I've been caught in the web!

I'm up to 21 scrappy spiderweb blocks, hoping for 36 to make a comforter cover measuring 82 by 84. Since these finish at slightly under 12 inches, that means I'll put a border around the blocks. As you can see, I'm using a variety of 1.5 inch red strips and three different neutrals for the foundation. These are fun because they are mindless but I'm amazed how many strings remain in my scrap box. When this is done, I'm going to enjoy lazing in bed under my newly-washed and re-ticked wool comforter and looking at the history of my quilt-making over the last five years with all these yummy (and some not so great) fabrics. I'm using Bonnie's method but sewing directly on the background, since this will not be quilted and the extra layer of fabric won't matter.

I was a winner at Jill at Quilt Rat's  postcard giveaway. She does beautiful machine quilting and she made the fabric for the exclamation mark by transferring her doodled design onto fabric with her printer, then colouring it with coloured pencils and fabric paints. Thanks so much for the inspiration and lovely postcard.

I spy lots of help from the quilting community

This I Spy quilt for a  young friend is made with the help of several of you out there in blogland as well as local friends who have been passing me bits of fabric over the last year. I've cut fabrics in 3.5 inch squares, 3.5 by 6.5 inch bricks or 6.5 inch blocks, and there's even a few 4.5 inch ones set in a 9 patch as well as one 12.5 inch block. Right now its laid out as 8 by 11 which will measure 48 by 66. My friend Cheryl is going to strip piece the rows onto a fleece backing, so we want to keep it narrower than a width of fleece. I've sewed together the 3.5 inch squares into four patches, and laid out the whole thing on the fuzzy side of a picnic tablecloth I bought at a yard sale for $1.

My inspiration was this Becky Goldsmith quilt on the Sept. page of my quilt calendar. She's got more darks in hers than I do, but I'm going for a similar colourwash effect.

Here are the squares I have left over. I cut another set of squares for another quilt, and I kept the off-cuts and strings for use in another scrap quilt. I tried not to duplicate the fabrics, or at least the images in the fabrics. I did use some of the same heavy equipment fabric twice, showing different vehicles and two different butterflies in the same yardage.

Here's a close up of the centre with light backgrounds. This has been fun so far, and I was spared the effort of collecting fabrics over the years. Thanks to Sharon and Laura and blogless Terry and my mother for their contributions.  I still could be missing someone. Be assured this quilt is going to a good home, to a child who could really use the comfort of a cuddly blankee.

Ugly duckling no more

I'm busy with writing deadlines this week, so the only quilts you'll see here today are made by someone else. My fellow guild member Anne showed off this top that's beginning to look like a swan. When it is finished, it is headed for a local charity. It is made from two fabric donations from my mother: the busy print was once a half-finished dress passed on to her by my aunt. It was simply quite hideous as a dress, even in the times of Laura Ashley floral prints, but the fabric was a nice weight, and there was lots of it in the full skirt, plus a bit of yardage. Click on the picture to get the full blast of the print. The solid purple is a recycled church banner, and when my mother heard that Anne takes donated fabric to make  quilts to give away, Anne hit the jackpot. I think Anne did well with this project, considering what she started with. On the floor is a table runner made by Heather, who was just wondering when I'd update my blog. She's making it from leftover jelly roll strips, and was auditioning borders to get it a bit bigger. It's also a swan, but it skipped the ugly duckling stage. Thanks to both of you for the scrap quilt inspiration.

The web widens

These spiderweb blocks are growing on my design wall. I need to make a new comforter cover, and I wanted to string piece on foundations instead of paper so I didn't have to pick out all the paper bits. These spiderweb blocks are an adaptation from Bonnie Hunter's pattern, and are pieced directely on the neutral foundation. I'm using various shades of red in the stips, but they're all the same size. I'm also using several neutrals, since I bought several metres in different colours this summer and I don't want to buy anything new for a string quilt.

I used a few selvages as well as many, many strips and bits from my scraps and strings box. Below is one where I've used selvages with the pattern printed right to the edge. I have lots of selvages like that, but it is a bit tedious to make the spiderwebs that way, since I have to sew on lots of strips.

Although the end product is neat, the process isn't.  My sewing table has lots of little bits on it, and so does the floor. Hey, the creative process is often messy and so is working with strings. My garbage can is also full of little bits -- I'm proud to say I'm discarding all the tiny off-cuts without any pangs of conscience. When life gives you scraps, make a quilt, but when you're making a scrap quilt, you can throw out the scraps of scraps.

There's no place like a wonky house

 Click to enlarge -- it's worth it!

It's a flimsy! I've finished the top of "There's no place like home", which measures 50 by 60. I meant for this to be throw size, and I started making this as a gift for someone specific, but along the way, I've changed my mind. I'm pleased with how this turned out, but I just decided not to present it to the initial recipient for reasons that have nothing to do with quilting, so I won't bore you with that. I think this is a fun and lively quilt, and I counted about 50 different fabrics in here. I've been heavily influenced by Gwen Marston and Freddy Moran and their Collaborate Quilts books. Moran especially puts in 100 different fabrics and lots of black and white. I didn't quite make it to 100, but there's lots of black and white. I made the piano key border with b/w prints, mixed in with some green. The words are a bit scrappier and wonkier than my usual style, but I think they work with the variety of houses. Now this goes on the "To be quilted" pile. I'm still a novice machine quilter, and this isn't calling out for hand quilting, so I haven't yet decided how to proceed.

Pumpkins for Bloggers quilt festival

Stroke of Midnight, 72 by 80

Machine pieced, machine quilted

For the Bloggers Quilt Festival hosted by Amy of Park City Girl, I'm displaying this bed quilt now owned by a friend (see her monogram in the lower right corner) because it was a quilt that almost didn't happen. I made the crumb blocks out of leftovers from an elementary school project where we made a string quilt together. I intended this to be a donation quilt, but somehow made it too small for their specifications. Then my friend saw it and loved the colours, and I added borders to get it to fit her bed. I love the pumpkin sashing and the random, graphic splashes of royal blue in the blocks. At a recent show, this quilt attracted a lot of attention because it was the only scrap quilt there and other quilters asked me how to make the blocks. So I'm posting this one here because it was a happy accident that celebrates a very tried and true principle of quilting: use what you have! Check out the rest of my blog at scraps and strings.blogspot.com

Sort-of-Wordless Wednesday

Some fun with solids for a collaborative quilt.