I'm a Scrap-Busting WINNER - for Reals!

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Hello bloggy peeps.  Oh you have NO idea, how I LOOOOOONG to be quilting and blogging, quilting and blogging! But alas, real life must happen and I MUST be a good wife, mother, chef, taxi driver, courier, financial advisor, laundry-ess, maid, nurse, cheerleader, teacher, masseuse, zit-popper, hairstylist and bookkeeper.  Sometimes late at night I can hear the fabric calling my name... and when I sleep I dream of HST's and log cabins and hexies and all kinds of crazy and wild fabric-made scenarios.  Please tell me I am not the only one!

A few weeks back I couldn't sleep and laid in bed and mind "quilted."  And the ideas wouldn't quit coming.  In an effort to get some sleep I tried to turn OFF my quilting mind but the great ideas wouldn't leave me alone!  This went on until about 5:30am.  I gave up and ran into the kitchen with pen and paper to purge.  A few of the ideas that I came up with, I am certain have not yet been done.   So I am SECRETLY working on something very "ROYGBIV..."  - from fabric scraps!  And I cannot WAIT to finish so that I can make the big reveal.  Would you like a few hints?  Of course you would!

Here are some of the scrap fabrics that I am working with in ROYGBIV order.  Aren't they delicious looking?  Am I completely sick in the head that I like to just stand and think of the possible creations that could be made with these stacks of scrap fabric?

(N.B.: After seeing me work on this project, 11 year old Chickadee just learned what "ROYGBIV" represents. Now I am seeing little scraps of paper with her own drawings popping up around the house in ROYGBIV colors. Soooooo cute!)

I am also using letter print-outs (font is Cooper Black at a 790 size) in my project... eeeeeeeee!  Can't wait to show you! 

But for now - these are the only hints I can show.  I HOPE that I can finish this project in a timely manner to reveal my creation to you soon.  It is turning out absolutely SPECTACULAR!

I have also been attacking the scrap fabric bin in another way.  I decided that I needed to do a scrap-busting quilt using little 1.5 inch squares.  (Does this in any way indicate the status of my mental health?!)

 

It was fun to dig through the scrap box and cut up these cute little squares using up the smallest scraps that most would probably throw away.  I hate "throwing away" fabric.  It seems almost disloyal somehow... or at the least - sacreligious! Thus - the 1.5 inch squares...

After cutting and stacking, they became this:

Then I added some white fabric borders:

Then added some more white borders:

 

(If you know anything about me I am ALWAYS quilting with a coke in hand... Yes!  Very bad!!!  But oh so good!  After a coke... it's "Hammy" all the way!)

 

Pretty soon I was adding more 1.5 inch squares to those white borders:

 

Here is my design wall with the blocks in progress. The top two left squares now have yet another white border.  I didn't fuss so much with "perfecting" everything.  I just sewed it and embraced the vintage look as much as possible.  And I was loving the color combos the more I put the blocks together!

 



 

After bordering out the blocks in white again, then I started running MORE 1.5 inch block strips between each block and joined them together.  See bottom row:

 

And here is what I was able to accomplish in a few short days... making not even a small dent in my scrap bin but FUN just the same!  I feel so thrifty!  I feel so frugal and economical and vintage-y...

 

 

As you can see the quilt is quite small yet, (who uses the words QUILT and QUITE in the same sentence?!!!) - and I will now have to add some wide borders to increase its size. My only concern is the binding! My bloggy peeps - you know that I start just about every project spontaneously without a whole lot of planning... WHAT am I binding this with? What colors?  Puh-lease leave me some advice in the comments section! 

 

 

Regardless, this was a very fun scrap-busting project.  I loved that there were "no rules" and allowed myself to ignore my typically anal ways and "fly birdy be free!" with  my method.    I cannot wait to get this quilted and put to use. In the meantime, have you seen the "scrappy trips around the world" quilt bloggers are doing lately? I wanna scrappy trip! Like Kelly at Stitch Quilt Stuff!  Her scrappy trip around the world is great!  Quiltville has a tutorial on how to do up these simple blocks too... now there is NO excuse.  Go grab your scraps and get scrap tripping!

 

What scrappy quilt have you  made lately?  Show me!  Link me!

On another note: 

Even though I am IRISH - I do NOT have a lucky bone in my body, nor do I have a pot of gold at the end of my rainbow or lucky horse shoes stuffed in non-specific cracks and crevasses...

But!  There are always free draws happening on quilt blogs all over the internet.  I happened to come across a blog called the "Quilting and Applique Shop."  Cheryl sells a bunch of great pre-cut fabric shapes and such on her blog.  She had a draw a few days back and GUUUUUESSSSSSS WHAT??????

Yes, you guessed right!  I WON!!!!  Yay!  Yay!  Yay! 

I won some great pre-cut HST's of Northcott Fabrics!  I cannot wait for my little package to arrive and get working on (yet) another project!  So a very special THANK YOU to Cheryl over at the Quilting and Applique Shop.  Here is the link where she announces the WINNERS!  And if you are a really good friend you will leave a comment with some quilting project ideas for those fab HST's!  

I am also a winner in another way.  On Feb 24th, DH and I celebrated 17 years of absolute wedded bliss!  Ahhhhhhh!  I do truly love him so very much and it grows and grows with time.  He is an amazing father and hubby!  Let's face it... you gotta love the man who lets you buy a plethora of multi-colored fabrics, cut them all up and then sew them all back together just for the fun of it!  RIIIIIGHT!?

Day 1:  February 24, 1996

Day 6,205:  February 24, 2013

Have a great day!