Snap scrap sewing...

Look at these beautifully laid out fabrics!  That glorious rainbow of colour!  I had such big plans back in 2020 - yes, that's right, 2020.  It was a time of lockdowns and I was bored.  A search online found this blog  and her plans for a 'snap, scrap, sew-a-long'.  Simple blocks designed to use up all of those left-over 2.5in pieces and some great plans included for layouts. 

From either side of my layout table, the colours just looked wonderful together.

I had to pack it all up when I changed furniture in my sewing room and purchased a new machine.  This project got shoved into a container and shelved until a couple of weeks ago, when I decided that I had had enough of the lid sliding off and falling out of the cupboard each time I slid the door open.

When I put the container onto the table and took the lid off, the fabric pieces sort of bubbled out and over the top, like they had decided they didn't want to be squashed anymore...

In this container, I found that I had packed away 170 x 6in blocks, all neatly pinned together into groups of 10 blocks, sorted by colour!  As the call from the Very Snuggly Quilt program is for 48x60in quilts for teenage boys, I was able to use 80 blocks in this first quilt.....

Sadly, night-time indoor photos don't do the colours any justice.  The blue-green quilt, above, has since been sewn together and has a backing and binding to match. It simply needs a good press and then quilting.

And... another 80 blocks in this second quilt... 

... which will have a pieced backing of modern fabric with writing on it and the remaining 10 green blocks added in for some interest. 

My goal for the next few days is to complete the sewing and make the backing for the yellow-grey-green quilt and then, figure out what quilts to make with the remaining fabrics.  Do I want to make more of the 'snap-scrap' blocks, or, do I make something else from them?  I am not sure.

The block patterns can be found here  

Jigsaw Quilt

I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with the gorgeous fabric Fat Quarter pack that I won in a Retreat raffle in May 2014.  Gorgeous Jo suggested I make a jigsaw quilt.  She had just finished one and it showcased the fabrics beautifully.  She even had some left over jigsaw fusible web pieces as well, so I promptly started the quilt.  Super easy to put together,

- just fuse on the jigsaw bits, sew the matching squares to the sides, press the seams open to reduce the bulk after the fusible is attached....

- then fuse on the bias tape, insert a twin needle into the sewing machine with matching thread and top stitch away...

A super effective pattern that sews up fast and a great way to show off those too interesting to cut prints.

The left over pieces were joined up and inserted into the backing fabric.  Plus an extra fabric to make it wide enough - I was 3 inches not quite wide enough when I first made the backing, which I only realised when I was basting it and I had to pull it apart and insert extra fabric - sheesh......

It took me an extremely long time to come up with a quilting plan for the Jigsaw (approx 4.5 years of repeatedly looking at it and putting it away).  Initially, I was going to do a large open stipple or meander over the quilt, but that looked terrible!  Blah!  So I unpicked that.

What I did end up doing was turning the quilt upside down and quilting it by following the large hexagons on the backing fabric, which meant lots of stopping and starting on my domestic machine and having to sew in ends, but I am so pleased with the final result.

Where the insert panel is, I stitched in the ditch and put a pattern down the narrow strips for a bit of added interest. The quilting thread I used was #50 weight variegated lime green cotton by Wonderfil and a #50 weight lime green Guterman cotton thread in the bobbin.

Front of Quilt.

Back of Quilt.

Finishing at 117cm x 155cm (46in x 61in)  with 60%wool / 40% cotton wadding, it is going to be a lovely warm hug for a teenager at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne via the Very Snuggly Quilts program.