Saturday, September 17, 2022

 All pretence of organisation has gone out the window, and I'm flitting from one thing to another in my sewing room. I'm not too upset over that, because I'm making little bits of progress on quite a few things, and I don't particularly want a big finish. I just want to play, so that is what I'm doing. Normally I have a burst of Spring Energy, but it doesn't really feel like Spring just yet; hence the slow pottering around. It's still cool and wet, and I am really happy about that. I am not looking forward to summer at all.



I was sick of the ironed fabric draped over every surface. I feel like I can't fold yardage back into the drawers, because then I'd have to iron it again next time, so I try to cut as much as I can while it's out. Then there's all the scraps that really have no home, so they have to be on racks cluttering up my room. I needed to tackle it all.



I made a decision on the sashing for the Sawtooth Stars blocks, and got those blocks put together.

How can this happen, when I spend so long arranging blocks so the fabrics and colours are balanced?


I guess something got flipped, or I just wasn't paying attention, but I'm not unpicking anything. That paisley I used for the cornerstones was the only fabric I liked for that position. A while ago I bought a half metre at Jamestown, and was kicking myself when I got home and discovered I already had a FQ. It felt like I'd missed out on the chance to spend that money on a new fabric for the stash. However, I'm so glad I had that half metre, because the FQ wouldn't have been enough. That was serendipity. I also chose the borders, and cut them ready to attach, but I wasn't in the mood for that, so it's been set aside.


Of course I cut too many extra pieces for those blocks, so in a spur of the moment decision, I decided to make a Flying Geese quilt.  That gave me a reason to cut up so, so many scraps, and deal with them once and for all. Firstly, from the dark scraps I cut a 5.25" strip,then cut a large square to cut twice diagonally for the geese. I cut a 4.5" square to add to the box for later; they will be centres of blocks, or I'll make a quilt just out of squares, or something. All I cared was that it took a big bite out of the strip. 

After that I cut 2.5" strips and cut them into bricks, for my next Stacked Bricks quilt, and squares for the scrap 6" blocks on my small design wall.

After that, I cut whatever width strip I could and stowed them in the stash drawers. 



The light scraps were cut into 3" squares,cut diagonally for the sky part of the  Flying Geese. They should be 2 7/8", but I cut them at 3" so  I have a little bit of wiggle room when I trim them to size. There weren't many light scraps, so I think I'm going to have to pull yardage to cut the amount I'll need.



Once all that was done,  the trimmings went in the rubbish. I'm pleased with the amount of fabric I've been able to get through in this manner, and I'm probably going to drag more stuff out of the actual scrap drawers so I can add to the piles of cut pieces.



I'm also cut my less-than-loved scraps into 8.5" squares for Scrappy Mountain Majesty blocks, and whittled a huge pile of them down to almost nothing. It's been a good cutting week.



Of course I had to make a few Flying Geese just to start the project off.  I had to buy a new project box, naturally, but it's all nicely organised and ready for some MAD piecing sometimes soon. I want to make enough for a whole Flying Geese quilt, but also have spares so that I can do borders at a moments notice. And they will be brilliant leader-enders when I work on other quilts.


I now have three quilts just waiting on borders, so I will tackle them soon. Once I clean up the scraps and get myself motivated. Soon.

1 comment:

  1. Everything looks beautiful. I'm amazed at your productivity!

    San / Gypsy Quilter Designs

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