Tag: sewing

Scrap Happy: management

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I have a lot of scraps.  Scraps in drawers, scraps in baskets, scraps I really like, and some I don’t.  Big ones, little ones, some minuscule too.  Some are from quilting, crafting and sewing and quite a few are from old clothing; specifically Bob’s old shirts.  He’s a basic plaid man for shirts.

These past few weeks I’ve seen the need to manage them all.

So as not to overwhelm myself I decided to begin on the cutting table.  You know, all the stuff I didn’t want to put away lest I forget about it.  No judgements now.  You know it happens to all of us from time to time.

I scooted over the wastebasket and immediately tossed the scraps I don’t like.  Then I sorted by type and size.  I began the process of cutting to common sized block sizes.  Inchies, 2.5″, 4″, 5″, but I left the strips alone because, no matter how you cut them, strips make really awesome project starters.

I have begun making inchies, which are cut to 1.5″ to allow for the 1/4 inch seams, from any bits of fabric that will allow a 1.5 cut block.  Smaller that that?  Saved for crumb quilting or straight to trash.

Bob’s shirts I began cutting to 2.5″ and 5″ blocks when I suddenly realized I was working too hard. Five inch blocks can be cut into 2.5 inch blocks!  Larger cuts give me greater future options.

The Kaffe quarter circles will remain as they are.  They can be sewn together into half circles, whole circles or appliqued as flowers or wreaths, or who can say what I’ll come up with in the future?

This is only some of my scraps, but they are labelled and being properly stored.  Probably organized into that basket of Bob’s old filleted shirts! When I’ve emptied it of course.

The 15th of each month is the day Gun in Sweden and Kate in Australia, host ScrapHappy, a day for showing something made from scraps.

Though ScrapHappy is open to anyone who uses or reuses scraps to make something beautiful and/or useful, they may not post every time.  Go take a look, because there is always something of interest there:

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda (me),
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill,
Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule, Gwen,
Bekki, Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera,
Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Bear, Carol,
Preeti, Edith, Debbierose

Some things are better for waiting…

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as you read in a previous post

It was October 5th of last year, when I started a quilt called “And So It Crows” by Karen Walker.  As it happened, I bit off more than I could chew, as they say.  I got the first row of flowers done and then worked on the center crows and nothing, and I do mean NOTHING was matching up.

Sigh

So I plunked the rest of what I had redone onto the board and left it there.  For a very long time.  You see, the process of working on this was so frustrating to me that I just had to set it aside till I could work on it with confidence.

Between then and now I worked on many smaller projects involving points that aren’t to be lost in the seams involving hundreds of one inch blocks. and then all of a sudden I felt ready to tackle the crows once more.  Points you may ask? See all those flower petals, beaks, wing and tail feathers below.

And now I am here

There are only 164, 2.5 inch squares to be made and sewn together for the border.  Much easier than the 1 inch half square triangles and squares for all the birds and flowers… so…

Coming right up!

~*~

For those who are counting the one inch blocks, there are:  160 for flowers plus 102 for birds which equals 262 one inch blocks.  That’s a’lotta little blocks

AND, for those eagle-eyed people who always see the mistakes, there are two, one was replicated tidily throughout the piece, and I will leave it.  And one is going to drive me round the bend and I don’t think I can finish without fixing it.  I didn’t even notice it til I put it up here in this post.

🙀

Do you see them?

Scrap Happy for January 15, 2019

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It is a new year but I haven’t been posting much since last year.

Maybe it is time to get back into the habit again?

I have been practicing my machine quilting skills and getting better stitch by stitch.

Prepping and pinning orphaned blocks…

Suffering the frustrations of not properly clearing my sewing table…

As I said I’m better, but not good,  not even mediocre.  I will share samples eventually, but not yet.  Too embarrassing!

Meanwhile, I keep making and last month I made this in a quilt along with other quilters on Face book, in a private group called Humble Quilts.  If you quilt you might like joining in on all the fun!

It is called Sajou

by

Lori DeJarnatt

This mini quilt is 19 by 19, basted, and waiting for me to get my stitching to go where I want it to.  I have gotten a bit of control on stitch length, but not direction  😉

~*~

Scrap Happy is hosted by Kate and Gun and open to anyone wishing to use up their scraps in a project.  Waste not want not. Right?   For more delightful projects this month please visit with these lovely creators:

Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Nanette, Lynn, Lynda (me),
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Debbierose, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Karen,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Johanna,
Joanne, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen and Connie

Scrap Happy for September 15th

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When I can, I enjoy participating in Scrap Happy which is sponsored via Kate and Gun. There are a few of us who like to use it all up and not make waste with our scraps. I am not certain this counts, or should I say should be counted twice (in two categories) but it is made entirely of scraps.

I have participated in the Ovarian Cancer quilt through my friend Kate in Australia and have several teal fabric scraps left from the process.  I volunteered for two blocks in the quilt this year entitled: “Go Teal it on the Mountain”. You will have to wait for the other one to post after I put them into the mail. 😉

Specimen One follows…

There is a bit of back story on this design. It was inspired by a Tattoo I spotted on a young woman’s arm. I did a Google search for “Delectable Mountain quilt block pattern” and voila!  Her arm popped up in the findings.  Generally speaking, I am not interested in tattoos, but this one is so different it caught my eye and was the inspiration for my quilt block.

This tattoo brought to you by *Tattoo People G.No

To test the design I wanted to use for couching onto the surface I used a bit of clear cellophane gift wrapping medium to lay over the quilt block and then traced out my pattern.

You will note the finished couched design was not exactly like the trial version I had mapped out. I decided I didn’t want to have so many starts and stops to weave back into the stitching on the back of the block.  I think two back woven ends are better than five.

Please do visit these other lovely scrap users to see what they’ve created this month

Kate , Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Nanette, Lynn, Lynda (me),
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Debbierose, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Karen,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Johanna,
Joanne, Jon, Hayley and Dawn

A last note:  As mentioned above, I am not a tattoo person, but…  were I ever to consider it G. No at Tattoo People would be my artist.  And artist is a true description of the person behind this work!   Florals and birds in colors that are amazing are the signature of her watercolor skin art.  Following the link under the sample tattoo (above) will allow you to see some of some or her previous beauties.