Monday, August 25, 2008

Leftovers

I've heard from some quilters that they don't like making the liberated wonky quilts because there is too much fabric wasted. I will grant you that, but I remember way back to working with templates and sometimes there was waste that way too. If you want interesting shapes, you just gotta deal with this:

I actually think it's beautiful. I'm saving these bits - I might be able to work them into a thready someday. Maybe one where I don't stitch everything down, because I love the freedom of this:

I'm sewing on my Amish L-O-V-E blocks, the ones I made duplicates of so that I could see how other people put them together too. It's a secret until next year unless everyone finishes their tops before then. So I can't show you what I'm doing but I'm really enjoying myself. It was torture making the dupes - I hated it. But now I'm having fun. I have most of my center pieced together.

Today I found the blog of Andrea Zuill, it's called BadBird's Musings of a Small Angry Bird. I thorougly enjoy her attitude and lively approach to quilting and embroidery. She's also a gifted painter. Check out Snake in the Grass - look at all the lovely layers of color and stitch. She's issued a challenge: Stitch by Hand's Old School Sewing Competition which might be just the thing for you if you enjoying working by hand. The winners get one of her lovely prints. The sign-up ends September 6th.

14 comments:

Featheronawire Sally Bramald said...

These little bits would look fabulous incorporated into hand made paper. Just put them through the food processor with the other paper making stuff.
Sally

Joyce said...

I never worry about the bits left over from Wonky quilting. I find that by the time I make a couple of scrap quilts, there's less waste than with a regular quilt like I'm making now. Anyway, that's the price of having fun!

laura west kong said...

Those are wonderful scraps! ... Not having purposefully set out to make a wonky quilt before, I can't say for certain that it wastes a lot of fabric, at least not any more than when I try to make it perfect and end up tossing half the blocks in the trash because they've all unravelled from picking them apart so many times. ;-)

woolywoman said...

Waste? Are they kidding? What about string quilts? What about crumbs? What about all the teeny pieces used for letters? What about....sputtering. I'd say that if one is really worried about fabric waste, one wouldn't be cutting it up in the first place. This buying of yard goods and then cutting them up is not a fabric saver, whether traditional, wonky, free ( which could be argued to be traditional)or appliqué. In the grand scheme of things we could just wrap ourselves in mylar blankets and hang newspapers on the wall. But we don't- we make quilts, and that uses fabric, just as painting uses paint.

Robin (RsIslandCrafts) said...

I like to save all my bits and pieces to make stuffies.

Your pile is much more colorful than mine right now though...

Clare said...

Lovely leftovers - great colours. I can never work out why some people dislike the waste. Just think of the opportunities available to a quilter out of all those scraps!

YankeeQuilter said...

One person's waste is another person's treasure!

Love BadBird's snake in the grass and her prints. Tempts me to try her hand sewing competition but I'm not sure I'm wild enough....

Cher said...

ah, fabulous color all tossed together like that-I took some and put it into a small clear bag with a similar idea...snippets is a way of using those type of scraps too...but I think just admiring the heap is good. what an interesting blog badbird has...thanks for the link

dee said...

I have a large, very pretty, old fashioned glass jar that I keep the bits in. It looks really colorful just sitting there until I decide what to do with them. Thanks for the links-really nice

Browndirtcottage said...

Great pile of stringy scraps you have there!! As far as the "waste" goes....I don't consider it wasted as long as I still have it.. regardless of it's size. It's only waste if you throw it away!!

quiltingnana said...

what a wonderful picture of fabric scraps the colors are beautifu. You should make that picture into a poster...It's art!

Ayala Levinger said...

I love tiny bits and little scraps!
I also have boxes of them because instead of loading Earth with more waste I create things with them. like drawing with fabric and thread.

Brenda said...

what a feast for the eyes. while I was looking for my fungly fabrics, I pulled out all my solids and want to make an Amish-style quilt of them. thanks for the inspiration, and I'm happy to hang out with you anytime you come to Canada. I'd love to visit France, but the family budget says no right now.

Idaho Quilter said...

I couldn't throw those pieces away either.