Scraps – Page 5 – Artquiltmaker Blog

Scrapitude Continues

I spent the day home alone yesterday. DH is at a retreat for the Natives and the Young Man had a band review.

I got up up at 4:15 to get the Young Man to his 5:30 call time for the last band review of the season. DH usually does this chore, but we made it and did ok together.

I was kind of shocked, but when I got home at about 5:45am, I went back to bed and slept for another 3 hours, fitfully, but slept. I am usually not good at going back to sleep if I have been woken up in the morning. It was still pretty dark out, so perhaps my body thought it was still night?

It is kind of strange that I am getting some days home alone. I have always had one here and there, but they are getting a lot more frequent now that the Young Man has a life. The day was also a lot better than my last day home alone. I worked steadily on sewing projects, which was great. I made quite a bit of progress — perhaps not the progress I have made in the past, but I feel like I am really back in the saddle.

The bad part of the day was that my back hurt so I kept a hot pack on it all day, which meant I kept going down to the kitchen and heating it up. While the hot pack was heating up, I would do 2 minutes worth of dishes. Now my kitchen isn’t a huge pigsty from the massive pot of sausage soup I made.

I finally finished all of the triangle segments for Scrapitude. The photo above shows the last 24 or so, which took me forever.

I heard through the grapevine that Scrapitude Clue #3 is posted. I just went and took a look at Sandy’s blog and it is true! One of the things about not cutting everything up front is that I am not ready to go on the next step. I do get to break up the cutting with sewing, though.

I just need to work on this at my own pace.

Scrapitude Posts

More Scrapitude Triangles

In my last Scrapitude post, which seems like I wrote it an eternity ago, I talked about making the triangles more scrappy using a special ruler. I am glad I decided to make it scrappier, because even the few fabrics I used multiple times seem like I used them too much. Once I see what these sections will be used for, it might make no difference. Or I may need to remake some. I’ll just have to wait and see.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want the new sewing part of Scrapitude posted, because I haven’t finished the last step and I still have cutting to do. Read that last sentence as I am behind. I still really want to know what the blocks will look like so I can make better decisions about fabric choices. This is the ‘fun’ of a mystery quilt, I suppose. I am enjoying the fabric choices I have made so far.

I spent some time on Saturday sewing the segments together. I have 104 of these triangle segments, which means that I need 24 more. I have some foreground fabric, but all of it has been used several times, so I think I need to cut some different ones. I am probably in the same position with the backgrounds, though I know I haven’t cut enough yet.

Once I am done with the triangle segments, I’ll get back to cutting. I think I have some more 2-7/8s squares to cut. My cutting plan got interrupted when I left town and now I don’t know where I am with any project, which is why it was easy to get the Round Robin done. I could start and finish.

I saw that Daisy posted some photos of her Scrapitude progress on her Flickr stream. Good fabric choices. I like the triangle segments she has made. Her photos reminded me that I still need to do those segments with the squares and two triangles. Sigh.

Scrapitude Posts

Scrapitude Triangles

The newest clue for the Scrapitude mystery quilt has to do with triangles. The idea is to cut 5.25″ squares into quarter square triangles before sewing.

I didn’t, yet, do all the cutting as instructed in the first clue, partially because I wanted to see if I could find a better way, more preferred way to cut. I also didn’t want to delve into my stash completely yet. I still wanted to try and use as many scraps from my scrap bin as possible. Some of the drawers are getting pretty full.

In order to cut from my scrap bin, I had to be able to cut from smaller scraps. I don’t have a lot of 5.25″ scraps laying around. It occurred to me, as I was thinking through this process, that I had a ruler that would make cutting the quarter square triangles a bit easier. I found the EZ Triangle Companion Ruler (I think I bought this for the Easy Street Mystery quilt) and the Fons & Porter Half & Quarter Triangle Rulers. Neither had been opened (ooops!), so I examined them and, for no particular reason, chose the Fons & Porter to try first.

I cut one 5.25″ square the way Charlotte suggested so I had a sample. I used that to determine the size I needed to to cut using the HST/QST ruler. The directions on the Fons & Porter ruler tell you to cut a strip size of 2.5″ to get the size QSTs I needed. This cut off the tip of the triangle at the top (see that tiny black triangle at the tip of the ruler in the photo below?). I wasn’t sure why I would want to cut off the tip since it didn’t create the bunny ears. This made me wonder if that ruler would work. I didn’t want a hole at the point where those triangles intersected with other piecing. Nobody was around to answer on Twitter, so I cut the strips 2.75″ and used that dimension as a guide for cutting additional triangles.

“Strips” is a bit of an exaggeration as I was using scraps. I tried to find scraps that were at least 2.75″ wide.

Fons & Porter Half/Quarter Square Triangle Ruler

Using this ruler took a lot longer than cutting already cut 5.25″ squares into quarters would, but I was able to use a nice variety of fabrics and I was able to clear out my scrap bin a little more.

I found that I had to have a nice straight cut line on which to line the correct cutting line.

One confusing thing, which I have found with other rulers, is where to put the fabric under the ruler. Some of the lines, including the one I needed to use, were quite thick. Do I line the ruler on top of the fabric with the bottom of the thick line even with the cut line? Or something else?

I just decided to be consistent. I can always trim.

If you haven’t done the triangle step of Scrapitude, I hope you’ll try using one of these rulers to vary your fabric selection.

Scrapitude Posts

More Background Drama

I thought I would have been able to choose a background from the previous post, but it wasn’t to be. It occurred to me to think about what I wanted. I do want the background to be a player. I don’t want it to just fade into the background, so to speak. I also don’t want it to overshadow the foreground fabrics.

So, I spent some time on Sunday pressing greys and trying different greys with my octagons. It meant that I didn’t sew, but it also meant that I was carefully and deliberately engaging in the process.

Above is a batik that I bought at The Granary. It has a bit of blue in it. I thought it wouldn’t work, but I do like it. It gives movement to the background. The dark grey bits remind me of swirling fog.

It isn’t directional, which is a bonus. The blue doesn’t show up very well in the photos.

This background goes with the blue flower in the upper left of the photo above. It is from the same line. I may even have bought it at the same time. It is a true background, in the sense of it doesn’t add anything.

Again, has a directionality, but I wouldn’t say it is directional — or the directionality wouldn’t look weird if the pieces were cut different ways.

Dots are always a safe bet. This dot is the right size not to interfere with the other dots, even the red ones.

Not directional.

I am not sure why I bought the amount (2-3 yards) of this. I think I was expecting the color to be a little different. Since I was pressing greys anyway, I decided to press this, but I don’t think it is appropriate for the project.

Very directional. I don’t want to worry about the way I cut so that the lines of dots lined up. I am not sure I would want to worry about that.

Lots of movement. If the pearl bracelets don’t interfere with the foreground, then the fabric adds a lot of movement. I would err on the side of this being too busy for the piece, which is a little busy anyway.

Not really directional. I only have a yard of this and would have to buy more.

I have a boatload of this fabric, because it is a good background and I had the foresight to buy plenty.

Not directional.

Between the the choices above and the previous choices, I think my favorites are below:

Of the three above, I think the batik is the most likely. I don’t have enough of the Happy Go Lucky, and can’t get anymore so that doesn’t seem to be a real option.

The grey dot is perfectly fine, but doesn’t really add anything to the piece. If I decide I don’t want to add the movement I discussed above, then that fabric would be a good option.

That leaves the batik.

My SIL commented that I only showed the light blue on one of the backgrounds. This time, I used the same octagons for all the different backgrounds. I did rearrange them, however.

Russian Rubix posts:

Saturday October 5, 2013: Russian Rubix Backgrounds
Saturday September 28, 2013: In a Clear Space You Can See Across the Room
Wednesday September 11, 2013: Chosen Colors
Thursday August 26, 2013: Russian Rubix Templates
Susan: Tuesday August 20, 2013: History Quilter Podcast Episode 39
Monday July, 22, 2013: Russian Rubix

Process is messy.

Scrapitude: 112 4 Patches

I spent the day Saturday doing laundry and working on four patches. I had really looked forward to a day in my workroom and, while I got that, I felt out of sorts. I am not sure why, but it just wasn’t the relaxing sew day I thought it would be. I sewed, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as normal.

Still, I made progress. I finished the 112 four patches that were part of the first sewing step in Charlotte’s Mystery quilt. I had started them last week or the week before, so about half of the halves were sewn. I needed to do the rest and I had to cut enough pieces to make them.I alternated cutting and sewing. It works better for me.

I have to figure out how and where to store these. I don’t have a good sense of when the next step will happen.

As you can see, my background fabric is dots. I figured I would use some of the dots I have been collecting sinc they are just sitting there waiting for a project. As I mentioned, I had to cut much of the background from yardage. I rummaged through my scrap bins as much as possible. Now, I am pretty much left with weird shapes and smaller than 2.5″ squares in many of the colors.

I have to say that part way through making the 4 patches, I was ready to make some larger blocks and see where I was going. I got a little sick of 4 patches, which is sad, because I really adore the simplicity of four patches. There is a lot one can make with a four patch as a base. I think part of what is going on is that I am not organized in my sewing room right now. I don’t have a good handle on the projects I have going. I know what they are, but I don’t have the steps in my head.

I blame Super G.

If you haven’t been following along, I went down to SoCal for a week and that trip, along with problems with my machine, kind of ruined my flow. I’ll get back into it; it is tough, though. Learn from me: sew or pet fabric every day.

Since I finished the 25 4 patches already as well, I think I am ready for the next step. I don’t see it posted on Sandy’s blog, so I guess I’ll get back to some cutting, of which there is plenty left to do.

Previous Scrapitude Posts:

Wednesday October 2, 2013: Scrapitude Four Patches
Sandy: September 11, 2013: Scrapitude Mystery Quilt First Step (Sewing)
Sandy: September 18, 2013: Scrapitude Progress

Why Should You Care: You can see that it is possible to get work done even if your machine is out of commission and you have a loaner. You can also see that it is possible to create some organization, even in a scrappy quilt.

Scrapitude Four Patches

I succumbed to the Siren call of the mystery quilt. Just like Jason and the Argonauts or Odysseus or the sailors passing Die Lorelei, I couldn’t resist their call and am working on the Scrapitude Mystery Quilt.

The Scrapitude Mystery Quilt was created by Sandy’s friend charlotte after the ladies in their guild begged. Sandy put out the [Siren] call and many of The Twilters joined in. I found an already cut batch of 2.5″ squares, so I joined as well. Lame reasoning, I have to say, because there are a whole bunch of other shapes I need to cut as well.

It turned out to be good, though, because I needed something easy where I could accomplish a lot in a short amount of time.

I only had about 3 hours to sew yesterday and was able to finish 25 four patches and make a huge dent in the 112 I still need to make.

One of the first sewing directions was to make 25 four patches out of the foreground fabric (e.g. not the background). I found a container of 2.5 squares I had cut sometime ago and started out with those. I was able to make good progress and finish the first 25 pretty quickly.

The next 112 would be a little harder and I knew that before even starting the sewing. Part of the difficulty was that I hadn’t, yet, picked a background. Fortunately there were enough dots with white backgrounds already cut to sell me on the idea of dots as a background. I toyed with the idea of blacks on whites, but went with the dots. There aren’t enough dots in my life ever. 😉

There were a lot of orange squares in the container, so, periodically, I rummaged through my scrap bins and cut some other colors. A lot of what I was cutting were greens. It is fun delving into my scrap bin. First, I use up scraps, which is always a bonus. Second, I enjoyed thinking about the fabrics through which I was rummaging and the original projects for which they were used. I found a lot of Philip Jacobs prints and joyfully cut those up to use.

Now I have about half of the 112 finished. I have had to use some yardage for the background, but I have plenty of dots, so it is ok.

Sandy has a tutorial on her blog on making 4-patches. Nonnie pointed out a very interesting 4-patch tutorial on the NZ blog, Bee in my Bonnet. I have not tried this tutorial and she doesn’t give sizes, so I don’t know how it works. It looks cool, though.

Why Should You Care: Perhaps you want to join in or use the directions for an activity for your guild?

More Corner Store

I was more exhausted that I thought I would be yesterday after getting home late from celebrating the Golden Gate Bridge’s 75th birthday. Over the weekend, I worked hard on the Corner Store blocks and I couldn’t work on them anymore. I didn’t have a clear path moving forward on the project and needed a break.

Between Saturday and Sunday, before we went to see the fireworks, I made an additional 60 blocks. The blocks are now covering my portable design wall. I think the piece is large enough, though I did consider sewing another 34 blocks for two more rows. I have to decide what I will do for a border, if I will add a border.

The blocks are very easy to make, as I have said, but I wonder about the colors. I have a sneaking suspicion that ROYGBIV just does not provide enough colors for me. OR I could be forced to confess to the fact that I buy fabric in a small range of color families. In putting the new blocks up, I saw that similar colors ended up next to, or near, each other. Some weird quirk of quiltmaking fate?

After taking the photo of the new blocks, I put up all of the blocks and was pleased to see that the quilt is now starting to be large enough. It might actually be larger than a placemat, e.g. large enough, especially if I decide to put a border on it.

What would you do for a border?

Corner Store

In the book, Pretty Little Mini Quilts, I saw a small quilt similar to this. At the time, I was cutting up diamonds for FOTY 2010 and ending up with boatloads of triangles. I thought this project would be perfect.

I cut up some 5″ foundations and started to sew diamonds on to them. I sincerely disliked how much white was on the piece and how it overshadowed the scraps.

I started ripping the scraps off of all of the foundations and cut the foundations down to 4″. The other night, while I was watching TV, I pinned diamonds on to the newly trimmed founds and they are all ready to sew and trim again. I can use these pinned pieces as Leaders and Enders.

I have the little bit up on my design wall. It is making me excited about moving on to it as a quilt.

Twirling Triangles Test

I think this might be alliteration week. First, Food Fabric FQs and now Twirling Triangles Test.

I got the Pyramid Ruler from Fons & Porter and decided, once I started sort scraps for various scrap projects, that it was time to use it.

Last weekend, one of the tasks I did was try making the Twirling Triangles patches. First I cut a strip from Kona Snow that was 4″ wide. The strips had been sitting around for a little while.

Then, I went through my scrap basket and cut pieces that were 4″x5.5″ and carefully sewed the squared scraps to the strip. Frankly, 4″x5.5″ isn’t exactly a scrap and that became apparent as soon as I started trying to cut pieces. I don’t have a lot of scraps that size. Why would I?

Once I had sewn patches to the strip, I only had to cut the Kona Snow strips to make the strips sets above. The size of the commercial printed fabric patch meant that I didn’t really have to measure. I just used the printed fabric as a guide.

The Fons & Porter Pyramid Ruler is very easy to use and that trimmed corner on the top is awesome!

Here are the test pieces laid out. This ‘block’ is about the size of a dinner plate!

I think the patches are too big, because they make blocks that will be enormous. I think I will cut them down.

I think I have pretty much decided to cut these wedges down to the size shown above. I believe the strips will have to be cut 4.5″ wide and the scraps will be cut 4″x4.5″ wide. I think it will be easier to use scraps with these sizes as well. I haven’t actually done any cutting, but will do it soon. There is always more fabric, right?

Scrap Organization

I saw an episode of Quilt Out Loud yesterday (?, Saturday maybe) where the Door Knock artist had her scraps divided by color.

Others are thinking about this, too. SherriD wrote a post about this very subject recently. Don’t you love the way she colored some of her words? Very clever!

Mine are all heaped into a, now, overflowing pile. This situation has been getting on my nerves lately, so that one shot was just what the doctor ordered! The basket is too small, does not fit my decorating scheme and it is not working for me at all. I am thinking of changing systems. I need something to keep them in, though.

My brain was on overdrive while I slept last night. I figured out a work problem, my sleeping mind worked on the quilt I sewed on all weekend, and I got an idea for a new scrap organization system. What a nice night’s work! Not sure how rested I was, but you can’t have everything. 😉

I went on to Amazon and they have these:

Rainbow Cart Small - 16 x 8.5 x 36 inches

and

These aren’t very different in height, but after measuring my sewing table, the smaller one would fit better and add to the usable horizontal surface total in my workroom. One problem is that the purple drawer is so big. I wish that were for red, though I suppose I could just put the red scraps in the purple drawer. There isn’t a law or anything! I like the colored drawers as that means pre-coded color coding.

Finally, I saw this version:

Rainbow Cart Double - 16 x 10.8 x 26.5 inches

I can’t imagine how these dimensions could be correct, but if they are, this piece would be optimal, I think. Moving it in would require some moving of stuff around, but would give me a place for scraps, remnants, chunks, etc, as TFQ said.

More on Judy Martin’s Scraps

In my post called “Happy Geranium Block Dots,” I paraphrased Judy Martin’s theory on making quilts with scraps. Here is the actual quote:

“When you make a quilt from 35 identical blocks cut from the same four fabrics, you’re done with the creative part after the first block. The next 34 blocks are just pushing a needle. When you make a scrap quilt, you get to savor the creative parts and prolong the artistic decision making. Throughout the process of cutting and piecing, you are making creative choices.”

I love that phrase ‘pushing a needle.’ It makes me think about thte quilt work that I do, huh?

Anyway, I like to make quilts with different blocks and I think that Judy Martin explains why with her description of scrap quilts above. The reason for enjoying scrap quilts is the same for sampler quilts.

I think it is worthwhile to read some of the text of quilt books. I am certainly guilty of buying books and then only looking at the pictures. If you read the books, you come up with some gems sometimes.