Orphan blocks find a home

This is a fun little quilt top I put together over Christmas Break.  

I've been "collecting" orphan blocks for at least a year in anticipation of making my own kitchen sink quilt.  I've pinned a few really beautiful ones, like this and this, that I was hoping I could duplicate in my own way.

Here are my humble beginnings:

Not much to look at when you first see them but I knew that with time I could make them beautiful.  I'll admit at this stage of the game I was a little skeptical, though...

 But the more I dug, the more blocks I found!  

I started laying them out to find a pleasing arrangement.

It took a lot of trial and error and LOTS of rearranging to find an arrangement that I liked, but even then I still needed to fill in some gaps!  I tried hard to stay true to the nature of the quilt and not use anything that wasn't a scrap or an orphan block for the gaps.

By far my favorite part of the "fill in the gap" phase was this happy little accident of triangles.  The triangles themselves are tiny (2") leftovers from some bee block making.  But they became even more awesome when I sewed the two rows together with one of them upside down.  My original thought was to have them all going the same way stacked up nice and orderly, but I LOVE them so much better like this!  A happy accident, indeed.

Here is the final layout in flimsy form all pieced together.

I love that it is a scrappy beautiful hot mess of blocks, as well as a sort of diary of blocks from the past year.  Crazy, yet cool!

More kitchen sink lovelies: here, here and here.

Lone Starburst

I'm thinking I'll turn it into a pillow...

 

Pattern: Lone Starburst by Anna of Six White Horses.

Aqua and Orange {finish}

This one's actually been finished for awhile, but our dismal weather was making is hard to get any good pictures. 

If you remember right, the blocks for this quilt were made by the ladies in the Sew Pieceful Swap last spring/summer.  Aqua and orange was my first color scheme with this group, but I'm already on my 3rd color!

I've been saving the flannel backing piece since last year when I got it on sale.  Can you believe I've never actually used flannel on any of my previous quilts?  It's a perfect aqua gingham if I do say so myself.  I'm pretty sure you all know this already but I could buy gingham in every color of the rainbow and still not tire of it.  And gingham flannel? That's pretty much perfect!

 I think my quilter did a fantastic job giving the quilt great texture without taking away too much from each block.  

As for those orange cornerstones...I love the little pop of color they add to the sashing.

Happy Monday, All!

Previous posts about this quilt here.

Busting the Scraps

My scrap bins have been getting a little out of control of late.  I'm ashamed to to say I am a hoarder in the scrap department (*hangs head in shame*), but I just can't throw away pretty things no matter how small they are.  So, I've been trying to make heads or tails of them since Christmas break. 

 

The easiest way for me to do that is to dump them on the floor and make some slabs ala Sunday Morning Quilts.  For me it's a happy mindless exercise that yields beautiful results.  So after spending a couple days with an Edward Scissorhands sized mess I managed to make some pretties.

 I chose to make "blocks" rather than slabs but the process is the same.  Easy and awesome!

My blocks are 15" so that when it comes time to put them together I'll only need 20 or so to make a nice sized throw.  Bigger blocks = less work, right?

With pink and turquoise cleaned out, I've only got 7 more colors to go. WooHoo!

In a fit of scrap hoarding mania, I also decided to make strips for these scrappy x blocks.  I've had them on my wish list for.ever!  Both projects will probably be ongoing throughout the year but I'm determined to empty all my bins this year! 

What about you? Do you have an over abundance of scraps, or a great scrap project you want to share?
Happy Monday!

More Dots

Surprise, Surprise, I bought more polka dots!

From designer Amy Butler

On Point Lattice Quilt Tutorial {Featuring Wee Wander by Sarah Jane Studios}

Hi all!  

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Sarah Jane's new fabric line Wee Wander.  

Today I'm excited to be sharing a tutorial for the lattice quilt I made for her booth at fall market. 

 It's a simple design and an easy quilt to whip up.  

ON POINT Wee Wander Lattice Quilt Tutorial, a photo by simple girl, simple life on Flickr

While I used yardage for the original quilt, I was able to simplify the directions (and thus eliminate fabric waste) by using only one complete fat quarter set (21 prints) for the pdf.  Follow the simple cutting layout diagrams and you will be able to get all the squares you need to make a large throw just like the one I made!


Sarah's fabric are available NOW through on-line retailers and brick-and-mortar stores!

True to her other lines, Wee Wander is filled with whimsical illustrations depicting childhood play; featuring trees, horses, deer, children, leaves, and (my favorite!!) fireflies.

As you can see all the fabrics play well together as a collection.
Once again, Sarah has done a wonderful job infusing beautiful color and design into her fabric collection. I can honestly say that even after sewing with this line for market I still want to sew with it some more! That's saying something, isn't it?  Yep, It's that cute!!

Don't forget to check out Sarah's blog weekly to see what others are making for the Wee Wander Blog Tour!

Download the pdf

***I tried my best to make this tutorial as accurate as possible, so please let me know if you find any errors.  I will try to keep this post updated regularly with any changes, if needed.***

 

Wee Wander Complete Fat Quarter Bundle Available From:
Westwood Acres  (along with a Coordinating Solids Bundle)
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More Details:
The super simplified version of the tutorial is this:
Cut 70 - 7" squares  and turn on point, cut 26 HST's for sides, and approx. 35 white sashing strips cut at 1.5" by WOF.

In the PDF there are two cutting layouts for your fat quarters: one for the small scale prints (Diagram A) and one for the large scale prints (Diagram B). Diagram B will show you the layout needed to cut squares on the bias so your larger scale prints will be headed in the right direction when they are turned on point.  I would suggest making a simple template out of paper (cut a 7" square in half diagonally) so you can position the HST's correctly on your FQ.  

Black and White Texty Prints

Stashing some texty prints:

Word Search Puzzle from Timeless Treasures

Mon Amie French Words in White by Brejer for Robert Kaufman

Love Notes Yolo in Grey by Echo Park Paper Co. for Andover

How to Sew a Pillowcase from Timeless Treasures

Madrona Road Memoir Text in White by Violet Craft

Crossword Puzzle from Timeless Treasures