A Use for Yarn Scraps and a Small Quilt Finish

Yarn, like fabric, produces left overs after projects are finished. One of my friends has a great way to use them, making hats for the homeless.  The pattern makes a two layered, reversible hat. The first one is hers, then comes mine. The hat starts with a tube with closed ends.

You can see how it uses up bits of yarn.  Punch one end into the other to make a lining and fold up the brim; or change colors by punching the other end inside.

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Fun as well as warm.  Here’s mine minus the final decreases.

Mine isn’t so dramatic as my friend’s–I had quite a bit of left over red-rock yarn, but not enough for a big project. The yarn for the multi-colored stripe is really nice, so here is a close up of it–also more true to the actual colors.

I’d made a fancy shawl for my daughter of the multi-colored yarn a long time ago. It was spun from recycled silk. My hat isn’t finished because I want to buy double pointed (DP) needles to close the tube. Her instructions actually call only for 16-inch circular needles and knitting back and forth when starting stitches and ending decreases make it too small to fit the circular needles, then seaming the opening. I see no reason not to use DP needles and avoid seaming.

So this is my non-traditional entry for Scrap Happy.  Click here to get links to see what other folks are doing with scraps (probably fabric).

Meanwhile, on the quilting front. Back in spring I was participating in several of Elizabeth Barton’s classes on the Academy of Quilting. The first one was Modern Art for Quilters.  One assignment was to draw a grid. The sketch is here.

I made some value sketches too, then stitched it up in two color combinations. They were about 11 X 15 inches. At the time  was thinking ahead to the guild quilt show and the small quilt raffle. However, only one got finished in time.

Color Study #1

The delay was in deciding how to quilt it. I had always thought of the blue as background, so went with outlining blue pieces with blue thread. Then I faced it. I wish I still had the mallet I used to use when tailoring to flatten the corners and keep the top and bottom straight, but oh well . . .

Here is the  unfinished one.

Color Study #2

I’m thinking about making a larger version of this second palette.

I’ll be linking with the Tuesday Colour Linky Party (link in sdebar).

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Scrap Attack

I’ll leave it to you to decide whether the scraps are attacking me or I am attacking them. You may have noticed the new button “I may have a scrap problem” in my sidebar. It leads to Confessions of a Fabric Addict’s  scrap posts. Here is the link to the plan behind those posts. Guess there are linky parties on the first. Since I’m late to the party, all I did was survey.

Is pulling a random task from the twelve required?  Or just scrap management consciousness?  I’m not sure I’ll pull a task and follow through on it for a month as she does, but there is value in listing tasks.And doing SOMETHING.

1. Assemble left over flannel into backing for baby quilts
2. Assemble left over batting pieces into usable sizes. (In a box like that of the flannel pieces, but not colorful enough for a photo)
3. Sort “crumbs” by color/value
4. Make crumb “fabric”
5. Make blocks from crumb fabric
6. Make quilts from blocks in #5.
7. Spend 15 min a day for a week cutting squares/rectangles from any drawer of scraps (I’ve tried this before as an open ended goal and didn’t stick to it; maybe limited will work better.)
8. Press and trim bonus triangles that are stitched into HSTs
9. Design a quilt with trimmed HSTs
10. Sort strips (That tub is too far down to get a photo of it. )
11. Make strip-quilt blocks
12. Assemble blocks from #11 into top
13. And I will copy Fabric Addict’s final goal: send a box of scraps to someone. (I do know a willing recipient.)

Maybe if I do even a little bit of this, I’ll have something to show on the 15th  of each month when Kate posts the Scrap Happy list.  You might enjoy looking at the progress of other Scrap Happy folks (here).

Linking up with Oh Scrap! Some people are beyond organizing and actually have projects going–go see!

Given my schedule this month, I’d best take a small task.  #7 fits the bill. Linking this post that was late for January. Button in sidebar.