just moving the pieces around was a fun exercise.  As far as improv piecing goes, this is pretty tame.  None of the pieces are wonky – it all lines up. Baby steps, right?? I used straight line quilting and machine binding.

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Two scrappy projects completed and they brighten Julia’s room. (Honestly though, these two projects made hardly a dent in that scrap pile!)  She is at camp this week and these will be fun surprises for her to come home to.

Linking up with: Linky Tuesday at Free Motion by the River; Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story; Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Quilts; WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and Let’s Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts.

 

6 thoughts on “Scrappy Pleasures

    1. Bernie Post author

      Kaja,
      Thanks so much for your compliment. I think she will be excited when she gets home and sees her new things! 🙂

      Reply
  1. Dora, the quilter

    These colors are heavenly. I applaud you for being dedicated enough to devote 1.5 billion hours to tiny bubbles, and I confess I use them only in tiny amounts!
    If you need to quilt on a machine that does not allow you to drop feed-dogs, you may find it easier if you set the stitch length to zero. (That way the feed dogs may touch your fabric, but they won’t be pulling it.)
    The pillow and quilt look so nice on the bed, and the mat is great too. You may have inspired me to make one for my college girl’s desk.

    Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      That is great to know — about setting the stitch length to zero. I will definitely try that. I still use the old machine but not nearly as much.

      If you make a mat for your daughter, let me know. It would be fun to see what you come up with.

      Pebbling…… I don’t plan to do that again for a long while!
      Thanks for stopping by Dora 🙂

      Reply
  2. Andrea @ MouseInMyPocket.com

    These little projects are great. I’m sure that your daughter will love them. I really like how the pillow came out. I need to make an effort to quilt more of my pillow cases instead of just leaving them flat.

    Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      Thanks Andrea! What do you mean by make more of your pillow cases, instead of leaving them flat? I’m not sure what you are referring to? Thanks for coming by. Hope you’ll be back!

      Reply

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