Anatomy of a scrap............................

As I was running around the house getting ready yesterday AM - I remembered something! Remember my new rain boots and how I said I should make a liner for them?

New rain boots

Well I remembered that M received a pair of rain boot liners for Christmas a couple of years ago. She has NEVER worn them and I had tucked them into her rain boots (my tall orange ones that are too hard for me to wear because of the size of my calf!).  I grabbed the rain boot liners and PERFECT!!!!!

Rain boot liners!!!!

They are huge and long - but no worries - at least my feet are dry!


Here is a bit of a rant - so please bear with me for a few minutes...............

I don't always get a chance to read Bonnie Hunter's blog, but someone had forwarded this particular post from February 2 and I think it is very interesting.

Have a read and then come back to hear my comments.

Isn't that interesting!  And I agree with her 100 percent.

My biggest beef is people asking for a copy of a pattern or going to the US to shop because it is cheaper. We have all been guilty of copying patterns and violating copyright - I used to, but when I never got around to making those copied patterns - what was the point of having a copy???  I threw many out and what a waste of money that was. The bottom line is that there are MANY people who EARN A LIVING at quilting - teachers, quilt store owners and their employees, pattern designers, writers, magazines, long arm quilters.  This is THEIR (and MY) livelihood. Teaching, writing, and quilting is how I help support my family - I do not have the luxury of a pension!!!!   Otherwise I would have to get a day job!

So next time you want someone to copy a pattern, or you want to go to the US to shop, or you want to use someone else's work as your own - Remember that you are TAKING income away from someone!!!  Seriously - we ALL have oodles of patterns and fabric. Instead of copying patterns or buying fabric from the US - why do we not use WHAT WE ALREADY HAVE.  We always complain that our stashes are huge - that quilting is expensive - that we will never use what we have and YET - we want more.

As a teacher - I want to inspire my students to think outside the box, I want them to challenge the pattern instructions and make it their own, I want to share my knowledge in a way that they can modify it to fit their own skills, I want my students to become confident enough to continue on with the current project or another project. My goal is to NOT keep telling them how to make something but to encourage them to figure it out themselves.

As a quilt store employee - if people do NOT shop at the local stores - they will close! I am tired of hearing people (in a class taught in store X) - "Oh did you hear that you can buy this product X for cheap somewhere else - i.e. Joann's or Len's Mill????"   Seriously?????   THINK before you talk - I have heard many people say stuff like that in FRONT OF THE STORE OWNER!!!!!!  What would you think if you were the store owner and someone said that in front of you????

We need to be respectful of others. We need to respect that some people make money at this business. If you want to find cheaper prices - go ahead, but I do NOT need to hear about it in my classes.  OK - I'm off my soap box now. Just wanted to support what Bonnie said.



Let's talk about scraps.   I am working on the Itty Bitty Blocks from Quiltmaker. The first block is a bow tie and the second block is a basket.  I had to clean up the studio this weekend and I am missing TWO things. A bag of fusible fleece and my itty bitty blocks. What have I done with them?????

Anyway - I wanted to go through my scrap boxes to show you how useful they are.

I sort my scraps by colour and I have separated the brights from the regular stuff. I wanted this quilt to be bright so I got out the bright boxes which thankfully aren't as full as the regular boxes.

I needed pieces that were at least 2 inches square and I choose to have the fabrics in EACH block be the same. That was my criteria for sorting.

This are the yellow fabrics that will give me what I need for either of the two blocks

Here is a scrap

Slightly bigger than 2 by 6 and I need THREE 2" squares - perfect

See - I got three TWO inch squares and a bit of scrap - PERFECT. You would be shocked at how many people would think this is garbage and throw it away. I got an Itty Bitty Block from it (yes - I need to add the cream - but still!

And then at one point - I got so overzealous - I dropped the entire box on the floor!

I have TWO boxes with lights. One is very nicely sorted - all the pieces are neatly placed in the box.

Fabric scraps neatly stored in the box

So much so - that when they come out - they are "stuck" together

I pulled out all these pieces that are at least 2 inches square - I will cut and sort them as I need the pieces. 

Then there is this box................

I think it needs a bit of work!!!

 As I was looking through that scrap box of light fabrics - I know exactly what I want to do. It will take a long time (so what!) and I will get an awesome quilt out of it!!!!!

I came home with more scraps from the Monday sewing group. Some of the pieces were a bit large (cutoffs from a quilted project) and large pieces of batting. I took the rotary cutter - threw it all on the cutting mat and chopped it into bits!!!!!

Chopped up scraps - fits in the pet mat easier!  And I also found a NICKEL in the bag!!!!

While I like going to Monday and sewing with everyone - I like coming home from Monday and getting to unpack stuff.  I just threw everything onto the table and during the course of the evening - I went through most of it and got repacked for Thursday.

Bags to unpack!

And here is a customer quilt that I finished up.  I love the quilting on it and hope the customer does too!

Customer quilt

Got loads more show n tell from yesterday, but I have a couple of e-mails that must be sent, I have to try and find that fusible fleece (I need it today) and it is going to be a crazy day!!!!


Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!


Ciao!!!!!