Shredded Squares Pillow

Created for Project Quilting 9.6 SCRAPtastic challenge.

I had to laugh when this challenge came out.  I have a saying.  "Why would anyone use 5 fabrics when 50 will do."  A challenge for me would by using less than 12 fabrics in a quilt.

However, my week had even more challenges than usual. Big baby shower at my house on Sunday and leaving for a quilt retreat on Wednesday afternoon.

I thought a pillow would fit the bill. I'm still using strings, but wanted them to be skinny, so I decided to use some shreds, which includes selvages and any strip of fabric under about 1 inch. I cut black to use as foundation squares and added shreds, top-stitching them into place and leaving the raw edges. I squared them up and sewed them together for the pillow.

I had made the white one a while back.  Same technique.  I thought it was a little boring when I got done so I appliqued the flower on top.  The raw edges kind of fluff up with use and I occasionally give it a little haircut when it gets too stringy.

Created by Diane Lapacek near Poynette, WI. 16" x 16".

Since I'm here I'm also going to show off the handiwork of my beautiful granddaughters, Cedi, Capri and Pip, ages 11, 10 and 6. They helped host the baby shower for my daughter and made all these amazing cupcakes to match our farm animal theme. Cedi and I baked 5 different kinds of cupcakes and the 3 of them made 5 different fillings, filled them all and did all the decorations. They had to leave for a few hours in the middle of the day Saturday and I was instructed not to touch the cupcakes.  They made a gramma proud...as they always do.

Threads in a Row (Ready to Sew

Created for Project Quilting 9.5 A Stitich in Time challenge.

I'm still working with strings, so my first idea was to make spool blocks with strings for the thread.  As I started, I knew I wanted narrower strings, so I went to my collection of shreds.  Shreds are strips too skinny to be strings, typically less than 3/4" wide. Selvages go in with my shreds.  When I work with them I usually stitch them to a foundation leaving the edges raw. That is the approach I used here, creating spools of different colors and different types.

Created by Diane Lapacek near Poynette, WI.

10" x 34".