Interview with Retro Mama: a Scrap Happy Sewer

As you probably know by now, I love sewing with scraps. Even the ugliest of scraps can result in an interesting project. In her new book Scrap Happy Sewing Kim Kruzich turns small bits of fabric (just pretty ones!) into lovely items.

The projects are fresh and fun and when you read the book it's easy to imagine how your personal scrap stash can be turned into beautiful projects. I really want to make the scrappy Zig Zag Quilt. And if you are not a scrappy person: many of the projects won't even look very 'scrappy', if you simply use more coordinated fabrics. :)

The book is good for beginners, but the attractive projects will appeal to more experienced sewers too, as many of the patterns can be sewn up quite quickly. I interviewed Kim about her book and Scrappy Sewing.

What is your favourite project from the book and why?

Tough question! I would have to say it’s between the Simply Strippy Sewing Kit and the Pajama Bear Softies. The sewing kit is an easy project that gives you a lot of bang for your buck! Just a few thin strips of fabric look so striking when quilted and bound, and it is so much fun to be creative in decorating the inside pockets. But those bears are so silly and cute that I just love them to bits.

What favourite fabric scrap(s) did you use up until the last tiny bit? And do you even have any scraps left after writing this book?

I am a bit obsessed with Denyse Schmidt fabrics--there are several prints from her Hope Valley, Picnic, and Fairground lines that I have savored to the very last scrap. I also have a measuring tape print by American Jane that I manage to fit into almost every patchwork project that I make! I found a bunch of it on eBay years ago but I still treat it like a precious metal and try to make a little bit go a long way. There is a teal floral and cherries print from Lecien’s Old New line that I adore and wish I had bought a whole bolt, so I will be very careful about using what I have left!

I possibly should be a little embarrassed by how many scraps I still have after writing the book. I definitely dug into my scrap basket and used many of my oldest and most favorite fabrics, but I did get new prints specifically to use for the book, and so I have a bunch of new scraps as well!

How do you sort your scrap stash?

Until recently, I kept all my scraps stuffed in a giant pink tub under my cutting table! It was pretty overwhelming to attempt to find anything in there. But I have finally seen the light and I’m in the process of cutting leftover fabrics into strips that I store together by width in these great transparent boxes that I found. The strips are 1”, 1-1/2”, 2”, etc., so now whenever I want to do a scrappy project I can just pull out the right box and the fabrics are neatly stacked inside.

What are you working on right now?

I’m catching up on sewing projects for myself and friends and family, as well as sketching some new softies and dolls.

A big bag of scraps or a new bundle of fat quarters?

A new bundle of fat quarters! So many times I’ll see a fabric and think, “Ooh! That would make a perfect doll dress or bear pajamas,” so a fat quarter would ensure that I could make a doll or other toy out of it. I’ll take the bag of scraps, too, though, I am a firm believer that one can’t have too much fabric!

                                                                           **********

Thank you so much Kim for this fun interview! More peeks and projects from the book can be found on various blogs this month. You can follow Kim on her blog and find more patterns in her Etsy Store.

Scrap Happy Sewing is available now in book stores. And find a free sewing pattern for these lovely pleated pincushions on Stitch Craft Create!

Five favourite Scrap Quilts

1. The Technicolour Yawn (better known as the Scrap Vomit Quilt, pictured above). I have finished a rather big quilt top using this tutorial and it's perfect for all your good, bad and ugly scraps. Especially for fabric designs that are less easy on the eye. :)  The only thing you need to add are two solids although with some clever scrap sorting you can probably replace those with scraps too. Find links to the tutorial here and a fabulous version of the quilt made by Katie here (she made a few actually, they are all lovely)

2. I made a fun quilt based on a pattern in the Sunday Morning Quilts book which is a great book if you are interested in making scrappy quilts. For this particular quilt it helps to have a good scrap stash of many different colours and again you can hide some odd designs in there, as long as they have the right colour.

My Spider web mini quilt WIP

3. String or Spider web quilts are perfect for using up longer pieces of scrap fabric. Currently I'm making a Spider web mini quilt (inspired colour wise by this one) and I used this super easy tutorial on the House a la Mode blog. For String blocks I can recommend the paper pieced String block Tutorial on the Film in the Fridge blog.

Block made by Julia Frick

It's like one giant Value Block! Quilt by Amber of One ShaBby ChiCk

4. Value quilts. There are the low volume quilts of course. They are very lovely but I wonder if anyone except professional quilters have enough low volume scraps to make an entire quilt with them? Judging from the number of 'low volume' fat quarter bundles offered in online fabric shops I guess the answer is 'no'. Then there are the Value Quilts that make use of the Value and contrast of values in colours like in the quilt block and quilt shown above. This is the only type of quilt I haven't tried yet but I definitely want to make a Value Quilt one day. I have bookmarked this tutorial on the Sew Katie Did blog.

Postage stamp Quilt by Tammy

Postage stamp Quilt by Kristen

5. Postage stamp quilts. I once made a feeble attempt to start one but made the mistake of choosing a low volume palette and I just didn't have enough scraps for that (see 4) Basically it's just lots of tiny squares stitched together. You can sort them by colour, sew them in blocks with sashing, alternate patterned squares with solid squares, the possibilities are endless. There's a good tutorial on the Red Pepper Quilts blog.

Hope you enjoyed my favourite Scrap Quilts, please let me know yours!

Tag & Scraps

In less than a months time I will be attending the Fat Quarterly Sewing Retreat in London and I'm very much looking forward to it. And I'm a bit anxious too about going all by myself and not having actually met anyone else who will be there, even though  I 'know' people from Twitter and Blogland. :) Anyway, I will be attending classes about English Paper piecing, Wonky Log Cabin Block making and Frame Purses. I have absolutely no experience in either of these so I'm sure I will learn lots.

Earlier this year I signed up for a Name Tag Swap for the Retreat and after many hours spent on failed attempts I finally came up with the hooped tag you see pictured above. You may recognize it as a variation of the pattern I did for the Pretty in Patchwork Holidays book.  I still have to receive my name tag and I'm very curious what my (secret) swap partner came up with!

I have also been 'busy' sorting through my fabric stash this week and was amazed by the amount of scrap fabrics I had hidden in there. I have ordered this book, partly because it deals with scrap sorting and storage! I have been cutting some of the smaller scraps into 2.5' squares, planning to make another Scrap Vomit Quilt some day. I'm thinking of sending out some Scrap Vomit Starter Packages (with 49 different squares to make one block) if anyone is interested!?! I will write another post about that so if you're interested, keep your eyes peeled for that. :)

P.S. before I forget: I'm a bit late to the party but I'm also on Instagram these days. You can find me under the name Followbunny 

The good, the bad and the flag waving animals

Eventually this quilt will be 7 by 7  blocks and I have finished 20 blocks so far, so that's almost half the quilt! Yay! I actually stood on a ladder to make this photo. I haven't got a design wall, so I use the floor in my bedroom as a horizontal design wall  ;) 

This is just a small example of the squares I received in the last couple of weeks. I did a couple of swaps for this quilt and it is so much fun! (I will write a bit about my fellow scrap vomiteers and scrap swappers at a later point) There were lots and lots of lovely fabrics (the good) and some (the minority, I'm glad to say) were a bit scary. Like these international flag waving animals in the middle which I received from Claire. For the UK peeps, find her fabric and haberdashery store here no flag waving animals here just good stuff! Strangely enough even the most awkward fabrics (brown with gold accents, 80's retro coffee themed,  flag waving animals) can blend in. So if you are also planning to make a scrap vomit quilt, try to get as many different fabrics as you can: the good, the bad and the flag waving animals.

Zoe's bag (made from my stash)

It's a good thing I don't visit Ikea as much as I used to because every time I'm there I just have to buy some of their fabrics. Some of the IKEA fabrics are quite heavy (canvas probably) and durable. Perfect for making bags and tote bags and so on, and that's what I did! Zoe needed a new bag for her Theater Class and this bag  holds everything she needs: ballet shoes, clothes for dancing, a drink and a snack and a binder.

The bag is simply shaped like a long tote bag with a 'boxy bottom' and the top folds over so it looks like a messenger bag. It was super easy to make apart from the bits where there were multiple layers of canvas to sew through. I used a 'jeans' needle for that. It was a bit noisy but my Husqvarna managed to do it in the end!

Look! I haz cute Ikea fabric lining too!

I followed this tutorial but simplified it quite a bit. I have a less fancier strap and did not bother with an inside pocket or a closure.

So while I was actually using some of my stash to make this bag. Some new additions to my stash arrived!

The very lovely Katy and I did a scrap swap. That is to say: I sent her some sorry scraps, she sent me enough to make quilts for the whole neighbourhood!