Potato Chips

Potato Chip top is done.  The quilt will finish at 43" x 53.75" with no borders.  It will be sandwiched with batting and a back and then tied.  I'm happy with how it turned out.  I used all the large floral fabric that I had cut from our sewing group's stash and then the 4 corner blocks from my stash.

I have many more pink strips left over from this project and discovered a large stack of 5 1/2" squares of a smaller floral, so I may begin another Potato Chip quilt to use those scraps.

Potato Chips

Design Wall Monday

Making Potato Chips....
After all these years of quilting, I have never made a Potato Chip quilt.  Our weekly sewing group was given several large boxes of fabric to use.  I chose to cut this floral and found several solids that matched.  When I wasn't sure what to make, my friend Bonnie suggested the Potato Chip quilt.  I can't wait to see how it turns out.  I've already run out of the green fabric scraps.  I have 3 different shades of pink and 2 shades of blue.  The goal is to use up the solid scraps from the donations and my stash.

Check out the designs of other quilters at Patchwork Times.com 

Potato Chips

 

Design Wall Monday

Last year, TVQA (Tennessee Valley Quilters Assoc.) hosted our annual meeting of Guilds.  Our speaker for the day was Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts.  If you ever have the chance to see Edyta and hear her stories about the quilts she designs and makes, be sure to go.  She is amazing!

The quilt strips I have on my design wall are from her pattern, Cobblestones Quilt, in the book, Scrappy Firework Quilts.  Her finished quilt was:  66 1/2" x 72 1/2".

I chose to make my quilt smaller in size to accommodate the width size of the backing fabric and batting, which our group uses for Project Linus quilts.  My plan is for the quilt to be 40.5" x 50".  Since I have many pre-cut charm squares, I chose to cut each one in half to create the cobblestone.  I'm hoping to have the top done by tomorrow. 

 Be sure to check out the Design Walls of other quilters at Patchwork Times.com 

Creative Girl Tote Bag

Back on May 5th, 2014, I wrote about Carrie Payne's unique Creative Girl Art Quilts as featured in the November 2013 issue of American Quilter.  I fell in love with all her art quilts and the delightful way that Carrie portrays each Creative Girl in her wall hangings.

Today, our Quilt Guild had a challenge using floral denim to make a tote bag of our choice.  I chose to include my version of a Creative Girl on the front of my tote bag.  

Quilt Tops done!

Last night, I found a cookie tin with (154) flannel squares (pre-cut to 3 1/2").  The squares were too small to make a "rag quilt", so I placed them on the design wall and then this morning, I sewed them into a 33" x 42" quilt top.  My plan is to back it with larger flannel squares depending on my current stash.  I'm in the mood to use up my accumulated scraps.

154 Flannel Squares Quilt top

This afternoon, I pieced this little sailboat top from donated fabrics.  The (5) blocks were cut from a pre-printed panel.  Both quilts will go to Project Linus.

Sailboat Quilt top

Design Wall Monday

As I was looking through one of my older magazines, "American Quilter" November 2009, pg.80-82, I came across a pattern for a Dimensional Scrap Quilt by Nancy Zieman.  Her quilt was called Treasure Chest and measured 71 1/2" x 93".  Since I have a couple of  treasure chests of scraps, I thought her pattern would be perfect for using up my scraps.  I liked her idea of choosing an inspirational fabric and then using that fabric to select scraps that blended, matched and coordinated. 

                             My Focus Fabric for Dimensional Scrap Quilt

Dimensional Scrap Quilt measures 42" x 63 1/2"

The dimension arrives by adding accents inserted into the strips (folded squares and rectangles.)  The quilt is rather wild with all the different colors but it should make a fun quilt for a teenage girl.  Our sewing group continues to work on "I Spy" quilts, so many of the fabrics were from the "I Spy" fabrics which we have been using, along with my stash.  The borders at the top and bottom have two (1 1/4"strips) of the "Nite Owls" by Judy Hansen for Paintbrush Studio and one (3/4" strip) of the focus fabric sew in between to make a finished border of 3" top and bottom.  Obviously, I would have used the gray fabric for the borders but I used all I had for the strips. 

The Question Is?  Did it use up my scraps?  It didn't even make a dent......  

So the search continues for another easy pattern for using lots of scraps. 

Be sure to visit the Blogs of other quilters to see their creations at Patchwork Times.com
 

Design Wall Monday

For the last couple of months, I have been struggling to get a handle on all the fabrics that I have brought home from R.J.'s.  Pre-printed panels have always intrigued me, although they are usually "not square", which can be very frustrating.  These panels were to be used to make pillows.  When I got them out this week-end, I discovered 12 blocks, which I cut down to 15" square and then cut sashing 3" wide.  When we create the Project Linus quilts, we try to make them less than 42" wide, so we don't have to piece the backs.  Our batting is 48" wide.

The next issue was to find fabric from 20 years ago that would match the fabrics printed in the blocks.  You would think that with all the fabric I have "in house", I could find something that blended.  Hooray!  I found about 3/4 yard of "Shades of Autumn" by Jenny Beyer, which I used for the sashing.

 

Then, I wondered what was in my "green and red" plastic bin.  Yikes!!   More fabric scraps, way more fabric scraps.  Over the last few weeks, I've been searching for quilt patterns for using scraps and strips.

See what others are creating at Judy's Blog; Patchwork Times.com