Friday 27 March 2015

RSC 15 week13: The final yellow


Each month Angela at Soscrappy gives a colour and some sampler patterns and lots of people round the world use that colour: some to make the sampler blocks, others to work on other projects. This month the colour has been yellow. On Saturdays we link up to show one another what we've been making in the last week

I sewed some 1.5 inch squares into nine patches; I don't know what for, but just because they were there. I was going to use nine patches in the border of the 2014 RSC quilt, changed my mind, but kept on making nine patches.


Last week I posted about this:


and asked you what the smallest size is you think worth saving. The answers ranged from:

  • 0.5" square to 2" square, or
  • 0.75"wide by 2.75" long, or "anything with a seam allowance"!
I'm amazed! I hadn't expected anything less than 1" wide.


I also asked what you do with really tiny scraps. Here is a summary of the answers I received:

  • spread out on the garden as mulch
  • donate to junior school / child care institution for craft projects
  • save for appliqué
  • use the tiniest pieces under tulle in appliqué
I don't have a garden any more, and I'm not sure if (excess) dye in fabric is good for plants, nor how quickly it rots away. If I still had some land I would try mulching the neighbour's hedge! Just testing, of course!

The other three ideas I found very encouraging. 
I've just put a bag of scraps (mostly from dressmaking) together for my granddaughter who, according to my daughter, is always cutting and gluing. 

The other small pieces I'm saving for appliqué.

Last week a no-reply blogger asked how I sewed the crumbs together. Now I don't know about everyone else, but I start with an irregular pentagon and just keep adding pieces round it. Just like a log cabin, a wonky log cabin that is. When I need a longer piece than I have in the bin, I just sew two or three together until I have a long enough piece. I don't use any foundation fabric or paper. I try to straighten up the sides by cutting off as little as possible, but if I need to cut off a large piece I make it really large and it can be the start of the next crumby block. So far it seems a lot like crazy quilting, except the pieces are much smaller, and there are no embellishments.

The other sewing this week was quilting my 2014 Rainbow quilt which came to a stop on Monday. Can you see what's missing?


A trip to the LQS on Wednesday remedied the situation and the last quarter is quilted and the quilt is being assembled. I'm putting it together by QAYG, I don't know yet how successful that will be, but quilting the smaller pieces (approximately 42" square) was much easier than holding a full-sized quilt under the needle of my machine,

I saw this afternoon that Angela has changed the background colour on her blog, so it looks like April's colour is purple. While I was pulling fabric for my granddaughter I kept all purple crumbs for myself and even found some purple blocks in there already made.

On Saturday I shall be linking to
RSC 15

so hop over there to look at more scrappy sunshine.

Happy sewing

Marly.

PS What's missing? I ran out of wadding! But you all saw that!!!

20 comments:

Kathy S. said...

Good luck with your QAYG process. The RSC blocks are beautiful. Yippee for purple!!! Come on spring.

Chantal said...

Mmmm! Your 2014 RSC is so beautiful and BIG! oh! My! Glad you could remedy the situation. so now it is all done? Only the binding missing? Congrats on the big finish! Enjoy the purple sewing. ;)

Linda M @ Pieceful Kingdom said...

Your RSC quilt turned out great!

Quiltdivajulie said...

Beautiful quilt !!

I save my smaller pieces for use on blank greeting cards (single fabrics and also small sections of bits stitched together).

Scrappy quilter said...

Your 2014 quilt is beautiful. I love how it turned out.

Nell's Quilts said...

Won't it be great when last year's project is complete! My top is done but not quilted yet. It will get done but not sure when.

Mari said...

Your RSC 14 quilt is gorgeous! And I like the 9-patches too. They're so useful. I'm sure they'll fins a good home in a quilt at some point.

the girlfriend gap said...

Everything looks beautiful! I am intrigued with the QAYG method but I have not tried it. As for Scraps, I have heard of some people using their scraps to stuff dog beds for animal shelters. Sounds like a good use for scraps but I wonder how would they clean them ??? I have used scraps for stuffing sweater pumpkins I have made. The scraps are heavier than batting. I like that. I am hoping to make a chair Poof someday and plan to stuff it with scraps. Bonnie Hunter says she keeps anything .75 inches for her strings. My granddaughters like to cut! But their momma's have put the scissors out of reach for a reason :) Cutting is allowed in my sewing room because it keeps them occupied. So I have one basket on the floor beside my sewing table that is fair game for them to be crafty with. It contains all unusable scraps.

Janita

Edith said...

I like your little yellow nine-patches, and I love your 2014 Rainbow quilt, so beautiful. I love to do crumb (Mile a Minute) quilts and save any piece of scrap that is at least one inch.

Jennifer said...

great job on the RSC14! interesting how you're QAYG... quilting is definitely my least favorite part- I guess it's easy to tell that: I have 10 completed tops in my sewing room closet!

LA Paylor said...

it looks great!
I don't do crumbs that way, so it was cool to hear your way to do them.
LEeanna at not afraid of color

Quilter Kathy said...

Your rainbow quilt is gorgeous... and so close to be finished!

Dasha said...

I missed your question last week, maybe I was just dozy. LOL. I don't keep anything under 2" square. My friend likes crumbs, so she gets the bigger pieces, and I just bin the rest.
Last year's quilt looks good. Give yourself a pat yourself on the back for that - my arms aren't long enough to reach. :).

Judy@Quilt Paradigm said...

Hopefully you have gotten more wadding and you have continued on with your quilting :) I actually had to look a couple of times to figure out what you were missing!! LOL It is going to be a wonderful quilty rainbow when you finish!

Debra said...

Wow.. your RSC 2014 quilt is beautiful. I have never QAYG quilted.. I was always afraid of putting it together! But I can see that it certainly is much more manageable. Looks great!!

Magpie Sue said...

It's so much fun seeing what others have done with the blocks from previous years. Your quilt is going to be wonderful. And you'll eventually figure out what to do with those little 9 patch blocks!

Sheila said...

Your quilt is going to be beautiful! I love it!
If a scrap is too small to piece in a crumb block, I toss it in the trash. I'm talking about scraps smaller than and inch in size.

Val's Quilting Studio said...

I Love that you granddaughter is "playing" with fabric. your crumbs are fun and like you, I just sew them together. WOnky is fun sometimes!

Jasmine said...

Wow! Your rainbow quilt is gorgeous!!! I really liked hearing what others said about scraps. I don't usually keep anything smaller than 2" square, unless it is a long string.

Sarah said...

Nice yellow blocks! And your 2014 quilt is looking stunning. I can't be bothered with crumb blocks although I don't throw any of my scraps away!