Scrappy Eye Candy

It has been a quiet few days in Institches land.  I have nothing new to show you. The picture of the quilt I wanted to show you turned out poorly.  So I am going to share some photos of scrap quilts.  Faithful Circle Quilters in Columbia, Maryland has a quilt show every two years. We usually hang 300 quilts which is pretty amazing.  In addition there are demonstrations by various guild members.  I will be sharing with you scrap quilts made by Pat Neal that she showed during a demonstration.   I don't know if these are original ideas, from a book, or ideas that took off in her brain after viewing various books.  But they are stunning scrap quilts none the less. First is this wonky log cabin.  She said she was just using up leftover fabrics.  Although most of the fabrics are bright and black and whites some appear to be rather subtle.  Hum, throw all my brights together, eh? 

This next one appears to be a 9 patch and a plain square.  Except, that isn't an even 9 patch.  Hum, we could change the expected size of a pattern to get a different look.  Lots of the fabrics seem to be the same from the log cabin.   I bet she buys lots of fabric when shopping! Notice the border is made up with at least one extra piece of fabric. And, see the little prairie point added to the border?  Pretty cute.  Now, I know I don't have that many bright scraps, do I?  Something to think about. 

And now, what I think is the most spectacular quilt of all she showed. She used a diamond shape to make string pieced blocks.  Then she added the yellow but to add that little wow touch she put large (giant size?) rickrack between the yellows and the string blocks.  I think it is stunning.  If you look at the blocks themselves there appears to be no rhyme or reason to the fabrics she chose to sew into the block.  Some are lights, some mediums and some dark.  They are scattered around.  I think Pat said she just grabs from a bag (or basket or box or ....) and puts whatever string is in her hand into the block.  What makes this a WOW quilt is the yellow that holds the whole thing together.  I am also wondering if she put a selvedge into the block with the white polka dots on black.  Hum, maybe I should be saving those darn selvedges! 

I really wished these were MY quilts but I am so happy to have pictures of them to inspire me.  Hopefully they will inspire you too.  Happy Quilting.  And, yes, I plan to get a few minutes of quilting in today.  Snow is predicted for tomorrow and the all wheel drive car will go to work with DH -- and I'll stay home to clean house for T-Day visitors.  

Bonnie