Scrapbuster Saturday

It has been a really long time since I've done a Scrapbuster Saturday, and believe me, it was time.  My scrapbasket(s) are overflowing!  I'm participating in the MSBBS - or for those of us who require vowels, the Mini Scrap Basket Block Swap.  The goal is to make 6-1/2 inch string blocks and swap them.  I missed the deadline for the last swap.  I think it was April 15, and things were just crazy, with 2 trips to Utah in 3 weeks and a new baby grandson.  I just never got the blocks made.  This round the deadline is June 10. 

I'm even a little early this time!

I love the look of string quilts, but I've only made a couple of string blocks before today - once for a swap and once to contribute to Val's Heroes quilt.  The above blocks were the ones contributed to the Heroes quilt last November.

But today, I was determined to make a whole bunch of blocks and at least make a dent in the scrap basket.  I cut the paper backs from a mini phone book that showed up at the house a few weeks ago.  Don't bother looking for the A's or B's.  They're not there any more. 

Then I dug through the scrap basket and pulled out all the strips left over from other projects. There were a passel of them.

I made 48 string blocks and didn't have to cut a single strip of fabric, although I trimmed a few.  About half way through I decided that the blocks looked better with narrower strips.  The jelly roll strips were a bit too wide for this project.

When the blocks were done and pressed, I trimmed them just outside the paper foundation.  This is the bag of scraps from trimming.   Pretty, no?  And pretty huge.

You would think that with all this activity, I would have made a real dent in the scrap basket, wouldn't you?  Well, not so much.  It barely looks different than before I started this morning.  Maybe a bit tidier, but not a lot of additional room in there.  I obviously need another scrapbuster project very soon.

Once I finished all the blocks, I sat down and watched Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail on the tube.  It's a good thing I had something else to do, because pulling the paper off the block is truly a mindless task and a pain in the neck.  Is the paper really necessary?  After about 30 blocks though (ok, maybe not quite that many) I figured out that if you "pop" the block before you try to remove the paper it tears the paper at the perforations and the paper then comes off a lot easier.  Live and learn.

Here's the other pile of scraps - paper scraps.  You would think I would have used at least that much fabric, wouldn't you?

So, one more project done.  I'm not sure I'm going to swap all 48 of them - some of them will be hard to part with.  Nothing wrong with keeping some of them, right?

Scrapbuster Saturday - Scrap Vomit Pillow Top

 I've been agonizing over what to make for my Pillow Talk Swap partner this round.  My partner is an awesome quilter, and gave some very specific hints of what she would like in a pillow, including fabrics (none of which I had), size, and colors.  BD#1 was nice enough to hook me up with charm squares of some of the listed fabrics when I was at her house earlier in the month, but I still didn't know what to make.  Then, as we were chatting the other day, she said, "Mom, you should make a scrap vomit pillow.'  I have to tell you that I was somewhat horrified.  The name of the block just wasn't appealing at all. 

BD#1 persevered, however, and directed me to this website.  I have to admit, the quilt is far more appealing than its name.  On the other hand, there was no chance that I would forget it, either, which is a plus.

Scrap vomit is an easy block to put together and frankly, is a lot of fun.  I enjoyed the piecing process on this one.

This is supposed to be a close up of the actual quilting.  Can you see it?  After my frustrating experience with the MIAGIA quilt in this post, my friend Jessica commented and told me about the Free Motion Quilting Project.  What an awesome resource!  The instructions are so clear and easy to follow, and there is a video for each of her quilting designs.  Just watch and do.  This one is a beginner design called Spiral Illusion.  It was really fun.

So, I have the top made.  Just have to put the back on and get this guy in the mail.  I might actually get it done by the deadline.  Amazing!

Meanwhile, if you're in the mood for a giveaway, check out the awesome giveaway on my friend Leona's blog.

Happy quilting!

Scrapbuster Saturday - A Silk Purse {Out of a Sow's Ear}

Sometimes It seems like I have nothing interesting to say in this blog, but right now, it feels like there is so much going on, I don't know where to start.  Today, Amy of Amy's Creative Side is hosting the Spring Blogger's Quilt Festival, so today I will share my "Ugly Quilt".

Way back in January, Just A Bit Frayed proposed a challenge on Flickr called Save the Uglies.  It seems it wasn't a very popular challenge, and I believe I may have completed the only quilt entry, but just like the MIAGIA quilts I posted about here and here and here, the challenge is to make something attractive out of fabrics you don't really like or maybe wouldn't choose - or worse yet, you did choose them, and now can't seem to understand just what you were thinking.

Just a Bit Frayed sent me some fabrics that I just couldn't imagine how I would use.  One was a Halloween print, and while I don't have anything against Halloween, it isn't my favorite holiday, either, and I have no desire for a Halloween quilt.  So what was I to do?  I think BD#1 thought I was crazy to make it, but I had "won" the fabric, and I felt obligated to complete the quilt.


Along about the middle of March, I was browsing quilting mags in the Navy Exchange, waiting for WH to get a haircut, and I ran across a quilt pattern called "Box of Chocolates".  It combined brown and rust with pink and cream and turned into a really attractive quilt. Of course, those fabrics were created to go together.  Could I do it with these fabrics?

So a couple of weeks ago (yes, I am a procrastinator, but I prefer to think of it as managing my deadlines - LOL), I went through my scrap bag and picked some leftovers from several other quilts I made - some of them years ago.  The pinks are from a quilt I made BD#1 for her birthday in 2007, shown in the photo above.  She is actually using the quilt on her bed now, which makes me happy. 

Most of the other browns are from a log cabin quilt I made eons ago.    The one piece of "new" fabric was a piece of L'amour that BD#1 sent me a few weeks ago.  I actually think she was a little bit offended that I used it in the Ugly Quilt, but it tied the browns and pinks together so well, I couldn't resist.

 I finished the blocks just before I packed to come to Utah, and put them together the other day during nap time.  I think the addition of the pinks and creams hides the ugliness of the ugly fabrics pretty well.  I tried to make the Halloween pieces small enough that you weren't sure whether it was really  a Halloween fabric, or not. 

Friday night, after our day at Quilt Market, I assembled the back, made my sandwich, and did the quilting, and this morning, I put my scrappy binding around the edges and presto-chango - I think it turned into a really attractive quilt.

Even BD#1, who said that it contained "some really unappealing fabrics" concedes that the finished quilt "turned out very pretty".

 One of the highlights for me of making this quilt was doing the actual quilting on BD#1's Bernina QE440.  It was really a blast.  I am not great at FMQ yet, and while the Bernina FMQ feature is awesome, I had a lot of trouble with stops and starts and the weight of the quilt making "designs" I didn't intend.  But overall, it was a lot of fun.  And it went so fast!!  I love my machine.  It was a gift of love (which is probably a story I'll tell another time) and it has some really awesome features, but I certainly can't do FMQ this easily or quickly on it.

And I like that this quilt fits into my Scrapbuster Saturday category.  I used a TON of scraps in this quilt, in addition to the 2 ugly FQs, the L'amour, and the backing fabric.

My grandmother used to say that you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, and most of the time that is true, but maybe sometimes, you CAN make a silk purse out of a sow's ear - at least in a quilt.

Scrapbuster Saturday - Scrappy Bee Blocks and Jelly Roll Scrapbuster Market Bag Tutorial

 Be sure you drop by and enter my Blogiversary Giveaway (week 2) here:


Today's post is all about scrapbusting.  My scraps are running me out.  Some are a decent size, but most are just puny little bits I just don't have the heart to throw away.  At the price of fabric, I just can't give up on them without a fight.

So what do you do with all those little scraps?  I have devoted today to ways to use these little gems and turn them into something useful.

One of the things I've been doing is satisfying my new hexie craving.  Hexies are a great project to keep your hands busy when you're sitting watching TV or a movie.  I do this a lot when I don't want to sit at the sewing machine, for whatever reason.  Aren't they pretty? Before I tried it,  I thought  making hexies would be a real drag, but frankly, they're downright addictive.  And they make beautiful flower blocks.  Check this out...

Since March was my month as Queen Bee, these are the blocks that the ladies in the First Time Bee made for me, except for the three on the bottom, which are the ones I made. Aren't they beautiful?  Won't this make a lovely quilt?  I'm tempted to simply applique them on white squares and call it a quilt.  I think it would be lovely.

The other creative scrapbusting thing I did today was make bee blocks for Kari, who is the April QB.  She requested mod trees for her blocks.  We were to make two blocks, but I was on a roll and couldn't stop.  What do you think of these?

My first idea was a tree with hexie "leaves" but someone beat me to it, so I decided to try Dresden leaves.  I used some of the Kumari Gardens scraps left from the butterfly placemat set I gave to my sister for her birthday.

My next idea was a "Sparse Leaves Tree" roughly based on the Lanterns Bloom tree quilt I made last summer for BD#2, but on a much smaller scale, of course.  I thought about stuffing the leaves like I did on the quilt, but the leaves are just too small for that, and larger leaves would have looked weird.  As it was, I had to cut them down for them to look right.  This project used some of the wasted triangles (I saw someone call them "bonus triangles" - I think I like that) from the Central Park Whirly Wheels quilt.

This started out to be a ticker tape tree using more of the bonus triangles from the Whirly Wheels quilt, similar to the one here.  But once I got this far, I  just couldn't "scribble" on it.  I realized later that the ticker tape was supposed to be background, but honestly, I liked it as it is.  I hope Kari does, too.

The "trunk" of all three trees is left over from the Lanterns Bloom quilt, so these projects were entirely made of scraps,except for the background squares.

And before I get started with the tutorial I promised, I have a question...  How do you store your scraps?  I'd love to know.  First I had mine in a zip lock bag, but they outgrew the bag.  Then I had them in a basket, but they outgrew the basket.  Then I put them in some glass vases (they ARE very pretty, you know) and those are full to the brim.  Just what do you do with all those very pretty, but space-consuming scraps?

Scrapbuster Jelly Roll Market Tote Tutorial

I had a lot of random pieces of the Central Park jelly roll left after I finished the Whirly Wheels quilt, and I had been agonizing over what to do with them until I got the idea for the Scrapbuster Jelly Roll Market Tote.  As promised, here is the tutorial for the tote.

This project can be adjusted based on the scraps you have on hand.  Basically, we are going to start out by creating a "piece" of fabric 30 inches wide by 17 inches long.  How you do this is up to you.  I will tell you what I did and you can adjust accordingly.

You will need:
Jelly roll strips or yardage to make a piece of fabric 30 inches wide by 17 inches tall
A piece of lining fabric 30 inches wide by 17 inches tall or enough pieces to piece together that size
4 additional jelly roll strips 15 inches long
A jelly roll scrap about 10 inches long
A jelly roll strip or yardage strip 32 inches long for binding
A small scrap of velcro
A ruler and/or seam gauge
A pencil or fade-away marker

All seams are 1/4 inch unless otherwise stated.

Since the width of our fabric base is 30 inches, and jelly roll strips are 2 inches wide after seaming, we need 15 jelly roll strips for the top of our bag.  I stacked up about 8 at a time (because that's all my rotary cutter can handle) and cut them 5-1/2 inches long.

NOTE:  I used shorter strips in the next bag, so this is not set in stone.  Use what you have!

Assembly line sew the jelly roll strips together in a pleasing configuration, first in pairs...  then sew the pairs together to make 4...  then sew the fours together and sew on, until they are all joined in one continuous 30-1/2 inch strip, like so:

Iron the seams all one direction from the WRONG side...

Then turn it over and press from the RIGHT side, making sure the seams are fully open and there are no "pleats" in your pieced fabric.

I had a strip of border left from the quilt that was 2 inches wide.  If you don't, that's OK.  Just use another jelly roll strip and factor in the extra 1/2 inch to your calculation.  This makes 6-1/2 inches toward our 17 inch piece.  Sew the strip to the first section you pieced.  I find it is easiest to put the pieced section on top with the seam openings toward me so that the seams don't get twisted as they go under the presser foot.

Trim the 2-inch piece to the correct length when the two sections are stitched together.

Press the seam as before, first from the wrong side, then from the right side, making sure that the seam is crisp and flat.

I had a large piece of yardage left over from the quilt. Since the top of my bag now measures 6-1/2 inches, and I need it to be 17 inches, I need 10-1/2 inches plus 1/2 inch seam allowance is 11 inches for the bottom of my bag.  I cut a piece 30 inches wide by 11 inches.

If you don't have a large piece of fabric, piece your jelly roll strips together horizontally, instead of vertically.  This will give your bag some visual interest.

Sew your bag bottom to the pieced top with a 1/4 inch seam.

Press the seam toward the top from the wrong side, then

turn it over and press from the top.

Matching the top edge, bottom edge, and the two horizontal seams, sew the side seam together with a 1/4- inch seam.  Sew the seam again between the seam you just sewed and the edge of the fabric.  This will give your tote extra strength to carry heavy stuff.

Fold the bag in half with the side seam at one end.  Make sure your bag is flat and that your edges at top and bottom meet.  Sew a 3/8 inch seam across the bottom of your bag.  Sew another seam at 1/4 inch for strength.

Mark the sides of the bag with a pin near the bottom seam; one right at the seamline on the seamed side, and one right on the fold line on the unseamed side.  Fold the bag crossways matching the side seam and the bottom seam and secure with a pin.  Be sure to poke out the corner of the bag where the two seams meet and make sure there are no puckers or pleats underneath.

Lay your bag on a flat surface, and with a ruler or tape, measure 1-3/4 inches from the corner (where the side seam and bottom seam meet-not including the seam allowance).  Take a ruler (you will need the straight edge) and place it perpendicular to the seam gauge.  Place the "0" on one edge of the fabric.  Your line will be straight when the ruler measures exactly 3-1/2 inches on the other side.

Remove the seam gauge and draw a straight line from side to side.  There are all kinds of fancy marking tools on the market, but since this seam is on the inside and will never show, I just use a pencil.

Stitch along the pencil line.

Repeat for other corner, using the side fold in place of the side seam as your guide.

Cut a piece 30 inches by 17 inches for your lining. The piece of fabric I had was 2 inches short, so I just added a piece of fabric to the top edge to make it work.

Construct the lining of your bag in the same manner as the outside, sewing the side and bottom seams and marking and then marking and sewing the lining corners.

With the bag right side out and the lining wrong side out, place the bag lining inside the bag, matching the side seams and the bottom corners.

Pin the bag and the lining together at the top at the side seam and the side fold.

Fold the bag again so the two pins touch each other, and mark both edges with a pin.

 This pin marks the center of the bag on each side.

With another pin, mark a spot 3 inches on each side of the center pin on each side.  Be sure to pin through both the bag and the lining and that the top of the bag and the lining meet.  You want to make sure your bag fits together nicely at this point, because we're getting ready to finish it up.

From your jelly roll strips, cut 4 pieces 15 inches long.  I like to have 2 sets of 2, but if you want to change it up a bit, that could be fun.

Sew 2 strips together down both sides of your 15 inch strips. Repeat for the other pair of strips.

Using your method of choice, turn the handle sets right side out.  I use a safety pin.  Put the pin through only one layer of the handle fabric...

Gather the fabric along the pin through the middle until the pin comes out the other side, and...

Pull it right side out.

Press each handle along the seam so it is nice and flat.  Sometimes I find that I have to roll the seam back and forth in my fingers to pull the seam all the way out.  Occasionally, I find that I have to use a pin or the point of a seam ripper placed ever so carefully right at the seam line to pull the seam completely flat.  Press thoroughly for a nice, crisp seam.

Top stitch the handles down both sides of each handle 1/4 inch from the edge.

Place the handles on the OUTSIDE of the bag, lining up the edge of the handle with the pin you placed 3 inches from the center.  Since I want the orange to be the outside of the handle, I have the blue facing up. 

Sew the handles on the bag using a 1/4 inch seam.  I like to triple stitch over each of the handles so that they are good and sturdy for carrying my groceries.  To do this, I sew across the handle, press the reverse button, and sew it again, then release the reverse button and sew forwards across it again.

Fold the 10 inch jelly roll strip in half and press.

Now, fold each cut edge toward the center and press.  Be careful not to burn your fingers!

Press it flat along the fold.

Stitch along both sides of the strip.

Cut a piece of velcro about 1 to 1-1/2 inches long and sew the loop side to the strip about 1-1/2 inches from the top by sewing around all 4 sides.

Make sure your jelly roll strip measures 10 inches.  Mine didn't, so I cut it off at 10 inches.

 Fold the end of the strip under about 1/2 inch and stitch the hook side of the velcro to the opposite side of the strip.

It should look like this.

Place the strip with the velcro end right side up at the top of the bag on the lining side of the bag directly beneath the center of one of the handles.  Triple stitch it to the bag 1/4 inch away from the top.

Leaving a tail about 2 inches long, take your binding strip and place it WRONG side down on top of the LINING side of the bag.  (NOTE:  I had a piece of binding left over from my quilt, so my strip was only 2 inches wide.  You may wish to cut your jelly roll strip to 2 inches to make this part easier.)

Start about 1 inch beyond the seam (be sure you backstitch here so your seam doesn't pull out later) and sew all the way around the bag until you get about 1 inch from the seam.  Stop.  Secure your seam with backstitches.

Remove your fabric from the machine and lay the bag on a flat surface.  Match the tail of the  beginning of the strip with the tail of the end of the strip and pin together.

Cut the tails to 1/4 inch and sew the tails together.  Make sure you do not catch any of the bag fabric in this seam.

Take your bag back to the machine and sew across this small space, sewing the seam open.  If you wish, take your bag to the ironing board and press this seam so that the seam allowance and the binding go UP, away from the bottom of the bag.  (I do not press here, but some people might find it easier to press it now.)

Fold your binding so the raw edge of the binding snugs up to the raw edge of the bag. This should approximately fold the binding strip in half.  Again, you may wish to press this fold in the binding in place, but I do not.

Fold over again to enclose the raw edge and stitch close to the edge all the way around making sure the binding covers the previous stitching and backstitching before cutting your threads.

Voila!  Your bag is complete.  Cute huh?  And the variations are endless.  I made another one that looked like this...

I didn't have a big enough piece for the bottom, so I pieced it to make it 17 inches long.  Since I already had a break in the fabric, I decided I didn't want the blue strip in it, so I added just a folded piece of fabric instead, kind of like piping, but without the cord.

Want it wider or deeper, just vary your measurements accordingly.

Keep your little bag rolled up in your car or purse and then pull it out when you get to the store.  Great for the environment and lots more fun for you to have a cute little bag rather than some plastic monstrosity.  Make a bunch and use them for all your shopping.  Make a bunch more and give them away.  Your friends will appreciate a cute little bag too, I'm sure!


This project is fast and easy.  It took longer to make these two for the tutorial, of course, since I was taking pictures and I had to stop more to think about what I was doing, but I made the first bag in less than an hour.  I'm finding I have a new appreciation for projects like this that I can finish in an evening after work.

Also, if you have any questions or something doesn't make sense, please let me know.  I was on a roll with this tutorial when the computer crashed, leaving several steps and photos unsaved.  I think I re-did them all, but let me know if I missed one.

I hope you enjoy making and using this Scrapbuster Jelly Roll Market Bag!