Oh yes, they do!
Most of you know that I absolutely LOVE scrappy quilts. Occasionally, I do sew a quilt with only a couple of fabrics, but for the most part, I love scrappy. A few years ago, I made a series of quilts with my Grandmother’s fabric. You can see them HERE. I used pretty much all of the fabrics, without much consideration to colour. The only rule was that 2 squares of the same colour couldn’t go next to each other. There was every colour in the rainbow, shades, tints and tones and they all got mixed up together. In my opinion, all of the quilts turned out just fine.
Then came the Island Batik January’s challenge to make something scrappy! I smiled and smiled. I knew I wanted to make a cover for my embroidery machine and it would just be a small quilt, not shaped or anything. I have scraps from all the Island Batik projects that I made last year. I decided to make pinwheels. I used my Accuquilt Go to cut the pinwheels (talk about accurate!) and was mostly happy with each pinwheel. Individually, they looked pretty good. They all went well with the Island Batik grey solid. Then, when I put them together, it was blah. Like yuck! gross … ULK!!! Not something I’d like to look at every time I walked into my studio!
I quilted it with blue thread (Aurifil 1128), hoping that would add some cohesiveness. It helped … a little … but … Not doing it for me. ULK!!!
When I compared this to some of the quilts I made with Grandma’s fabric, I realize that in each of the blocks (some were the same size as the pinwheels in this piece) that the colours were all mixed up together. In this piece, there isn’t the mixed variety … each pinwheel is only 2 colours. My conclusions are that: 1. If I’m going to do scrappy pinwheels, I need to stick to a certain theme or colour. 2. Scrappy quilts work best with lots of variation and a solid, or calm piece, to pull it all together.
It’s LEARNING … and I’m just fine with that!
When I was looking at this quilt, I was wondering what I could make with it. I had said on the blog that I had started Secret Project #1 – so, I couldn’t just ignore it and hope that it would disappear. It was a project started in 2020, and therefore, needed to be finished in 2020. And, I couldn’t wimp out on my PHD in 2020! Especially this early in the year!!!
I have always fought with the bag that the Accuquilt cutter came in because it just fits and there isn’t a lot of wiggle room. AND, to top it off, the bag ripped when I pulled it out to use it to cut the pinwheels. An AH-HA moment happened. This piece would be come a bag for the cutter. A perfect solution, don’t ya think?
Here it is … and I’m thinking that it doesn’t look too bad as a bag. And the Accuquilt Go fits in it with ease!
This is NOT my official Island Batik scrappy project for January but it is a completed project. It did use Island Batik fabrics, cut with the HST Cube 8″ Accuquilt die, Aurifil thread and Hobbs 80/20 batting. I had labelled this Secret Project #1.
There is still time
to join in PHD in 2020!
If you want to decrease your UFOs … and not make your UFO list any bigger, Join me for your PHD in 2020! Check out this blog post for details … and scroll WAY down for the linky party so that you can join in! You can join in on the PHD in 2020 until Jan. 14. Then on the 1st and 15th of each month, there will be a linky party for you to show your progress.
Now, you don’t have to have a blog to join … you can use Pinterest (start a separate board) or Instagram … post the direct URL in the linky party and you’re IN! Come and join us!
I was Featured
By Jeniffer at Inquiring Quilter with This POST about 2 works in progress. Thank you to Jennifer for hosting the Wednesday Wait Loss. By the way … it’s worth going to her blog to see all the wonderful works that are featured this week.
Disclaimer: The products featured in this Blog post were given to me by Island Batik, and their co-sponsers Aurifil, Hobbs Batting & AccuQuilt!
One who sleeps under a quilt is covered by LOVE!
Happy Quilting!
Gail
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Linking to:
- Midweek Makers @ QuiltFabrication
- Wednesday Wait Loss @ Inquiring Quilter
- Happy Needle and Thread @ My Quilt Infatuation
- Andrée / Free Motion Mavericks @ Quilting & Learning – What a combo!
- Put your Foot Down @ For the Love of Geese
- Can I get a Whoop Whoop? @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict
- Finished or Not Friday @ Alycia Quilts
- Sherry @ Powered by Quilting
- Michelle @ From Bolt to Beauty
- Off the Wall Friday @ Creations – Quilts, Art, Whatever
- Peacock Party @ Wendy’s Quilts and More
- TGIFF @ Slice of Pi Quilts
This picture, taken before Christmas, showed the only sewing I had done on this project. One block … However, all the pieces were cut and had been placed in numbered bags! Whew … at least I didn’t have to figure out what fabric goes where.
The next part is to take out the first project you are going to work on. Ask yourself, “Why did this become a UFO?” If you can honestly answer that question, you are on the way to avoiding the same pitfall and letting that project languish as a UFO for more time. If you can’t answer that question, here’s a few hints as to why it happened:
You’ve already analyed the potential problems with your project … now, to quote Nike, “Just Do It.” Now Go and SEW …
This is the quilt that had the left-overs that I used for the above quilt. There were 2 fat quarters that I did not use in the original quilt … one was a mini panel with the blocks of animals and the other was the white /with leaves that is on the outside of the quilt … it was a perfect place to use these fabrics up!
I did graffiti quilting, using Aurifil #2000 and just over 9 bobbins! It took me quite a while to quilt it! I used Hobbs 80/20 for batting! I’m almost through the roll that I bought a year ago!
And I needed a new table runner for my coffee table … it was time for the pumpkins to be retired for the year. What’s a gal to do … it was obvious … it started easily with pulling fabric … and then it sat for a day … and then I started to make the first cut … and then the second cut … and before I knew it, it was almost done … SEW then I had to finish! And finish I did!
When this challenge was first mentioned, it sort-of indicated that it was to be something 3D … so I got to thinking … bags, sewing machine covers … oh the possibilities. Then, in late September, a quilt was indicated. Something with a 3D effect. I knew exactly which quilt to make and which fabric to use!! 
