Putting scraps of fabric, batting, binding and orphan blocks to a good use!

Although charitable giving should be a year-round activity, I seem to have more sewing machine time during the holidays. I was able to devote some late night hours this month to piecing batting, machine quilting and machine binding five charity quilts for the kitties at the Cat Clinic of Chattanooga. We dropped them off last Friday.

Machine binding small charity quilts for kitties at The Cat Clinic.

Scrap busting and repurposing orphan blocks
I fit scrap-busting patchwork into my schedule throughout the year. It's a great mindless activity to do while de-stressing, mentally sifting through To-Do lists, and overcoming creative blocks... while still being productive! A guild program on re-purposing orphan quilt blocks also prompted an archeological fabric dig to uncover a few of my own. Results of these activities went into completing recent kitty quilts.

Left: flannel scrap buster top.
Right: three re-purposed orphan blocks from a block swap.

Scrap buster quilts.

Leftover 2.5" strips from pre-cut strip collections are put to good use on the bindings. I had fun mixing and matching colors and prints!

Right: a hexagon orphan block upcycle.

These are great little projects for patching together and using up leftover batting bits, too! Use a machine zigzag stitch, fusible batting tape or hand stitching to hold the batting pieces together.

Batting bits are pieced together.

Flannel backings provide softness and warmth

The quilt backs are flannel so the kitties have one side that is extra-snuggly. (These flannels happened to be cat prints.) Due to a scrap collection of flannel fabrics I was working with, a few of the quilts also had flannel patchwork on the front. Double snuggle!

Flannel cat prints are used for the quilt backings.

The quilt with the hexagon orphan block prompted the machine quilting design. I started the quilting in the center of the hexagon block and went out from there (see the quilt's back below).

Hexagon quilt back showing the free-motion quilting.

Eleven kitty quilts donated in 2019

Cassandra (Cassie) is one of the Clinic's office mascots. She was more interested in her box than investigating the new quilts this time. However, the staff is always appreciative of the donation and they like the colorful fabrics and novelty prints in the quilts.

Cassie (left) decided to stay in her box rather than investigate the new quilts.

With these 5 quilts added to the 6 dropped off in September, the total donation comes to 11 quilts—almost one for each month of 2019.

If you're looking for something meaningful in which to use your fabric and batting scraps, small charity quilts are a good solution. Check with local organizations or shelters to see what their needs are. Or here is a list of national organizations that accept donated quilts, fabrics and sewing supplies. Pass along some quilty goodness!