Scrappy Play on Free Motion Mavericks

Hello and welcome 😊. I've been busy this week playing with squirrels and scraps, two of my favourite things! I haven't free motion quilted (FMQ) these projects yet, but it'll be soon. 

Project Quilting - Irish Chain

I came upon Project Quilting (PQ) on Sunday while perusing quilty blogs. Of course, I had forgotten 😕 But it's all good since this week's theme is the Irish Chain. I've always wanted to make an Irish Chain quilt so I decided to make a cuddle quilt to give to Community projects through my local guild. These lovely, tiny quilts go to the Intensive Care Neo-Natal or Post-Partum Units. Our next in-person guild meeting is in April, so I'll be able to drop it off then.

Cute scrappy cuddle quilt with Irish Chain

I took out my cut-up scraps bin and found the 2" squares stash. I had more than enough fun fabric to make the nine patch. I used some white-on-white fabric for the 5" blocks. (I can never have too many white-on-white fabric!)

Here are a couple more pictures so that you can better see the fun scraps. I couldn't use the strip piecing method because these were 2" squares, but I was careful when piecing and they came out more or less accurate. Yeah! I even pieced everything so that the squares would all face the same direction.

Closer up of the left side of the cuddle quilt

Closer up of the right side of the cuddle quilt

I used a cute light purple baby fabric border to make the quilt fit to 22" x 22".  I'm really looking forward to FMQ it this week (before Sunday).

Purple Placemat for the Table Scraps Challenge

The March colour for the Table Scraps Challenge is purple and the theme is bird. While I was playing with scraps, I took out my purple/blue bin of scraps. I took a few out and started sewing them together. I love this part😊. Once I had three blocks, I checked my bin again for different fabric.

Which blocks do I sew together? I love the triangle and the fish!

Groovy purple, green and orange with lots of different purple

Finding more purple with other colours for a scrappy mix

The next part will be to start adding pieces to fit the length and width of the placemat. 

A paper scrappy collage

As if all of this wasn't enough, I started a Scrappy Journal Challenge with Vintage Page Designs. The challenge was last week but the videos are all available, and it usually takes me more than the 4 days to make the journals. 

Scrappy Journal Cover drying

I glued on most of my scraps and you can see it drying above. I'll be adding a few more images to the front of the journal, but I can do that later. I was also supposed to stitch it but completely forgot. I've learned a lot making this cover and hope to make another one soon so that I can make it better, based on what I learned.

I'm now stitching the four signatures to the book cover. The zig-zag pattern is a bit complicated but interesting once I got the hang of it. The cover that is drying above is made of one sheet of mixed media paper. It wasn't heavy enough so I had to glue a second sheet to it. The sheets were also a ½" short of what I needed, so I ended up having to trim my signatures. Like I said, lot of learning 😊 

What I learned

• Playing with the 2" squares for the Irish Chain cuddle quilt went really well. I think that spending all that time on the Mystery quilt has put me in the right frame of mind. Yes, practice makes better!
• I'm really looking forward to FMQ the cuddle quilt. I'm thinking of fun things to quilt in the middle white blocks. Oh what fun!
• The purple placemat is coming along well. I realised that for my other placemats, I had only used square and rectangular blocks. I just had to add a triangle in the mix!
• The next part gets interesting - making it all fit and look cohesive...and somehow adding a bird in there! 
• I still haven't decided if I should make the placemat the same size as the other 3 (which are on the small side) or if I should make this one bigger and not have to make another one when I do make other bigger ones. I'll figure it out and you'll see the result when I post it. 😁
• The scrappy journal has been fun to make. One of the options for the cover was to use a canvas fabric. I may do that the next time. It's either that, or pick up some heavier watercolour or mixed media paper (or both!!!)
• I'll add more about my learning when I finish the journal and write a post about it.

Related links

• Project Quilting - 15.6 - Irish Chain
• Table Scraps Challenge 2024 - March (Purple and Bird)
• Green Improv Placemat for the January Table Scraps Challenge, January 30, 2024
• Make a Journal with Scraps, Vintage Page Designs

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. I hope that you'll link up below and check these out! 

Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Midweek Makers, Put your foot down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Patchwork & Quilts, Slow Sunday Stitching, Oh Scrap!,

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 574 of Free Motion Mavericks. 

Last week Deb from A Scrappy Quilter shared with us a repair job to a quilt that a very anxious dog chewed up! Here are the before and after pictures. Deb patiently removed 3 of the pieces and some quilting, replaced the pieces, batting and some backing and Voila! As good as new😊

Repair needed!

As good as new!

It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter