Scraps 101: Kaleidoscope Template

I like templates and rulers for quilt making. I have always liked the Kaleidoscope block and found this ruler by Marti Michell. Last summer while cleaning out fat quarters and scraps I decided to start cutting scrap prints with this ruler. Before I knew it I had quite a few cut out and ready. Now for the back ground fabric. I put the project aside but recently found a nice light batik that I think will look nice. I cut a bunch of triangles and now have enough to start this scrap quilt. Here is the block lay out. When you do the opposite lay out of dark where the light is the overall quilt will take on movement.
For my favorite new book just out..check out Material Obsession 2 by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke. They have used Marti Michell templates for traditional quilt blocks but with a fun new spin on fabrics and lay outs. It inspired me for more scrap quilts. Their use of color combinations and patterned backgrounds is wonderful. When you look at traditional quilt blocks and only see old boring fabrics and colors...you will be able to look beyond all that with this book. I love it for this. New ways to use up that scrap fab I have!
I am working on the "by product quilt" and making progress...I will post pictures soon. but I am really close with my jeans pattern and need them more then the quilt so that is priority in the studio this week.

Well I guess I am not very good at this blogging thing. Too much happened the last 8 months...not bad things, just things that distracted me from being very creative or wanting to write about them. I am still sewing my way through the studio. Just not as fast as I wanted to. I am making pants trying to get a jean pattern perfected. It slows down the creative process. I still put my ideas in my sketch book so I feel I am still being creative. The sketches are patiently waiting for me to come back and make them 3 dimensional.
This past weekend I went to the beach with my quilting girlfriends and we spent the time sitting at a big table sewing. It was fabulous to just not think of work or needing to take care of the family...just two full days of sewing. Here is one of 18 blocks I made. I have been collecting the fabric for a year now so I thought it was time to get going, so a large log cabin quilt is in the process. I will post the finished piece once sewn together.

My other thoughts the past month have been on RE-USE and USE IT UP. I have scraps, old fabrics, left overs, bi-products, what ever you want to call them I have too much but can't bare parting with them. With the price of cotton fabric going up I thought how can I use it and make it worth while. so as I am sewing my way through the studio with clothing, I am going to also be using up my scraps and writing about it. It has given me new enthusiasm to write and I don't have to finish a big project to show you my ideas. My little green tunic top on the last blog was the first where I used scraps of fabric to make the rosettes around the bottom. The photo below is of by-product from another quilt I did years ago. They are triangles with reproduction fabrics and white on whites. They are on the flannel wall, I am tired of looking at them so I have set out to sew them up. I have set up an extra sewing machine so I can sew on two projects at a time...that way if I feel stumped with one I can just sit at another machine and work on another...or a garment. (It all has to do with thread color and machine set up) Stay tuned for ideas and pictures of how I use them up. I feel better already getting this going! I have a list of ideas to share.