Around November I started looking at all of my stuff and thinking that I either needed to “use it or lose it.” That was the beginning of what has turned into a fairly massive clearing out of everything around the house, including my scraps.

I had a pile of scraps that I had saved from trimming up the blocks in my Not So Straight and Narrow Quilts – both the queen-sized one that I had hand quilted (read about this quilt here, here, here, and here) and the throw size (still for sale!) that I made for the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles’ museum shop.

I always thought these scraps were fun and wanted to make something from them, so I thought, “Now’s the time!” So, I started piecing them together. I gave you a sneak peek of this project back on December 1!

I tried various things, but opted for alternating solid strips with strips that contained little bits of other fabrics.

I ended up with four blocks and then needed to decide if I wanted to shove them all together, or add sashing so I could make a larger quilt, keeping in mind that I wanted this quilt to come entirely from stuff I had lying around. I tried solid sashing – this was the only solid that went that I had enough of.

And I tried print sashing, since the blocks were mostly solids.

And in the end, I opted to just smoosh them together and make a smaller quilt.

I’d had some thoughts on how I would like it to be quilted, and realized that not only would it be easier to execute if hand quilted, but that this quilt was actually small enough that such a thing would be feasible.

So, I hand quilted.

I tried out the idea of pieced binding in an effort to use more of my little scraps, but it just wasn’t working for me.

I ended up with a solid binding, and I’m really happy with how it turned out!

And just so you can see how big it is, here it is hanging over our loveseat (fyi – it’s stuck on the wall temporarily with double-sided tape! Kept falling off while I was trying to take the pictures!).

Not bad, for coming entirely from my stash (including the backing, the binding, and the batting!).

Since I finished the Bits and Pieces quilt I’ve been working on a second scrap/stash quilt – this one made from scraps from my Greek To Me quilt – for which I have the top and the backing assembled, and I’m currently pondering how I want to quilt it before I baste it together. There’s always something else in progress around here.

And the cleaning out progress has been pretty impressive. I managed to whittle my scraps down to probably 1/10 their original amount. I literally wanted to cry when I saw some of the really sad bits I had kept. I do not want to show up on some hoarders show one day!

It’s hard to believe, but this quilt is already finished!!

I really had fun putting this one together. I swear that when it’s fun, it always turns out well. And it was even more fun because I just went with my gut on things and didn’t over think the fabric arrangements or the quilting or anything. It ended up being about 46″ x 56″.

This is one of my favorite little sections of piecing.

But really, I love the whole thing.

As I mentioned before, I would have gone with some wacky color backing, or at least wacky color binding, if this had been for me. But since it’s a gift, I went with options I thought the giftee would like better. I lucked out in finding enough already-made gray binding in my stash to bind this quilt. Like, exactly enough.

The quilting is much more obvious on the solid back.

I really love the variations in the quilting. Some of it is lines, some of it is square spirals (if that makes sense), and some of it is concentric triangles. And I opted for different densities of quilting in the different sections. Some sections are really close and some are 3 or 4 inches apart, and in some cases I varied the width within the section. It made it much more fun to do!

I even managed to get the label made and put on. That’s my least favorite part!

I found it really fun to give myself the challenge of making this only from what I had and making the pieces work together somehow, while making it as big as I could. In fact, I really am liking the idea of trying this out with other colors from my stash. Maybe a red one, or a red and green for Christmas? The wheels are turning, but I still have one more Christmas gift to make first!

I love it when a plan comes together. - Hannibal Smith, “The A Team”

I was hoping to make a certain person on my gift list a throw quilt this year, so when I was digging through my stash recently trying to find fabrics to make farmer’s market bags, I pulled out all the blue and white fabrics I could find. Blue is the perfect color for this person, and I was hoping I could find enough to make a throw quilt for her.

I laid all the pieces out in a rectangle-ish shape and decided that if I didn’t chop them up too much, I would have enough to make a throw. So, once I finished the farmer’s market bags (and a hat sample I was knitting for the shop), I started in on this quilt, and I am really excited about it!

My goal was to make it as big as possible, but for it to still be pleasant to look at and not just a complete mess. I ironed everything and arranged it on the wall and then started and sewing and rearranging as necessary. This was a really fun way to work. Sort of a plan, sort of just winging it. And I’m really happy with how it turned out!

Here’s the finished top laid out on the backing. Early indications were that it was going to be maybe 47″ x 57″, but it will likely lose a couple of inches in trimming and quilting. If it were for me, I would do the back and the binding in some totally different color, but I’m trying to think of the giftee here, so I went with just a solid blue (can’t remember which Kona cotton color this is).

But I did make some pretty complicated quilting plans.

I wanted to do something a little more complicated, since the quilt itself is fairly simple. This is just a rough idea. I definitely opted for winging the quilting a bit as well.

Which I can say, because I managed to finish this quilt on Tuesday! The binding was hand sewn to the back, the label made and attached, and the quilt washed (to remove the water-erasable marker I used during quilting). I should have some finished photos of this quilt for you soon. I didn’t actually think I would have it done before I got up the “in progress” post about it!