Scrap Happens. Again.

The first thing I did before writing this post was go find some other posts about my scrappy quilt infatuation.

First, there was Scrap Happens (2009) a quilt made of orphan blocks.  Then there was a jelly roll race quilt by the name of Scrap Happens 2012 and Part 2 of Scrap Happens 2012 (This quilt didn't even make a dent in my 2.5" strips.  We are now up to Scrappy Stars (2014) and I think I missed a scrappy quilt in there somewhere.

My friends think I save the tiniest pieces of fabric just so I have a shoe box full when the zombie apocalypse hits.  This is totally untrue.  I regularly use my scraps.  I don't plan on having any scraps left when we get to the apocalypse.  I will have some colorful quilts, though.

These blocks really pushed me into getting the larger of the Tucker Trimmers.  I love these things.  I even have the Wing Clipper.  I made this quilt with the intention of using up a bunch of my scrappy blocks.   Sometimes when I can't decide on a project, I just sit down and do some (mostly) mindless piecing.  I also slip some scrap sewing in under the pretense of 15 Minutes of Play.

I did make a layout diagram for this quilt based on 6" blocks.  I then moved them around so I could use 6" and 12" squares.  This is the focal point of the quilt.  This star is four feet across.  I love very bit of it.  Even the parts that aren't the same color red because I ran out of the first red and had to go looking for more.

 I made this smaller star in blue, too.  This one is only 24" across.

I was amazed at how this one turned out.  Love it!

I loaded up the long arm and got to quilting on Sunday.  As I write this, it still isn't finished.  This quilt will finish around 84" by 96".  The goal is for it to fit the queen-size mattress in the travel trailer.

I went with a rather dense version of the swirl-hook motif.  I really like how it fills in.  This is what happens when you just start quilting.  That's right, I didn't really start with a plan.

 For the center of the large star I did some wavy lines.  Not really fancy, the fancier bit is in the field of red.  This quilt is quilted with three colors of thread.  Red for the large star and a good portion of the background squares.  I also used gold for the center of the star and some other areas of the quilt as the bobbin changed and my whim took me.  Then, we have blue which I used exclusively in the blue stars.

Okay, maybe the meander isn't fancy.  But I think the effect will be really great once I get the quilt off the frame.  The thread color-play might be more obvious on the backing once I'm finished.  I just couldn't stick with red even though I knew the quilting would show on the back.

Those wavy lines aren't bad.

 The swirl hook saga continues in the wonky log cabin blocks.

I didn't do much playing with the quilting, but I did practice my swirl-hook to the point where I don't think I'll get lost doing it anytime soon.

This quilting motif has been showing up on doodle areas of my notebooks for weeks and months.  It worked great in this block on the side of the quilt.  I will have to try it as an all-over design on another quilt.  This block was left over from my Big Bold quilt.

Leftover block from a Jacob's Ladder quilt I made for a friend years ago.

I've still got some quilting to do on this one.  Then there is the binding.  At least the label is already done!

Do you save your scraps?  Do you have a big bin of them or do you make them up into blocks and then into quilts?