Sweet, simple cushion

I'm enjoying working on lots of little projects at the moment.  The little purses from my last post were great fun, I've been hand-stitching down some binding on a couple of little bassinet quilts to donate to the maternity unit and then there was today's project, to finish this cushion:

I had some pre-fused blue leaves left over from my big blue and white quilt (top is finished, I just need to tie off some threads from the appliqué) and I had this fawn/stone coloured fabric (closest to this colour) and I needed some new cushions.  So it all just came together and I love it!

The back is a 3 button flap closure made with some really yummy linen/hemp screen printed fabric that I bought when I was in Australia.  I found this lovely little shop called 'I just love that fabric' on the Gold Coast and it was filled with designer decorating fabrics, oil cloths and some beautiful linens and cottons.

I broke out my sewing machine manual and actually made buttonholes for the flap closure and put in these jean buttons.  I don't know why I get hesitant about buttonholes, they are just so easy.

The leaves on the front were appliquéd and quilted at the same time and I quilted a couple of additional leaf patterns either side.

It was simple and easy and it used up scraps to make something beautiful and useful too.  Winner!!

Entertaining Lots of Kidlets (and a few adults)

Our quilting guild have a deal going with the local primary school whereby we give free fibre art classes to their pupils and in return we get free use of their school hall for our annual exhibition.

I organised and ran them last year and am doing so again this year.  Last year was fabric paint - fun but messy and with lots of prep and clean up.  This year it's fabric collage.  I chose it in part to help tame the scrap heap, but people keep donating scraps to me to use so the pile is growing not shrinking!

The kids (who were six years old for the most part) drew the outline of their first initial then glued scraps of fabric to fill it in.  Then with chenille or tapestry needles (nice and big with a good eye), they big stitched around the outline.  Simple, effective and lots of fun.  I've zigzagged them into a banner that they can hang on their wall and then we can hang it in our exhibition in January.  Now I've only three more classes to go with the same age kids and we're all done for another year.

Mother's Little Helper

I'm getting ready for my guild's quilting retreat this weekend.  I'm hoping to finish my chicken flower quilt there, so today I'm piecing a backing for it.  But I have a little helper and when she whipped out my big shears and almost cut straight through the largest backing piece, I knew it was time to occupy her with something else!

My scrap bin and bags are favorite toys.  Today it was collage (I've been inspired by all the art quilts I've been looking at lately!).  She enjoys using scissors and as far as I can remember, she's never cut herself.

Like any true artist, she knows the most important part is making a mess!  But my plastic painting sheet kept the glue off the floor at least.

Finished product!  

And I don't mind helping to clean up the mess if it gives me a chance to get something done.  Now I just have to finish machine button-holing some leaves and a teeny bit of embroidery before I can baste it and quilt it.  Here's hoping for a productive weekend for you too!

Scrappy Crumb Quilts

My scraps are getting out of hand.  But it's hard to throw them away.  As a wise lady recently said to me,"I paid the same amount per metre for that teeny scrap as I did for that fat quarter!"  And when you've collected a few kilos of teeny scraps, you wonder how much meterage there actually is in the pile.  So I pulled them all out (actually my daughter did - the picture above is her 'nest for birdies'), and decided to do something useful with them.

I'd never really heard of the name 'crumb quilts' until I read about them here, on the lovely Raewyn's blog.  I knew about the concept (sewing any scrap bigger than 1/2 inch into a bigger block, then sewing it all in together), but now they have a delicious name to go with them.  But I'm regimented kinda girl (really!).  I like order to my colours.  I also love rainbows and colourwash.  Soooo, my first step is to sort my scraps.

Then I plan to make my crumb blocks all one colour, with maybe a few flecks of a complimentary colour to make them sparkle.  So I'll have a blue block made up of little crumbs of my different blue scraps with maybe a scrap or two of orange.  A purple block with a spark of orange, a green block with pink.  Sashing?  A cream perhaps, maybe black.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  First I have to go pick up my leftovers!

Anyone else doing a crumb quilt at the moment?  Or tell me what you are doing with your scraps - I'd love some more inspiration to use them up.