Scrap Challenge

My Fiber Frenzy group set a challenge for our last meeting…..creatively using scraps in a project.

I had planned to make a sunflower quilt to be given to Deb (my friend and Co-Chair for the past quilt show) so I decided to “scrap it up”!!

First step….pull out all of the yellow/gold scrap strips…..

Next, sew them onto an interfacing base…..

I then photocopied the strips and tried cutting petals and experimenting with the placement…..

I cut some petals with the stripes across the petals…..

Some with the stripes running the length of the petal…..

But my favorite was with the stripes running diagonally…..

Next, I made the center of the flower, using a technique from a book by Nancy Eha.  It is called elevated beading and you begin by setting a base of beads with another bed on top of it.  The new line of beads are woven thru the upper beads….

When I added this center onto the original flower, it looked dowdy and not at all how I saw it in my mind’s eye.

I was about ready to give up and start over with the flower, when I thought….maybe I can add some paint.  SO….out came the gold Set-A-Color paint and I used it to soften the colors of the flower and the leaves as well. 

Much Better…..

I used more paints to stamp the inspirational words on the background. 

Next step was to find a border….

Of course this step requires pulling out hoards of fabrics to try….

Here is the finished piece…… a happy use of my scraps and a “thank you” quilt for a wonderful friend…..