My main goal for each quilt was to piece from my stash. I wasn't always successful with this, but in my attempts I am definitely more aware of what is in my stash and where I have a lot of my stash stashed. For the first couple of quilts, I didn't even remember that I have totes of scraps and unsorted fabric in my closet!
The first quilt was from the March/April 2012 edition of QuiltMaker. The pattern is Chain Reaction designed by Lee Heinrich of Freshly Pieced. I didn't even realize that she was the designer until she posted the pattern for sale on her website a couple of months ago!
The blog post for my quilt on the magazine's website is here. I used dot fabric that I got in 2011 from the Connecting Threads warehouse sale. I used painter's tape on my cutting mat to mark the placement for my ruler to make each cut.
I finished the binding in Florida and gave the quilt to my grandpa while I was there last February.
My favorite thing about this quilt is that I used a chevron print for the binding and cut it on the bias and it gave a very nice design as a result!
The next quilt was in the May/June 2012 issue and was Ladder of Success designed by Judy Martin. Here is my blog post on the magazine's blog.
I used fabrics from the Connecting Threads trip again, but I had to add a couple of cuts because I didn't grab enough of the fabric from the sale. I called my quilt Down on the Farm because the prints were of farm animals and barns.
I gave the quilt to my co-worker and she loved it! I can't decide whether that is my favorite thing about this quilt or that it was a Judy Martin quilt. I do love Judy Martin patterns!
The third quilt was from the July/August 2012 issue and was Old Glory designed by Margie Ullery. Our task was to each pick a different theme for our individual quilts and use a different shape in place of the stars. My magazine post is here.
I decided to use Halloween fabric and worked with the magazine's graphic designer to create a cauldron applique design for the bottom of my quilt. I also used Angelina fibers to make the sparkly bubbles. I really love how the bubbles turned out, but they were sort of a pain to use and very messy.
As a play on words with the pattern name, I named my quilt Old Gory!
I quilted this one with big circles and just did a raw edge applique to hold the bubbles on. They ended up puffing out nicely so it was a great effect! I detailed how I created the bubbles and worked with the Angelina in my blog post for the magazine which you can find here.
And here is my cauldron design. The applique is available on the magazine's website.
The fourth quilt is in the September/October 2012 edition and is called Country Morning. It was also designed by Judy Martin and was originally in an older issue, but it was re-worked for 2012 as a paper pieced design. We were given the option to make a smaller quilt with only 4 blocks and only 2 of the SS members made the quilt in the full pattern size.
We were also told to come up with different techniques or block designs for the blocks. I decided on Stack and Whack and a set of 3 floral fabrics from my stash that I was planning on making a One Block Wonder quilt with.
Here is the link to the blog post on the magazine's web site, but I also did a post with a lot of different pictures on my own blog. A progression of the assembly, if you will. I encourage you to look at this post if you haven't already. I think it is really spectacular to see it come together!
I had Ruthie quilt this quilt for me as I knew that it would need a custom quilting job and I wouldn't be able to handle it on my set up. She did a great job and had it ready for me at the October Shipshewana quilt retreat!
I think that my favorite things about this quilt are how different the blocks are and that it was my first full size paper pieced project.
The fifth quilt was Bella Amore from the November/December 2012 issue. It was designed by Marianne Elizabeth. Thankfully, we were able to make a twin size quilt instead of the larger queen size that the pattern was written for. I wasn't really crazy about this quilt, but I think it was because of the fabrics in the original quilt and the color placement. It just didn't speak to me.
I found a 2005 Alexander Henry fabric at Joann's that sang to me and I picked up what I could for the focus fabric for my quilt. I needed to get some matching fabrics and I worked on this quilt at the October Shipshewana quilt retreat. I actually got all of my star blocks and most of the assembly finished by Friday of the retreat weekend. No one was really thrilled with my blocks until I started the assembly, but I was confident of my plan and it all came together!
Here is my post on the magazine's blog.
I really like how this quilt turned out! Thanks to my retreat roommate, Laurel, I named the quilt Stars on Fire.
I finally used my Bloc Loc ruler on the HSTs for this quilt. It is a fantastic ruler for anyone who loves to make HSTs and pressing their seams to the side. It doesn't work so well when you press the seams open.
The sixth and final quilt is from the January/February 2013 issue and is Caribbean Vacation by Denise Starck.
I decided to make a quilt for one of my neighbors and I thought that using red, black and dark and light blue would work well. I re-drew the quilt in EQ and spent a bit of time re-coloring the pattern to come up with something that was appealing to me. My post on the website is here.
And this might be my first pieced backing.
To see larger pictures, you can click on the images.
I hope that you enjoyed this trip through the Scrap Squad quilts I made over the last year. This process has really helped me start thinking outside of the box to try and make quilt patterns more my own and to work for my needs.
