Waste Not Want Not

Inspired by all of the nice comments on the blocks I had made for this quilt, I decided to finish it up this weekend. After getting the top done I started looking for backing for it. To tell the truth, for some reason I automatically try to use just one piece for most of my backings, and if I don't have enough of what I want usually make a trip to a fabric store to purchase something that will work. I do look for a bargain fabric, but nonetheless often end up spending money on yet more fabric. Since this quilt started out being about using something I already had I went back to my stash and started pulling out fabrics that went with my top.

I found a nice long red print that was long enough, but not near wide enough. I added the small amount left after adding the borders - it was wide enough to make up the difference but only about half long enough. Then I found a piece of the same print in the blue as the red. This was not wide enough, but I cut and pieced it to make a strip that was wide enough, but still lacked a few inches in length. This was the perfect opportunity to add a strip of the fabric that I had used as the focus fabric when choosing my fabrics for the original top that the triangles came from. (The guitar print). I admit, it did take me a little time to get everything together and ready to use, but it wasn't that much time, and I got some odd pieces of fabric out of my stash and into a quilt!

The batting I used was a leftover piece from another project, and did not need to be pieced, but I have been known to piece batting when needed. (Good topic for a future post, right?) I layered it, basted it, then looked through all the thread I already own to find something to quilt with. I had a red, but it was too purpl-y. The blue worked great - so it was just a matter of doing the quilting, finding another piece of yardage for the binding (another red, seems like I end up with a lot of these reds and never use much of them!) So, this quilts used leftover triangles from another project, three pieces of yardage from my stash for the back, 1 piece for the binding and a piece of batting also from my stash! I would definitely call this a quilt that I made using the most of my resources and not being wasteful!

Frugally yours!

Pamela