Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Wrap A Smile



Happy Tuesday! Today I'm sharing two recent finishes I made for Wrap A Smile. This charity provides quilts for children undergoing cleft palate repair surgery. I shared this first quilt as a flimsy last month, when the RSC color was bright green.


My own theme for January was food, so this quilt uses some green fabrics with fruits and veggies. I had this backing already pieced for another project last year, so steered the top towards pinks and reds, too, to coordinate. 

For the quilting, I tried a motif that I saw on Cathy's blog, "squiggles and loops."
I didn't get a good photo of my quilting, so go check out hers!


The second quilt was made here in February. The RSC color is orange, and my own theme is cats. 



I pulled all the fun kitty fabrics I could find that had at least a little orange in them.


Then I cut squares of various bright orange blenders and made a simple patchwork design. 




The backing uses a large piece of orange, leftover bits from the front, and this super fun kitties-on-black chunk. Wiggly lines of quilting across the seams and scrappy orange binding finish it up.

And speaking of scrappy binding, I had an AHA! organizing moment recently. I usually cut my binding to 2.25" and then put the leftovers in my string bins by color. That's all well and good, but I also deliberately cut scraps to 2.5" for the string bin, and they are hard to tell apart. Then it occurred to me that I could put all the 2.25" binding pieces together in a single bin and they would always be right there, ready to sew together into scrappy binding. No need to separate by color, since there aren't so many to sort through. It's working really well: I've already made three bindings from the bin! Hooray for using scraps efficiently!

20 comments:

  1. Two lovely cheerful quilts off to give someone something to smile about.... great cause and lovely work.... and of course I love to hear great ways of using scraps...
    Hugz

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  2. Cute and fun quilts. For such a great charity. Yeah, a scrap bin for binding is a lifesaver. I used some for my recent finish. And I love that.

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  3. Hurrah for cute fun finishes for good causes. And inspirational ways to keep scraps, great job!

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  4. Yay! Two cute finishes. The kitty-themed one is my favorite, and I bet it’s Angel’s favorite too!

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  5. I love the fabric of the cats with the fishbowls!

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  6. Both quilts are darling and perfect for children and I love your themes. Just perfect for a child to look at and smile.

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  7. What cute cat fabrics Louise. Both quilts are good examples of letting the fabric do the work. Scrappy binding on scrappy quilts is such a great way to use those leftover pieces.

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  8. Those quilts turned out SEW cute!! I like the fact that you are pairing the RSC Color of the Month with a chosen novelty print theme each month. That is going to make for some fun quilts this year!

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  9. I toss my bindings into my scrap bin too and have the same issue, so I've been separating mine now and I'm ready to use then for a scrappy quilt. Cute quilts, Louise!

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  10. Cute finishes! I'm sure they'll be appreciated and well loved.

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  11. That pink and green quilt is a favorite of mine - so bright and fun! And your cats with orange are adorable, too. Those are going to both be loved by a special someone!

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  12. Your quilts are great & the colors immediately reminded me of summer sherbet. Love your cat & food themes. I found a great you-tube recently that told about rolling binding in a figure 8 that keeps it from twisting while sewing on the quilt. I haven't tried it yet but will soon. Here's a link if you want to look at it:
    https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=binding+strips+in+a+figure+8+roll#kpvalbx=_4WRNXtOrHMbUsAW33IuQCQ24
    If the link doesn't work you can just google "binding strips in a figure 8 roll & it will come up.
    Have a happy day!

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  13. I love your self chosen themes, Louise!!! Adds a lot of spice! And yes, scrappy binding for the win!!!

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  14. There will be some little kiddos out there smiling and all wrapped up in quilty Louise hugs. I too should keep those 2.25" bindings separate from all the other strings.

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  15. All your cheerful bright quilts are sure to warm the hearts of the lucky recipients. You make me want to just purge all the murky dark colors from my stash, but I am too frugal to do that!

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  16. I’ve been doing that for sometime now with my leftover 2.25” scraps of binding and you’re right it doesn’t seem to take very long before you can sew a bunch together and have a scrappy binding like magic! Both of these quilts are adorable and I love how you’re combining Angela’s and your own theme to make fantastic quilts!

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  17. I've been keeping left over bindings in a box. One time I used a bunch on a scrap quilt but the quilt was so scrappy I was disappointed I hadn't just picked one fabric for the binding to give it more of a finished feel. Oh well. I do like to use my scraps. (I didn't say use my scraps up because that will never happen!)

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  18. Such cute finishes for WAS! I am eager to do some quilting with bigger blocks after frolic is done.

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  19. Great finishes!


    Hope you liked the loop and squiggle quilting. It's something different to do now and then.


    I cut my binding strips at 2.5 and I do keep the leftovers in a separate bin for scrappy bindings. It's a small bin because it usually gets emptied in no time. I rarely cut anything for the string bin...that is usually backing trimmings, wonky cuts, or ends of fabric pieces.

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  20. Such cheerful quilts for the children who'll be having this surgery. I once watched a programme covering this surgery and the results were life changing.

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