Using scraps & a new quilt top

Last night I made pillow form covers, and today I am filling them with some of the many bags of scraps from my studio...


The scraps make a nice firm pillow form that deflates only a little bit over time. I mix the scraps with fiber fill to keep it light enough to be comfortable. The scraps consist of fabric edges, batting that's too small to use otherwise (I cut it smaller with the rotary cutter), excess edges from old t-shirts that are now rags, thread scraps...you name it -- it's in there.

I started piecing this quilt last week and I'm not pleased with it...yet. I've got some ideas on how to make it better. Stay tuned...

More Scraps

Earlier this week I was on Vicki Welsh's blog, Field Trips in Fiber, and saw how she used her lovely hand-dyed scraps to make greeting cards. Vicki is one of "the three" in Three Creative Studios where you can find online classes, free projects, challenges and much more.

I followed Vicki's simple directions and made my own greeting cards this morning from some of these tiny (1/4" to 3/4" wide) scraps...

I embellished this card with gold Lumiere paint and a stencil.


For this card my fusing fell apart, so I split the pieces up, trimmed them, and made them into flip flops. The circles are made with dauber brushes and more Lumiere paint. These were quick and fun and are a wonderful way to use up my scraps!

Using Scraps

I've been looking at a heap of fabric scraps I created while trimming hundreds of yards of dyed fabric for our vendor booth last weekend. What to do with them? I have so many scraps that it can be overwhelming, so today I decided to develop an idea I've had for a while; I used the tiny scraps to fill homemade pillow forms. Here's how I did it...

Scraps alone can be very heavy, so I cut up an old foam insert (good springy foam)...



...and mixed the pieces with fabric scraps. I also cut old batting scraps into "noodles" (1/2" strips) to add to the stuffing mixture.

To make a 15" square pillow form with 5/8" seams, I cut two 16-1/4" squares of fabric. Don't be afraid to sew together scraps to make the two 16-1/4" squares; they won't show when the pillow form is in use.

I sewed the squares together leaving an opening on one side, and then trimmed the corners and turned the shell right side out. Next, I stuffed the pillow form with my recycled scraps.



This is the pillow form before I stitched the opening. The filling can be seen through the shell, which is fine for my quilted pillow covers, but if you'd rather not see the scraps through the white cotton shell, try this...

Cut two squares of thin batting (I used cotton) the same size as the cotton fabric for the shell, then layer them this way: 1) cotton batting 2) cotton fabric right side down 3) cotton fabric right side up 4) cotton batting. Pin the layers and then use your walking foot to stitch the pillow shell together, being sure to leave an opening on one side for stuffing.

After sewing the 4 pieces together, trim the batting close to the stitching all the way around, and trim the corners through all thicknesses (keep the scraps for stuffing). Turn the pillow form right side out and then stuff.

Adding batting to the pillow form will keep colors from showing through and will also give a smoother finish to the stuffed pillow form.

Re-use, Recycle

My hip is getting better and I have been able to sew more easily this week. Yes!

Here's an update on the string quilt for my nephew AJ...

I keep thinking that it's nearly done and then I realize that it needs one more row.

While working on the string blocks, I have been compiling small centers for non-traditional log cabin blocks from the tiny scraps. I have about twice as many blocks started as you see on this wall below, so it's a good start to another quilt or two. My friend Frances says that these are called crumb quilt blocks in the UK. This is a wonderful way to recycle those tiny scraps because they are already color coordinated. Also, by making a log cabin block I can use the tiny pieces in the center and use larger leftover pieces as the block gets bigger. The smallest piece in these crumb blocks is about 1/2 inch wide.


Chain piecing the crumb blocks saves thread when, rather than cutting the thread after each of the string blocks, I chain piece crumb scraps to sew instead. The next string block is chained after a crumb. I can then trim off the regular block without wasting 3 or 4 inches of thread each time.



This week I went through the multitude of holiday catalogs that arrived in November. We never see most of these during the year, but come November they all find us. When time allows, I leaf through and cut out any photos that spawn ideas for quilts, color combinations, beading designs and felted pieces...then the paper is off to recycling.