Scrappy Little Journal

I've had this little moleskin journal floating around for while and I've been thinking about adding some strips of washi tape to add a little color. I rounded up my washi tape and then I thought of all the pretty fabric scraps that I have and started wishing I could find a quick easy way to use them instead. Hmmm? How to turn fabric into washi tape? I thought I'd seen someone online use double stick tape but of course it wasn't in my drawer. (Someone in my house loves to tape her art work up on random walls. And she's six. And the tape doesn't always make it back where it goes.)

Then I remembered that I had some adhesive in my scrapbook supplies that might work well. It's strong, double sided and also comes in rolls with different widths available.

I headed to my bowl of ticker tape scraps and then to my bowl of selvages to pull out some colorful pieces.

I peeled off one layer of the adhesive covering and arranged the scraps on two pieces.

I flipped the adhesive over, fabric side down and trimmed the scraps with a rotary cutter and ruler. I was surprised at how easily the rotary blade went through the adhesive without gumming it up. I did use the cutter reserved for paper though. I didn't want to dull my sharp fabric blade.

After I trimmed up the scraps, I played around to find a pleasing arrangement.

And played a little more to see if everything would fit. I had to do a bit more trimming.

  
I peeled the final layer of adhesive covering off and pressed all of the scraps into place.

And there you have it! A journal decorated with fabric scraps! Once this little journal knows what it's destined for, I'll add some words and embellishments and fill it with great things.

QuiltCon Block

Have you heard about QuiltCon? Wondering what it is and why so many people are talking about it?

"QuiltCon is the inaugural international conference and show by and for The Modern Quilt Guild. The first modern quilting event of its kind, QuiltCon features top modern quilting instructors and will attract attendees from around the world. It includes a juried modern quilt show with cash prizes, vendors, lectures, workshops from top modern quilters, and more." {from the QuiltCon website}

Members of the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild participated in QuiltCon's Block Challenge. We used colors from QuiltCon's logo to create a quilt block that reflects what modern quilting means to us.

I knew I wanted some scrappy element in my block because I've always loved scrappy quilts (both traditional and modern). I also knew it had to have some wonky element to it. I like wonkiness contained and controlled a bit so I added the white frame around the scraps. And while I love solids and negative space, I knew a large number of my scraps would have to be prints because they are my first love. I didn't really plan for my block to be so long but I found more and more prints I wanted to include. The challenge in making such a long block is to keep that white frame straight and even. And it's not perfect. I quickly snapped a photo before I squared it up and headed out the door to the KCMQG meeting.

  Here are some of the members' blocks.

And a few more. I never fail to be in awe of the quilters in our guild!

Here are the designers' showing off their blocks. {photo by Lauren Hunt}

Lisa Hirsch is showing her block that was voted as the guild's favorite. Way to go, Lisa! {photo by Lauren Hunt}

Members of Modern Quilt Guilds and modern quilters from around the world participated in this challenge. 20 blocks will be used in a quilt to be raffled at QuiltCon and the remaining blocks will be assembled into quilts by local Modern Quilt Guilds and given to Austin's Children's Shelter. 

If you would like to see more examples of QuiltCon Blocks, head over to The Modern Quilt Guild's website. They'll be featuring the blocks over the next four weeks beginning here. I'm certainly enjoying seeing all of them!

Sunkissed Scraps

I finally let go of this pile of teeny tiny scraps left from trimming blocks on a quilt that's off being quilted. I used Sunkissed by Sweetwater for Moda along with some Kona Solids. These bright fabrics breathed a bit of sunshine into a cold winter. No photos of this top secret quilt yet...I can hardly wait!

What I can share is an article from Kansas City Star about modern quilting. It's a great story full of beautiful quilt pictures, great resources and even a bit of history. Jacquie Gering and Lauren Hunt are leaders in the KC Modern Quilt Guild and gave lovely interviews. I wish you could see how passionate, talented and funny they both are in real life. Well, you can if come to one of our guild meetings!

This warm weather that's been giving me the itch to get outside and walk (or maybe even run a little) is headed out. I just heard rain hitting the windows and there's snow in the forecast. Maybe I'll see more of those little birdie tracks in the morning. I'm so glad we got in a trip to the playground this afternoon!

Special Scraps

The stomach bug finally got me Monday afternoon. I'm just so thankful we didn't all have it at the same time and that my wonderful husband could spend some time at home Tuesday so I could recuperate. I'm finally feeling perky today and trying to get caught up on things here at home. I was really bummed to miss out on meeting with my small quilt group but we have some exciting things coming up this year.


I thought I'd share how I'm storing my "Special Scraps" at the moment. I purchased this shelf about 20 years ago and have always loved it. It was in my daughter's nursery when she was a baby and held her little board books. Her collection of books has expanded into a larger shelf in 4 years so this made it's way across the hall into my sewing room. It holds vintage bowls along with some pottery from Tennessee that I labeled with simple manila tags.


The top bowl is from Tennessee and holds Jenna's scraps that she can cut, glue, and create with. The middle bowl is from my mother-in-law's kitchen and holds scraps for a ticker tape quilt I hope to make someday. And the bottom bowl is from an antique store and holds selvages.


It's so easy to just sort these small scraps into an open container as I cut or clean up from a project. We'll see what I do when the bowls get full. I imagine I will just empty out the bowl into a larger container and keep using the bowl to collect scraps. I still have a bit of organizing to do in that closet. All in good time.... 

Are you collecting scraps for anything special? 

Can you believe...

Can you believe I'm making something from this pile of scraps my mom used as padding in a package she sent. Too pretty to throw away!