2015 - Challenges
I was having a hard time coming up with ideas as to what to make from my "upcycled materials", though. So, I decided in 2015, to begin to use challenges or quilt alongs as a starting point for making quilts from entirely upcycleds/recycleds.
In 2015, I started with a challenge quilt in Pat Sloan's Facebook group. She challenged us to make a quilt with a block of checkerboard - she called Hip to be Square. This is what I came up with. At this point, I was starting to really use my Electric Quilt program. Unfortunately, I was really "winging it" on the border - it is kind of a miracle that it turned out - so I've never written this one up. Maybe when I know more.

I then went back to my original style - I think I already had this one cut out from my 2014 efforts. Another framed 9 patch.

Black and white are classic colors, so when I saw this black and white Ikea duvet cover at the second-hand shop I snatched it up.

I put it on point and added some borders to it to make it big enough.
Then, Pat Sloan gave us another challenge - that was to use this star block in a quilt. This was my interpretation--I put it on point and reversed the colors of the star points - making the star points light and the background dark. This one had a little bit of everything - curtains, duvet covers, ladies' shirts/blouses, dresses, men's shirts, pajamas, and even a piece of yardage I found second-hand.

I felt like by this time, I had succeeded in leaving "the look" behind - that of a simply making a quilt out of men's shirts and having it "look like it."
So far, so good!
I liked how the first bargello turned out, so I made a second one from upcycled materials.

I then made this quilt using one of Pat's blocks from her yearly mystery - only I made a whole quilt from it. It was a classic mosaic block found in the Electric Quilt program - so I was able to draw it up and work out this design. I used lots of the extra HST in the border. (I usually make my HST (if they are this size by using paper piecing) - a whole sheet of paper and sewing on lines - see the pattern "Autumn Splendor" for more details if you are curious.) I used the same basic set of fabrics as the previous autumn colored quilt.

I had collected so many of these autumn fabrics, that I went ahead and made a third one from these fabrics. Yeah...more framed 9 patches. Time to get a little more ambitious!

For my next one, I was tickled to find several coordinating garments within a couple of weeks of each other. I found the brown with the pink and blue and then found items that coordinated with that--all were on sale for 1 zl each (about 33 cents at the time.) I felt like it was a gift from the Lord. The white was a sheet or duvet cover--can't remember which and it probably cost about $3.

I decided I wanted to finish up this top I had made previously. I can often find solids much more easily than I can find interesting prints (second hand here in Poland.)

I decided to make one more bargello from 100% upcycleds. The result was wonderful! I'm such a sucker for this particular pattern.
