Aren't all quilts scrap quilts?

Okay, I don’t know if this conversation happens between your spouse or not, but it is an ongoing debate between my husband and me.
 His side of the debate stands at you have to cut up large chunks of perfectly good fabric, that could be used as a blanket just the way it is, to make different blankets. Therefore, the cut fabric is a scrap of the larger perfectly good fabric. Blah!
My side of the debate is yes, it can be used as a blanket/quilt as is, and some whole cloth quilts are just that with beautiful decorative quilting done. But in general, it’s the artistic side that causes the cutting of large pieces from the bolt. Scrap quilts are scraps of fabric leftover from other uses. Usually one does not go out and buy loads of fabric for a scrap quilt. Like when you see a quilt and you go buy the fabric just for the purpose of making that quilt. That is not a scrap quilt. The fabric for scrap quilts was bought for another purpose and served its purpose. The scrap pieces are just that scrap.

So, that is the playful bantering that goes on at my house whenever I go buy more fabric for a quilt. Does your spouse have a different way of thinking about an aspect of your sewing/quilting?
 

Happy 4th Weekend!

Whew! It's been a great long weekend so far.... I hope yours has been just as good as mine. The only problem I've had this weekend is I can't find my jump drive to upload pictures. So, sorry for the cruddy pictures from my ipod. This is what my Sunday looks like right now.

 Wheat Harvest for those of you who are non-famers. ;) I'm sitting on my front porch enjoying the view and some leftover 4th of July cake. I hope to start ripping out a broken zipper on a jacket soon. I think I should take more of my ripping projects outside. Well, that is until I get bitten by a bug and swell up. Screening in the porch is on the To Do, but it's defiantly not near the top. Anyways, just thought I would pop on and say HI! Here is a picture of the fireworks we seen on Friday.

Toss Challenge

Stuff, Stuff and more stuff! It seems like my home is being over taken by stuff. Mostly stuff that is not useful, does not make someone happy or is something treasured. So, I am on this kick of tossing items that we don’t need to have in our house. I am challenging myself to toss at least 365 items away. That is one item a day.  I know there will be days that I toss a lot and then there will be days that I don’t toss a single thing because of our schedule and vacations, etc. By saying “toss” I can either throw it away, which is my easiest choice, give it away or sell it. That being said, I am not going to throw something away just to meet my goal. Then on the other end, I could go through a certain crazything’s room and be done in one day with tossing 365 items. She is one of the motivating factors in this challenge. She is a hoarder! She has a hard time throwing even broken items away. The other day, she broke a bucket that we stored toys in and threw a huge fit about throwing it away. She dug it out of the trash and colored a piece of paper green to match the bucket to cover the hole. I can’t take it anymore!

In an attempt to set a good example, I have been trying to clean up my sewing room. It could be in a hoarder fabric stash show. Yikes! I’ve bought several fabric boxes to put my scraps in. I came to the conclusion that I just don’t have time to make fabric scrap boxes. I want to, but I have so many other things I would like to finish first.  I’ve also started using those cheap fabric bags that everyone seems to give out these days for carrying groceries or such, as project holders. I put my WIPs in the bag and hang them up so I have everything together. Then when I want to work on something, usually at sewing club, I can just pick up the bag and go. Everything is in there, from fabric to instructions. I just have to make sure I have the right threads.

 

If anyone else takes up their own Toss Challenge, I’d love to be inspired by your story!

Hometown T-shirt Quilt

Thank you to everyone for all the helpful comments on what I should do with the "extra" t-shirts for this quilt. This quilt is a farewell present from our church's CCD classes for our current priest of 12 years. He will be missed by many. He married my husband and me as well as baptized both of the crazythings.

I'm sure some of you would like to see the finished product. Well, here it is! I'm happy with how the front and back turned out, the quilting not so much, but it will be greatly cherished and provide much warmth for countless napping sessions.

 All t-shirts having to do with our town

"Extra" shirts

We went with Golf balls on black for the backing since he likes to golf. This fabric almost didn't make it in time to be in the quilt because of some shipping issues. It was presented to him at last Sunday's farewell dinner at church. It was great to hear the ohhs and awws when he opened it and held it up. That just about brought tears to my eyes.

I hope that I can do this again in another 12 years for our new priest.