Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I am making good progress on the Green Strips donation top. It might be a little hard to see, but I am sewing sashing strips to the blocks. I have some of the top sashing cut, but haven’t decided what color to use for the cornerstones. I keep thinking red as that is opposite to green on the color wheel, but I don’t want a Christmas look at all. These blocks remind me of a leafy green tree and I want to keep that feeling. More green, I think. Or a blue tending towards green.
I have shown some of the green scrap blocks I have been making in the May Donations blocks post. I am sure you have seen the other blocks and quilts in different colors I have made in other posts.
I decided to show you my process of making these blocks as well as the color improv donation quilts as well.
My scraps start out in a pile on my cutting table. I have talked a little about the processing of scraps that I do. After I cut the pieces I need for future projects, I cut strips and then leave whatever is left and large enough as is. The goal is to not have too many scraps, but the scrap drawers do fill up.
I store my scraps in a cart with rainbow drawers**. This is very handy, because it makes sorting scraps and finding scraps easy. Also, it looks nice. It is on the small side as my workroom is not very large. The drawers can fill up quickly and my process is to work on a drawer that is getting to be too full. I know it is too full when I start to have trouble opening it.
Green is the most recent drawer I have been trying to clear out. I was surprised to find how many green scraps I had. I can really think what I have made with so much green. I made some green donation quilts early on when I had the idea of Color Strip blocks and quilts. Maybe I only made one quilt when I first started? I don’t remember.
Anyway, I have a lot of green scraps and I am getting down to the odd shapes. I have made about 50 green strip and chunk blocks, but the strips don’t last forever. Eventually, I need to make some improv tops with the weird shapes, like I am still working on with the grey and black improv tops. I am at that point, probably with the green. I am still eeking out a block or two, but they are becoming more chunky and less strippy.
My drawer looks like this. I position the drawer I am working with by my sewing machine so I can grab some pinned pieces as leaders and enders while I work on other projects.
In the photo, I have added some arrows to help you navigate. The blue arrow in the upper right shows pieces that I have sewn, but are not yet pinned to any other pieces. They have already been trimmed and are ready to be pinned to something else.
In the bottom right pile, those are larger pieces that I have pinned together or pieces that probably not going to be used in a green donation quilt, like two triangles that will make a half square triangle and be added to the HST quilt I have in the back of my mind.
The purple arrow, bottom left, also shows pieces that have been pinned together. These are pieces that are generally smaller. They can also be the first two pieces I am sewing together. They will be added to something later. The small pieces get lost easily, so I like to keep them were I can see them.
The area with no arrow on the top left is a pile of pieces that are not yet attached to anything. I can use these to sew to something else.
It seems to take forever to clean out one of these drawers. I haven’t even made a new green quilt yet, though I am still sewing. Soon!
I find that sewing small pieces into larger chunks makes them easier to use. My scraps are really small. What I consider to be yardage, others consider to be scraps. You have to decide what constitutes scraps for you and work out a system that works. These drawers work great for me. I probably couldn’t tolerate more scraps than I have and scraps make great leaders and enders.
**N. B. : Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.
I am going great guns on clearing out that black-grey-brown scrap drawer. This is the second quilt I have started using scraps to make blocks.
I want to get it done quickly, but vacation is over and work takes time, so I’ll work on it as I can.
Periodically, I get so many scraps and various leftovers on my (already small) cutting table that I can’t actually cut. The other thing that happens is I run out of patches to make the 16 patch donation blocks for the guild.
Then, as weird as it sounds, I have to process them. I create three piles: 2.5 inch squares, strips longer than 4.5 inches and everything else.
That is what I have been doing on and off for the past week. I am also trying to find all the black pieces large enough to use in the donation blocks I am making now.
This can be a tedious job and I usually do it during Craft Night, because I can talk and cut at the same time. This week, I have been a little on the distracted and unmotivated side, so this is a good task. It is usually so boring that I start to want to scream and that drives me to a much more interesting project.
I am finding a lot more grey pieces I can cut strips from than black. I am also refilling, a bit, my 2.5 inch square bin for donation patches.
When my workroom was cleaned up, I took a picture of the large design when nothing was in front of it. Scrappy Celebration is looking good.
I am making good progress on the Pink Strip Donation top. It is VERY pink. I am enjoying working on it. It doesn’t feel like a must do project. I do want to get it done, however the pink is so cheerful that it is a joy to work on. This one will definitely not be gender neutral.
I did a big clean out and organization of the scraps in my pink bin, which was required to finish enough blocks to make a reasonable sized quilt. It looks a little skinny, so I am debating adding another row.
After years of hunting & gathering and months of piecing, Scrap Dash is ready for quilting. I have a date soon with Colleen to hand it over.
I really like the way this quilt came out. If I am diligent, I can see making a baby quilt, or small child quilt, using a smaller version of the pattern. It is really easy to modify the size.
I tried to go with a sea/water/ocean theme. I bought the fish fabric for some idea I had. Now I don’t remember the idea and I, clearly, never executed it.
I decided that, although I really like this quilt, I will give it away. My house is overflowing with quilts and I have to give more of them away. You’ll have to wait to see who receives it.
I spent most of Saturday working on Scrap Dash, though I also worked on the Yellow Strip Donation quilt as leaders and enders. I continue to be pleased with how the piece is progressing.
I cut a bunch of pieces for the borders during the previous week. I had sewed some of them together in snatches of time also during the week. On Saturday, I stitched many more together. I also started placing them in their spot on the wall. I now have sections of 3 sides of the borders sewn to some other piece.
I didn’t want to sew the entire border strip together then sew it to the quilt top as one piecing. I am chunking all the pieces and I am glad, because I have to fiddle with some of the border pieces to get them to fit. I am not sure why as my 1/4″ looks good and the pieces are cut accurately.
I have started, in a small way to sew the chunks together. I am not seeing much shrinkage yet as that depends on quite a bit of sewing the chunks together.
I spent a lot of time on Saturday working on Scrap Dash. I am pleased with my progress and feel like I can see a glimmer of the end of the project. I am still far away from it, but I see a glimmer.
I am getting more of the border on the wall and will soon start to sew it together. I need space so I can get the rest of the right hand column up, too.
Hooray for progress!
I really made good progress over the weekend. I figured out what I need to do to finish this quilt, e.g. how big it is going to be. I also cut more of the 1.5×2.5 inch rectangles. I need a lot of them, so more cutting is coming.
I am at the point where I really want to start sewing blocks together, but I am trying to restrain myself. As I moved the blocks around to make more space on the left, I moved blocks to different positions in order to make them stand out more. Sewing will also give me more space on my design wall, so restraint or no I might need to sew to gain the space I need to finish putting all the pieces on the design wall. I suspect I will never have a large enough design wall.
While you might think the cutting is the hardest part, the actual hardest part is getting each fabric in the quilt to shine. Obviously, each one can’t stand out when the viewer looks at the whole thing, but I want each fabric to stand out when someone looks at it up close. I don’t want fabrics to blend together.
I made a little progress on Scrap Dash over the weekend in between parts of the UCAB and Triple Zip Pouch. I am still using it as leaders and enders, so I can’t help but make some progress. There was a lot of machine foot switching while I worked on the Ultimate Carry All Bag.
What I really need to do is figure out where the edges are in this quilt. I am not sure if I will add rows and columns or what. Once I figure that out, I will be able to work towards finishing it. Somehow this quilt reminds me of the Corner Store quilt.
I am making progress; notable progress. Because this is still kind of a back burner project, I am making slow progress.
I know I’ll need some more pieces and parts, but am getting all I have cut sewn together before I decide what else I need to cut.
While I was making progress on the Rings quilt, I was also making progress on Scrap Dash. As I said before, I am using the Scrap Dash blocks as leaders and enders for the Rings quilt. I get more done, which is great.
I started in the middle, because I couldn’t really reach the top row without a stool. You can see that the middle has shrunk up quite a bit.
I plan to put another column of blocks along the right hand side. The quilt is supposed to have the Churn Dash blocks around the whole exterior of the quilt and I plan to follow that advice.
I think the section where I have sewn the blocks looks nice. I like how the 1.5×2.5 strips create a path through the quilt.
I worked quite a bit on Scrap Dash over the weekend, using the project as leaders and enders while working on my Latifah class project. It didn’t look super before class, though i was making progress. By the end of class on Saturday I had made progress with which I was happy (photo, left). The pattern was really starting to emerge and I was getting excited about putting blocks together. I was able to do bits and bobs in between the Put a Ring On It rings. Every little bit helps.
I continued working on Sunday, a little more on Scrap Dash than on the rings. I feel like I made really excellent progress. While I don’t have all of the pieces for Scrap Dash on the design wall, I do have a significant number.
I have also started to put some of the blocks together.
Sadly, I found out I don’t have enough of the 1.5 x 2.5″ rectangles for the border. I need to think about whether to cut a million more, leave off the border or do something else. I haven’t yet used the rectangles in blacks, whites and greys for the center of the quilt. I might try and see if they look good as a border. I don’t think I have enough for a whole border, but it would be a start.
I can’t even think about fitting a border on the design wall, so I’ll have to see once some of the blocks are together and the seam allowances have shrunk up.
Speaking of which, I have sewn a block or two just to see what they look like and to shrink up the seam allowances so I can fit more on the wall.
You can see the background, which I think really makes the quilt look bright.
Yes, I think I am calling this quilt Scrap Dash instead of 30 Something.
I spent some time on Wednesday standing in front of the design wall and rearranging various units. The more I do this the better it looks.
I can also tell what I need to work on next. In this case, I need more half square triangles. I prepared a bunch for sewing at Craft Night, but haven’t actually sewed them yet. The process in this quilt was: 1. cut squares; 2. draw lines; 3. sew; 4. cut apart; 5. square up. I don’t really mind this process, but I wish they had chosen a better system like using the Simple Folded Corners Ruler. I wasn’t able to find a tutorial using the size pieces I had already cut, so I just went with the drawing method.