Scrappy Cushion, Part One

I bought a cheap rolling office chair for my sewing desk a few weeks ago. Because of the up and down nature of ironing, cutting and sewing fabric, using a regular chair is hard on the chair and the floors.

After sitting on this rolling chair for a few weeks I noticed how hard the cushion felt after a few minutes. I decided to make a cushion from my scraps to use on this chair.

I have been saving all my tiny crumbs (pieces of fabric less than one inch square), sliver trimmings from squaring up my blocks, thread ends from taking out bastings and that small piece of embroidery thread that you can't use for anything.

My neighbor gave me a large plastic bin that she had saved from her last get together, where the cheese balls had come. See picture below. I also had a small container full of these little bits. I put the tape measure in the picture so you can get an idea of how tall the bin is.

Now what was I going to use for the cover? I didn't want to use good fabric because this was only going to be the inner casing to put the tiny scraps into.  I want to be able to take the "nicely" decorated outer cover off for laundering. Kind of like a pillow case but fitting more snugly.

I decided to use an old pillow case. As you can see by the character on it, it is very old but still in useable shape.

I draped the pillowcase over the seat of the chair and cut it down to a size that leaves enough room for the stuffing and the hem to close it.

After stuffing and sewing the pillow case closed, I had to deicde what quilt block will I use for the outer "decorated" casing?

Since I have several small "orphan" blocks, you know, those "test" blocks, blocks that came out wrong for the design or blocks that didn't quite meet my expectations; I decided to use those with some sashing around each orphan.

I will take pictures as I put the cover together and post those on another day.

Meanwhile, keep on quilting!

Aveli

Beautiful Day!

Yesterday and today have been such wonderfully beautiful Spring days!

Yesterday I spent the day cutting fabric as I had an order for 3 inch hearts. I took a break around noon for lunch and to sit outside for a little sun.

It was so nice and warm! Of course I didn't stay outside in the sun too long because the sun here in New Mexico can be brutal!  But, just 5, or was it 10 minutes really helped perk me up.

I was really starting to get cabin fever with the snow and cold but yesterday and today I have re-energized my soul!

Since I finished that hearts fabric order, today I spent the day cutting strips and sewing little blocks for a baby quilt. I am making two baby quilts, one pink and one blue.  This year I am going to be ahead of the babies, which I know, will eventually come.  I will be prepared!  Once I have finished the two quilts, I will put them away and wait until someone has a baby! One will be predominately pink but not all pink and the other predominately blue.

The last time I made a baby quilt, I was rushing to have it finished by the date of the shower. I hate that kind of stress so I promised myself I would be prepared for next time.  And there will be a next time!

So here is a picture of the blocks. I don't know what the pattern is or if there even is a pattern. I just sewed 1 1/2 inch strips around a 4 1/2 inch block. I sewed kind of in the log cabin fashion but only one row. Next I will sew all the blocks together and then add a border and then hand quilt.  I was also thinking to add a solid color sashing instead of sewing block to block.  I'll have to see what that looks like and then decide.

Baby Doll Quilt Finished!

So Yesterday I finished the baby doll quilt! YAY!

I sewed the backing, which is purple and pink hearts, to the quilt top on the machine. You can see the backing in the picture below. I decided on sewing on the machine because I didn't think I had enough time to hand quilt. After I finished sewing the two layers together I needed to bind it and decided to use the border for binding.

First I trimmed the backing close to the quilt top edge as seen below in the picture.

 Next, I rolled the border back onto the backing and tucked it under itself and pinned. See picture below.
 

 

Here you can see the rolled border from the front -- before and after rolling and pinning.  

 

I hand stitched the binding in the back and that was it! I loved making this little quilt from all my scrap crumbs.(tiny pieces) It really did save a lot of fabric and makes a very nice little quilt for a baby doll for granddaughter! Now that I saw how cute this came out, I think I will use my other scrap strips to make a table topper for the cabin. Although, I wont use white for the sashing, maybe a wine.

Now to get back to the baby quilt that I am hand quilting for my neighbor's granddaughter who is expecting in September. I will post pictures of that quilt some time later this week when I am finished.

Keep on Quilting!

Aveli

Baby! Baby! Baby Doll That Is!

I have finished putting together the Baby Doll Quilt for my granddaughter. And, as promised I have several pictures.

Let me start at the beginning:

I wanted to use scraps for this little quilt because I have been sewing "feeder" paper strips after every step of sewing blocks for other projects.  I have several of these "feeder" paper foundation blocks.  They measure approximately 8 1/2" x 2 1/2". I say approximately because I don't cut them precisely with a ruler. I just take a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper and cut across the sheet.  I can get 4 strips out of each sheet of paper. I use printer paper that I have already printed on both sides; which I do frequently when testing out sizes of patterns or designing a pattern.  Instead of just chucking them in the trash, I recycle them into these strips to be used for foundation piecing.

So, I took three of these strips and sewed them end to end and came up with an approximate size of the width of the Baby Doll Quilt.  Here is what three strips look like sewn together. I do not remove the paper foundation until the whole blanket is sewn together. This gives the little pieces more stability while I am working with them. Once the blanket is sewn together, I do not need the paper because they have been sewn cross and lengthwise so they have stability on their own.

Once I had sewn enough of these "strip blocks" together, I laid out the little quilt.

I separated the strips because laid out together, with no spaces between strips was too small. So I decided to put some sashing in between each "strip block". Now it was larger. Here it is laid out with the sashing.

Now it was starting to look very nice.  But, I thought it was too small to actually wrap the baby doll in it. So I added another strip and another sashing. Here it is all sewn together with 1 1/2" sashing and 1 1/2" borders.  I put the baby doll on top to make sure that it was big enough to wrap around the doll.  It is!
It measures approximately 24" x 26". The next step is to remove the paper foundations.

I will not put any batting in it because I do not want it to be too bulky for my granddaughter to hold.  The backing is the only thing left for me to add besides the binding and tying. I am planning on tying it with a very thin ribbon. All the fabrics used on this blanket were scraps, even the sashing, backing, and ribbon for tying.  I will post a picture of the completed project.

Hope you enjoyed my journey.  If you have any questions, please feel free to use the contact form on this blog.

Happy quilting!
Aveli