Anyone Want Some Scraps???

Ok, I'm finally ready to admit it. I have wayyyyyy too many scraps. I never thought it would come to this. I really didn't. I was actually buying scraps for a while on etsy, but now it's come to the point where I have too many even for me. The SEVEN, yes, seven buckets above are full to bursting with scraps and I want to give some away.



The ones I'm giving away are from these four buckets, my "regular" quilt store fabric scraps. I'm a scrapaholic, but I'm not crazy, I can't part with my all-designer scrap buckets! Three of the buckets are quilting cottons and the fourth is all flannel (the one second from the right with the suns/moons).

Here's all you have to do to get scraps: Leave a comment on this post stating your intent to send a request and I will send you my address. Next, send me the price of a flat rate box and your address and I will stuff it bursting full of scraps and send it to you. That's it. Everything must go! If you're in the U.S., a small flat rate box costs five bucks to send. If you're in Canada or Mexico, it's $11. Any other country is $13. I anticipate being able to send everyone scraps that sends me a request, but if I run out, I'll send your money back, obviously. I love being in a community where people trust each other. Ok ya'll, let the commenting begin!

Why I've Never Owned a Sewing Machine

*Reposted with photos!*
People often express amazement and/or consternation that I am a total hand sewer so I thought I'd explain why.

I just love the process of creating a quilt by hand. I love feeling the fabric and slowly building up a block, then carefully ironing it. I do get frustrated on long seams, like borders, and wish I had a machine sometimes, but it's very important to me to do everything by hand.

The Heather Ross quilt i'm currently quilting exemplifies every single thing I love about quilting completely by hand. Here's why:

1) I love using designer fabric with a fine drape and hand, like Heather Ross Lightning Bugs line. If you've never felt it, you're missing out! It's like old sheets, super soft and fine. For some reason, it's just the Lightning Bugs line.
2) I love making every block different, I get bored if I have to make every block identical. I love seeing how each one turns out.



3) I love making wonky square blocks, no measuring involved! This dog block is my favorite!


4) I love quilting in the ditch so the back shows an outline of every block on the front. I just think it looks so sweet.




7) I love using fabric with lots of tiny details and figures because I really love giving even the smallest guy, who would normally be overlooked, her or his own showcase. Meet Andrew.


6) I love putting a lot of love into the quilt and looking at every detail as I go, thinking of how the baby i'm making it for might hold onto it and give it to his first born child as a memory of his own childhood. That makes me really happy thinking that.


What do you love about quilting?

I Do Everything Wrong

Kind of a weird title for a post, but I've been thinking lately about how I quilt as I read all of you guys' amazing quilt blogs. I am almost wholly self taught, so I don't do most things the way you're "supposed" to. But I still get the job done! Here is a partial list of things I don't do that most quilters do tend to do:

1) First and foremost, I don't use a machine! So that means I can't chain piece, or stipple or paper piece or strip piece, or really do anything where I have to cut in the middle of the quilting line because it cuts off my knots.

2) I don't prewash

3) I don't iron - and I mean really, I don't iron. I'm more likely to cut off a rogue piece of fabric that won't lay flat than to go get the iron. Is that wrong? Not a big piece, mind you, i'm not crazy. The only time I do "iron as I go" is when I'm doing improv piecing with no measurements and i'm using my little cutting/ironing board on the couch.

4) When I do iron my blocks before I piece the whole top together, I don't press my seams in any particular direction - ever. I just smash them down however I feel like. Oh, and I move my iron around if I feel like it, instead of pressing straight down. And I don't wait for the iron to heat up either.

5) I have absolutely no respect for cutting with the grain, against the grain or on the bias. I don't "straighten" my grain before I cut. I just buy fabric, come home, make one of the edges line up and cut. Even when I make double fold French binding, I have no thought for which way the grain is going.

6) I use a high thread count orphan sheet for backing if I feel like it even though I've read over and over that it's bad. I like the 'sheety' feel.

SO - What do YOU do wrong?