I’M A QUILTER!

*This is the first in a series of articles about Scrappy Quilting.

I’m a quilter.  I’m also a garment maker, a crocheter, and a crafter.  But I’m mainly a quilter.  I love to sew and quilting allows me to sew mainly in a straight row without worrying about fit.  I’ve been quilting for about 16 years and in that time, I’ve made at least 30 quilts.  Many I’ve given away but the rest are in my closet waiting to be useful.   As I’ve created, I’ve accumulated a lot of leftover fabric.  I also have a habit of buying Fat Quarters, Layer Cakes, Jelly Rolls and other precuts as I visit quilt shops just because I like the designs.  Recently I’ve begun to realize that my inventory (stash) is out of control.  Way out of control!

As a member of the Lansing Clippers Chapter of the American Sewing Guild, I attend our annual sewing retreat held in Shipshewana, Indiana each summer.  This is a time for uninterrupted sewing and our members usually complete several projects during our four days together.  Just in time for last year’s retreat, a new pattern caught my attention.  It was a variation of the Snails Trail pattern called Rockabilly Swing and I thought the retreat would be a good place to begin this project.  I gathered up lots of scraps of leftover fabric to use and took off for the retreat.  Other retreaters were intrigued by my use of small scraps as I began the process of making 224 blocks to complete the quilt.  Obviously, I didn’t complete the quilt at retreat but I persevered through the fall of 2021.  I’ll talk more about this project in a future blog.  The attached picture will give you a preview. 

That project planted an idea in my brain.  I could concentrate on a series of scrappy quilts to pare down my fabric stash in my sewing plans for 2022.  After all, many patterns are adaptable to scrap quilting, such as log cabins, bargello, pineapple blocks as well as strip quilts.  As 2022 began the Lansing Clippers identified their new community service project as creating items to serve our local homeless population.  Another brain storm arrived!  I could create twin size quilts for local shelters, pare down my fabric collection and try adapting some new patterns for scrappy quilts.  Win, win, win!

I hope you’ll join me as I explore the world of scrappy quilts in future blogs.  Maybe you’ll want to follow along with me in creating some new projects together and bust your stash too.

Roselyn Chaffin, Past President, Lansing Clippers

 

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