Generosity+Creativity=Happiness!

Hello Dear Readers,

I've had an abundance of fabric parcels already this year. It keeps me quilting and nothing makes me happier than when I'm using something that someone doesn't want, or doesn't need or just has too much of. I love making quilts from shirts and thrifted fabrics but it's always a real treat to sew with proper fabric. 

To all of you who have sent me fabrics, and here are a few of them, a million thanks to you. I can see Mother's day gifts, birthday presents, throws for my sofas (which haven't turned up cheap on ebay or freecycle yet....but they will!), quilts for babies (some not even thought of yet). I have bags in my head and designs just itching to be started. If you wonder what I'm up to at the moment, I'm trying to use up all the fabric which isn't really my favourite but I like it any way. In the words of  (HRH.) Bonnie Hunter, there's no such thing as ugly fabric, you've just not cut it small enough. Like so many quilters, I am utterly indebted to her generosity of showing designs and having free patterns with measurements on her blog. My latest quilt comes with instructions from her blog. Here are the instructions.

I took 16" by 2.5" strips and have dark, light, dark, all sewn with a quarter inch seam. This is vital to get the finished squares the same size.

 The next, using the same measurements had light, dark, light. The two sewn together strip were then sewn up at either side so they all had variants of dark and light. This really is is a scrappy trip around the world and you can use up all your odds of fabrics this way. It's a great stash buster.

Here's my quarter inch seam foot, it has a guide bar on the right hand side of the foot, which stays flush with the fabric to guide an exact seam.

Once I had sewn all of them together, I cut them into 2.5" strips and un picked them in order to form a sequence.

I then lightly ironed them, so not to stretch them and sewed them together, being careful with matching the little squares and keeping the quarter inch seams. It is much easier than it sounds. 

Here's one finished block.

Here's what the 12" by 12" blocks look like when they are put together. It's a scrappy mass of colour with no rules. It goes back to yesterday's blog about waste. This is a great way to use old clothes, thrifted clothes and ends of fabrics that don't seem to go with anything else you have. A couple of blocks a night and you'll have a king size bed quilt in no time and at very little cost.

Again, a million thanks for all the fabric, you know who you all are and if you look carefully, you'll see fragments of gifted fabric in all the quilts I make. 

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxx