Leaves made with scraps? I think, yes!

I've started adding leaves.  Everything is fused thus far with wonder under.  

If you notice in the picture below the template is lifted back.  I have pinned it to the quilt and I am lifting it when I iron a leaf or apple down, but using it to help me get the leaves in the right place.  The template is on stencil paper I picked up from the local art supply store.  It comes on a roll and is quite larger than stencil paper that comes in drawing or sketching books. Because it is bigger I find myself taping sections together less often. (For me, this is a big time saver and makes working with the pattern much easier.)  I will try to take a picture of this next time I have to tape sections together.

 Here's a slightly closer image.

 and even closer.  You can see here pretty clearly that I'm using lots of different prints. 

Fabric is expensive, and since money is a finite resource in our home right now, I have challenged myself a while ago to use what I have in my stash and only buy fabric when I REALLY need it.  That's a bit of loaded challenge since we quilters seem to ALWAYS need more fabric.  I have a wonderful stash that is beginning to show the signs of me not replacing fabric as often, but it is totally fun to see how far I can stretch a piece of fabric and how little I actually end up wasting - which is next to none. The biggest perk of all is learning how I end up not needing fabric as often as I think I do!

  Now, I save all my scraps and put them in color coordinated baggies.  These are even beginning to emerge into shades as I collect scraps. When I'm needing smaller pieces I just pull out the baggy with the color I need and viola... this time, I had enough green to do the leaves in a slightly darker shade than the grass!  If the scrap is under 10" X 10" (or there about) then it goes into the baggy and I save scraps down to 1" X 1".  I use a lot of small pieces of fabric in my work, so it's fun to sift through these little bags and pull from it.  All the leaves have come from this small stash with the exception of two of the prints.  There are 9 different fabrics all total.

Until next time!

Sarah