Still More Banner Stuff

I was asked to make a this banner for my neighbor's daughter's wedding.

Simple and fun!  I got to use my Silhouette to make the letter stencils of course :)

It was a cute burlap and lace reception in a barn setting.

Thanks for posing for my Livvy :)

So, I pieced and hand quilted a quilt as a young woman with much needed help from my mom and grandma.  I also pieced and tied a very simple Christmas quilt years ago and more recently (though still almost ten years ago) pieced a baby quilt when I was expecting Abby.

I have since helped with many quilts for friends and loved ones, but never by myself.  I have been wanting to do one on my own for a while now.  There just hasn't really been a good opportunity to start one.  Well, I have collected quite the scraps of fabric over the last couple of years and I love the look of scrap quilts so I decided to take the plunge.

I gathered all the scraps from the banners I made last year and cut them down to size and made a ton of HST (half square triangles).

Don't they look so neat all stacked up and squared up?

The squaring up process to some time and these are the results...I don't know why I love piles of little scraps of fabric, but I couldn't throw them away until I had done all of the blocks and could pile all the scraps together and take a picture :)  Weird, I know!

Colorful haystack :)

*Now I realize that not all fabrics are created equal and I didn't use top quality fabrics for all of my banners because of expense so I know that this quilt might not hold forever but oh well :)

And speaking of the fabrics...I didn't have equal amounts of scraps from all of the banners so I ended up going in to town and buying more "scrap fabric" if I could find the same ones I had used in the banners.  Even so, for variety sake (because I couldn't find much of the same ones at the stores) I ended up pulling from my stash.  I had hoped to be able to say that all the fabric had been the same that I used in the banners but it just wasn't going to work.

So, now I can at least say that everything you see here was either scraps from the banners themselves, or the same fabrics of which I had to purchase more, or fabrics that came from my stash.  I know it's not that great of a claim but a claim nonetheless.  I know I won't be able to even claim that when it's finished though because I don't have a piece in my stash big enough for a back.  I will have to go buy something and it probably won't be one of the banner fabrics.  Anyway...you probably did not want to know all that but for the record's sake :)

I wanted the quilt itself to look like banners and this was the best way I could come up with from HST.

For the most part, I kept all the fabric separated according to the actual banners I made so you should be able to see Easter, Christmas, St. Patrick's, Valentine's etc... lined up in individual "banners"...if that makes sense :)  (In this picture I'm also missing two of my HST that needed some extra attention)

When I finally lay everything out, it was wider than it was long so Mom suggested I add in some strips between each "banner".  What a great idea!  You're so smart Mom! :)

Later, I decided to stagger every other banner so the points aren't all lined up...so it won't look exactly like this when it is done but it gives you an idea.

Slowly but surely this is coming together and I can't wait to show you the finished product.

*I know some of you (especially you quilters) might be cringing at this...I know it's not perfectly pleasing to the eye but I love it because when I look at it, all the time and energy and love I put into those banners, not to mention the whole reason for the banners, come to my mind and I smile :)