scrap happy

Over at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on SoScrappy blog, the colour of the month in May was green. I guess that means I’m a couple of months behind but at least I’m playing along!

The drawer where my green scraps are stored wouldn’t open or close without force, it was way over-full. I decided to make a green bargello table runner but I couldn't find enough suitable fabrics where I had the full width. However, it was obvious that it was time to sort through my green scraps. When I’d finished sorting and pressing, I still could not fit them back in the drawer! It really was time to do something with them. Remember this pile of strings?
 
I separated the 2.5” strips from the rest of the strips and had so many that I thought I could make a quarter of a quilt with them! I was right. Here is my green scrappy strippy quilt so far. Admittedly I only had enough for nine rows (there are thirty-two rows to a full quilt) so I have cut some more strips from my bigger pieces of scrap. I have not yet had to time to sort them by value or sew them to the quilt top.

Yes it is curving slightly on the “dark side” but I’ll correct that as I sew more strips (or by blocking if necessary). My quilt top was, of course, inspired by the Jelly Roll Race quilts that have been around for several years now. I had thought I’d like to make one but I find it hard to keep the edges of the strips lined up properly without pins! And who wants to pin 1600 inches of seam?

As you can probably imagine, I still had a substantial number of green strips in varying lengths, all less than 2.5” wide. I needed a new leaders and enders project so I decided to make half-square triangle blocks with some donated yardage and the green strips. I did foundation piecing on greaseproof paper for the first one because I didn't have copy paper big enough to draw 10” squares. I made a mistake though – I drew my square 10.5 inches which resulted in the colour join not being on the diagonal centre line! We live and learn! The second one I pinned and sewed that 15.5” bias edge carefully!
 
The reason I needed a new “leaders and enders” project was because I got too carried away with my pink and purple improv blocks earlier this week. This is what I ended up with. I have no idea how I’ll use these blocks yet but my mind will be working on ideas while I’m doing other things!
 
I’ve also been working on my “Something Old” project, the Country Houses quilt, and my “Something New” project (the Blue Bargello table runner), but I’ll leave those for another post.
It’s funny how my love for my hobbies cycles in and out. For the past ten days or so, I just couldn’t wait to get to my sewing machine and I’ve still been knitting in the evenings. However, my blog reading is months behind and I haven't done a thing for family history in months!

Does it work like that for you too?
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Linking this post with the 2014 Rainbow Scrap Challenge at SoScrappy blog.

Scrappy Strings II

DD and I have been practising using the quilting frame with two layers of calico. Rather than "waste" more calico, we continued on the calico we had already used for practice! Here is a sample of my freehand stippling in red thread (the purple is the old practice) working from right to left.

Here is a sample of DD's freehand work - pretty good, don't you think?


Thanks to a hint from Cindy of Tops to Treasures, I bought three metres of beautiful blue polar fleece to use instead of batting but it is so pretty we can't bring ourselves to use it! Being the end of spring, the Big Box Craft Store has very little polar fleece in stock - they need the space for summer fabrics.

So, DD and I decided what we needed to do was to make a quick and easy quilt top, then get some batting and practice on a "real"quilt.

To that end, we began making string blocks. Each is 9 3/4 inches square, and made up of six or seven strips. Here are the first five (of 24) that we have completed. Since I took these photos, four more blocks have been finished.I spent several hours, cutting and pressing strips and matching them into pairs. This pile doesn't look like much but it consists of 80 pairs of matched strings, plus some strings that have been sewn into pairs and are now pairs waiting to be joined to pairs.

This pile was all sewn togehter on Tuesday. DD and I worked together, I cut and press, and DD chain pieced - the production line keeps us both happy and is quick and efficient.

Hopefully it won't be long before we have a quilt top to work on!

(And hopefully by the time you read this I am on my way home from mum's).