Quilt of Belonging: A Finished Quilt

It is finished! After collaborating with a lovely group of grade 2 students (mostly 7-year-olds), we have a finished Quilt of Belonging. Each block was created by an individual student to represent who he or she is. Then I added the colourful frames and black sashing to mimic the original quilt.

Finished!

 The kids were beyond thrilled to see it, wanting to touch their blocks and oooo and awwww over others' blocks. One kid said to me "My favourite colour is green and you put mine in green!" with a grin from ear to ear.

The teaching assistant used her embroidery machine to do this block.

 The back shows how I did each block with a different free motion quilting style. Some were more successful than others but the overall effect is pretty cool.

This is half navy and half black with that rainbow stripe made of scraps from the front. Then I had to piece in that other navy print because I wanted to use what I had and not spend any more money. The rainbow idea came from quilty friend C- thanks!

The quilt will hand permanently in the school. I am just working on the QR code that will accompany it, taking people on a journey through our journey!

I'm happy I finished it...and on time for the school opening!

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Those Pretty, Tiny Scraps

Quilting is an expensive hobby, with fabric being the easiest to acquire. It seems like a waste for even the smallest scrap to be thrown out, but what to do with them? The larger scraps I keep for scrappy future projects, especially paper piecing. The smaller scraps of weird sizes and the non-printed selvedges get sent to my daughter's school for art projects. That leaves these tiny little scraps, so pretty and so hard to throw out.

Don't they look pretty?

Some people, Jenn at A Quarter Inch from the Edge included, snap pictures of the scraps to make it easier to throw out. But I did some research and came up with another solution...suet cages.

Suet cages are meant to feed birds, but the cages can be stuffed with the tiny scraps instead for birds to use to make their nests. Just fill up the cage...

Stuff them in there!

Close it up...

Pretty in the cage, too!

And hang it up. Try to pull out a few thin strands so they attract the birds' attention.

Pretty even in the woods!

Of course you need to make sure only appropriate materials goes in there- no plastics or other synthetic materials.

I've been monitoring the cage and a few birds have been interested for sure. I feel much better knowing that even the beautiful tiny scraps are going to good use!

WIP Wednesday: The Blues

So what am I working on this Wednesday? Well, it is May, and May means the end of the school year is not so far away. The tradition thus far has been to make my daughter's teacher a quilt to thank her for caring for and educating my awesome kid.

My "cool" scrap bin has been getting unruly, so I knew I wanted to dig into my scraps and put together something that would be for her teacher but also cut down on my scrap problem.

I have a rather generous amount of blue scraps, so I pulled out everything I could find that seemed appropriate (not so much the shark fabric though) and cut a big stack of 3.5" squares.

To be clear, I still have lots of blues in my scrap bins but these did make a dent!

Then I pulled out some white scraps, where I found some white-on-white 3.5" squares that were cut but never used for a project from last year. It was meant to be! I used those as the centers and made 9-patch blue blocks. Then I played with them to get balance and came up with this organization:

I like this scrappy look!

I've now cut out the sashing (from Kona White) and I'll get to work making this a lap-sized quilt for her teacher. Nothing like a hard deadline to get the sewing mojo flowing!

#QuiltsforFortMac

If you have not been made aware, there has been a massive fire burning in Northern Alberta here in Canada that managed to grow so large and out of control that the city of Fort McMurray (80,000 people) had to be evacuated in a very short time period. Much of the city is in total ashes. Beloved pets have been lost as the emergency nature of the situation meant some people had to leave from wherever they were in the city and couldn't go home. 

Despite the horrific destruction, no lives have been lost. And people are rallying around the residents of Fort McMurray to support them. Part of this is a movement among quilters (mostly Canadian, but many international) to send quilt blocks to make quilts for the residents upon their return (Though some may never return. The devastation has been that complete).

If you would like to make some blocks, this is the information and this is the tutorial. I will be sending five blocks and quilty friends A and C have each made 6 blocks (we will send ours in one big package). Otherwise if you would consider donating to the Red Cross, please do. These people will need a lot of support. (Two babies were born at the evacuation centers- can you imagine??)

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