"Scrap-busting" Quilt in Progress: Not A Sundress!

After my promise to myself to not give in to fall sewing, and to keep making cute sundresses until October, what do I do? I promptly start working on a QUILT, of all things! If that doesn't scream fall, nay, winter, I don't know what does. But that's classic me, to decide I want to do one thing and then get bewitched by another. I still have at least three summery dresses I want to make, so let's hope this quilt goes quickly!

I originally decided in my new school year sewing resolutions that I wanted to make something like this book themed scrap-busting quilt. I mean, I love books, so it's perfect, right? Well, never content to leave well enough alone (who or what is this Well Enough character? why won't anyone leave him alone, poor thing?), I decided to make a quilt based on a very specific book, and hopefully still do some scrap-busting at the same time. It's turning out to not actually bust very many scraps, unfortunately, but that's okay, because I love how it's going so far!

As mentioned before, my husband and I just moved to LA from SD, and of course we had to bring our cat, Walnut, along with us. It breaks my heart to see how many ads in the pet section on Craigslist are about people who are moving and therefore are giving up their pets. I understand that every situation is different, and sometimes there really is nothing you can do, but Walnut is our baby, so we wanted him with us in LA for sure! Granted, moving two hours over to another city isn't the same as moving cross-country or even internationally, but it wasn't easy either.

Planning for how were going to transport him with as little stress as possible for all involved, I definitely had a few moments of "how much easier would this be if it were just the two of us humans!" But it reminded me of one of my favorite books, The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery...specifically the part where the little prince's fox says "You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed." Ideally, my quilt would have had this scene on it, but that wouldn't really bust many scraps. So I decided to do the scene from the front of my edition of the book, where the prince hitches a ride with a flock of wild birds to escape his planet. By doing each bird in a different fabric, I used...maybe two percent of my scraps. Oh well.

"I believe that for his escape he took advantage of the migration of a flock of wild birds."

I started by sketching on wrapping paper all the different pieces I was going to need, then outlining them in Sharpie and cutting them out.

Free-handing it from my well-loved copy of the book. With very professional paper-weights.

I wrote down how many I would need of each bird and star, just like a real pattern! Hah, not really.

Scraps cut out and ready to go!

I used a white IKEA sheet as the base (no idea what the official quilt term is called!) for my appliques.

Before washing, Walnut had to claim it as his own by getting his hair all over it.

I laid out all my scraps. Seconds after this picture was taken, Walnut jumped on the prince and started rolling around all over him.

I'm still trying to figure out what I want to use to attach the little prince to his birds...ribbon scraps? Embroidery thread? Part of the quilting process but in a different color thread? Any other ideas?

Also, I don't actually know how to make a real quilt, so this is yet another figure-it-out-as-you-go project, like my fake Bellatrix corset. I just finished pinning the scraps onto the sheet, and hopefully I'll finish sewing them on today. After that, I just need to unroll my batting, cut up another sheet for the backing, quilt and bind the whole thing! So easy! Hah. Hahaha. I crack myself up.