Scraptitude Mystery Quilt

*Updated 5/6/2014 – this was a mystery quilt posted by the blog http://quiltingfortherestofus.com/, and the direct link is here:.  Enjoy!

 

I really ummed and erred about posting a photo of this quilt, just in case there was any readers were doing this mystery quilt and hadn’t finished it.  But I did a search on the quilt and there are solved pictures all over the internet, so I’m going to post mine and hope I haven’t ruined someone’s surprise.

I had a box of scrap squares, a roll of black homespun and a need for mindless sewing.  I found the solved Scraptitude Mystery Quilt here, and decided that I loved the design and my box of scraps would work well.  And I got to it.

I’m very pleased with it, though it’s very bright!!

It did go together okay, though not brilliantly.  It has a lot of bias triangles to work with and bias triangles and I don’t really get along.  Though I’m trying hard to rectify that.  To make them my friend.

Loving the black with the colours.  I think I’ll bind this one in black homespun.  Don’t look at the whooofy edges, will you?  Hopefully the quilting will sort them out, at least a little.

I told you I’d had a productive time while everyone is back at school and my husband is busy working.  I’ve been head down, bum up, sewing madly.

Anyway, my lovely readers – hope you liked my latest foray into scrap quilting.  Please drop me a line and let me know what you’re up to?

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Another flimsy for the list

This is an old UFO that I am more than happy to see the back of.

The squares in this quilt have a long history.  I began making a quilt a million years ago, and realised quickly that I had made a very bad job of cutting the squares into the required size – 3.5 inches. 

I gave up on those fabrics, recut the quilt using the same colours but distinctively more care was taken, and now have a lovely quilt that I finished, which one day soon I will show you.

But that was years ago, and this box of sad old squares sat for a long time in the cupboard.  When I read about the Goodnight Irene quiltalong, it seemed like an excellent choice of quilt to use them up.  I had to recut them all back to 2.5” because they were too large at 3.5” and it gave me the chance to make them all okay, rather than the dog’s breakfast they were the last time I tried to use them.

And so another flimsy bites the dust.  I must admit I like this pattern very much, it’s the second time I’ve made it.  I love the fact that you can take a series of half square triangles, and squares and place them in a certain way, and they make a totally different pattern than if you placed them another way. 

My points for the most part line up, and those that don’t aren’t too bad.  Considering the state the squares were in when I started, I’m pretty pleased.  Those squares were very nearly destined for the rubbish – to have a quilt finished from them is not bad, really.

My Sunday disappeared from me today.  I had grand plans of getting lots of sewing done, but somehow, all my time seemed to slip away into smoke somewhere.

Everyone is back to school tomorrow, so maybe I’ll be able to slip in a little sewing time.  I’m working on another scrap project, all blacks and jewel tones and I’m hoping to show you that soon.

And that’s it for today, lovely readers.  Hope your weekend has been filled with lovely, quilty times.

Suzie

Finishing Finishing Finishing

Oh I’ve been finishing stuff.

My husband has been working long hours and is getting home late, and so I get to sit in the sewing room after the children have gone to bed and not feel guilty that he’s in the lounge by himself (watching football, quite happily – why do we guilt ourselves into feeling we have to sit with him every minute of the day?  He doesn’t care, he’s happy)…

I digress.

I’ve been finishing off some of the messy blocks that needed to be made up into lovely quilts, and so I present my first ta-dah for the day.

One hundred percent made with scraps that come out of my ‘Bonnie Hunter Scrap System’ that I implemented on a very small scale a few months ago to see if it would work for me.  I’m pretty sure I can say it does!

The only rules I gave myself was that I had to have red chimneys, cream background and less busy outer borders of my cottages.  Everything else was as I pulled it out of the bag.

And I’m pretty happy with it, to be honest.  It was hands down one of the quickest quilts I’ve made.  It really went together very fast.

It was difficult to find a sashing and border that worked with everything, but I think I’ve compromised rather well.  It defeated the purpose of using my stash if I had to buy metreage for the outside borders, so I’m happy with my choice.

If you don’t recognise the pattern, it’s Bonnie’s Happy Scrappy Houses.  I’ve had my eye on it for ages but it looked a little complicated, but gee whiz, it was EASY.

And so, lovely readers – the first in one of my many finishes this week.  I’ll post more later.

Hope your weekend has been a quilty one.

Suzie

Some Stars

Somewhere around the web a million years ago I saw a really pretty scrap star.  As I have a million scraps and a million ideas on how to use them up, I thought I might have a go at making one.

Mine is different now.  This is the centre.  It’s 25 two inch squares stitched together for the centrepiece.

Then I used a plain white homespun (it’s all I had but I’m really quite enjoying the starkness of the white at the moment) and a larger remnant of pink to make the star points.

And I’m quite pleased with it.  I’m planning on making on in each colour that I have – I’ve all my scraps put into boxes of the same colour, and it seems quite easy to pull one out, whip up a star and pop the box away.  Of course, it didn’t even make the slightest dent in the fabric stash but I am trying.

If I have a good run I may have another go this afternoon at making another colour.  We shall see.

Not too shabby points matching!

And that’s my Saturday update for you.  It’s still freezing here but I think we might be having a very cold winter (which is totally fine with me!) this year.  I don’t have a log fire in this house (husband didn’t want the hassle of wood in a new house) and sitting by the open oil heater doesn’t quite have the same ring to it but none the less – that is where you’ll find me this afternoon.

Happy Quilting!

Suzie