Mini Mosaic Quilt

Like all of you, I am the proud owner of a million teeny tiny little scraps which I just can't throw away. Part of it, I think, is that I don't want to waste a good piece of fabric. But even more than that, I can't get rid of the last little pieces of my favorite fabrics! I mean, what if I can never find it again! And my last memory of my favorite fabric will be that I THREW OUT the last bit of it!

(I'm a little short of breath and sweaty just thinking about it. . . . )

As a result, I have bags of scraps everywhere!
Last weekend, I suddenly got inspired to make a scrappy mini-quilt for my cube at work. I love the Ticker Tape Quilt from the blog, Crazy Mom Quilts, so I decided to play around with that concept.

I have to say, I really love the result! Plus, it was super-fast, it looks modern, and I finally have a home for some of my favorite scraps.

I was extremely un-fussy with my scraps - I basically left the scraps the same shape they were when I pulled them out of my scrap-bin. I used a basting spray (more about that in a later post) which I totally lurvvvvv for small quilts. Anyway, I layered my backing, batting and the white background fabric and basted them together with basting spray. I also basted down the little scraps. Then, I stuck 'er under the machine, and stitched a perimeter around each of the little pieces (about a 1/4" in from the edges. ish.).

To bind, I trimmed the excess batting even with the edges of the top and then flipped the excess backing fabric over to the front and stitched it down. I left the binding edges raw, too, since the rest of the quilt is raw-edge. I figured it fit better with the overall look . . . and I didn't have to hand-stitch binding that way!   I feel justified. Don't judge me.

(That little green piece with the thread is one of my "startie-stoppies" (used to get your thread started when you start sewing so the thread doesn't jam up in the bobbin . . . know what I mean?). Anyway, it was sitting there, and it was the right color, so i just stitched that on, too!

Also, the white background piece is actually twill, which I used to give a little extra firmness to the quilt since I'm using it as a wall hanging. It helps it to hang flatter than quilter's cotton. It also holds its shape a little more: it doesn't get sucked into itself like quilter's cotton does when you applique onto it.








As if I needed to start buying something else obsessively, I'm now collecting antique and vintage buttons. They're so pretty! They look like candy and they're calorie free!!!! Yeah, I'm totally going to keep buying them. But, in my defense, I use them! I put three of my favorite ones on this little quilt.  :)



It's nice to do something that's a little more free-form and unplanned.

And now my cube is trés awesome!