Warning - Picture & Scrap Heavy Posting

You may know that I love scrappy quilts ... they are the quintessential quilt to me ... anyway ... a little while ago I got some scraps of Civil War Repros (from Christine - thankyou Christine) and my friend Helen (having nothing of her own to do - not!) made this quilt for me.  All I had to do was supply the 2m of beautiful cream 1seeded quilters muslin that I got from "The Quilt Patch" in Launceston along with the scraps
I had from Christine.   So this beautiful quilt turned up miraculously in a week or so ... Thank you Helen...Helen also made me a cushion from the left overs - I am so lucky

This quilt is from Bonnie Hunter's book "Adventures with Leaders & Enders" and the pattern is called "Sisters Nine Patch"

 

 The mail came yesterday with Bonnie's new book "Scraps & Shirttails II"  ... I love the patterns in this book ... very nice ... my brain is ticking over at a terrific rate, going through all the fabrics I have, what scraps, lights and darks and what I can use for backgrounds ...mmmmm

 I love this pattern ... I need to make this quilt!

 And not so long ago I went to The Quilt Patch in Launceston (having not been there for many months) and spied this book ... look at that delicious quilt on the front cover ...

Why would you not want to make this quilt ... even the cat likes it!




So there lies my problem ... spoilt for choice.

I have been quilting for eight years now ... so have accumulated fabrics that I will never use as a whole piece in a quilt, lots of scraps, lots of partial fat quarters that no one in their right mind would have even purchased in the first place (had they known anything about quilting 8 years ago - lol)


So over the past little while I have been tidying up my scraps ... I have started a scrap bin system as recommended by Bonnie Hunter ... it works - I am amazed at how much you can salvage from fabric you would consider almost useless ...  look at these bins ... these are the strips in 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3.5 inches wide.

See the little red mouse ... Merlin left him there for me this morning ... good little toy mouse catcher that he is!

 Then I have culled my bins of bigger bits of fabric ... found these plaids and more neutral toned fabrics ... all that I have used in past quilts ... so do I cut them up or just keep them ready to use as setting blocks or sashings in scrappy quilts .. have to ponder that some more.

 A whole heap of beautiful plaids in yellow/green/oranges ... I got these when a local quilt shop closed down and I couldn't resist the bargain ...  they would look fantastic in a Bonnie Hunter style scrap quilt ... wouldn't you use them??

 Then there is this bin ... full of stuff that I probably wouldn't use in a co-ordinated quilt ... but some bits that I couldn't bear to part with either ... yep cut 'em up and put them in a scrappy quilt or 10.

Oh but wait ... there is more ... left over from quilts I have made ... see the chicken wire fabric - I made some really nice naive applique chook quilts back in 2004 ... but am I going to use this fabric anywhere else ... nope, cut it up and put it in a scrap quilt.

So you see where I am going with this ... I feel like I am obsessed ... I have spent my whole lunch hour today writing this posting and thinking about scrap quilts ... Do you do that??   Obsess over an idea and can't get it out of your head until you at least make something of a start towards that quilt ... In the past week I have sorted and put together three UFO's ...all in their little boxes ready to be sewn ... at least I will be ready for retreat this year!

Okay back to the quilting machine now ... I am catching up with my backlog after two months without a working machine ... Thank you everyone for your patience.    And if you got this far through reading my post, thank you ... I hope I have inspired you to get out your scraps and make something useful like a Scrappy Utility Quilt ...Happy quilting for now ... Jane x