Colourful Quilt Creation

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Artist and crafter, Carens canvas and craft My ETSY shop, Colourful Cosy Lap Quilt, Crazy Patchwork Quilt, Creative moment, Fun with fabrics, Hand quilting, Patchwork with tiny scraps, Picnic Rug Blanket, Snooze Blanket, Unique Colourful Creations

…..using up new, but, tiny off cuts of fabric…..

A little over a week ago, I finally tipped out my bags of leftover cotton fabrics, with full intent to use them ALL up in one project (how wrong I was on that though)!! I’d been keeping the bits quite orderly in separate colourway bags… but then….came face to face with this unruly scrappy looking pile………

Somewhere….within,  lay my next project   ;-0

Not daunted by their tiny sizes, my main concern was to make something with some kind of symmetry in the final finished piece, whilst also avoiding putting too much thought into choosing every single piece to go next to the last as I sewed, otherwise it would never get done….. So, I tipped the piles into a kind of colour ‘blob area’ next to the sewing machine, all within arms length, where I could just grab a piece randomly and stitch away wherever it would fit in and around the ‘crazy patchwork method’ I had decided to go with…. For some stability I decided also to stitch them onto some pre-cut small squares of cotton wadding, which I later trimmed back to neat 5.5” square

Things were definitely looking very colourful by now 😉

For this project, I had made a pact with myself,  and decided I wasn’t going to go and buy Anything!!!!….it would all have to be done from what I already had! So, I picked a lovely lime cotton print which seemed to keep the super colourful theme on track… after measuring to make sure there was sufficient to cut all the remaining squares I needed, I realised I would have just enough to bind too, if I pieced five lengths together  😀 ……Already doing a happy dance and I’d not even started sewing the squares together lol

Once assembled into a large panel, I used lightweight synthetic wadding and added a cream cotton backing before hand quilting over the entire piece…

….believing…’you can Never have too much colour!!’ … I added in a lovely bright blue around the border, which I think, added just the perfect balance to the whole look and completed by hand stitching down the lime binding  😉

Another cosy colourful creation completed! 

At 42” x 60” it’s the perfect size for a Snuggle snooze blanket/Lap quilt/A single bed topper…OR even a super picnic rug!

I’m super happy with this little quilt which emerged from the scraps…. though, I still have issues with my left overs ;-/  Although I made 42 (5.5 x 5.5) squares…In the end, it didn’t even look as though I’d used any from the pile at all!! On that basis, I reckon there are at least another 20 quilts waiting to be ‘discovered’ in the scrap bag….better set to again then  😉 !!

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Skew Whiffy Snooze/Lap Quilt

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Art, Artist and crafter, Blues, Bold Vibrant lap Quilt, Brushed cotton quilt, Cosy Colourful Quilt, Craft from scrap Fabric, Crafty, Crafty creations, Creative crafting, Electric blue cotton fabric, From scrap waste to desired object, Hand quilted snooze blanket, Hand quilting, Inspiration, Lap quilt, Patchwork, Patchwork throw, Quirky Fabric creations, Skewed square panel designer quilts, Snooze Blanket, Super Soft Cotton Quilt

I appear to have slipped back into ‘skew whiffy’ mode this past week or so  😉 Spurred on by the sale of my first ‘skew’ panel design quilt, over in my Etsy store, earlier last week. So, naturally, I hot footed it down to the local fabric store to see what goodies I could find for a new version…usually, any excuse to go fabric shopping, but!!!.. this was…a needs must!!

A new exciting colourway for my ‘skewed’ squares design lap quilts. After a manic rummage through the bottom level of fabric cottons in a display unit at the local fabric store, I’m sure the staff thought I was trying to make myself a little den/nest and move in…LOL…(in fact, thinking about that idea – what sheer heaven that would be?? and, just think about how much I would save in fuel travelling there and back??!)  Anyways, I meander…with age, that seems an increasing activity these days  😉

I had set off with a perfect menu of colours for the new quilt in my head…probably due to seeing most of them the last time I visited the store?! Though it’s very much a case of, buy it now !!!!…if you want it kind of store, as it may never make another appearance here again – which at the time I didn’t… as I was doing other projects..So, naturally of course, the colours I hoped for had gone 😦

I shall keep a look out for the colours I wanted every time I go in from now on, and hopefully will eventually accumulate them for a future version  🙂

The fabric, I had set out for, for this project, was brushed cotton/soft flannel to make a really soft cosy quilt again. The store selection on this visit, on the bottom shelf, was very sparse and threw up only a few lime green prints, a vibrant blue and a shadowed cream/lemon, a yucky mustard speckle and a dark bottle green too. Dismissing the mustard I plumped for two lime green prints, the dark bottle green, vibrant electric blue and the shadowed lemon/cream after remembering I had some small remnants of salmon pink flowered brushed cotton and some flowery blue too – how much?? I had no idea at the time…but, thought I could fudge them in somehow!

Having collected my chosen fabrics I then stood at the cutting desk.  ?????…????? Of course if you know me, I don’t work from patterns, just thoughts and ideas, plus, this kind of design is quite random, so, when asked..”How much do you want cutting?” Well, I quickly estimated and thought of a number for the lemon/cream, it being for the backing, borders and strips too….I estimated the finished quilt being approx 57 inches as of the one just sold, so asked for 60 inches PLUS 3/4 of a meter (that’s confusing in itself – though the cutter didn’t even flinch and measured out then snipped and ripped!) I decided on a metre of the blue as I wanted the big squares and strips, then 1/2 metres of the three greens

Boring as this may seem..it WAS a complete Guesstimate of perfection!! When I returned home to cut I wanted the warp for the long stretches of borders around the finished panels, so as not to twist out when sewing them in…AND OMG!! I had just ONE inch to spare between the two long borders = two borders halved = 1/4 inch play each end of the strips…YAY my planets lined up once again – Happy Dance!!

Lots of happy therapeutic stitching of skewed squares later, teamed with the electric blue panels and a complex work out of my limited salmon pink equated into some very vibrant patchwork panels…but a good three days of hard work and it’s ready, and now packaged, for a new loving home… 🙂

I have just enough to make two matching little throw pillow covers, then who knows…???…maybe the cut scraps can be made into little mug rugs.. waste not want not….and create wondrous new things from bits and pieces…watch this space 😉