Bibs & Bobs....

Lately I've been on the hunt for ideas that will purge my ever growing pile of scraps. I seriously don't know where these scraps come from as I seem to be forever making scrappy quilts and rarely cutting into stash. How are they forming? Baffling to say the least...or denial, one or the other! Nonetheless, I think this scrap busting idea is a winner.....bibs that are made not only from scrap fabric but scrap strips of batting as well.

A couple of Thursday's ago I spent a 'Sew & Sew's' evening with the girls zigzagging together strips of batting to make pieces that were roughly 14" x 8". I was staggered to see how quickly I could cobble together some reasonable sized pieces. Then I built the fronts of the bibs using the quilt as you go method!
I always love going through my fabric bin and discovering little bits of fabric that has been lying dormant from quilts past. And then I hit the solids scrap bag! Solids scraps are just as adorable as prints.
The backs are solids and I've used really bright orange and lime.

My next adventure came in the form of snap buttons. These little things are tricky. I wasted a few along the way and had to buy another pack but it was really worth it I think as they finish the bibs off wonderfully.

And my last foray into the scrap bin has come in the form of a little covered note book that we will use on our forthcoming travels. Needless to say, it has been purloined by R who promptly made a cover page and has begun the note taking. Excellent.

 A couple of lovely scrap finishes to link up to Crazy Mom's Finish it Up Friday.

A farewell....

I'm often asked why I don't have a cleaner. My response is always the same.
"I don't have a cleaner....because I have a speech therapist."
At the age of two, our son was diagnosed with a severe language disorder. Now 11 years old, his diagnoses has subsequently been altered to 'mild-moderate autism'. Never-the-less, and whatever the label, his struggle with language is ongoing and impacts day-to-day through his interaction with and understanding of the world. His need for speech therapy and supported learning is currently on-going without too much of a glimmer on the horizon of that changing in the short term. Let's just say, we're a 'speechie's' sure thing.
We've been very lucky that L's school allows a consulting speech therapist to work with him (and the numerous other boys!) during the school day. From my point of view, that saves one more 'run around mum job'. The other plus is the stability that that brings. His first 'in-school' therapist worked with him from reception through to grade 3 until her work load became too great and she had to expand her consultancy (or build a massive extension to her home...one or the other!). She handed the reigns over to her assistant and she has worked with L for the past two years. But she's leaving. She's young and decided to follow her dreams interstate. Wednesday is her last day, and whilst I've told L it's his last speech session for the year ("yay!" was the response), I haven't told him it's a big goodbye.

So at the very least a little gift is in order. I've made a notebook cover out of scraps and used the quilt as you go method to use up some batting bits. I'll get L to draw one of his very special little illustrations in the front.

Just the 20 months.....

Back in July 2010, I hopped on the 'QAYG' (quilt as you go) bandwagon and in one intense weekend sewing session churned out a batch of spectacular 12" x 12" and 8" x 8" log cabin blocks of my then, most favourite bits of left over fabric. The were, by my standards, pretty gorgeous and truly represented the few quilting projects I'd attempted and the content of my stash up until that time. And then....(insert drum roll....), after I'd made them, I couldn't work out how you could possibly join them together, so I put each of them into a plastic bag and placed them into the cupboard with all of my other half finished projects. You know the ones, the ones I just had to do straight away in place of cleaning the bathroom.
But luckily I am blessed with that dreadful genetic disposition that causes me to find it really hard to throw things away. Some days it's the bane of my life. Other days it's a blessing. This past week it was the latter because I pulled out those QAYG blocks and turned them into baby bibs! I used this pattern which was super easy and makes a bib suitable for a newborn. Best of all, it used up all of my QAYG blocks in one fell swoop. (Actually, that's a slight exaggeration as I have some little circles left and I'm thinking coasters.....what do you reckon?.....)

On the Q.A.Y.G. bandwagon....

I know I said I wasn't going to start anything new....but surely reducing scraps is completing a process rather than starting afresh? Well that's my theory and I'm sticking to it!

'Quilt as you go' has taken quilting blogland by storm, seen here and here and with a great tutorial here. The concept first appeared in Suzuko Koseki's Patchwork Style, which is a book I've owned for some time but was never brave enough to try but now there's no stopping me....except more scraps!

I cut my batting to 13" square and have trimmed them down to 12 1/2". I've also used a layer of bleached calico on the bottom to keep the fluff out of my machine. And because I had a plethora of shorter strips I've also made some 7"-8" versions that I will trim down to 6 1/2" to piece with the larger blocks. The prccess takes a while but the logic is that you don't have to heavily quilt the finished product - just a few rows of stitching in the ditch to hold the backing onto these blocks. In a night and a day I managed 5 large and 2 small blocks.

It will take quite a few more blocks to create something worthwhile so I'll shelve these....make some more quilts....have more scraps....and make some more Q.A.Y.G's. Simple!