(Scrap Pile Mystery Quilt; Toledo Botanical Gardens, Septmember 2010)
At the end of our workshop's cutting table is a pale blue metal bin on casters that says "Scraps" in a beautiful scrapbook-y font. When a project is being cut, any scrap fabric, of any useable size, is tossed into the pale blue metal bin with the pretty script. At times, it is over-flowing. If yardage is left over, the remenant is carefully folded, and placed on a nearby shelf, not officially to be retired until the scrap might be used. And so starts the story of the Scrap Pile Mystery Quilt. Around the design table, the discussion was brisk and full of concern. We had never presented a "mystery quilt" in Web-style. We all agreed how fun it would be...but the logistics?...What fabric, what style, what techinique, what size? what what? We needed something fun. Something entertaining. And something...not so easy to figure out. It had to be done in small steps that would be easy to keep up with. It had to be tricky to figure out. And it had to be a quilt. Scraps seemed the way to go...we have so many...and the blocks, they had to be pieced of small sizes that we could all use from our scrap piles. With this in mind we set forth... We think we accomplished our goal. Our sample quilt was made from entirely scraps and left-over fabric; the 2 1/2-inch squares came from pieces cut for one of my early quilt retreats, the sashing was a remenant left from a larger cut for a sampler quilt. The middle border was actually a "mistake" purchase (I could have sworn it would match!) and the outer border was a scrap from yet another quilt's backing. The other night, when I showed it my small quilt group, we spent time finding fabrics in one quilt to another scrap quilt we have working on! It was a lot of fun to match them together and remember different projects and shared fun! These, like all scraps, tell a story. At Erik HOMEMADE(R) we certainly hope you have enjoyed this project as much as we have presenting it to you! Have fun with what is left to do: if you want to cut the binding from different strips, why not make it scrappy, too?! Or if you want to use 2 1/2-inch squares for the binding, why not?! A pieced backing?...Use it up!
Some of you have sent photos, or posted on your own sites: we are always awestruck at your skills, creativity, and your love for quilting! What fun to see your projects!
We have enjoyed your photos so much we would like to start a photo album, here on our site, to show off your Scrap Pile Mystery quilts!
That said, we would like to announce a NEW GIVE-AWAY! Now through 31 December 2010, send us a photo of your Scrap Pile Mystery Quilt (in jpeg format so that we can post it to our photo album--and by sending it to us you agree it will be posted on the Web) by email to: weblog (at) erikhomemade (dot) com. We will enter your email address to win this seam ripper by Gingher(tm)...
More details will be posted on our Contest Page, later this week...however we do know that you must be 21 years of age to win, and although we welcome photos from all over the world, you must be a resident of the USA to win. Your Scrap Pile Mystery Quilt need not be quilted, a photo of the finished top will be just fine!
We are excited to see more photos, as am sure all of you are; it will be a great show-and-tell! So, just to get the ball rolling, here is a photograph of my mom with her red/white/and blue quilt top, made entirely from her 4th of July scraps:
