Sunday, November 8, 2015

SCRAP PLAY!


I was photographing all my SIZZIX die quilts recently, (not enough hours in the day, might be time to have a computer person come help me) so I can add them to my website page for inspiration for those who purchase the dies.  Looking at all that pattern and color, always gets my head spinning...  I immediately afterwards cut out more bow tie pieces so I continue to work on my Christmas version...


Friday night, we drove to our house on long island, and I thought, YAY! I will just randomly play with the Clamshell Sizzix die that I had, and have not used. I thought would be nice to play and just sew a random top together, except when I got to my home, I realized I had taken my sewing machine to NYC for Quilters Take Manhattan to accommodate more students, and didn't return it to my house!  OOPS!  Now machine sewing for me!

So, I did at least play with the clamshell, by pulling large scraps from my three large scrap bins!

It's great fun, and an awesome challenge to make your random fabrics work well together! You do keep your scrap right?  Random sized scraps, all my cuttings, anything smaller then a fat quarter get tossed in my large clear rubbermaid bins... I come back to them later and can mix many years of collected fabrics back into my scrap quilts.


These same fabrics keep appearing in many of my quilts, as these are fabrics I've collected for 15-20 years! At first when putting them randomly on my wall,  the colors look pretty dull.


But by continuing to cut and dig through the scraps, you start to see a pattern to the kind of colors you continually buy. For me, red yellow pink and blue, with an increasingly amount of ORANGE!  But whose complaining about that! YUM! Not me!  Look how nicely the orange and reds make this pop! Yellows are being lights as well as that giant red/white polka dot!


I've worked through three large scrap bins, and now I will have to go back to NYC and hit the 12 other scrap bins I have, so that I can continue to make this quilt grow to a king size.

I will be piecing these 9.5" unfinished clam shells on the machine.  NOT BY HAND.  Yes, it is possible to do so.
If you've learned curved pricing from me, you know it's possible! You just need to learn how to handle the first row... (later)

My Sizzix dies, and other Sizzix dies (such as this large clamshell)  is such a great tool to have for Scrap busting!  I can cut, cut cut, 8 layers at a time, and then have a massive PARTS DEPARTMENT to play and design with.

I'm pleased with this so far. and think that when we are here for winter break, this is what I will be sewing on!

My husband even walked in, and said," WOAH! I love that! "
A keeper!!! (my hubby and my quilt)

;-)

12 comments:

  1. Love this! I am just about ready to tackle big curves...lol. I made a clamshell block by hand once for a swap and loved it. Time to do it again...super size!

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  2. ooh! You're inspiring me to work on my apple core again. I love what you're doing.

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  3. oh, the clamshells are beautiful. I love that it's scrappy but pieces are big enough to see the pattern!

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  4. Okay, now need to purchase the clamsheel die!

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  5. Luscious looking clam shells, you're going to have a super quilt!

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  6. I love the way you've used contrast and light and dark, you have a good eye for that.

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  7. i was just visiting the plaid portico blog, she has posted photos of your quilts from the quilt show. WOW! Beautiful, inspirational. Hope you can find some time to post some ( more) your pictures. You are truly amazing quilter/artist.

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  8. i was just visiting the plaid portico blog, she has posted photos of your quilts from the quilt show. WOW! Beautiful, inspirational. Hope you can find some time to post some ( more) your pictures. You are truly amazing quilter/artist.

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  9. Great looking clam shells.. I love all that scrappy colour from over the years! And that red polka dot is perfect for added 'pop'. Would love to know your technique for machine stitching these clams down!

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  10. Love the clamshell, and I experienced the same thing you mentioned -- I found out what colors I keep buying over and over again. Now if only there was a 12 1/2 inch die-cut.

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  11. I have the Sizzix big clam die and sewed them tip to tip to make quads and then sewn them together. Very easy. They don't go in the straight rows though. I did buy your "Pies and Pieces" die to see if I could make a "pickled clam". I haven't tried it yet. I am a new quilter and somewhat math challenged and didn't want to have to do foundation piecing. It would be AWESOME if you could figure that out and show an example. haha

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    1. I'll be doing a tutorial on clamshells around xmas. I won't get back to them until then. ;-) First row is the trick, then they all go in horizontal rows... Not hard. I just 'started' updating my website with my Sizzix quilts, go here for inspiration: http://vfwquilts.com/pages/quilts-sizzix

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