crafts as therapy

All Those Fabric Scraps Can Really Distract A Person!

It's been a while since my last post.  Between the day job, the non-paying evening job, and life in general, I've been pretty sidetracked from any sewing, knitting, or crafting.   I still haven't caught up enough to sit down and seriously sew or knit again, but I did find clumps of time where I could at least do something crafty and creative.

I love hand made quilts, but I don't have the patience, or surprisingly even the fabric stash, to make a lot of those gorgeous, intricate patterns I admire so much.  But I have a lot of scraps from cutting out doll clothes and other projects.  And my local quilt shop sells bags of scraps, too, which I can't resist when I venture in.

So when my brain just needed something other than work and feeble attempts to keep the house from being labeled a hazardous waste site, I sat down at my sewing machine one evening with a big bag of my scrap stash, and started sewing.  No pattern in mind, just a scrap quilt.  I made squares, rectangles, lopsided triangles.  Then I combined those shapes together, trimmed them down into roughly even squares and rectangles, and kept going.

The result after three weeks of a half hour here, sometimes an hour there, and I finally had a good sized quilt top.  There's  a lot of colors in there, and I love it! 

Of course, my seams aren't all perfect, and there's some puckering going on, especially after I did a slapdash machine quilting job on it.  I just went with a vague semi circle from one corner, and continued on out until I reached the other side.  I also quilted "in the ditch" along the borders.  Then I added a big piece of fabric for backing, and did the worst mitered corners you've ever seen.

But I still love it.  It turned out to be 27.50 inches by 37 inches.  It's a perfect doll sized quilt, or baby sized.  I do plan to list this on Etsy, assuming it survives the wash and dry cycle.  It should, since these are all cotton and cotton blend fabrics, but I'd feel remiss if I didn't both test wash it to confirm it will survive a gentle, cold water wash, and air dry tumble, and to get out as much cat hair as I'm sure crept into it while I made it.

I'm going to ask a high price for this, in my opinion:  $75, firm.  There's a lot of fabric, and a lot of my time in there, and I personally think the imperfections add to its charm.  Imperfections also may make someone more willing to actually use it, too, despite my asking price.  Nothing breaks my heart more than to pour time and energy, and often love, into a project, give it to someone, only to hear "It's too nice to use!"  No, it's not!  It's meant to be used, and maybe dragged around in a little pair of hands until it needs to be washed, and then washed again until it gets that soft and worn feel I love in old quilts.

And if no one wants to pay me $75, plus shipping, that's quite alright with me.  I have dolls that need a fabulous quilt for a bed I'll eventually create.  And my cats would be quite content to curl up on the sofa with me with this on my lap to stave off the morning chill while I drink my coffee.

So this project helped keep my sanity the last few weeks when I just couldn't focus on anything else when I had the time.  I personally love it, but am still willing to sell it.  But like most things I make, if no one wants to pay me a fair price for my time and effort, so be it.  I have plenty of uses for it myself!  :D

My oldest kitty, Rocky, helps with the photography process.