One of the things that all quilters have kicking around in the sewing room is leftover batting pieces that are trimmed from the edges of finished quilts. What do we do with all that batting?
Don't throw it out! There are so many ways to use this pile of wonderfulness!
I did a demo at my guild meeting this week to share these ideas of how to use up batting scraps:
* make a large quilt using
the “quilt-as-you-go” technique (see my sample quilts here and here)
* use small pieces as batting
for miniature quilts (my favorite way to use up batting)
* use batting squares to make rag quilts
 |
| Baby Max on his dog mat |
* make
flat dog mats (like a miniature quilt with a little stabilizing quilting)
* use scraps to dust your
sewing machine or house (with or without your swiffer)
* use small bits for pillow
stuffing (with crushed walnut shells or on it's own)
* make a dog bed (throw scraps of batting, thread snips and fabrics into a pillowcase and sew up the end when full) and donate it to the humane
society
 |
| Machine stitched batting |
* join smaller pieces with hand or machine stitching, or with heat press tape to make a full size batt
One tip for using old battings scraps is to toss them in the dryer before using them. Use a low heat setting to get the dust out if they have been sitting around for a while (years!) Otherwise you might start sneezing :)
And if you don't want to do any of these things, take your batting scraps to a guild meeting and give them to someone who will use them.
Have a happy Friday!
I am visiting an old project this weekend... my Alamo Stars.
So in the course of using my favorite quilting scissors for cutting paper (*shriek*) this unnamed child CUT through the beautiful beaded fob that was attached to my scissors. Did I mention that this fob was a special birthday gift to me from my friend Barb, and was specially made by our friend Jackie?!?! UGH! 
The machine quilting is progressing well on my QPOM. I am amazed at how quickly this has come together! 
My slow stitching project is a block sampler that I started in June 2013, and have been hand quilting since September 2014. All the hand quilting is finished now and I must admit to feeling a little bit sad as I attach the binding. I always feel this way at the end of making a quilt that I have really enjoyed making and have an attachment to. I have begun to ponder which project I will hand quilt next. I sure wouldn't want to get the DTs (a delirium caused from withdrawal from an addiction, like hand quilting!) Maybe I will finish up the wallhanging that was cast aside when I became obsessed with this quilt? Or maybe I will begin quilting another UFO?
So I decided to go ahead and prepare my January QPOM quilt top for quilting. It jumped to the head of the queue because I had a quilting idea, and had two pieces of batting that, once joined together with Heat Press fusible tape, made a perfect size for this quilt.
Today I am enjoying some machine quilting on my New Years Mystery top. I didn't really start out with a quilting plan, but I knew for sure I didn't want to do stitch-in-the-ditch. Instead I wanted to do something "free motiony" (I made up that word - feel free to use it!)
"One Stick At A Time" is a quilt top! This was a fun and easy pattern to sew (by Jackie Syer of FRJ Designs).
Grand Illusion blocks are on the design wall! There is one test block on the wall that has a green centre which I plan to change so it matches all the other blocks.I made half of the blocks for this mystery quilt. Although I also made half of the suggested number of sashing blocks, I decided I don't like the sashing in between. So I'm just going to go ahead and sew these together. 
