Some people make quilts out of fabric scraps. I have yet to make a quilt (soon!), and the prospect of saving scraps for future quilts seems like it would be great for someone with a sewing room and lots of storage, not so much for my studio apartment. But those bits and pieces of fabric can be used for something, right?

I saved this weekend's scraps, in rag balls. it was a quietly productive weekend, and I had both time and energy to sit out on the porch and scrap them together. I have this idea to knit a small rug out of them. a welcome mat or a bath mat, like the one in . Many more scraps will be needed for that. If only I had begun saving them a few months ago, there would be many rag balls by now. ah well.

I used this rag knitting tutorial to turn random scraps into balls.

For full pieces of fabric or garments, there's an easier way: Vintage Chica Rag Rug Tutorial

A morning's sewing yielded this sundress.

Its the All-weekend Sundress from Heather Ross' book, Weekend Sewing. I thought it looked great in the book photos, but suspected it would be unflattering on me. It turned out okay though! Honeymoon worthy? I think so!

The fabric is cotton jersey from Mood. I almost went with navy, and perhaps will go back for it and make another dress. If I make this again, I'll lengthen the skirt 5 inches or so .

I ran into a strange problem with the elastic thread on the top and waist. On the first try it did not stretch enough and ended up tight. Stretching the fabric a bit while sewing fixed this.

Give this sundress a try! Its super easy.

Back in the depth of winter, I took a machine quilting class at Purl Patchwork. I bought fabric for this baby quilt back then too, solids for the front and the print for the backing. Then I started a new job and wedding planning and this project was set aside - until now.

The quilt front will be made of these half-square triangles, a color paired with white for each, to be pieced in a random arrangement. Each square will only be 3 inches, I like them small. But according to my calculations, the quilt will need on the order of 168 squares!

What do you think would be the best way to quilt this? I love the look of swirling circle quilt lines, but since this is my first quilt undertaking, maybe straight lines are the way to go.

(Printed fabric by Alexander Henry, solids are Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton)