I was working/procrastinating on the Hands2Help quilt a couple weeks ago when I got sidetracked by a baggie full of something good. Not that kind of baggie full, something totally legal in all 50 states. Quite possibly as capable of inducing a chill state of mind, but without the paranoia. Not even of the quilt police.
My friend and fellow quilter Marei and I swapped boxes of scrap fabric a while ago, but to call what she sent me a box of scrap fabric is an understatement. It was a treasure chest!
Among the rolls of strips all neatly cut to usable sizes were a couple of baggies with notes inside, to the effect of "Have fun!" and "Maybe you can create something with these."
Happily, I did! I made THIS wall hanging from one bag of bitty-bits.
Recently I rediscovered the other bagful—two-inch "bonus" half-square triangles: the corners you cut off some other project and, if you're like Marei and me, and maybe you, you set aside to use some other time.
I started pulling the pieces out and arranging them in groups of 16. They were so cute and colorful! So I sewed those groups of 16 together into 6.5-inch blocks, as many as I could make.
Now what?
Well, I could sash them or border them, I thought. What might I have in the stash for that? Here's a pretty bundle of fat quarters I won in last year's Hands2Help giveaway. Let's just open these up a bit and see if any of them might do, color-wise.
Yes, all of them! Okay, maybe not the ivory one, but all the rest.
Hm, what if I stagger or offset them? Then I would only need to border three sides instead of four, and isn't that interesting?
Let's make the two side borders a bit narrower and the longer border wider. If I cut the side borders 6.5 x 3 and the longer border 11.5 x 3.5, that will make the block finish at 9 x 11 inches. Seems like a workable size rectangle to make a baby quilt or wall hanging.
And that is the story of how friendship, farting around, and flimsies come together.
It is bright, and I like that. In real life, it's not quite as eye-searingly bright. I tried to correct somewhat for the dim light of the basement with so-so results.
Now I'm in the process of making a scrappy back.
How have you used your small bonus half-square triangles? Do you have some lying around, waiting for inspiration? Do you toss them or give them away?
This year's Hands2Help charity quilt challenge is coming to a close, and I'm nipping in under the wire with a quilt I've just finished today.
Somewhere in the beginning of the challenge, Sarah posted a photo of a quilt which caught my eye and served as inspiration. It seemed like a good way to use all those bright, larger scale prints in the stash and scrap boxes. I took a good rummage around and came up with a variety, stocked up on some Kona Snow background fabric that happened to be on sale, and was off to the races.
The tortoise kind of race, that is. Slow and steady...
I cut 9-inch squares and made half-square triangles with a bright and a background square. Then trimmed them to 8.5 inches and arranged them on the design wall. Pretty easy-peasy. It finished at 64 x 88.
The backing was made with chunks of scraps and some yardage from the stash. I thought WAY harder about how to piece the backing than I did the front, though you might not know it to look at it now. Like a jigsaw puzzle, putting together this and that to bring it up to the right size using the odd parts available. I miscalculated somewhat when one of those odd parts ran short, which led to making the two hourglass blocks in the middle.
That may be my favorite part of the whole back.
Anyway, it's done and ready to send off to International Institute!
Linking to Confessions of a Fabric Addict.
