a mini scrap quilt

A Dog’s Life, 2010, 27" X 32"
COLLECTION OF NICKI STONE

My mini dachshund loves all the big quilts in our home so I decided to make her a little one. This scrap quilt is made from the scraps of a full-size scrap quilt (see Aug 2008 post).

baby ezra's quilt

Little Men, 2008, 38" x 42"
GIFTED TO EZRA COX

I finished Ezra’s quilt in the wee hours this morning. It is a design-as-you-go production which I started a few months ago with some scraps of Kaffe Fassett fabric.

Just before noon today I visited the new baby with his mom, Naomi Cox. Although Ezra slept through our sweet tea party, it was obvious he is a contented new being.

artist inspired

Crow Barn Quilt, 75" x 52"

This month’s Art Chix theme was “Artist Inspired.” Our assignment was to create an art piece inspired by a well-known artist.

I chose quilting superstar Nancy Crow. Nancy has transformed quilting into a modern artform with her work exhibiting in high profile museums.

Partially finished with some hand stitching, my project was a twin-sized quilt. The three dramatic areas of black and white piecing in the center were created by Maurine Noble at a one-week workshop led by Nancy Crow. Maurine had tossed the class samples in her scrap bag and forgotten all about them.

I don't expect to finish this quilt until Spring. It will be given to a high school graduate at Plymouth Church. There are a lot of young men in this year’s senior class, so I assume this will be a big boy quilt.

chinese coins

Batik Baby, 2007, 42" x 26"
GIFTED TO MIA AGUILAR

This is Quilt No. 3 for me. A sampler really, as it isn’t very big. The fabrics are from Maurine Noble’s bags of scraps. The inspiration was a set of pre-made squares I found in the collection of castaways—mauve triangles with coral heart-design batik triangles. I added some sashings of hand-dyed fabrics and a wrap-around border of random-width Chinese Coins to finish the quilt top.

I can’t find the origin of the name, Chinese Coins, anywhere. Instead I have found that there are other quilt patterns with similar names, such as Roman Coins and African Coins.

The quilt was machine-stitched “in the ditch” to make the triangles and Chinese Coins puff up. It was the first time I used Dorrit’s Pfaff with a running foot to stitch a quilt together with the batting.

Baby Aquilar is the recipient of this stroller-sized quilt. Her mother, Laura, worked at Belyea before getting pregnant, selling her condo and moving to Arizona. With only two week’s notice before her departure, the baby-to-be received an existing quilt instead of a new one made specially for her.

scrap quilting

Homey Squares, 2008, 48" x 72"
COLLECTION OF MICHAEL STONE

It’s a symbiotic relationship—a veteran quilter with lots of scraps and a neophyte with a need of fabrics.

Maurine Noble, my generous mentor, had tons of scrap that she gave to me. (Okay—about forty pounds.)

I picked up the two bags on a Friday night. That evening I began sorting them out, trying to make decide how to organize the little pieces of fabrics. By colors or patterns? It took me all weekend to get through the project, including ironing the most wrinkled ones. My collection looked almost impressive, filed by color hues in big ziplock bags, inside black plastic milk crates from Fred Meyer.

Not only is Maurine an expert quilter, author and teacher, she has great taste in fabrics. No calicoes, novelty fabrics or chintzes. Maurine loves global fabrics that are hand printed or hand dyed. So my stash is a wonderful and inspiring collection of great materials.

My fourth quilt is a green and gold scrap quilt. The square within square pattern took longer that I had expected. Each outer square is made up of four pieces. Once I made all the double squares (77 total), I trimmed them so they would line up well (308 cuts!). Then I hand stitched the quilt together.

I love scrap quilting—as the final effect has an appealing organic quality. And, as 100% cotton fabric is not cheap, it is a great way to access quilting fabrics.