Tag Archives: scraps

I learned a thing!

I took a class recently at The Workroom . It’s the Herringbone Patchwork class taught by Johanna Masko who you can stalk on Instagram here. It involved ‘partial seams’ which are really neat but can hurt your head if you get thinking about them, which you have to do. It takes a seriously underestimated amount of brain power to pull this design off.

I’ve only made a quilt here and there and on my own, or as I did in university with the help of a library book so this was a new to me experience. The pattern is quite mind bending! Literally.

I quickly realised, while chatting with people in the class only to look down and see I had made mistakes, that this isn’t a ‘toss on some Netflix and get your sew on’ kind of project. We needed buddies to check our work. Even then mistakes were found. Once I got home and was buddyless and working on my own there was a lot of ‘reverse sewing’ to say the least.

But the results are lovely and very different. I’m grateful for having learned such a neat technique. Now to turn it into a pillow as Johanna intended!

Making spree!!

I’ve gone a bit crazy recently making these scrappy pouches.

I broke out some of my really fun fabrics and pieced together some fun pouches.  I have so much fabric and so many scraps I made all of these with what I have on hand.  The denim is left over from other projects or repurposed from old jeans.

The red one is from a pattern I picked up on Etsy from Imazzpatterns.

I did some tweaking and made some changes to come up with the multicoloured design.  I played around with the length and the size of the scrappy pieces.

She did it again, well I did really.

We all know I love Michelle Patterns.  She chooses great fabrics and makes really neat things.  She has played a big part in how I learned to sew.  She sent me a magnet with one of the scrap pack orders I got ages ago which inspired me to begin making magnets with my scraps as well.

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The other day she posted on her Instagram about finding a charm pack and I was smitten with it. Sooo off I went to buy it from her, which is what happens every time she posts she has a new scrap pack in her shop. I’m a bit of a sucker for small pieces of fabric.

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Etsy Made In Canada

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Excited to be part of this tomorrow! I’m going to be running a workshop showing people how to use up all the itty bitty fabric scraps they have by making 1 inch magnets and hairclips.

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While the magnets involve a bit of equipment, available at Critical Buttons for rent of purchase if you’re up to making the investment.  The hairclips are much simpler.

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I get my hairclip supplies from Etsy, this shop has many of the items but I’ve found that buying the pins themselves is the most cost effective from here.

As of right now the workshop is full and I’m looking forward to unleashing my 7 large ziplock bags of scraps onto some participants to help them create some fun items to take home.

I think running this workshop might become a regular thing.

Swap time! Wanna play?

Let’s swap pincushions!

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Instead of trying to match up and email people myself I’m going to try Elfster and let the site do it for me. Please head here if you’d like to join in our pincushion swap.

You will create a pincushion with your own hands and ship it away to someone who is sending you a new to you pin cushion as well. How fun!

You can scour Pinterest or Google for some ideas and tutorials.

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Skinny pincushion

So made myself a scrappy quick little project the other day. I absolutely love things that use up scraps, the small the better. I remember the first time I made something with a ton of prints on it, one of my scrappy wallets, I was hesitant at first but once you just let go and put things together it all looks great once it’s finished.

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It’s from a free pattern by Green Bee Designs, they have a free patterns section and it’s in there.

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I added more sections to mine because I wanted it even more scrappy.  I rarely do things as dictated.

Stuck on couch = play on Pinterest

Spent some time organizing and adding to my boards on Pinterest the other day.

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I’m going to attempt a petal quilt, using all my current fabric to cut the petals. I picked up some white fabric for the front and a perfect pattern for the backing.

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It’s perfect for the quilt I’m going to make, inspired by this one by Little Miss Shabby.

Hand-Quilting

Giveaway Day!

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Win a scrappy wallet, cure made by me!
Enter here, drugs be sure to leave your email and I will contact you and we can see which wallet speaks to you!

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Tinkertote madness!

I swear I am in complete and utter love of this technique and making more of these beautiful creations of Tara Rebman’s Quilt-As-You-Go: Patchwork Bags

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I love using up my scraps, making them work together or just throwing whatever with whatever and seeing how it goes.

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That’s how I’ve pieced the scrappy wallets I make and I love how they turn out with so many bright colours and patterns.

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They look absolutely fantastic if you go the extra mile and make your own bias tape. It is time consuming and a bit finicky but the results are great.

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Hand stitching the second side of the tape on is the best way to go. Keeps it really nice and tidy. But beware! Thimble recommended.

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Rag rug still in progress.

Here’s how it all started!

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Since I’ve been chronicling the progress of my rag rug on my Facebook Page and Instagram but here are some of the pics all put together.  It’s nearly done so there will be one last “KABOOM! lookit it’s all finished” pic coming soon.  There are instructions around online but I used  Creativebug’s class.

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I’m not a great crocheter, as illustrated by my attempt at an ‘apple cozy’ years ago.

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This project is great and goes quickly once you’ve got your fabric ready to go. But you’ll need some muscles for tearing up sheets or lengths of fabric. They look pretty neat all balled up.

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I had a really hard time getting my rug to lay properly. I struggled with it curling up, then being warbly and I’ve sort of been making my own pattern up as I go. Laying the rug down here and there to see how it falls. And I’ve been writing down what I do on each round so that *if* I do have to do some ‘reverse crochet’ I’ll know where I left off.

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