Blue and Crazy for January's Table Scraps Challenge

It's a good thing that I was catching up on my blog reading or I would not have remembered the January Table Scraps Challenge! 😮 There's nothing more fun than whipping up a wee little scrappy project...and even learning something at the same time!

Blue Scraps for a Crazy Quilt Topper

This month the colour was dark and/or bright blue and the prompt comes from the letters C, R. or J. My prompt is therefore C for Crazy quilt. I started by sewing blue scraps together. Blue is always easy to do because I have a whole basket just with blue scraps! I tried to use triangular shapes because scrappy quilts are not just squares and rectangles.

Blue and Crazy table topper

Once the top was finished, I decided to quilt it using some of the stitches on my machine. It's a good quick alternative and I finally got to try out stitches other than straight and zigzag! One day I would love to make a real crazy quilt but not today! 😊

Here are some of the stitches

Fancy Stitches on my machine

There are card symbols: diamonds, hearts,
clubs and spades

More interesting stitches

Harder to see but still impressive stitches

Newly added: Blue and Crazy is now in the kitchen
keeping the counter somewhat clean 😊

What I learned

• I just love sewing pieces of fabric together. Improv piecing with scraps makes my happy 😊
• I didn't worry about bright or dark - anything blue was added, with one scrappy fabric that included a few subtle colours for contrast.
• I was reading the stitch diagram wrong on my machine. After a few tries I figured it out!
• There are some really fun stitches that I will have to use again. It's not FMQ but it's still cool!😎 
• I sewed on the binding using the lessons that I had learned in December (see link below). They worked out really well. 
• I tried to use a fancy stitch to sew down the binding but it was too thick, even with the walking foot. Next time I'll try a simpler stitch.

Related links

• Tips on binding a quilt in the post: An Agenda Cover and Update on Free Motion Mavericks, January 05, 2023

Linking parties

I will be linking up to January's Table Scraps Challenge 2023. Let's see what everyone made! Sew & Tell, Midweek Makers, Put your foot down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Finished (or Not) Friday, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, Peacock Party, TGIFF, Beauties Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Project details

Blue and Crazy Table Topper

Made for the Table Scraps Challenge 2023

10¼" x 10¾"

Material: blue cotton scraps

Technique: improv piecing and quilted using fancy machine stitches

Update on March Challenge

2015 A Lovely Year of Finishes - March Challenge

Imagine Quilt based on John Lennon's song

It would seem that I am making the wrong choices when setting priorities these days. I’m used to my work priorities changing, but not my quilting ones, probably because I don’t usually have priorities and deadlines for quilting and I try to keep it that way.

My motivation for posting my priority in March was to encourage myself to write in my blog about it – but I may have forgotten that I needed to actually finish the quilting that I set as an objective! Quilting almost every day is not an issue for me, but what I’m actually working on seems to be. Oh well, live and learn.

I am happy to report that I finished my Guild Music Challenge quilt. I worked on it at the beginning of the month, but typically left the embellishment till the last minute.

Close-up of Imagine

I was intimidated by the FMQ of the “world” part of the quilt because I wasn't sure how that would go. Turns out it was great. I started by stitching in-the-ditch, which wasn't technically “in-the-ditch” because of the embroidery located around each piece. I then did some FMQ of the different fabrics. I had a ball. It was so hard to stop!

I was also unsure of how to FMQ the background because I wanted the people holding hands to stand out. I started by echoing the top of the people. After that, I FMQ clouds in the sky. I looked all over the internet for inspiration and finally ended up using a variation of Angela Walter’s work that she had done for a client. 

Sky quilting based on Angela Walter's work

When I attached the world and the background together, I just quilted in-the-ditch and quilted around the outside edge to make sure that both pieces stayed together. 

Close-up of John Lennon and some beading

What I learned:

• If I was fussier, I would have re-done the embroidery around some of the pieces of the world, as well as some located on the outside edge of the world. On the other hand, there’s nothing stopping me from re-doing these at any time, if it does bother me. I am truly not a perfectionnist!
• I’m ambivalent about the end project. I like it, but I think that the finished project in my mind might have been better than the real thing.

  

  Details of beading

• I did learn a lot throughout this project. I really enjoyed the embroidery as well as the embellishment with beads. I could have kept going, but for the amount of time it would have taken, I’m not sure that it would have added anything more to it. You have to stop sometime.
• I loved the FMQ of both the world and the background. In the end, I think that adding an echo around the people holding hands was a good idea. I don’t really think that it needs to stand out more. I have to learn that subtle is good too!

Check out other participants in the March 2015: Lovely Year of Finishes, Free Motion Mavericks and Fabric Tuesday by Quilt Story.

Many Challenges

To encourage me to keep blogging (I don't need encouragement to quilt!), I've decided to write about a few challenges that I'm participating in.

2015 A Lovely Year of Finishes - March Challenge

I was hoping to participate earlier this year but as you can see, it didn't happen.

The world - crazy quilt style

My goal for March is to complete my Music Challenge quilt for our Guild. Since the deadline is our April meeting, getting it completed before March 31 would be perfect. When we joined the challenge, we were given a fat quarter of music fabric. It has to be incorporated into the quilt (as little or as much as we want). The quilt should illustrate or be inspired by a piece of music.

It took me a while to decide, but I finally picked "Imagine" by John Lennon. It all started with a quilting pattern of people holding hands - what could be better? To make this interesting, I decided to make a 3D quilt. The centre is the world, made from fabrics that represent various cultures and nations, pieced crazy quilt style. I've completed the piecing of the world and have embroidered and embellished it with ribbons etc. I haven't added beads yet since I need to FMQ it first. I'm still not sure how I want to do this yet. I guess I have a couple of weeks to figure it out.

Background

Music Challenge Quilt - so far

I've completed the pieced background and have started FMQ it. I want the "people holding hands" to be the focal point of that section, so I'm still trying to figure out how to finish FMQ it. After that, I will have to attach both pieces together.

What I learned:

• I'm really happy that I took the time to write about this project because the pictures I took have shown me that I have a lot of work to do to get those "people holding hands" to show up.

See you at the end of March!

Common Thread Quilt Guild UFO (Unfinished Objects) Challenge

Our guild is hosting a UFO challenge. Since I had to register just before I left for China in the fall, I made some very quick (and possibly not great) UFO choices. It's a good thing that I have kept my list of quilting projects up to date. I only had to review it to come up with some UFOs for the challenge. Here they are:

1. Snippet flowers in a vase from 2008 (ready to FMQ if I can find it :-(  )
2. Batik quilt from 2011 (needs interesting FMQ since it has too little contrast)
3. South-West art quilt from 2010 (working on it during my lunch - occasionally)
4. Strip-quilt number two from 2012? (needs to be FMQ)
5. Completing my mother's whole cloth quilt from 2002 (hand quilted)

I think that the deadline for the challenge is our May meeting. At this time, two of these projects have a fair chance of getting completed; the South-West art quilt and the Snippet flowers in a vase (if I can find it!).

Frayed Knots Spring/ Summer Garden 2015 Block Exchange

I've included this block exchange as a challenge - cause it is! Having to make 23 blocks by a specific date is definitely a challenge for me. 

We have a choice of many sizes of blocks, as long as they have a 36" perimeter. I'm keeping mine simple by making 9"x 9" blocks. The background has to be pastel colours. I keep forgetting the word "pastel" probably because I don't usually do pastel! It was terrible - I had to shop for pastels :-) 

Some exchange blocks

I am making an assortment of blocks since I don't have the patience to make 23 of the same blocks. It turns out that there aren't that many patterns for 9" x 9" blocks, but I finally figured out that they are essentially variations on 9 patch blocks, so I can either expand a 6" block, or reduce a 12" block. That will give me many more options. I'm not very good in math, so I use grid paper to calculate the sizes. Gotta love grid paper!

Here are a few of my blocks. I have 10 blocks completed. Only 13 left to finish before June! Very do-able.

Check out other participants in the March 2015: Lovely Year of Finishes