Category Archives: Fabric Scraps

It’s Been a While. Again.

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So, life has a way of happening.  I now have four children.  Baby Four was born recently.  The pregnancy was rough (though normal).  Having an infant is actually easier in a lot of ways.

I just got my “sewjo” back and signed up for Monday Open Sew at the local quilting shop.  I figured that I wouldn’t stay for the whole thing, but I wanted to talk to adults other than my husband, and I really wanted to produce something again (other than a baby).  I hadn’t worked on anything in a year and really didn’t want to schlep my sewing machine and/or rulers and cutting mats along with the baby, so I just brought a box of fabric scraps and EPP supplies.

The fabric I’ve been putting off using for years is a 8″x8″ test swatch of tiny molting grackles by meduzy on Spoonflower.  I decided to just use some 2″ and 4″ square papers and just cut into the thing already.  The photo above is most of what I got done at the Open Sew.

I don’t know where I’m going with it.  It might end up being a little wall hanging or a pillow or part of something bigger.  I wish the designer on Spoonflower had more animals in the same style and color scheme, but she really doesn’t, aside from a mouse.  I’d rather leave it at just the grackle.

Framed Five Inch Block HP

 

When I got home and got Baby Four (we’ll call her “Qua”) to nap, I cut out some more papers and ended up with the scheme above, which is a five-inch block.  The center square is 1/2″ on a side.  I plan to have not many that small.  I was actually trying for bigger pieces, but I guess that’s hard for me.  Part of it was dictated by the fabric, though.

Grackles Layout Tentative HP

The layout above is very, very tentative.  I ordered more of the grackle fabric and I’ll see what I can do when it gets here.  I’m trying to only add bigger pieces than what I have here.  1/2″ is too small for a rectangle, though it’s not bad for hexes.  The top 2″ grackle rectangles are framed out to 4″.  I’m not sure how it’ll all fit together yet.  I’m calling it “Molting Grackles” for now.

Grackles Fabric Pull HP jpg

Feast your eyes on the fabric I pulled for this project.  It’s mostly scraps, with a few fat quarters for good measure.  We’ll see if I end up using it all and/or if I have to add to it.  Both seem likely.  It’s looking very red/cream/blue muted oldstyle.  I truly thought I was more modern than that.  Maybe not when I’m EPPing.

More Blues

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I’m having no luck at all finding medium blues.  I went into my ongoing wonky squares bed quilt project and pulled out some blue scraps:

Medium Blue Scraps HPThese are teeny, tiny pieces and the more I look at them, the more I think they’re not medium blue.  I also bought a bunch of fat quarters, which I love, but they’re also not really medium blue.

Blue FQs HPEven though these pictures are terrible, you can see how all of these fabrics are different shades, only some of which will barely pass for medium blue.

I’ve decided that I’m going to base up some 1/2″ hexagons from all of these fabrics (and the ones from last time) and then lay them out and see what I can do with them.

It might be that 2015 is my year to learn about color along with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and not make too much of anything, which is fine with me.

 

 

Blue!

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January’s color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2015 at soscrappy is BLUE!  Not light blue, not dark blue, just blue.

I LOVE blue, and many of the scraps that I bought from eBay are blue, but I don’t think I have many of the right color.  I went through them and found some, but not many.  I don’t want to cut into the blues I have for my wonky blue/purple/green quilt since it’s not anywhere near done yet.

RSC15 Blues 1 HP

This picture isn’t exactly true to color, but you can see that most of the ones I pulled out are too greenish/turquoise (on the upper right).  The ones on the upper left are too grey, even the ones with gold and silver.  The bottom ones are mostly just wrong in various ways.

The only two I think are actually BLUE blue are the polka dot in the top row and the trains on the lower right.  Sadly, the trains are really a short little strip and I’d like to fussy cut some of the train cars out of it, leaving me with very little.

<sigh>

Hmm.  Maybe if I go into my project box only for little bits that I’ve already cut and use them for 1/2″ hexagons, it’ll be okay.  I’ll have to think about it (and look in that project box and see if I kept any tiny scraps from the work I did on it already).

eBay Scraps

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The title mostly says it all:  I bought scraps on eBay.  A LOT of scraps:

EBay Scraps HP

Isn’t it lovely?

I need a good variety of fabrics so I can eventually make the fabulous scrappy X Marks the Block quilt, but I don’t know many people who sew.  Jelly rolls (2.5″ x width of fabric) give a variety, but each is usually within a specific designer’s current line, so there aren’t THAT many different patterns.  Also, they’re not cheap.

Enter eBay.  I did a bunch of searching and found a lady who was selling the big Priority Mail boxes stuffed full of scraps.  Unlike other sellers, she IRONED hers!  That alone was worth some mark-up.  Overall, including shipping, her box was surprisingly cheap and I got a great variety of fabrics.

As soon as I opened the box and saw all of that FLAT fabric-y goodness, I made sure to win the auctions for her other two boxes.  On average (because someone actually bid against me for one of the boxes–the nerve!), each box of XXX lbs of fabric, which is approximately XX yards, cost $XXX, including shipping.  I think it was a great deal and gave me an instant stash.

There are gaps, though.  I’m missing oranges and yellows.  Greens are a little spotty.  There are plenty of blues, which is great, but too many pinks for my taste.  There are also a lot of Christmas-y novelty prints and giant flower prints, neither of which I’d have bought new.  But I saw on one of the quilting blogs I follow (Bonnie K. Hunter’s) that quilters say “If you don’t like a fabric, you haven’t cut it small enough.”  Ha.  Some of those fabrics will end up as teeny-tiny pieces, I’m sure.

I’m excited to start cutting into it (and glad I don’t have to iron it).