But it is still a finish!

I have been working on my scrap quilt this week, but had another important project to get done as well.

My husbands granddaughter has a birthday coming up, and when I saw this fabric on sale for $3 a metre, I knew what I had to make!

She is turning 6, and is a big 'Frozen" fan...can sing all the sons too.
For those of you with small girls or grand daughters, I am sure you can sing along!!

Anyway, we are giving this to her tonight, can't wait to see her face !!

Linking up to TGIFF  over at Quilt Matters this week......it is a finish after all :)
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WIP Wed...scrap attack continues

I am making an effort to use up scraps, and fabric I already have, rather than buy anything new.  So far , so good! OK, I know it is only Jan 7, but...... so far, so good :)

In my last post I mentioned a scrappy quilt that Debbie was making over at Stitchin' therapy, called Sonja's windows.  It uses 14" strips, which I thought would take a big chunk out of my scrap pile.  I often have long strips from trimming the backing off a quilt, so these were perfect.  It didnt take long to get quite a pile of 14' strips.....

I also trimmed down other bits to sizes that would be useful for my string blocks, and fed the rest of little scraps to my " batting bears". All in all, I made quite a dent in my pile.

You sew the strips together randomly, big enough to get a 14"x14" block

and before I knew it, I had the 10 blocks made.  They are pretty scrappy!  But because I used the long strips of scraps, there are repeats of fabric in most of the blocks, which gives it some unity.

Next step is the 1" "frame" for each block, and then the sashing.  I have a decision to make here. Again, I don't want to buy anything new for this, so here are my choices....
First...two tones of grey. A lighter frame, and darker sashing...

Second...white frame on dark grey sashing....

and Third....white frame on light grey sashing...

What is your vote...I could use some input here!!

Linking up to TN&TN and Freshly Pieced WIP Wed. 

using more leftovers

In my effort to finish up and clear up leftovers, I pulled out some left over blocks from finished quilts. You know there are always a couple, or the triangle trimmings of the ends of strip sets. I never throw them out, but they tend to just fill up space....so...

I sewed together the strip trimmings from "The Ugly Quilt" to make a few more blocks.

I also sewed together some leftover minky from some previous baby quilts.  Normally I wouldn't sew smaller bits of this together, but why not? It is still soft and cuddly! And it is a leftover quilt afterall !!

So I tried the same with the leftover bits from the "Impossible Quill" quilt.  There really wasn't much left over from that, but it is about 30"x36"  , so will be a small stroller quilt, or maybe a car seat canopy. At least it is together and out of the leftover bin!! Win- win!

Unfortunately, I still have a lot more to use up! I might have to get a bit more creative with some of these....I am not sure these colours lend themselves as well to baby quilts! We will see.

using leftovers.. no paper-string blocks

After making a couple of large quilts, it is fun and relaxing to just play with the leftovers!

I love the look of string quilts, and when I have nothing in particular on the go I like to add a few to the pile. I know some people use paper to size the blocks, but then you have to tear the paper off....seems like a whole lot of extra work to me!! (have I mentioned that I am lazy?)  Anyway, I find an easy way to do these is just use my trusty 6-1/2 " ruler to size the strips.

I have been using a yellow strip for the centre of each block.  It is 1-1/4" wide.

Then I just dig around in the scrap bin and pull out a strip of whatever is the right length. Just remember that you need to account for the seam so leave the strip a bit longer. I have had to rip a few off when I have tried to squeeze it a bit to close !

These are really random....and yes, in this case, I can do random!!
I keep the strips no less than an inch (although I have done a few smaller!) and usually not larger than 2", or you loose the strip effect.
I just keep adding bits on, sewing and pressing as I go.

I find that this is a great way to use up those triangle bits. I seem to have a lot of from trimming ends of blocks.

They don't look like much while you are working on them...

I use the ruler to trim them down to size..

and then they really look great!

And it doesn't take long to make a few of them..

And put them all together....I love the look!!
Not sure how big this one will get yet.

And don't worry...all those little scraps and trimmings don't go to waste..

I still have my "batting bears" to fill!

And I just found another great way to use up scraps and strips! Check out "Sonja's windows" over at Stitchin Therapy!  Thank you Debbie!! Love this quilt, and just might have to divert a few of my scraps to this one!