Extra Quilt Batting

After you sandwich your quilt what the heck do you do with that Extra Quilt Batting (EQB) you trim off??? Don't toss it out!!! I have a few uses for it!

Okay the first one is a no brainer, I sandwich it between two pieces of muslin to practice my free motion quilting. I also have used a piece from the back of my quilt, sandwich my extra batting and do some test run quilt on it before I start my quilt. This way I make sure my tension is set correctly and that my thread is a good choice.

Next, some of my pieces are big enough to hang onto for a wall hanging or a small baby quilt. I have even piece 2 extra pieces together to do a baby quilt. I have also made Poop a little book from a panel, it called for a yard of batting. Not me I had EQB for the whole thing!

A fun one that I enjoy is the base for a quilted purse/bag. That fusible stuff is $6 to $8 a yard. Use your EQB, a little quilt basting spray and you are in business!

I made a bag last night that had batting in the straps. I pulled out the box of EQB, the piece in the perfect size just waiting for me on top of the stack.

The Promises Surprise!

So I am having a little contest. It will start today. All you have to do is leave a comment on what you do with your scraps! Weather it is fabric, paper or any other hobby that has scraps.

I will leave this open for one week. Everyone that post a comment will be put into my drawing for a fun prize! I will hold the drawing on September 1st! So lets hear those ideas!

Scrap Gift Tags!

Okay now that you have used your old paper to make some fabulous boxes, what do you put in them? How about some cute little scrap gift cards.

I used Christmas paper to make my box and I had an extra piece of the paper to make my cards. My cards simply say To and From on the inside. Everyone need gift tags round the holidays. Great little gift to have on hand.

My card base is Card stock that I cut at 3" x 6". One Sheet of 12" x 12" card stock will make you 6 cards. I folded my card base in half, now 3" x 3". I used my circle scallop punch for the card stock backing on my image. Stamped my image on white card stock and punched with a circle punch. If you need them to tie to your package punch a small hole in the corner and thread through a piece of floss or ribbon.

Picture is coming.

Beautiful Budget Backs

I have been asked how do I come up with my backs. This tutorial is my method of creating Beautiful Budget Backs. I hate spending money on 3 to 9 yards of fabric that I am not creating with. So I usually do one of three things:

1. Yardage that was on sale that I like.
2. A large print that I like but wont use on the front, the pinup girls is a good example of this.
3. Pieced backs with leftovers.

I made this back with my leftovers from the front and 1 yard of Black Kona Cotton from my stash. The front measures 42" x 48". I would need to purchase about 3 yards of fabric to make the back. This back measures 48" x 54".

First thing I do is dig out the pile of scraps I have left from making the front. I also get into my stash to see what I have that might work with the scraps. In this case I choose to use Black Kona Cotton. I sort my pile into groups, triangles, squares, and then matching size chunks. This is what I started with, plus the yard of black.

I decide to start with a center medallion for this one. When I choose to start with a center medallion I usually make it symmetrical. The reason I choose the square in a square block is because I had 4 equal sized triangles left over from bias piecing a set of border together.
This is where I made a mistake. I cut my Black and White print fabric BEFORE I finished my center block. They ended up to small to border the center block, so I moved them to try them out elsewhere. The black stripes size were decided by how big I could make my corner stones, the pink.
I needed filler for my Black and White corners. I was thinking of some sort of grid. Because of the size of the rectangles and the pink cornerstones I decided I wanted some stoppers too.
After I made the grid I wanted to try it out with the stoppers(top). I also wanted to make sure it was long enough for my center(bottom). If is wasn't long enough I would have added black on both ends to make longer.
For the sides it was a matter of which chunks were big enough to fill in the sides.
At this point I still need about 5 to 6 inches all around my quilt and most of my fabric is used up. I did still have one long stripe, 35", of the black, pink and white fabric and about 20" stripe of the stripe fabric. I decided with the amount of fabric that I had left that the long sides would be black and the short sides pieced. I tried my fabric out to see what I liked best. The top is with the stripes next to the print and I was going to put black on the ends. The bottom is using the stripe as cornerstones with black in between it and the print. I went with the cornerstones to continue the flow of the back.
This is my finished back. Once it is quilted I will trim it down. I try not to put too much into the last border since that is the one that will be cut off in the trimming.
This is all that is left of my pile of scraps and the yard of Black Kona Cotton.

As a side note I always keep 10 yards of Kona Cotton in White and Black in my stash. I also keep 3 yards of Kona Cotton in Snow in my stash. I do buy it at JoAnn's when it is on sale 50% off. There is a small color difference between the White and Snow. The Snow is more creamy that the bright White.

Paper Boxes

Just a few tips to improve on the video: Cut the bottom sheet of paper down to 11 1/2" x 11 1/2". That will fit the 12" x 12" paper for the top. Also I cut the flaps for both sides of the box before folding it together.

I love these little boxes! I am using up a "Stack" of paper that I bought a few years ago. The paper that I don't really like I am using the back, white side, for the bottoms! I love the idea of also stamping the back side of the paper if you aren't going to use the printed side. I am planning on making about 60 boxes for Christmas gifts. That is 120 sheets of paper!

Ugly Fat Quarters *EDIT*

My camera is missing so I can't give you a tutorial, so I am going to give you some ideas on what to do with Ugly Fat Quarters. You know the ones you get for free on a shop hop, the one in the pack of eight that you don't like, or that stack you won at Quilto!

1. Cut them into 2 1/2" stripes and use them in place of a Jelly Roll. They will look great in a scrappy quilt. There are some great quilt books out for Jelly Roll quilts or Can of Worm quilts.

2. Cut them into 6" squares and make a quilt for Philanthropy, 7 squares across and 9 squares down. You will feel good for making something for someone in need.

3. Cut them into smaller squares, I use 3" size, and make a scrappy 4 patch.

4. Throw them into a bag and sell them at the next Boutique for $0.50. One man's trash is another man's treasure.

5. Sew them together for a quilt back. Remember 4 Ugly Fat Quarter is 1 yard of fabric. People love seeing scrappy quilt backs. I have people commenting on mine all the time.

6. This tip came from Barbara, she heard it in a class on Saturday. Cut 2 1/2" Stripes, bias sew them together, and save them in a roll, similar to a Jelly Roll. When your roll is big enough you have Scrappy binding for your beautiful Scrappy Quilts! What a great Idea! Thanks for sharing Barbara!