Scraps and memories

 

Today I  finished a small order, worked a couple of hours on a quilt (that’s still  in progress), cut out an item for a student of mine, and  checked things off my list one by one.

 

After hours and hours of working on the “LIST”  I decided I needed a distraction and a little play time so I pulled out my graph paper and designed a small quilt.

Once that was done, I drew a few  simple, cartoonish images (silly flowers, a butterfly, a bee, a snail and  more) for each block and traced them on to some heat and bond adhesive paper.  Next I spent time picking through fabric scraps to find fabric for each part of every image.  It’s sort of like designing, then  building your own puzzle, but with  fabric.

 

 

Though the images are  simple  some  need 4  or 5 different colors of fabric so I  dug through my stash of scraps searching for just the right color and size.  I not only found the perfect piece for each little image but, as I sorted though  the misc. pieces  memories filled my head.  Memories of what I made that left each small scrap. I found a piece of  blue fabric that was left from a baby quilt I made and gave, as a gift, few years back. A little square of  pink polka dotted fabric  reminded me of the sweet lady that called me from Michigan wanting  a rush order because she just had to have something very special for her first grandchild to wear for Easter and  she loved what she saw on my website. Oh and there was a  very  tiny scrap left over from fabric that I used to make  an apron for a neighbor who was going through a very sad time a few months ago. On and on the memories filled my head as I sorted through looking for just the right shade of each color to make my little designs.  It’s always so  easy to get distracted with all the memories but  I reminded myself that the quilt was waiting  and lovingly put the box of memories, I mean fabric scraps, away and got back to my project.

 

I was able to iron some of the images to the fabric scraps but there’s lots more to do. Tomorrow, once my list is completed,  I should be able to work on them some more.

 

 

 

After that step is done I’ll carefully cut each piece out,  place them  in the right position on the background fabric and then  iron it all down. There are lots of small pieces but once they’re all ironed to the background fabric  I don’t have to worry about losing any parts. ?

 

 

Once everything is ironed down  I will sew around the  edge of every piece using a satin stitch  so it’s  securely attached and won’t fray.  Then I’ll go back and add details to the images  using  embroidery and free motion quilting.  Since I decided to do this as a quilt-as-you-go quilt, after the  detail work is complete I will sew the binding down and the quilt will be complete. 

 

 I enjoy each and every step. Simple, but such fun.

 

  I know  people that say they like this step or that step but really dread such in such  part. I understand what they’re saying but that’s not me. Every step is my favorite step and I  thoroughly enjoy the entire process.  For tonight though it’s time for me to do other things sooooooooooooo-

 

Good night

..thank you for taking the time to stop by…

I pray you have a peaceful evening.

 

Until next time……