Friday, October 31, 2008

Floor Scraps

First I want to thank Leslie for her quilty suggestions. It turns out I was probably doing all the things Leslie suggested -- or was too tired to know what I was doing. After a good night's sleep the quilting went swimmingly. I finished the quilt today. Here it is! (And by the way, the stick really hangs straight and so does the quilt - miraculously - but it looks wonky in the photo. Just thought I'd mention that.) Floor Scraps #1 --



My friend KR asked "what are floor scraps?" I got this idea from Comic Book Lady at Quilt as Desired. C.B.L. attended a retreat put on by the famous "mother of liberated quilting," Gwen Marston. Lucky her!! This is what C.B.L. said on her blog:

She [Gwen] then told us about floor scrap quilts. "Don't worry about cleaning up your scraps", she said, because after each week of retreats she collects the floor scraps and makes quilts out of them. She encouraged us to do the same. It was funny, as many of us were searching the aisles for floor scraps.

Here is a floor scraps quilt made by Gwen (again, borrowed from Quilt as Desired - thank you).



When I read about floor scraps I had been doing a variety of sewing projects and had a hodge-podge of scraps all over my sewing area, table top, and floor. So I gathered them up (even retrieved some from the trash can) and made this FS quilt. The beads are from a local store that is going out of business. Boo hoo! I had been wondering where to find beads on a ribbon, and only now found them when the store is closing. Rotten luck!

I plan to make more Floor Scrap quilts.. try to hone my skills in this area and pretend I'm an artist like Gwen. haha! Fat chance, but I like the idea of Floor Scrap quilts, so I'll go with it.

I've had a bad cold for a few days and left work early today to go home and take a nap. I took the beautiful route home and got these pictures. (Couldn't resist!) We're past the fall-colors peak, but there are still beauties hanging on, and it is a different kind of beautiful. These pictures are along a high bluff over the Mississippi River. This ravine was "on fire gorgeous" a couple weeks ago, but I didn't manage to get there when I had my camera. Because it's a highway, I just pulled over in my car - there's not a good place to stand - and took this picture out my car window, so it includes the bridge rails. It's pretty in its own way but was spectacular a while back.





Same with these others... random pictures of trees along the Mississippi, most leaves are gone, but there's still some beauty left. It's fun to have the color lingering so long into the post-fall season!







Here's my co-worker all dressed up. The patch is real because of eye surgery, so she turned it into a total look...



...and here's a little flag I made at the very last minute before the kids came trick-or-treating... BOO!



This my Accidental Movie. I didn't even realize my camera was set in the movie mode and that I was shooting a movie!

6 comments:

Chris Daly said...

I LOVE YOUR FLOOR SCRAPS QUILT!

Twisted Quilts said...

I enjoyed the floor scrap idea so much. Yours are great. it really stretches you creatively. I like the giraffe in the upper corner.

Darcie said...

Oh those views from your surroundings are just gorgeous! Thank you, Carol!

Your floor scraps are darling. What a great idea to turn them into a banner...with glitz and glamour. Very cool.

Happy November!

comicbooklady said...

I love your floor scraps quilt! I love the dangling beads, what a wonderful wallhanging!

Quiltdivajulie said...

I love it when a quilt evolves out of nowhere - your floor scraps, my Cloak of Many Colors... pieces that would have ended up in a box or a trash can transformed into something wonderful. Love it!

Mary Johnson said...

Post fall season?? It's just the beginning of November! We were lucky and still found lots of color along the Mississippi this past weekend, not to mention I was walking home today and wished I had my camera, there are a bunch of trees on my street still in full color.