Quilt Gallery

Friday, May 16, 2014

Making Use of Scraps

One of the inevitable results of making quilts is a box of scraps.  Some quilters consider it a curse to have hundreds of bits of fabric floating around their work space, while others embrace it as a creative challenge.  Now that I have developed a habit of systematically using those scraps, I am firmly in the latter camp.  Each time I sit down at the sewing machine while working on a quilt, I simply pull a few pieces from the scrap box and stitch them together.  Eventually I get enough pieces to make an entire extra quilt.  Here is one I finished this week.


Its new home is on a bed on the sleeping porch at our lake house.


It is in the company of a vintage quilt, found at a local junk shop, made with a log cabin design and feed sacks for the backing.  The new quilt at the bottom of the bed was my first practice piece on a long arm machine and fortunately the busy patterns hide my "scribbles."


I used this new scrap quilt to practice the baptist fan quilting design I plan to use on my "Vintage Jackson Hole" quilt .


It was definitely worth the half hour drive from Austin to B&B Quilting in Buda to purchase a 1930's style print backing. The backing is 108 inches wide so no seaming was necessary, and since I could turn it sideways for a twin size quilt, needed less than two yards.


B&B is one of my go-to quilt shops.  In addition to their nice choice of wide backings, they carry a large selection of fabrics, from modern prints and solids to batiks and reproductions, plus pre-cuts, books, patterns and a variety of tools. They recently moved to brighter and more spacious quarters just outside of downtown Buda. The proprietors, Nancy and Lori, are as welcoming and helpful as ever.  They are happy to figure out yardage requirements, advise on fabric choices, and answer any kind of quilting question you may have.

2 comments:

  1. Ann, did you do the Baptist Fan using Quilt Path? Where di you get the pattern? I have one ofr for my QP but I like your better.

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    1. I used the TopAnchor Baptist Fan rotating longarm quilting template, but instead of using it to guide the machine (I was afraid I would mangle it with the hopping foot), I used it to mark the quilt. Then I guided the machine free hand. It was not as precise but had the advantage of letting me quilt an entire row of fans without stopping the machine to move the template.

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