Nothing But Crumby

I've finished three more crumb quilts for Quilts Beyond Borders (QBB).  I first heard about QBB from Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict as part of her Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge.  Since then the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild (the only guild to which I belong) has decided to also sponsor QBB in addition to Wrap-a-Smile.

I challenged myself this year to 1. Finish up some of my 73 UFOs and 2. To see how many donation quilts I can make this year from scraps.  I've been following along with the color of the month with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge  this year so that keeps me motivated. So far I've completed a donation quilt in all the colors of the month...hot pink, orange, purple, green, sapphire blue

The latest finish is a fish quilt- the Sapphire Blue Fish. Someone with Sunshine posted a link to a Flickr picture of a fish quilt and I knew that would be my next crumb project. 

With my quilting on plain Jane (my DSM) I tried to simulate waves and bubbles in the deep nether regions of the sea and did some loops in the fish.

Crumby Orange Stars is my next quilt.  You can see a secondary pattern and no stars at all if you look at it for too long.  I actually didn't think I had enough orange scraps for a quilt. Surprise, surprise! Where did all that orange come from? 

 I quilted with some orange thread I didn't even know I had in my thread drawer and made an attempt at stars and loops.  I can tell you I'm not an artist!

And this one I'll call Joseph's Amazing Technicolor Dream Quilt and it uses scraps of many colors+ muslin.

Oops...I hung it upside down! Oh, well. You can still kind of see the stars and loops I quilted it with.   And, now, after the fourth quilt I'm finally getting a little better at machine binding....just a little. Guess I'll just have to practice a lot more.

So, I've found a box just perfect for these three quilts and the Green Bear Tracks I finished last week. As soon as I get the labels sewn on they will be in the mail.

Feeling really crumby! How about you? 

May I get a Whoop, Whoop, please?  Others are whooping it up over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. What are you whooping about? 

This Memorial Day weekend I will be working on my Quilts of Valor Quilts and doing a virtual sew along with Heartstrings.  You are welcome to join in also!! 

A Tale of Two Finishes

I've finished my quilt for Hand2Help Charity Challenge that I promised for Quilty Hugs for Happy Chemo. 

As a side challenge I've challenged myself to see how many donation quilts I can make from my scraps. This quilt used most of my purple scraps.   I first made crumb blocks and then made them into Puss in the Corner blocks.  I decided to use my purple scraps for Quilty Hugs for Happy Chemo because that was my mom's favorite color.  She died of breast cancer and while she was in hospice she raved on and on about the purple quilts she had on her bed.   My mom was a drunk and rarely showed that she cared much about anything but she couldn't say enough about how she loved the purple quilts they put on her bed.  Hopefully this purple crumb quilt will give some comfort to someone. 

I quilted it on my DSM with some swirls.  You never know if you can do something until you try. I tried and I guess the swirls don't look too bad as done by an old lady with shaky hands and bad eyesight.

There's all kids of whimsy in the quilt and for a bit of fun I actually put some pusses in the corners of the Puss in Corner blocks. See them? 

I'm not sure how the chocolate chip got into the quilt. Doesn't look purple to me! 

This quilt will go to Quilts Beyond Borders.   It is also a charity sponsored by H2H Charity Quilt Challenge but I don't think I'm going to get this one mailed off by the H2H deadline because I will probably have 3 ready to mail before long and also Sunshine Online Quilt Guild also sponsors Quilts Beyond Borders and Wrap a Smile so I will be sending to both charities the rest of the year. 

This quilt used my green scraps that I made into Bear Track blocks with muslin background.  

Again I quilted it on my DSM but this time just did some loop-de-loops which was a little easier for me to do it seems. 

But, aaargggghhhh...this was my first time doing machine binding. I don't really like the looks of machine binding and actually like to do hand binding.   I'm not really proud of my first attempt. I sewed to the back first and pulled to the front.   One thing I forgot to do was to cut front,back and batting evenly. I'm used to leaving about 1/4 inch of batting and backing all around when I attach the binding to the front of the quilt....Doesn't work very well when you sew to back of quilt and pull to front!!!!!   Anyway, I zigzagged around twice and put through the washer and dryer and it all held together just fine so I guess it will be okay. I think that binding fabric has been around here since the 70s so it finally got put to good use. 

So, do you think I can get a Whoop, Whoop???   Others are whooping it up at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Go check out why. 

And, I've finished things up just in time for Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts. 

Monkeys, Frog Legs and Zebra Butts

I've finished a 40x60 quilt top with my green scraps. I've challenged myself to see how many donation quilts I can make from my scraps. I've also been participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2013 at ScrapHappy's blog.  I didn't realize I had so many green scraps. I probably have enough left over for another whole quilt.

 The block is a 12 inch Bear Track I found at Quilter's Cache. I made 4 1/2 inch crumb blocks for the centers and then sewed all my 2 1/2 inch pieces into strips and combined with heavy muslin to make HSTs.

 My 4 year old grandson laughed at this block.  I laughed when I made it.  I used to love looking at all the different fabrics, usually old clothes, grandma used in her quilts.  So in that respect my grandson is a lot like me. He will study the fabrics in my quilts for quite some time and sometimes he will giggle when he discovers eyeballs, smiley faces or zebra butts.

When this one is finished it will go to Quilts Beyond Borders where I hope it will give another child a case of the giggles. 

I've also finished a 50x60 quilt top with my purple scraps. There are many variations on the Puss in the Corner quilt block. I made 10 inch blocks similar to a pattern at Quilt Index.   I made 6.5 inch crumb blocks with my purple scraps and used purple scraps for the corner 2.5 inch HSTs. The border strips were 2.5 inches in solid colors I had in my stash.

This quilt is for the Hands 2 Help Charity Quilt Challenge.  It will be a Quilty Hug for Happy Chemo.

This top used up most of my purple quilt scraps when purple was the color of the month at RSC 2013 where we link up and show off our use of scraps every Saturday.   If you've got a lot of scraps don't hesitate to join in.  Like I said, I love looking at all the different fabrics. The ideas are inspirational also.