More playing with shirts

I'm up to 10 completed Rail Fence blocks, with the pieces cut for many more.

It's using up a satisfying amount of shirts and scraps, so I'm really pleased about that. The more it takes the better, as far as I'm concerned. But there was the box of offcuts sitting there.....

I quickly made 2 crumb blocks, to help me decide if I wanted to throw the bits out, or turn them into yet another top. Guess I'm not throwing them out.

This hexagon project has been hanging round for about a quarter of a century. It's made with .5"hexagons, using little 1"sample squares from shops. I lost interest in it, after I'd sewed that dark border bit. Hated it, set it all aside.

The other day I thought, maybe I could un-pull those dark rows and use another colour there, and actually finish this. It was just a thought, but I decided it was worth a try.

However, I seem to have sewn the hexagons together with 20 stitches a side, stitches so tiny I can't even see them without magnification. I had very good eyesight when I worked on this, and I never took it for granted. I was always grateful that I didn't need glasses, or even particularly good light to work in. I do now though. If I do decide to take those dark hexies off it will be a long process.

I could be sewing each and every night, but I've been spinning whenever the mood takes me. This was a ram fleece, so stinky all I could ever do was shut the bag up as quick as I could. But it was a lovely colour, and really long, and cheap. About three weeks ago I held my breath and crammed it into a bucket of water with a lid, and left it in the sun to marinate. Last week I pulled it out, still reeeking, washed it twice in blue Dawn dishwashing liquid, and then put fabric softener in the rinse water. Now it smells beautiful, and I've saved it from the compost pile. But it just goes to show, I can never throw anything away.

I was pleased with how even my spinning is getting, but then wondered why I would want my handspun to look just the same as commercial yarn.. It doesn't feel the same though, it feels bouncy and full of life, and it smells great too! Maybe I'll end up with enough to make a vest, that would be a great project to aim for. It's getting mighty chilly in these parts.

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Last week I finished this top, and I like how it turned out. It's 62"x 70", a good size couch quilt.

I like how rustic it looks, and I like the border of random rectangles. They were cut from the 3.5"strips and the ends of the 8.5"strips that I cut for the big triangles. I'm all about using up all the scraps.

My Rail Fence is coming along nicely, I should have 7 blocks finished, but....

I shouldn't sew late at night, and in a hurry. My first thing today will be ripping out this seam and sewing it the right way. I have lots of strips cut ready for the next batch of blocks, and I'm ironing more shirts to send through the Accuquilt. I've spent hours starching and ironing shirt pieces, but it pays off when the pieces are more stable and go together more accurately.

I'm trying to get rid of everything except shirt back and sleeves, so there aren't any little bits left to store. I'm ploughing my way through the yokes, which will yield a 2" or 3.5" strip. The rest can go in the bin.

Some shirts aren't the usual check or stripe; these ones are beautiful quality, but they just don't go with the others. I think they will find their way into my regular stash. That blue paisley is just gorgeous.

I'll have to make a decision soon about whether to make string or crumb blocks from the offcuts. It's a lot of fabric to throw away, but I have to draw a line somewhere. My ordinary stash is calling to me, and I would like to get back to regular programming soon.

Last night we did something we haven't done for ages, and went for a drive at the end of the workday. The clouds were beautiful, so we drove down country roads, marvelled over old stone farmhouses, gave ourselves the creeps photographing an abandoned homestead, and then followed the water pipeline home, over more bumpy dirt roads. The sunset was just stunning. Such beautiful colours, it's the perfect end to the day.

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Shirts

 2023 is not going to be my best blogging year, I've been very lax. Maybe I can do better in the later stages of the year. I'm always disappointed when I let the blog lapse, because often it's the only record I have of how I spent my days. I must try harder.

I've been making a glorious mess in the sewing room and environs, leaping from new project to new project. I've ditched the batiks, and now I'm working on sewing down the stash of shirts. 

 It's a very scattergun approach, but ideas keep occuring to me as I sew, and I need to make a sample before I forget, so I get sidetracked. I guess I should feel guilty, but I'm having a wonderful time, so I'm not going to rein it back. I'll end up overcome with sensibility soon enough, it's time to play right now.

It all starts with other people blogging about quilts that I'm instantly drawn to. It was just such a quilt on Lovin' Life At The End Of The Dirt Road that sent me down this rabbit hole. That plaid quilt....

I began cutting from the 4 tubs of shirts that I have stashed away, and I kept cutting, and cutting....and cutting. I couldn't stop. Those big triangles are cut from an 8.5"strip, so that used up a shirt front lickety split. After I cut more than twice what I needed I came to my senses and concentrated on the smaller triangles. They are cut from 3.5"strips, and I went a bit overboard on them too.

The solution was to have a Plan B of course. 

These go together surprising well, considering how varied the shirts are, from soft flannelly cotton to crisp poplin to homespun check.

I'm going to sash them with one of the bigger shirts, just haven't decided which one yet.

Having made an excruciating mess of the shirts I decided they needed to be reduced to one tub. So I began cutting for at least three other projects (Plans C, D, and E).

The big rectangles will become a bricks quilt. The squares will be cut in half for triangles, or will become nine-patches. The little rectangles will become this quilt, that I can blame Becky at Quilted Twins for. Mine will be made from 2"x 3.5"rectangles though; her smaller size would be sheer hard work with these shirts.

After having rejected the shirts with stripes again and again, I decided to do something about them.

This fussy cutting is turning out to be loads of fun, and I can't guarantee I won't buy another couple of shirts to help me complete a whole quilt. Four of the striped shirts are cut up, but the scraps!! My gosh the scraps from them, all promising more possibilities.

I've chucked a lot of shirts too thin to use, and I've sorted what's left into more sensible categories, and I'm still cutting and cutting. It's nice to have my enthusiasm back, even if it means 5 new projects.

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Batiks

Karen at Quilts etc recently finished her lovely Rainbow Crossings quilt. I've been following her progress on it for some time, thinking, I have that Accuquilt star die. I could make those stars. Hmmmm.....

When I bought the die I immediately made a test block, and found it so easy to put together. NO set in seams here.

But I also wondered if I could change it and make a dark star on a light background, or a light star on a dark background. the answer is, yes you can!

I'm still obsessing about using up the batik stash, so one night I ironed many, many FQs and set about cutting pieces with this die.

I still think my batik stash is too limited, there's not a lot of variety, but I don't want to take the time to build it into a really comprehensive stash. It would be too expensive, and take too much time, and I don't love them enough. But some of them are lovely....

I know a lot of quilters don't care for ironing their seams as they go, or making all their seams intersections meet, but I don't fall into that category. I love it when  everything is just right, and if I take the time to make all the units correctly then the whole block, and quilt, goes together nicely as well. 

Of course, that depends on my mood too, so if I'm in a hurry, or I don't like what I'm doing, I can mash seams and fudge with the best of them. But I do love being precise.

I have absolutely no plans for these as yet. I'm just playing at making them and combining whatever colours I feel like. I don't need to know where it's going, I just want to have fun.

The Flying Geese leader-ender blocks are multiplying quickly. I already have 160, with hardly any effort. If I had to make 160 all at once I'd complain, but I've hardly noticed these accumulating one seam at a time.

I'm aiming for this arrangement, needing 245 geese, and it won't take long to get to that number. Then I'll have the fun of choosing the fabric for the bars between them. I'd better start cogitating about that one.

The mess in the sewing room is staggering, so I think I'll spend the Easter weekend getting these blocks finished and put together. Another two rows will be enough; I'll still have to faff around with borders, but I can clear away all the pieces and rediscover my cutting table.

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Progress Report

I'm starting to spend time in the sewing room more regularly, and there is progress on  a few fronts. I've cut many strips to use in this; I still haven't tracked down a name, or thought of one, so it's just the batik quilt for now.

It uses a lot of the same fabrics as the Plus quilt that I gave to my son a few years ago, and there are pieces left over from that quilt which have found a home here. There are also a heap of pieces cut for a brown Plus quilt, so I could probably move on to that once this is finished. My mind always drifts ahead to think about what is next, and I should just be enjoying the one I'm working on.

I have 16 of these blocks now, and they'll go into a project box for now. I wanted to fine tune the piecing process, so that those seam intersections met at all the important places, but it kept eluding me. Finally I think I've nailed it, but I've used up most of the scraps I was using for this, so it can wait a while till I generate more. A big consideration in pausing this was the realisation that many of these scraps were from fabric used in my Dear Jane top. I still haven't done the border triangles, and if I use up all the scraps from that then I'll have to hunt down new fabric to finish it.  So I printed out the triangle template, and I'll start putting material aside for that.

I have 14 of these Washington Sidewalk blocks made, and the triangles cut for another 9. I love making them, but I'm confusing myself with so many projects on the go, so these also will go away at least until I finish the batik quilt. (Millhouse, made of Perler beads, supervises my sewing. My eldest grand-daughter made him for me years ago, and he still makes me smile.)

As well as trying to work on three projects I was also working on three leader-enders, which definitely contributed to the overwhelm.

 I have piles of Flying Geese, 6" blocks made of squares and some rectangle blocks to use up already pieced strips. I need to simplify it all, so I'm just going to have the Flying Geese as my leader-ender for now, and keep amassing pieces for the others.

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Working on several projects lately

I've been trying to get projects completely finished, before I start a raft of new ones, but it's not been entirely successful. I spent a few days concentrating on bindings, which saw 2 little quilts finished.

 There are still 4 to bind, and another 2 have the binding attached, I just have to turn it to the back and machine it down. It won't take long, but I keep getting sidetracked.

I somehow started a new project, with these blocks. BlockBase calls them Good Fortune, so I guess I will too.

I love how graphic they are, and they don't use much fabric, so I'm chopping up some of my precious scraps. Pure fun.

Then I got a bee in my bonnet about my untouched batik stash, so I pulled out a heap of them and started cutting for this pattern, I don't know what it's called, but I love how it tessalates.

I'm piecing it in 8" blocks with a partial seam, and they are making me very happy too.

They need to take over the design wall, but I have many other things on it right now, so they'll have to wait until I can make space for them.

The UFO guilt got to me, so I pulled out a project box containing these blocks. 

I think they're called Washington Sidewalk, among other things. I love making this block, first started in 2016, then set aside since early 2020. Time to make some progress.

I have such a bad habit of not adding these tiny little corner triangles.  It seems such a trivial detail to work on, when all I want to do is finish more blocks, so I don't bother. Then I have a mountain of them to deal with. But I was good and did them all in one sitting, chain piecing one after another. I'm trying to be better about that from now on.

And how did our little baby turn 3 last month? He's such a character, very intense, opinionated, loving and impetuous. We call him Cyclone Finn, because he does everything at great speed, and sometimes with attendant destruction. Oh dear.

And, to stop me being maudlin about not having a little baby grandchild anymore, my son and daughter-in-law are expecting a little girl in August. I'm so looking forward to having another little girl in the family, what a blessing our grandchildren are.

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It's not that I haven't been doing anything in the sewing room; it's just that I haven't felt like blogging. I'm very much being in-the-moment, and that sort of precludes taking photos for future blog posts. I'm unapologetic.  My blogging mojo will return, and I'm not going to hurry it. What have I been up to in the sewing room?

I'm going through my boxes and drawers filled with spare parts, extra blocks, trial blocks, failed projects. What sparked this was the completion of the red Jacob's Ladder blocks. I HATED them. I mean, I loathed them and couldn't even bear to look at them. So I sold them on Facebook, along with a few other UFOs that I was never going to finish. The response was amazing, they were snapped up, and I felt good that they were going to new homes. So then I looked at my other bits and pieces to see what else could go.

It's been interesting, going back through decades of leftovers and false starts, and maybe-oneday pieces. My over-riding emotion was, I don't want to make quilts like this in the future. I don't want to make them Now. So the decision for most of it was easy, I've been sorting it into piles, photographing them, and they will go on Facebook too. I don't think I'll miss any of it.

Look at all this blue flotsam and jetsam. I have made an awful lot of blue quilts, and that led to an awful lot of extras and orphans.

2.5"strips. I really dislike 2.5"strips.

A box of2.5"squares. See comment above.

Ugly 3"HSTs.

Random blue 2.5"squares sewn together, plus many HSTs..

Even more of them. Why am I like this?

I took those bits and more, and sewed them into this little top. 

I had to make a few more of the little HSTs, but other than that it was all just sitting in boxes. And now it's not. Yay me. But I'm not quite ready to tackle the other bits that I decided to keep. They can mature in the dark a little longer. I've whittled them down to one underbed box, admittedly crammed full, but it's much better than it was. Once I clear the decks of all the clutter I think I'll do some something fun; I've had enough of sewing stuff just because I should.

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Slowly does it

I'm still not feeling the love in my sewing room. There are other things I want to be doing, like sorting and de-cluttering and re-organising the rest of the house. I feel guilty that I'm not making progress on any of the 30 projects I have underway, but it's not making me spring into action.

It took 2 sessions to sew the last 10 Jacob's Ladder blocks. I sewed all the parts into sets of three one night, then made the blocks the next night. I have never made so many mistakes, one after another. The seam ripper was smoking. The blocks have to be sewn in two different layouts, and pressed so that the seams all match. I just couldn't get it right, I couldn't keep it straight in my head. Even when I thought I'd nailed it, I'd go to press it and find a triangle was tipped the wrong way, or I'd sewn a row on upside down. So that might be another reason why I'm not particularly keen to work on this. But they're finished now, and they can spend some time back in the box because I've had enough of them for now.

I want to do a bit more on these blocks next. I have 16 made, and 30 kitted. I even have the sashing cut for them. They will be a whole lot less complicated than the Jacob's Ladder blocks. And it's my favourite colour combination, so I will be a lot more enthusiastic when I sit down to sew.

I think my philosophy for organising/decluttering is, Look in ALL the boxes. Especially the ones that haven't been opened in a decade.

These scraps were in a box with some templates from a Sunburst quilt that I finished in maybe 2002. I've always thought that I'd make more of those blocks, so I kept the scraps and templates together. 

These came from a drawer filled with miscellaneous bits and pieces, I have no idea why I put them in there.

Now they are 2.5" squares for my scrappy project, and I have zero regrets.

This was in another box, that I discovered shoved out of the way on the floor. I started collecting these weird landscape and foliage fabrics when I dreamed of making a Ruth McDowell inspired quilt, 2 decades ago.  I have absolutely no desire to do that any more, so these are going to be stripped up, probably for another Ladder quilt. It's time I introduced reality into my quilting decisions, and re-purpose the bits I've had squirreled away.

My squirrels are not new projects that divert me, they're the bits I've stashed away and never got back to. I've been hoarding these things unquestioned for far too long. Time to say goodbye, clean out and move on. 

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