Winner of Sisterhood of Scraps

Thank you all for your wonderful comments about who or what inspired you to quilt.  I enjoyed reading all of your stories, and will be responding to your comments soon.  In the meantime, I just had the drawing for the winner of Sisterhood of Scraps.  I conveniently used my husband as a random number generator.  He yelled out, "21!" as if there was a crowd in our house.  Congratulations, Mary Andra!  If you'll shoot me your mailing address, I'll send you a copy of Lissa's book!  

Have a good week, everyone!

Sisterhood of Scraps

What a wonderful title for a quilting book.  As a community of quilters, we teach, learn from, share with, inspire, and encourage each other.  The quilting community is truly a sisterhood.  Lissa Alexander’s newest book, Sisterhood of Scraps (published by Martingale) conveys that message clearly.  Lissa reached out to a few quilters who each contributed a quilt based on an agreed shape, quilt block, or concept, with no other rules.  Lissa also made “sister” quilts.  The result is a fabulous variety of scrap quilts in all styles for all skill levels.  It's so interesting to see what two different quilters create with the same idea.  There’s even a Sisterhood of Scraps membership certificate in the back of the book for you to frame and hang in your sewing space.  It's an honor to have my project included in this book along with women whose work I admire so much -- Lissa, Laurie Simpson, Sandy Klop, Sheryl Johnson, Barbara Brackman, and Susan Ache (Instagram).  

Lissa and I agreed to use the LeMoyne Star block as a jumping off point for our quilts.  For my quilt, I dissected the LeMoyne Star block into quadrants and rearranged them.  I also split the background squares diagonally so that there are no set-in seams, making it super easy to construct.  You’re welcome.  :-)  Here's my quilt, "Divergence." 

I don't even know how to describe Lissa’s sister quilt, "Christmas All Year," except that it's brilliant!  She pieced the stars (also without set-in seams), then arranged the units in an octagonal layout in multiple rounds.  She set the center on point and pieced the low-volume background.  Isn't it the perfect Christmas quilt?  I'm itching to make this one with a blue background for a Fourth of July quilt.  This would make a beautiful "fireworks" quilt, don't you think?

A while back, I lost interest in quilting.  When Lissa approached me about her idea for this book, I was so excited about the concept, and had so much fun working on my project.  After I turned in the project directions and the sample quilt, I lost interest again, and have only worked on small projects in little bits of time.  When I received an advance copy of Sisterhood of Scraps, it almost magically sparked my enthusiasm for quilting again.  It's all I can think about these days.  There are at least five or six quilts in this book that I want to start working on yesterday.  It was hard to choose which project to make first, but I already had tons of strips from an abandoned project, so I started with Sandy Klop's "Forever Friends" quilt.  Yes, this one.  

To say I’m obsessed with this project is an understatement.  All day, I look forward to rushing home to cut scraps and add new blocks.  Here’s my progress so far. 

Strip-piecing makes this pattern less challenging, and keeping the pieced units organized helps as well.   

Here's another favorite that's been bouncing around in my head for a while -- "Pot o' Gold."  Isn't it fun?!  I love the polka dots scattered across the quilt.  

  
If you want to know more about the book and the stories behind the quilts, make sure you check Lissa's blog and Instagram account for more details.   And if you'd like to win your own copy of Sisterhood of Scraps, just leave a comment here and tell me who (or what) inspired you to begin quilting.  I'll draw a winner randomly and announce the winner on Monday, January 20.  See you then!  Update: Giveaway now closed.

Kim