Scraps of Time

My hydrangea is getting hydrated. . . .yes, it's raining in Washington! Cool and rainy. As in, wearing a jacket during the afternoon kind of cool. It's very nice! Most of us feel much better, thank you. Except for DH. He misses the heat. (He's not getting much sympathy, poor guy.)

We've been watching the Olympics. Well, DH has been watching a lot more than I have. I can't take too much. But, this Olympics thing reminds me of this quilt. I made this quilt the last time the Olympics were on. Those were the Winter Olympics 2+ years ago. I had just found Quiltville and Bonnie's free patterns. I had a large pile of 2 1/2 inch strips already. Some were from playing Strip Poker at the quilt guild meeting (you bet with strips of fabric and then the play is like War). And some were cast-offs from the Community Quilts "department", of which I was a member. I really wanted to try this pattern "Scrappy Trips Around the World". So, when the "Stupor Bowl" was on, I sat down in front of the TV and started sorting scrap strips into "long enough" and "not long enough". Then when the Olympics came on, I started piecing this. I could hear the TV from the dining room where I was sewing, and when something interesting came on, I jumped up and ran to the family room (where the TV was) to watch. When the good stuff was over, back to the sewing machine and resume sewing.

I call this quilt "Scraps of Time". I used scraps of time to make this quilt and the title also covers the fact that many of these fabrics were from clothes I'd made for the kids, other quilts I'd made, pillowcases that I'd made as gifts for friends and family and so on. In other words, lots of memories are in this quilt. There's even memories of some of the recurring fabrics that we dealt with in Community Quilts.

So, by the time the Olympics were over, I had a quilt top! I think that was the fastest I'd ever made a quilt top! I was very impressed with the ease of this pattern, and also with how well it looks made up. I've since made another one that I showed here.

Here's a closeup of one block to show you that I put absolutely everything in this quilt, even some downright ugly fabric that I don't care that much for- and it all works together! That's the beauty of this pattern, to me. They all play well together. I want to try one that I work a little harder at a theme or something, just to see what that looks like too.

Another closeup to see the fabrics. You can also see the quilting that my friend SB, the long-armer, did on this quilt. I think it's great. I love curvy, swirly quilting on straight-line quilts.

And here's a closeup of the border. More great quilting. And the little squares were the leftovers of the strip sets used to make the blocks. If they were big enough, I cut another 2 1/2" strip. Some of them that weren't big enough, I unsewed the squares so that I could use them. And when I didn't have quite enough to finish this border, I cut some more squares to finish it. I didn't waste very much fabric! The back used up some unloved fabrics, and the only fabric I bought for this was the border fabric. And I think that was on sale. So, a frugal quilt that I think looks pretty good and it makes me happy to look at it!

Bonnie's post of the other day, about why she makes scrap quilts, really rung a chord with me. I agree with her. I'd much rather have a quilt full of memories that are precious to me than to have a quilt with all matching/new fabrics that are pretty but not personal. Based on the number of comments she got, I'd say there are lots of quilters that feel the same way!