Just for fun

It was so cold here yesterday. Not as bad as some had it, but cold, nonetheless. We had -11* when I got up. Boy was it cold! Our computer area isn't the warmest so I pretty much stayed off the computer. Today it is up to a balmy 8*, but snowing and the wind is getting up. Our house is cold when the wind is blowing, so I probably won't be on the computer much today either. Anyway, when my dh left for work yesterday, he told me to do something fun. So I did. LOL I drug out some old quilting magazines, found a pattern I thought was cute, drug out a bin of scraps and went to work. Sorry the bin is so messy. I actually had the strips all nicely folded in there, but this is what it looked like by the time I found all my scraps. LOL This called for using a piece of cotton batting, but I used a piece of fleece and was just careful when I pressed. I had never made a quilt this way, but it was fun. It was a quilt as you go. I laid out the backing, right side down, then spread the fleece over it, and made a big X from corner to corner on the fleece. Then I pinned a blue rectangle in the center of the fleece and and sewed a blue 1 1/4 inch strip to the top of the rectangle. I pressed it up, then sewed a brown strip to the left side, pressed up, sewed a brown strip to the bottom, pressed up, and sewed a blue strip to the right side. I continued in log cabin fashion till I had 7 strips on the right and 8 strips on the top, left, and bottom. I never used the same scrap twice. (Shows you how many scraps I have. LOL) After I had the quilt all put together, I fused the sunflowers, centers, and leaves on it. Then I used my machine to zigzag around each of these. I think it turned out real cute. This was a fun and quick process to learn, but won't replace my love for handquilting. (grin)

Everything on this quilt was done on the machine except handsewing the binding on the back. The binding called for half brown and half blue, so I even tried that. The whole project was made out of leftovers, except for the fat quarter I used for the backing. If you look closely in the first picture, you will see a plastic bag. That bag holds leftover bindings from previous projects. I even keep those. LOL I was able to find a big enough piece of both blue and brown. Worked out great. I always feel so good when I make a project from scraps. The back isn't very pretty, but I will share a picture with you anyway.

This project was so much fun that I am looking through my magazines again. LOL (Pays to be a pack rat and save not only all scraps , but also all your old quilting magazines. This was from the August 2002 copy of Quick & Easy Quilting. I buy up quilting magazines at garage sales.) All I need to do is sew a sleeve on the back and this baby is ready for hanging.

Well, my feet are getting cold, so I think I will get off here. I am also working on appliqueing some cherries on a table runner. I fused them down, now I am doing a primitive embroidery with black floss around them. Everyone have a good day and stay warm. Thank you for visiting.

Winona