For those who follow along on Facebook or Instagram (quartermilequilts), you noticed that I had a *minor* setback in my fabric diet.
But with this Jack and Lulu collection named "London Calling," can you blame me?
I'm not usually partial to novelty prints, but this collection had me at "cheerio" (ok I know it's cheesy...I couldn't help myself!) The little double decker buses and the crowns are my favorites, although the soldiers are pretty awesome, too.
Oh well, at least I'm making progress on my scrappy x blocks.
I'm pretty sure that this quilt will be fantastic.
One of my favorite movies, Sneakers, shares a interesting lesson: you can learn a lot about a person by going through their trash.
I think you can learn a lot about a quilter by going through their scraps. You can get a sense of their taste in fabric, what colors they tend to use, sometimes you can see what patterns they have used recently (I have a few Dresden pieces myself).
For me, you can readily see that I use and LOVE the color blue. I'm quite obsessed with it really.
Blue Scrappy X Block Progress
Green is the next favorite, followed by neutrals.
Howie has enjoyed inspecting my piles.
Red and purple follow next, with yellow and orange dead last.
As I mentioned in my last post, we're moving in the near future and I'm trying to get my fabric collection ready to move. It should be fairly easy as everything has a place, but things have been feeling a bit cramped lately. I keep my scraps in plastic bins separated by color and the blue bin was running over with scraps.
I decided that I would do a combination of cutting strips for my herringbone project, then strips for my new scrap project - scrappy X blocks, then smaller pieces into the 2.5" for hexagons and finally 2" squares for a new granny square quilt. So much cutting, with great results. It was a perfect project for the Winter Olympic marathon!
Piles of blue scraps
So far, I've made it through my blue and green scraps and am getting ready to dive into the red and purple collection.
So excuse me while I go back to my rotary cutter, mat, and my collection of Psych dvds.
We're moving (eeek, did I just mention that to all of blog-land?) in the near future (yes, more vague is better) and so while we're not moving far (good, keep up the vague), I'm still feeling like I need to get my fabric under control.
So I've tightened my belt buckle and am settling in to sew my stash and scraps. Here's my plan:
Sewing the Stash First, let me note that I am not buying any more fabric until after the move. Who wants to buy more fabric with the fear of it getting lost in the mail or in a random moving box? That is not a risk I am willing to take.
To be honest, I'm pretty horrible with sewing my stash. My stash is in a stage where it features a lot of fat quarters, some half yards, fewer yard pieces and a very small collection of "backings."
My Joel Dewberry Notting Hill Strings quilt top is nearly all made from my stash (I ended up picking up two fat quarters to add some variety), including the borders.
Do you notice the square of print in the two corners of the quilt?
That's because I only had a yard of the teal and the quilt measured 45" long. I was an inch short! So I added the squares print to each long border to make up the difference. I think I like the effect. Do you? What do you do in this situation?
And yes, another quilt top complete! Now I need to piece a backing...
Busting the Scraps So far I have three different scrap "projects" that I am "collecting" scraps:
1. Stitched in Color's / Bijou Lovely's Herringbone Blocks (I've wanted this one to be a huge, gorgeous scrappy quilt so I've been collecting for at least a year). They're currently nestled in a gallon sized plastic bag.
2. 2.5" squares for my on-going hexagon love. I make them and then ultimately steal them for a pouch or other quilty purpose. I keep these in a cute zippered pouch.
3. 2" squares for another Granny Square Quilt. I loved how this one turned out, that I just simply need to make another! So, that continues to move forward and are kept in another zipper pouch.
When I am cutting out fabric for a quilt and I end up with an errant 2" strip, or small square, I cut them up for these scrap projects.
1. An idea I got from Simple Girl Simple Life: Scrappy X Blocks 2. A rainbow strings quilt. Organize my scraps into different colors and alternate the strings to create chevrons in different colors. 3. Improv piecing?
4. Scrappy Dresdens?
Which one should I do? What are your favorite scrap busting projects?
Armed with my Wonder Clips, I sat down Wednesday night and finished my Granny Square Quilt. I love how the magenta binding just seems to pop off the border and bring the whole quilt together. This isn't a combination that I would typically use, but it felt right!
Quilt measures roughly 35" x 40" Binding: PBJ Textiles Border: Legacy Studios polka dot print Granny Squares: Kona White and various prints from stash (2" squares) Pattern: Blue Elephant Stitches (who is AMAZING) Quilting: Local Quilt Shop (Cutting Edge Quilts)
Thanks for the encouragement from everyone on the last post! See, I finished a WIP with your help. Wishing you a wonderful weekend!
Lately I feel like I've been sharing a lot of "in progress" works and not too many finishes. Today will be no different, but check back on Friday when I hope to share at least one, if not two, finishes! I'm trying to be smart with my goals by sharing them and making sure they're attainable or reachable.
Notting Hill Progress
Now for the list of current WIPS 1. Green HST (half square triangle) or hourglass block quilt (fabric cut, ready for chain piecing)
2. HST Marmalade Quilt Top (no progress since the last post here)
3. Starflower QAL (all starflowers are sewn, but I need to ATTACK the hexagons and the machine piecing...which is intimidating me at the moment. Planning for courage this weekend. Anyone else ever plan for courage? I find it helps me be courageous.)
6. Notting Hill Strings Quilt (a quick quilt that will inevitably need a sister for gifts)
I've done an alteration to the typical strings quilts you see (like the one here, from Amy Smart of Diary of a Quilter) where I've kept two of the strings consistent through-out the whole quilt. The center string is a 2" Kona white strip with a 3" Joel Dewberry print next to it. The remainder of the strings are random in both width and order.
My husband says that this is quilt is his favorite.
My only regret is not having more of the floral print in my stash. I have been trying (and failing) to sew my stash and with this project I am sticking to my guns!
So do you think I can have at least one finish for you on Friday? Hint, I think I'll be pulling out my wonder clips to help me!
