I came to the conclusion the last time I moved that I really should do something with all my scraps or stop moving them. I cannot part with unsewn fabric, so I finally started feeling like I should at least try a scrap quilt. I looked through the quilt books in my collection and found a charming quilt made for fat quarters. Most of the scraps I had were fat quarter size, so I thought it might just work. The applique hearts were so cute, I could not part with them. I also liked that their crazy quilt look would lend to using up the smaller scraps.
I am not good with being random, so there are some color "rules" I made for this quilt. 1. All the blocks must have the same color in both fabrics. 2. All the blocks must have the darker of the two colors on the corner and center of the 9-patch. 3. All the hearts must be made of the darker colors of fabric. 4. The hearts may have only one color. 5. No two blocks may be identical. I had another "rule" of not putting two similar-colored blocks next to each other. This rule was nearly impossible to do, so I had to break it a few times.
One of the reasons I did not mind this applique as much as I thought was by picking my applique method carefully. I have great respect for the people who make the applique 1/4" larger and then turn under the seam. Holy cow, that's a lot of work! I am lazy, and there was just no way I was going to do that (I already spent my allotted fussy time cutting out all 500+ squares). I am thankful that my machine has this special quilting stitch. It gives it a cute country look without making me go insane. Yes, the fabric will fray a little when it's washed, but over-all, the quilt will be fine.
I kept the quilting rather simple. I have a normal sewing machine, so the bigger the quilt, the harder it is to quilt. I followed the diamonds in the quilt top and then continued them onto the border. I also quilted around the border hearts, but not the ones in the center. I think it would have looked really awesome to quilt around all the hearts, but I just knew it would be a mess to try on my machine. I also quilted around each small diamond in the last border. This quilt took at least twice as long as most of the quilts I normally do. It was fun to try something new, but I doubt I would ever try to sell a quilt like this. I would never make up the hours I put into it.
(Mending Hearts, Scrappy Applique Heart and 9-Patch, 90"x73" 7/22/2010)
