Thursday, November 15, 2018

Really Crumby Stuff


Five Crumb Quilt Tops

This year I tried to tame my crumbs (itty bitty weirdly shaped scraps). 

I made it a Rainbow Scrap Challenge  (RSC ) project.  Each month I dug through several big boxes of crumbs and sorted out the ones that were the color of the month. Then I sewed them together and made several different blocks.  This week I assembled those blocks into tops that will be donated when finished. 

Slabs with Heart
48 x 60


I first sorted out the biggest crumbs that were straight edged and made a twelve inch slab block around a 3 or 4 inch heart made from red scraps. 


Crumby Yummy Candies
From Cathy's Confectionery 
56 x 64


After the slab blocks were finished I used the rest of the crumbs to make close to 4.5 inch strips of fabric that I later cut and trimmed into 4.5 inch squares.  I had a lot of white/neutral bits and pieces that I used up for the backgrounds of these blocks and I used 2.5 inch scraps to make the HSTs that are the "candy wrapper" ends. 

 Crumb Stars
from a galaxy far, far away.
40 x 56
 The stars are eight inch blocks with 4.5 inch crumb centers. For the background and star points I used scraps in the chunk bin in complementary colors if I had them and if not I cut into yardage.  I have small end pieces and remnants usually less than 1/4 yard of TOTs, solids and blenders set aside for use in donation quilts. 

Holy Mackerel!!...it's the legendary Crumb Snatcher fish!...a whole school of them. 
39 x 55

Sometimes the crumb fabric strips were a little shy of 4.5 inches used in the Crumby Yummies and Stars so the fish were made from 4 inch squares of crumbs. 

It was a fun way to use crumbs and it was fun to see how many quilts I would have at year end.  Next year I think I'm going to concentrate on string scraps and selvages but not separated by color. 

I still have small boxes of  black and neutral crumbs I'll use in a couple of different quilts and I'm still sorting through half a box of crumbs and throwing them into bins of warm and cool crumbs.  But I'm trying to avoid adding to the crumb box by making crumb stars if crumbs are left over from any project. 

25 comments:

Jeanne said...

I have a large stack of crumb blocks waiting to be put to use. You think of such clever names for your projects!

Libby in TN said...

I especially like the wrapped candies! That would be fun to do with theme fabric, too.

LIttle Penguin Quilts said...

You have the best ideas for crumb blocks, and they turned into great quilts! I've just started sewing my crumbs into slabs - now I have to decide what type of quilt design to go for with them. Thanks for the inspiration, Cathy!

gayle said...

Even your crumbs are gorgeous! How do you do that?
I love all these ideas - inspiration galore! Especially those little wrapped candies... 8)

Preeti said...

What a gorgeous explosion of color. I should bookmark this page for inspiration :-)

Marly said...

Lovely quilts, all of them! where do you find the time and patience to stitch all those little pieces together?

Janie said...

Just as I suspected, you've sewn up more flimsies!
I like them hanging on your clothes line and there is your cat inspecting
everything, ( top photo.)
I love all the scrappy goodness, makes me smile.

Carol- Beads and Birds said...

I'm going to join the RSC next year. You made some really great quilts this year. Will you continue in 2019?
xx, Carol

audrey said...

What a fun post Cathy! I love that you were able to make so many quilts with your crumbs. I can't handle working strictly with color but you definitely made it work for you. Very fun quilts and wow--so many scraps used up!!

Carla A Few Of My Favorite Things said...

These are all awesome. The heart one is such a cute idea especially for a charity quilt. They all made me smile and they sure brightened up a gloomy fall day!

cityquilter grace said...

all so pretty and colorful...and thrifty too!

Cathy said...

Such a fun and delightful post. Congrats on getting five fabulous flimsies (FFF) out of your crumbs. Your ideas are always the best!

I can’t wait to get started on our RSC sewing again in 2019; I’ve still got my Crumbcakes blocks to finish. The scrap drawers are overflowing, and I may be borrowing your crumb stars (from a galaxy far, far away, LOL😂😂). I’m taking a year off of selvage sewing, I think. I may do something with the multi-colored selvages while the single-colored ones reproduce! And multi-colored strings are top of my 2019 list (I even asked Angela to consider a multi-colored month again). Either way, we’ll all be looking to you for great ideas! xo

MissPat said...

And there you go again. Making something out of nothing at all. I love them all.
Pat

Linda said...

A row of delightful quilts completely made from crumbs and scraps. Just amazing. Love that washing line of saturated colour!

Julie in GA said...

The variety of quilts you have made from crumbs is amazing! You have made such creative use of all those little bits of fabric!

mangozz said...

All are beautiful and colorful quilts and your clothes line is the perfect way to display them. I especially love the wrapped candies!

Ann said...

Such a fun way to use up these crumbs. And they are all different. You are so clever. Congratulations on these finishes.

Louise said...

As fond as I am of all things fishie, I just adore the candy blocks! These will all make such wonderful donations, Cathy. And they're motivating me to get my RSC flimsies stitched up :)

Emily said...

These are all so fun! You know I love that fish "pattern" and have made my own crubmy fish! So nice to see another school of fish. You are so amazing in what you can come up with!

Kaja said...

Congratulations on a great bunch of finishes. You found an inventive way to clear all your crumbs; I look forward to seeing what you do with a year of string blocks.

Cynthia Brunz Designs said...

These are all fantastic! I am glad I don't have to pick a favorite. I am working on my crumbs too. They require a lot of sewing but you can get really creative.

scraphappy said...

Look at all the yardage that you got out of those crumb bins! I really like the light background on the candies — it really makes the colors pop.

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

So many goodies here. The candy and the fish are my favorites. You've paid for all that fabric, you might as well use every little bit.

Katie Z. said...

I love how you made some quite diverse quilts, and every one looks great!

Sheila said...

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your colorful, happy, super scrappy AWESOME quilts!