Making an Asian Inspired Quilt

I'm making an Asian inspired quilt. I swore I would never, ever, not in a million years make a quilt. Well... I lied. Although technically I haven't lied yet, the quilt isn't done.

color squares

I really don't know how this happened. OK, that isn't true, I know whose fault it is. Keri Aragon, from String Bean Studios, she is to blame! All I said was that I needed to raise some money and the next thing I knew I was rummaging through my fabric and cutting out squares.

Keri use to make quilts with her grandma. They sold for a pretty penny, which sounds pretty good to me since I am suddenly in the market for a new car and scrambling to figure out how I am going to afford to move in April.

This is a major work in progress. I'm pretty excited about it though. I managed to find a lot of freecycle fabrics that fit together for the project. The majority of the quilt will have to be made from new materials though.

Of course after I got started I couldn't help thinking about all the denim jeans friends have sent me to Upcycle. Now that might make a pretty cool and almost entirely upcycled quilt! I have to focus on one project at a time or I start to go crazy, right now I think I have about four going. Wait no, make that five.

playing with the layout

Little Imperfections = Donations

Opps, I stitched in the wrong place!

I am soooo not perfect. I botch things up all the time. Some are so bad I have to throw them out. Sometimes I can salvage pieces for another project. When I'm lucky I can salvage the entire thing, give it a few tweaks and call it good. The two mini wallets in this post are examples of a tweak and save.

On the green and blue wallet I lined up my pockets to the bottom of the wallet and sewed it together. Only after I had cut away all the extra seam allowance did I realize I lined the wrong pocket up! I took it apart and tried to sew it back together but there wasn't enough fabric in the pocket to fit in the seam. So I tweaked it. I zigzag stitched around the entire wallet to close the bottom seam. I actually really like the look! The wallet is now completely functional and the pockets are in the right place.

The pink wallet was the first mini wallet I made. Everything was finished and perfect until I tried to open the wallet. The snap was a little stiff and I was pulling pretty hard on the fabric. I decided that the front pockets were going to need some reinforcement. It was too late for this little guy but every mini wallet since has been made with a stronger pocket. There is nothing actually wrong with the pink wallet and the snap has since loosened up a bit.

I usually don't sell my tweaked items. Instead I donate my little imperfections to individuals who are fundraising for their Lyme disease treatment. I get a lot of requests for donations and I don't always have something to donate. So I put each persons name on a list with the date of their event. I send out the items as they 'happen' and in the order they were requested.

So far I have donated six items to six different Lyme patient benefits and auctions. Most of the auctions and benefits haven't taken place yet, and a few of the people don't even know that I have something for them since I only started making the mini wallets this past week.

If you are having and auction/benefit for yourself or another Lymie, I am happy to add you to the list, but understand I may not have anything for you in time for the event. If your event date passes, I remove your name from the list. Don't forget, I'm a disabled Lymie too and selling the items I make for Upcycled by Ash is my source of income. Sometimes it is hard for me to remember to put myself first when there are so many people I wish I could help.