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Scrapbustin’ January Day 5: Genetically Modified Tree Quilt Block

January 6, 2012 by 4 Comments

If you’ve been glancing at my sidebar, you might notice that little yellow button over there.  See it?  Says “Stash Bee”.  You guessed it, I joined a quilt block swap this year, in an effort to help improve and stretch my quilting skills.  Well, the first block is supposed to be a tree-that’s the only real direction other than that the negative space has to be Kona White, the rest scrappy (fit right in with this months challenge here right?).

I’m a girl who likes things laid out for me plain, so I know exactly what I’m expected to do…so as soon as I saw the theme I went “Oh crap”.  Have to use my imagination from the get go!  So I hemmed around for a few days formulating an idea for a block..then set out to put it on fabric.  This is what I ended up with:

genetically modified tree quilt blockQuit laughing.  Seriously. It’s not THAT funny.  Ok, maybe it is..it makes me giggle when I look at it too.  Suffice to say this is NOT what it looked like in my head LOL!  I call it the genetically modified tree because we all know how genetically  modified seeds do their own thing, and this tree is obviously doing his own thing.

I sent the picture to the girl it’s supposed to be for so she could get a giggle out of it (I’ll be remaking this block tomorrow, I wouldn’t feel right sending this as my contribution!  No matter how laughter inducing it is.), and she said it actually looks like the Whomping Willow from Harry Potter:

Harry Potter Whomping Willow Lego

She’s totally right! LOL!  I may try and play with it a bit to improve it, but it may end up being a wadder (aka..headed to trashcan central).  I do have another idea for a block that I think (hope?) would be super cute too, so we’ll see!

Are you playing along busting scraps?  Share a link to what you’ve been working on so we can cheer you on!

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Scrapbustin’ January Day 4: Scrappy Fabric Shoelaces

January 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment

OK, I’m so in love with todays project, I can’t help it!  This is one of those completely mundane things that is transformed when done in cute fabric!

I pinned this tutorial ages ago, and today I just had to try it!  Here’s my first pair:

Scrappy shoelaces #1Keep in mind, these are child length shoelaces in my shoes just to show you what they look like all tied up and everything.  I couldn’t find a pair of my kids shoes that lace up and looks decent (seriously, these boys and their shoes!).  How cute is that?  I’ll be making a longer pair for my shoes for sure!  One thing I definitely learned though, is you probably want to make the fabric strips a smidge thinner than they recommend.  They say 2″, but I really had a hard time getting them into the tubing, and even lacing them was a pretty tight fit in the shoe holes.  Subsequent pairs I’ll probably make 1 3/4″ wide and see how that works.

Are you playing along with busting your own scraps?  Show me your projects!  Leave a linkie in the comments for me (and everyone else!) to ogle your goodies (wait, that sounds bad..you know what I meant).

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Scrapbustin’ January Day 3: Scrappy Potholder

January 4, 2012 by 1 Comment

Yesterday was fraught with..absolutely nothing screamingly important, but intention-derailing nonetheless so I missed posting this.  Today has been similar, I described myself earlier as being like “a fruit fly that got loose in the product aisle”…aka flitting around getting nothing accomplished lol.

Scrappy potholders are nothing new of course, but my kitchen is lacking in awesome potholders so they’ve been on my list to make for awhile.  I think this one was probably originally inspired by this pin, but I don’t know that I really followed most of the tutorial I just did my own thing.

Scrappy Potholder

I started with a 9″ square of fabric (also from the scrap bin of  course!), and used a bit of temporary adhesive to layer on a 9″ square of Insul-bright.  I grabbed a handful of strips and got to work.  I used a quilt as you go method, then once the square was all covered I trimmed it up and bound it with some bias tape.  Don’t look too closely at that binding m’kay? Not my strongest point. And…Ta-da!  Scrappy potholders for all!  Ok, I made one…for my own kitchen..I’m selfish like that.  What kind of scrappy awesomeness are you getting up to?

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Scrapbustin’ January Day 2: Doll Diapers

January 2, 2012 by 1 Comment

Today’s project is one I never thought I’d make…doll sized diapers.   See, I had 4 sons, then I somehow ended up with a daughter (I mean, I know the mechanics, but I..sheesh people, we’re crafty over here..hush).   Anyway, I knew when she started putting diapers on the Transformers that I did actually have a girl on my hands.  So I’d been wanting to make these for awhile.  I found this template over at Skip To My Lou and went digging through my scrap bins for anything that was big enough to use.  Here’s the final product:

Doll diapersThere were more, but Ree already absconded with them.  The tutorial recommends using flannel, but as you can see, I just used whatever I had.  Most of them are knit, with one being made of a microfleece and others made of cotton wovens.  All turned out pretty well except the ones made from rib knit.  Those stretched like crazy and turned out..not so great.  I’ll definitely be making some more of these to go with the Bitty Baby we’re getting Ree for her birthday in a few weeks.  Nice and easy, and quick to make up!

Are you playing along with me in busting your scraps this month?  Feel free to leave a link in the comments section to your blog posts about it!  I’d love even more ideas!

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