Hello, and welcome to a weekend update with Bonjour Quilts! Plenty to read and photos to scroll through here, so find a comfy chair, a refreshing drink and read on…
International Scrap Sorting Day 2024
Today (2 November 2024) is International Scrap Sorting Day, which sounds a bit like a conspiracy to get me to do more cleaning! At least scrap sorting is the kind of cleaning up (well, tidying really) that I love to do.
I felt like I was getting on top of my scraps, but I recently did a deep clean of my sewing area and found quite a few hiding around the place.
I’ve been sewing a lot of scrappy Bear Paw Blocks but they don’t use as many scraps as I’ve been generating elsewhere (namely my citrine and navy quilt, and my Layer Cake Lily quilt).
I keep my scraps in clear bags in a cupboard, and I love having them pre-sorted and on hand. I’m sure there are a million ways different people define a scrap, but mine all have to be smaller than a fat eighth. Any bigger and they go back into my stash cupboard (also divided into colour piles) to live another day.
Some other cool scrap sorting ideas I’ve heard of:
- Cutting your scraps down immediately after they’re created into standard square sizes. These are then used later to create a simple squares quilt or HSTs. The Modern Chevron quilt is a good one for these scraps too.
- Keeping your binding scraps separate for future scrappy bindings.
- If space is tight there are lots of clever back-of-door storage devices that make it easy to sort and store your scraps (and other small sewing room items).
And if you’re looking for patterns to use your scraps, I have several for you.
My most popular is Scrappy Lattice, which looks great in a single colour family, or with a rainbow of scraps:
Rainbow scraps also look great in my Hello Hearts! quilt pattern.
If your smaller scraps are starting to overrun your cupboards then a Scrap Magnet quilt could be just what you need.
And don’t forget the always popular Scrappy Posie baby quilt tutorial, which also favours well-sorted scraps.
Window Panes is a jelly roll compatible quilt, but it works really well with “Frankensteined” scrap blocks too. Just keep sewing scraps together to get the right size for the windows.
Last but not least, a fantastic scrap-eating tutorial for when you need a smaller project. This Patchwork Drawstring Bag Tutorial is a great way to put any size scraps to use. This is the perfect time to get started on these.
Scrappy Quilt Block Tutorials
What about some block tutorials? You don’t have to sit and sew a whole quilt to reduce your scraps, instead sew as you go. Sewing up a block or two every month, with different scraps, will give you a quilt top over the course of a year. There’s a Flower Quilt Block tutorial:
There’s the Scrappy Cross Tutorial:
And the Feeling Cross Tutorial:
And then we have the popular sister blocks: the Alex quilt block and the Adori quilt block.
Plenty of scrappy ideas there for your next scrap project. I hope one of them will be of use to you on this International Scrap Sorting Day!
Around the Interwebs…
Sewing a border on a large quilt? Rachel has a thorough blog post on getting it right.
Fat Quarter Shop has 20% Art Gallery Fabric basics for the month of November. My current fave is the delicate sparkle low volume – perfect for holiday season sewing.
I love the deconstructed and colourful works of this French embroidery artist. Or how about the more monochrome work of this artist (with tons of beautiful texture)?
Some mindful hand sewing could be just the ticket this week. I love all of the creations in these patterns.
I thought these were painted at first, but they’re individually hand cut and painted paper miniatures. Incredible!
Reader Quilts…
I always love to see quilts you’ve made from Bonjour Quilts patterns so please keep sending them in! Either email (Kirsty at BonjourQuilts dotcom), or tag me on Facebook or Instagram.
Cheryl has been very busy and sewn up not one, but two of the Layer Cake Lily patterns. This was a free pattern put out by the Fat Quarter Shop – you can find their post (and the pattern) here.
I love how Cheryl’s fabric choices have made these two quilts look so different. The negative space certainly comes alive in the red and black version!
Michelle is in the process of sewing up a Diamonds in the Deep quilt. She thinks it’s looking good, but I think it’s looking great (I may be a little biased…)
James sewed up a Modern Chevron quilt in a very modern black/blue and grey combination. A scrappy winner!
Now that Halloween is over, it’s time to turn your thoughts toward holiday sewing. Here are three projects that Pam sewed up for last year’s Christmas:
A Candy Christmas mini quilt:
A Christmas Tree mini quilt – a free tutorial:
A table runner of Pam’s own design, featuring the Alex quilt block:
Cats’ Corner…
Tigger (orange) and Lulu (brown), our Burmese cats, send their love. They’ve spent a lot of the week faceplanted on each other.
And sleeping while standing up.
I don’t understand it, but they seem happy. And honestly, if I could sleep standing up, I would!
Have a great weekend
That’s all from me for today. Wishing you a peaceful weekend, hopefully with some scrappy sewing. Stay safe, sane and decent this week. Might be easier said than done!
Until next time,
Kirsty x
Sleeping – sitting in a window sill…..I have gone to sleep standing scrunched in a crowd ona commuter train! Does that count? Couldn’t have fallen down if I wanted to! Can’t wait to try the Scrappy Lattice, love the Posie – have made this several times and it always comes out differently! Thanks!!!!!
Good job, Joan. I’ve definitely come close to dozing off in many places I’d never have dreamed I could sleep. And where I shouldn’t (graduations, awards nights, sermons, bad movies…) I wish it was as socially acceptable for us as it is for cats!
The scrappy quilts stir the imagination! What a fun selection you’ve given all of us to ponder and work on!
Thank you – it’s important to stay on top of them!
I love all of your quilty content – very inspiring – but the cat photos are definitely the icing on the cake. Thank you for sharing.
Everyone loves the cats!