Scrap Quilt #2: A Christmas Gift to Myself

This quilt gets a boring name, but I love it too much to call it "scrap vomit" or "technicolor yawn," though that's what you'll see similar quilts called. "Technicolor yawn" seemed like a clever name until I discovered it was actually Australian slang for vomit; no thanks. It is not completely scraps, but mostly. Finished just before Christmas, I'm totally keeping this one for myself. (Having the Christmas tree in front of the patio door definitely complicated the photo shoot.)

This quilt features 1110 2.5" squares (20 blocks of 49 squares plus a border) and I quilted through every square twice. It is much more heavily quilted than most of my quilts and required a lot of thread. I quilted with a light pink thread to match the backing fabric. I originally intended to make the top even scrappier, with only one ring of matching fabric, but I'm really pleased I had enough matching scraps to do it the way I did.

Yo-Yo Christmas Tree

Earlier this fall, my mom texted me a photo of a what essentially was a yo-yo tree with stuffed yo-yos. I made her this instead because I thought it would look better with flat yo-yos. I used this tutorial for guidance. The yo-yos range from 6cm to 22cm. I used a 3/8" dowel so a saw wasn't necessary because I could cut through it with my scissors. I hot glued the dowel into a 1" wooden spool. If I did this again, I would cut a circle of thin cardboard to insert in the biggest yo-yo to better support the bottom, otherwise it's large enough to be droopy. I hoped to find a star bead to stick on top of the dowel, but no luck, so I used a wooden star instead.

Finished size: approximately 4" wide and 8" high

Origami Crane Ornament

Amanda made me several hundred paper cranes over the course of several years, so I decided to make her a crane ornament. I'm not sure why it took so long for crane inspiration to strike! I used a paper-piecing pattern.

Finished size: 5" diameter

Origami Tree Ornament

Several years ago I made a tree like this out of paper, and I decided to try it with fabric, using this tutorial. I went with scraps of the fabulous fabric I used for Melissa's tree skirt. The squares of fabric used to create the tree tiers are 2.25", 2.5", 2.75", and 3". The cork circle is 4" in diameter. I added snowflakes around the edge and decorated the edges of the tree tiers with sparkly puffy paint. The fabric is just ironed to create the folded shapes and hot glued in place. I debated stiffening it with something to prevent fraying, but I thought that would make it too difficult to work with.

Ribbon Owl Ornament

I saw an owl very similar to this on a hair bow at Joann's and knew I needed to make one for Amanda. Mine is a bit different though. I decided to use a rhinestone for the belly, so I glued two wooden discs together and painted them red to provide support for the rhinestone and the eyes. I also added googly eyes, since I didn't have black and white ribbon and also it seemed less fiddly. It is about 1.5" x 2".

Mini Spools of Thread Ornament

Earlier this year Amanda began taking sewing classes, so I was inspired to create a sewing themed ornament by wrapping ribbon around tiny wooden spools and dropping them in a glass ornament.