Grandmother's Inspiration

Every day I look for inspiration. You never know when or where it will find you. With that said ...

In January I started keeping my small fabric scraps with the hope of finding something to do with them. It seemed like a waste to throw them away and I kept forgetting to bring them to friends who have the patience for miniature quilts. So while I was perusing the Quiltsmart website making a wishlist for my birthday (2 week or so ago), I realized she had 1-inch Grid Interfacing (I have been doing projects with the 2 and 2 1/2 inch grid). I thought to myself, who would be crazy to cut pieces so small!?! Well fast forward to last weekend and you'll see who is just that crazy!

I was looking for an afghan while watching a movie and the first one I found was a scrap afghan my great grandmother made me years ago when I was in high school. She made it using all the leftovers and scrap pieces of yarn she kept and did the borders in purple. As I was watching the movie I suddenly thought why can't I do this with scraps ... in a quilt!

So the next day I set out to collect all the little piles of scraps from projects and got to work cutting them into 1-inch squares. I'll order some grid panels soon and get started, but I am so excited!! I know I want to keep the scraps together, rather than scatter them in a random collage, but I may do that in a later quilt.

So here is what I need from you ... Do you think I should ...

• Line all of the squares up in a row OR start in a corner and do more like clusters of the fabric?

• Should I keep all the panels in the 1-inch grid OR alternate between the 2-inch and 2 1/2 inch grids for larger pieces of scraps?

 Hopefully, I can remember to do a monthly update so we can all see how it is going!

Whatcha Doing Wednesday: Busy Start to New Year

Well, I can honestly say, I am exhausted!! I wish I could say it was because of some cool reason, like spending a week hiking in some exotic place, but alas, its just every day life.

Aside from weathering some icy winds the likes this Southern Girl is not accustomed to, I've taken on some new projects, I am working with a company that I absolutely love to create some upcoming new projects, but its still pretty super secret at this point. On top of two jobs and a hubby doing law school full time and an internship with the DA's office, we decided to sign the little guy up for Little League ... you know, because had some empty spots on our calendar. He was also promoted to a new class and he is progressing RAPIDLY so there are lots of programs and things we are doing with him to keep him challenged.

I am working on a lot of projects in the "creative" part of life as well. A friend's baby show is coming up, so there are things for that, I launched a new blog called, The Traveling Teacups and its a creative community for military families. We post projects, ideas and stuff that helps military families maintain a creative aspect in daily life whether its education or play. So we have creative posts about projects, reading, staying active and more. Just overall, a way to keep daily life well ... creative!

At my day job, this week I've been working on Helene Knott's Garden Patch Cats, as well as her Bloomin' Dogs. It has been quite an adventure. I'm not sure where I stand on the whole series, but there are some I like and some, well, they scare me. But they are a huge hit among our quilters, so we are working on completing more samples to show them off! What do you think?

I have also be working on some personal projects that are on my wishlist and completing some of the things on my Works in Progress List. Quiltsmart projects are at the top of my list right now, there are so many things to do. I'll show off some shortly but here is one that I did for the Traveling Teacups blog, and the start of something new ... Hmm, wonder what it could be?

I have finished a few things over the past few weeks, and will show them shortly. But, I'm off to work on anther project ...

Until our next cup of tea ...