Amanda Jean Made Me Do It

Seven years ago I made a leap. I was recuperating from my stupid knee injuries and thinking a lot about life, about what I wanted to be when I grew up. At that time I started emailing another blogger a bit more. One day we decided to take our relationship to the next level and talk on the phone. It was like being a teenager all over again, chit chatting for hours as I lay on my bed and ignored my family. Now I consider her a good friend, a professional colleague, and a quilty inspiration.

Amanda Jean Nyberg now has a new book. It is out now and I jumped on board to help her celebrate. No Scrap Left Behind is her perfect book. She is extraordinarily frugal and saves everything. This book takes that mentality and applies it to all your fabric. She does so with useful tips, storage ideas, and completely inspiring quilts. 

To celebrate the release of the book Amanda asked us to not only blog about the book but to also make something from it. Back when we were writing Sunday Morning Quilts she got me to save my binding triangles. Those little bits we cut off when joining binding strips. I hadn't exactly been throwing them away, but they got dumped in with the rest of my colour sorted scraps. In our discussions writing the book we agreed on sorting by colour as well as pulling out strips/strings and snippets. She took it to the next level with those binding triangles. So I started putting mine aside. They filled a jar. Then overflowed the jar. After that they filled a bowl. Just as I was thinking it was time to do something about them No Scrap Left Behind comes out. It was meant to be.

There are two quilts in the book that I could have done, Remainders and Chain of Diamonds (not to mention Up, Up, and Away from Sunday Morning Quilts). I chose Chain of Diamonds because it reminded me of a sketch I once made myself from a store window I once saw. Plus, I had a lot of colours in my overflowing jar and bowl.

I'm not going to lie, this was an intense make. Made more so by me doing it over the last 2 weeks while I was sick (and my kids). I counted, there are 1709 seams in this quilt! But the good thing is that they are all small. 

To keep the project a lot more manageable, I suggest turning this into one of two things. Make the blocks as leaders/enders. That is, prep your background squares and keep them next to your machine with the triangles. At the end of a seam when you are working on something else sew a triangle on instead of cutting your thread. Or, turn this into a Morning Make project. Spend 10-20 minutes a day and slowly but sure the blocks will come together. 

Regardless of how you do this I would totally recommend this quilt. It was fun, it has great impact, and it makes excellent use of those scraps!

I went from a full platter (once I unsquished them from the jar/bowl) to barely a third. I even had to cut a few extra scraps to round out the selection. Now I just might have to make something else to use the rest of the triangles! For a change from my instinctual mix of low volume fabrics for the background I went all the way to the other end of the spectrum. Black prints, including many from my Tag collection, played together. As I made blocks it was a lot of fun to think back to the quilt where the scrap came from. So many memories.

Thanks for being a good friend all these years Amanda Jean. And for continuing to be such an inspiration to quilters everywhere.

I'm happy to be giving away a copy of the No Scrap Left Behind to a lucky reader, courtesy of C&T Publishing. Trust me, you want this book! Please leave a comment below, including your email: nameATserverDOTcom. I can't auto reply through my blog so I need your email to get you your prize. US winners get a hard copy of the book, International winners will get a digital version.

GIVE AWAY IS NOW CLOSED

Make sure you check out all the other bloggers sharing their projects from the book:

Monday, April 24th Mary Kolb

Tuesday, April 25, Lee Monroe

Wednesday, April 26, Sandi Hazelwood

Thursday, April 27, Bernie Kringel

Friday, April 28, Erin Cox

Monday, May 1, Katherine Greaves

Tuesday, May 2, Tracy Mooney

Wednesday, May 3, Cheryl Arkison

Thursday, May 4, Debbie Jeske

Friday, May 5, 

Giveaway Winner was Sue, comment 190/226. Thanks to the Random Number Generator.

Love the black & white background you used! It's nice to read how you became friends with Amanda Jean too. :)

Everyday Skirt in Juxtaposey by Betz White

Don't mind me, I'm just over here pretending it is spring.  Despite the recent snow on the ground I am feeling decidedly spring-like in my new skirt. Betz White's new fabric for Riley Blake, Juxtaposey, is the perfect fit for this time of year. The Everyday skirt by Liesl and Co is also a perfect fit for me. As soon as I saw the fabric and Betz asked if I wanted to play with it I knew these two beauties would be perfect for each other.

It is wonderful to see Betz White designing fabric again. She has a really strong, interesting sense of colour. Between her ornament patterns, eco-throws, and bags she also has a great eye for what looks good. 

Juxtaposey calls on textile design from around the world. Betz brings together motifs from different traditions, highlights her love of wool in the collection itself and with the llama featured throughout. It is one of those fabric lines with something for everyone. This floral immediately called out to me. 

I will admit, I was hesitant about using quilting cotton with this Everyday Skirt pattern. I've only ever made it with rayon. As my butt is already big, would the gathers of the waist make it worse? Turns out, nope. That's because my butt is already big. The not a full skirt, not an a-line of this pattern just seems to work for me.

If it would ever stop snowing I will happily put this skirt into heavy rotation in my spring and summer wardrobe. My daughter asked for one as well. I'm all for cute, but that's a bit much! No, Juxtaposey is all mine. Well, at least in this house. You can get it yourself in stores now.

Disclosure: Riley Blake provided me with the fabric to make this skirt. I purchased the Every Day Skirt pattern myself from The Workroom.

Another Improv Applique Project

Precuts are quickly becoming my favourite go-to for Improv Applique.

My current project combines a charm pack of Robert Kaufman Kona solids and a mini charm pack I made up with my own Tag fabric. Both were lying around the sewing room, collecting dust. I needed some mindless hand sewing and did not have anything prepped. 

That's my favourite thing about Improv Applique, there is no detailed prep required. Grab some fabric, cut a shape, and go. As long as you have supplies handy it is an instantaneous project. 

All I did, in this case, was snip a corner off the mini charms prior to basting them to the solids. Just for a slightly different shape. My daughter says they remind her of the shape of Alberta, our Province. She's right, albeit squared off a bit. 

Like all improv projects I start, I have no idea where this will end up. I am quite enjoying the black and white with the solids. It may stay small, I may not do any more, or I could make this something entirely differently. Who knows? What I do know for sure is that it is a fun little project for on the go.

For any local, or relatively local, folks I am teaching Improv Applique at My Sewing Room May 30, 6-9 pm.

Tag Collection Makers Panel Plus Free Craft and Play Apron Pattern

It feels like all I am doing here lately is hustling. Buy my fabric! Look what I made that you can make too! I promise, I am more than that. There is creating for the sake of creating happening. Just not much to report on yet. In the meantime... look what I made that you can buy!

As a partner to my Tag fabric collection I created a couple of fun panels. These are actually the colours I'd intended for the entire collection, but we made the switch to black and white during the process. Despite that, this panel was still destined for printing. I am so happy about that.

The message on the big panel is open to interpretation.

Make, Every Single Day

Make Every Single Day... Count... Beautiful... Funny

Make. Every. Single. Day

Whatever you like, however you want to use it. The coloured section is almost 20'' square. I've made it a pillow here, I've sewn it into a quilt that I still need to share with you. It would make an excellent tote bag (on my list). But wait, there is more!

This is the rest of the panel. Four smaller versions with some fundamental quilting terms and two of my favourites - alliteration and Play! These panels come in close to 8'' square, bigger if you include some white space. I see these are small wrapped canvasses, the centers of improv log cabins, pockets... endless possibilities.

Speaking of pockets, I used a few of these on a new apron pattern. 

The pattern for the Craft and Play Apron is free! Something fun, super easy to make, and it takes advantage of those cool panels. But really, you could use any fabric you like. My beautiful friend G is modelling for me here, but I've been wearing my own apron while sewing. It keeps things rather close by. And for those of you that do craft shows, it would be perfect!

Download the pattern for free from Connecting Threads or Craftsy. Not everything is for sale. This is my treat for you!