Scrap Consumption Progress & July ALYoF

Goodness is seems like forever ago that I wrote up this post about the need to use up fabric scraps and set a goal for July in the Lovely Year of Finishes group. The good news is that I've been able to do both :o) 

My July ALYoF goal was to make two rows for a Year of Rows quilt my local quilt guild is doing as a fun project this year. Each month we are drawing an idea out of a bowl and interpreting it any way we choose into a row of quilt blocks. In the end we will have 12 rows to put together into a quilt. These quilts can be any size you choose. Mine is 36" wide because that dimension allows me to use blocks of various sizes (4", 6", 9", or 12") as I make up the rows.



The first month saw the word "stars" selected as the theme so I drafted my own paper piecing pattern for these 8-point scrappy stars. The second moth saw "girls night out" for the theme. It was a bit harder to choose something to represent that theme. After thinking about it I concluded that going to my local guild meeting was the most consistent thing I do for girls night out so I choose to make a row of spools. 




I really like the super pointy "arms" on this style of star. Many of these background fabrics represent the very last precious scraps of favorite fabrics. 



I actually made this center spool block (text print fabric) quite a while ago with no real idea what I would use it for. I've always thought this particular print from the Mama Said Sew fabric line is so cute. 



Both of these rows have been constructed mostly from my fabric scraps with very little cutting from folded stash fabric needed. 

In addition, I've been able to make more of a dent in my scraps with a recent flickr swap I joined: The Great Pillow Fight Swap. I don't participate in a lot of bees or swaps because with working full time I don't have a great deal of sewing time. However, I do feel like joining in every now and then on a small project type of swap helps to keep creativity flowing and to keep in touch with others in the online quilting community. 

My secret partner requested scrappy low volume combined with bright colors. From looking through her flickr favorites I see she is drawn to rainbow brights and color wheel layouts. I combined this information with the wonderfully scrappy Christmas Snowflake block designed by Rachel Woodenspoon. She got her inspiration from Rachel of Stitched in Color's Snowflake block from the Penny Sampler class. A great tutorial for a pillow-size version of Rachel's block was put together by Katie of the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild (scroll down to find a link to downloadable instructions.)

This is the colorful collection of scraps I cut up to make the pillow top. Again, more than half of these came from scraps with the balance cut from stash fabrics. 



So far I've managed to get two quadrants of the snowflake stitched together. I really enjoy this kind of sewing where all of the points have to match up exactly...it's kind of a personal challenge :o) It was fun to move the little 2" squares around trying to get the color balance just right in each point. I pretty much maxed out my variety of fabrics for each color of this snowflake block. 

I"m happy to have met my July ALYoF goals and am linking up with the July finishes party. Hop on over there to check out the other beautiful projects going on!