Batting Scrap Challenge Failure

I was avoiding this post hoping that there would be some late Batting Scrap Challenge participants, but sadly there were none. Part of me feels silly for trying and part of me just hopes that people were really busy and that's why no one wanted to join. The other part of me just wonders if people use batting scraps all the time and didn't even see it as a challenge. I'm sure you're wondering how many parts I have at this point...

Instead of focusing on the fact that no one joined me in the fun I am going to focus on the fact that I had a lot of fun using batting scraps for different projects!

What did I make?

This book cover:

And this book cover:

This pin cushion and a square version with the same fabrics:

This onesie (that I ended up taking apart and re-making) to pad the star a little and give it dimension:

This pincushion as filling:

This pincushion as filling:

I also made some projects after the October deadline using batting scraps like this car seat quilt for baby Asa. I made one very similar for my nephew but didn't get a chance to take a picture before I gave it to him at his baptism:

And these tic tac toe on the go mats:

I had so much fun making these trash-to-treasure' projects! I hope you enjoyed following along and that you will be inspired to transform your batting scraps too!

Happy Quilting!

Batting Scrap Challenge - Project 1

Hello everyone!

If you haven't already checked out this post about the Batting Scrap Challenge, go check it out!

Ok, now that you're back I'll show you what I've been up to tonight.

First, some background info: I love to read and prefer hardcovers because I DESTROY paperbacks. I learned this the hard way when I borrowed The Da Vinci Code from my friend Nick. By the time I was done with his book it was scratched, worn away, water marked, and bent to the point that I was embarrassed to return it to him. And I was being careful!

From that point forward I swore off paperbacks and stuck to buying hardcovers. One day I found this book (hardcover), Dark Celebration, in a bargain bin at Borders for $3 and got totally hooked. The story is about a race of people (Carpathians) similar to humans but with super strength, speed, ability to shape shift, and other supernatural powers who become vampires if they don't find their soul mates, and have to hunt their brethren who succumb to the temptation of power and lust for killing. I had no clue the book I picked up was #14 of a 20+ book series still being written and that most of the books are only available as mass market paperbacks. That's how they get you with those bargain books! They hook you into a series!

I liked the first book so much I decided to buy a couple more from the beginning of the series. When they arrived from Amazon I decided to make a quilted book cover to keep myself from destroying them. My first attempt was pretty lame. I took some Amy Butler Midwest Modern fat quarters in my stash and some Amy Butler Midwest Modern scraps from a blue and green quilted nursing cover I made my sister and (without a pattern) made myself a cover that would work for a mass market paperback. I found out first hand why it's better to use a mitered binding rather than sewing the strips together in a straight line (very bulky). I also made the mistake of using minky fabric for the binding on the book sleeves (I don't really know why I thought this would be a good idea) so they ended up more bulky than I would have liked but the book cover worked for my purpose so I was pretty happy.

Since that first book cover I have tried to perfect the process. I think the quickest method so far was to just buy fabric already quilted from my local JoAnn Fabrics! JoAnn.com seems to be down right now but check out this link at Fabric.com to see what I am talking about. The only problem with that method is you have to bind the edges of the sleeves, bind the cover, and hand sew the bindings to the back which adds more time to the process.

Tonight I tried something a little different. I wanted to avoid hand sewing if at all possible so as I constructed my book cover I kept in mind how it needed to be sewn together to ensure no hand sewing was necessary. I used scraps from Maura's Strata Square quilt made from Bali Pop in Kiwiberry. The scraps were teeeeeeeny tinnnnnny leftovers:

Which I sorted and combined to form a piece I could use for the outside of my book cover:

I ironed as I pieced:

And kept adding and adding:

Until I had a rectangle big enough for the cover:

I found another scrap of a purple and blue fabric (from the batik bundle Ginny gave me for Christmas--thanks again Ginny!) that was the perfect size for the inside and the sleeves:

I pulled out some batting scraps from the wedding attendant quilts (I think this was from Maura's too):

Cut some for the sleeves and the cover and started sewing keeping in mind that I wanted all my unfinished edges to end up inside the cover:

Once I had the sleeves done I arranged them, the inside fabric, batting, and outside fabric and pinned them with safety pins:

I sewed around the edges leaving myself about 2 inches to turn it right side out, pressed it, sewed about 1/8 of an inch all the way around to close the hole I left myself, and then quilted down the middle to fix some of the odd fitting scraps I used (totally quilted it out lol):

And presto change-o, a book cover:

I am still perfecting this process so until I do I am not going to do an official tutorial but I hope this project has inspired you to go get your binding scraps and make something totally awesome! I'm signing off for the evening to go do some reading using my new book cover. Thanks for letting me share with you!

Happy Quilting!

Why I'm Trying to Go Modern

Let me preface this post by first saying that I think traditional quilts and art quilts are absolutely gorgeous. I love going to quilt shows, reading quilt books, and surfing the web to see the beautiful work people have done in both categories and I definitely want to try my hand at both! Nothing in this post is intended to diminish or in any way criticize those quilting styles. That being said...

A few weeks ago I decided Northern Virginia needed a Modern Quilt Guild option. Why? I hope I don't offend anyone by saying this, but I just didn't think I would fit in with the quilt guilds in my area. My concern is that my lifestyle, availability, interests, age, fabric selections, and design style would be so different from others in more traditional guilds that I wouldn't feel as rich of a connection as I would with people who are like me and therefore not enjoy my experience as much.

• I work all the time. I often work late nights, early mornings, and on weekends too. I never really know what my schedule is going to look like
• I can't go to workshops or meetings in the middle of the day during the work week (because I'm working) 
• I am 27 (happy birthday to me!) so much younger than most of the quilters I know
• I'm drawn to fabric designers like Amy Butler, Joel Dewberry, Heather Bailey, Lizzy House, Anna Maria Horner, and Kona Solids 
• I'm drawn to patterns by Cherri House, Denyse Schmidt, Amy Butler, and I also like making my own up because I like figuring things out for myself and learn better from mistakes than instructions
• Quilting is something I love to do but it's not my only hobby. I also like to read, play xBox, wii, nintendo ds, and computer games, entertain friends and family (dinner, drinks, board games, etc), play with Lucy, take pictures, scrapbook, travel, decorate, draw, paint, and make jewelry (Lovie and Boo).
• I've only been sewing since December 2008

I really like the concept of quilting as a stool with 3 legs: traditional, art, and modern. Modern quilting encompass the basic materials and techniques of traditional quilt making with the bend-and-break the rules approach of art quilting. While many traditional quilt guilds in my area have members who's work falls into the modern category, there isn't a guild in my area that primarily embraces that aesthetic. So I started one!

Some cool things I've learned so far:

• you can create a free website on webs.com but if you pay extra you get more features
• you can create a cool web toolbar icon at favicon

You're here so you have probably seen some of my quilts here, here, here, here, other stuff here and here and like my style. While I wouldn't totally put me in the "modern" category looking at those examples, consider that my stash is filled with more modern fabrics I just haven't cut into yet because my life is crazy and because I haven't figured out what I want to do with them yet. I do love batiks which probably makes me a traitor to the modern movement but they are just sooooooo so pretty.

I recently updated the home page with lots of information about Modern quilting so if you are interested go check it out. If you find yourself agreeing with the comments and "buzz", live in the Northern Virginia area (or surrounding area), and want to join just apply through the web!

Happy Quilting!

p.s. - I'm working on a batting scrap project tonight!