One of the things I wanted Luke to help me with was how to make the materials I use (old clothes) become more interesting - for my designs and quilts to be more innovative - and perhaps on occasion less traditional. I started unloading my huge stash of clothes waiting to be recreated into something wonderful - when Luke asked if I kept scraps - me? keep scraps? - you could almost see him gag when I showed him how much of my scraps I kept! His theory was why use the good stuff when we could use the scraps. I couldn't argue with him - so we set about sewing the white and blue scraps into 'splats' (my eloquent name for them). Little blue pieces (above) all sewn together turn into a blue splat (below.) From these splats we cut 2.5" strips and pieced traditional log-cabin blocks. I thought it was really interesting how when you start to make a structured block from this random splat it all comes together & the little scraps all sewn together look very purposeful - as if you have almost meant to put each scrap where it is. Up close it looks random - but step back and the pattern becomes very clear. I particularly like all the whites together. I would be happy to make a whole quilt from white scraps like this. During the process of making my splats I experimented with sewing the seams the wrong way and instead of sewing bits together - sewing little splat patches onto big splats just with a running stitch. I really like the effect it has of making the surface texture of the blue fabric more interesting. My finished block which I will become the center of a pretty quilt in the near future. Now I just need to find time to sew all of my scraps together in this way to make them all re-useable fabric pieces ....
