This past couple of weeks I have been stitching away at several scrap fabric projects. The mess of cutting and sorting my scraps has been tided away so I can concentrate on the fun of creating scrappy quilts in a relatively ordered sewing space.

I caught up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge project on the Retreat a few weeks ago.

I made all fifteen of the February and March blocks so that project is neatly packed into a bin awaiting the announcement of the colour for April.

Out in the open, so to speak, is my Retreat Scrap Quilt (for want of a better name!). I pinned the quilt sandwich using an extra-wide backing and the Sew Simple EcoBlend wadding. All the cotton and polyester fibres in the wadding have been recycled and are very evenly distributed with a scrim layer. The wadding is a medium loft with a soft feel. I’ve started quilting this project and so far I’m impressed with the wadding – very few fibres shed, so my black jog-pants have not turned white and no sign of bearding on the quilt top or back.

Quilting the Retreat Scrap Quilt: First I stitched in the ditch around the columns of coin stacks and Nine Patch blocks to stabilise the layers thus minimising shifting as quilting continues.

Using an open-toe walking foot with the needle to one side really helps to keep the stitching in the ditch.

Next, I took a deep breath before switching my machine to a free motion set up. On the Retreat Trudi Wood’s workshops were all about FMQ over a grid. The Nine Patch blocks provide the perfect place to practice one of the designs taught by Trudi – a wavy version of Orange Peel quilting.

There are twenty-one Nine Patch blocks so I’m hoping this design will be soon be imprinted in my ‘muscle memory’.

I’ve also been working on the Dash, Dash, Dot quilt. There are twenty blocks up on my design wall along with lengths of 2½” squares stitched together to become border strips.

Alas, despite my best efforts, the box of 2½” squares and 2½” x 5″ rectangles is not empty! I’m going to squish the remainder into a smaller box and call a halt to my scrap busting efforts for now…

… Although, in the wings are the overflowing collection of string scraps, an overfull box of 2½” WOF strips and a bin of odd-shaped scraps destined to become another Scrap Vortex quilt…

Maybe the only way to use up fabric scraps is to bag them up and give them away?

Happy stitching!

Allison