Finished quilting the body of my Scrappy Trips!

 

This was a challenge to put through my little Babylock!



 

Back:



 

Now to decide what to do in the borders. I think I'd like to try something fun, not straight lines, maybe some free motion quilting.

More {small} quilty finishes

I've been having such fun experimenting with piecing and quilting techniques!

 Cathedral window pincushion. This one was so fun!  Used the tutorial here.




A couple of mug rugs. The smaller one is made from trimmings of my Scrappy Trips quilt (which I'm hoping to quilt soon!!). I practised free motion quilting on each of them, with varying degrees of success... The one on top I tried meandering with a loopy flower.



 And another mug rug, this one from trimmings from my Scrappy Trips quilt.  Somewhat funny that with the amount of fabric just sitting on shelves, I'm saving and using bitty scraps...  This one is self bound with the backing.

Spring Leaves table runner

A few weeks ago I saw this pretty table runner on Pinterest:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300"] [image: allpeoplequilt.com][/caption] 

I loved the idea!  But there were not really any directions or dimensions, so I just made up my own.



 

The background fabric is from a leftover lengths trimmed from my dining room curtains (5 years ago!), a cream, sort of slubby linen look.  I started with the vine - just took a strip of green, pressed the raw edges to the centre, and then pleated it in a wavy line as I went.  I cut my own templates for the two sizes of leaves and tried turned applique for the first time, and also used the blanket stitch on my machine for the first time.  It wasn't hard to find lots of blues & teals in my stash!  I think I may need to diversify a bit...  I echo-quilted around the leaves and vine and then did diagonal lines across.  I love it!  Now just to wait for spring to come...



 

 

Scrappy Mug Rug

When I was trimming my blocks from my Scrappy Trips quilt, there were lots of pieced strips 2" wide or less. I had a little fun with these scrappy strips this afternoon:



 

It's a little mug rug. I used a bit of fusible fleece inside, and it's self-bound with the backing fabric. Had a little fun practising stippling too - until my needle slipped out of the needle clamp, hit the plastic on the free motion foot, bent in half, and then broke. In the space of a few seconds, as I was stippling along at full tilt. Not sure why that happened... Thankfully the shank just dropped out on my work and the bent needle end stayed on the thread. Maybe I need to start using safety goggles!

Scrappy Trip-Along with borders!

With borders:



Backing with some random floating blocks made of leaders/enders from the scraps. The backing fabric is a cream, green and orange floral, looks green, more of the huge amount of fabric my friend gave me last summer. Great to have some real yardage in the stash for backings!



This is my first "big" quilt! I'm excited but nervous. Have to go get some quilter's safety pins now and then try lay it all out to baste. I'm worried about the wrinkles in the backing. It was hard to try get such large pieces somewhat squared....

Scrappy Trips blocks pieced

Yesterday I fiddled a lot with placement of my finished blocks - I don't think I have the best eye for this!  Anyway, here are my Scrappy Trips, pieced in rows! Since this photo I've actually sewn two of the rows together too, so quilt top nearly done!

 

Crafty fun by kids

Benjamin went to his friend Sophie's birthday party a few weeks ago. He helped me make her a special gift:



 

It's a set of interchangeable felt hair bows. The clip is covered in grosgrain ribbon, and a snap socket is glued to it (if we do this again, I'd probably set the snap in the ribbon, then apply to the clip).  Each bow has a snap stud glued to the back of it.

 

Then for Christmas, the boys begged to make something for their grandparents, so Benny made felt bookmarks for the grandpas and Ian made tissue holders for the grandmas. First time stitching for each of them! Ian especially did amazingly well - I was so proud. lol  I helped him stitch on the stars and do the initials, but he did all the sewing at the ends (embroidery floss).



 

One of the bookmarks by Benny:

Scrappy Trips progress

Progress on my Scrappy Trips Around the World quilt: I have 7 blocks finished and 13 strip-pieced, ready to be cut and pieced again!

In case this is helpful at all - a couple of notes. I chain-piece the three sets of two strips and press them. (You can see I only press the outer two, as I found if I press the centre one already it's hard to fold accurately to sew into a tube later.)



 

Then I sew the three pieces together into the 6-strip block. Here's my stack of 13, pinned and ready to sew. I chain-pieced so I'm not clipping near as many threads and don't have to deal with snarls at the beginning of each!



 

Big stack of 6-strip blocks, ready to press.



 

No pic of pressing - I press to end up like this, except I don't press the centre seam, to make it easier to fold in half. (pic posted by Lorena in Sydney in the discussion on the Scrappy Trip-Along Flickr group)



 

Then fold each 6-strip block in half and sew to make tubes! I sewed these up last night:



 

I'm hoping to get a couple of these at least cut apart, maybe sewn up today!

Scrappy Trip-Along

I'm joining my first quilt-along!  It's the Scrappy Trip Around the World. The finished projects look intimidating, but I made two blocks easily today!! I love that I'm using up random "ugly" and old fashioned fabrics, plus the act that there's no planning! The only thing I'm making sure of is to do each centre dark.  The tutorial over at QuiltVille is great.  I especially wouldn't have thought to press the way she suggests - makes it so much easier!

 



 

 

Quick Quilted Coaster tutorial

Finally!!  A tutorial - well, sort of one - Delores did a pretty good tutorial with the same idea, for potholders.  Basically followed her tutorial, except made a set of coasters instead!  Any ideas for a name for these? They sort of look like a pinwheel, but not exactly...




 So here is my step by step - hopefully it's helpful, even though Sweet P's is a great tutorial for potholders.  :)

 

 Materials to make a 4"x4" coaster:

• three coordinating fabrics
• small square of batting or fusible fleece

1. Cut two squares 4.5"x4.5" of each of three fabrics. Sandwich a square of batting between your bottom and "window" fabrics (base). Fold the other four squares in half to form triangles and press.


2. Lay one triangle on the base with the two raw sides lined up with raw edges of the base. Overlap the second triangle, then the other two in turn, around the base. You will tuck the last triangle under the first one.


3. Pin each edge and corner in place, being sure to have all raw edges even.


4. Sew around the square with 1/4" seam allowance, then clip the corners.


5. Turn the coaster right side out through the centre and push out the corners.


6. Press.


7. Fold the edge of each triangle back on itself to show the base fabric in a little window. Pin them down.


8. Topstitch on the folded edges. You can either topstitch both edges of each fold, or only the inner one.

And DONE!   :)