Tidying Up

I have been busy these past few months on various projects.  The chaos needs tamed and the clutter needs to be attacked and organized again. Yes, again.

I have this zipper bag full of bonus half square triangles that I have gotten from various projects I worked on in the past 18 months.  

It is amazing how many bonus half squares you can get just from one quilt!  I did two with lots of rectangles that had squares sewn at an angle on each end of the rectangle and I think I had over a thousand bonus HST’s from each.

I am currently working on another project making more bonus HST’s and I decided to trim and sew them as I do each block so I don’t end up with the plastic bag full of “stuff to do.” It just won’t go away by itself. The current project is Bonnie Hunter’s Boxy Stars. A free pattern on her website.

I didn’t have the energy to do pressing it was going to take to empty this bag and today I decided I just needed to get it done. 

Now I have a very full box of bonus half square triangles and I need to find another project to use them in.

I used a lot of them in the Stars over Challotte quilt I found in a Bonnie Hunter book.

  

I liked the zig zag of the setting triangles.  The dark fabric really lets the stars shine.

I also figured out how to make a bear paw block using the half squares as well and that is a pleasing manly quilt. I found the perfect fabric in my stash for the large square and had fun matching the four I needed for each paw.

I’m sure the mess will never go away but I feel better knowing I no longer have that bag of unpressed triangles looking at me.

I’m going to go outside and enjoy this perfect summer evening.

Organized Scrap Usage

I have a lot of scrap fabric to use in my life time.  Every time I see the light at the end of the tunnel another bag of fabric finds its way into my studio.

I have two industrious helpers who sort and press the fabric for me.  Last summer Laura and Emily cut two huge rubber maid tubs of fabric into every useful shape imaginable. Their countless hours netted me a medium sized tub (12” x 14” x 16”) of 2 ½” x 5” rectangles, a small tub (10” x 12” x 5”) of 2” strips and a shoe box full of 2 ½” strips.

I already have two big rubber maid tubs of 1 ½” strips sorted conveniently into plastic Ziploc bags by color.  My goal is to use this fabric up.  I was making a decent job of it and then I looked and away for a minute and 3 huge rubber made tubs are again full of uncut, unsorted fabric needing some TLC. (HUGE SIGH!)

I have made 4 large block log cabin quilts already from the tub of 2” strips and they just don’t seem to go away! The only thing that seemed to happen in the 2” strip tub is they all got short.

By big block log cabin #4 I decided to make one of the borders be tiny log cabin blocks made from the 1 ½” strips.  I also chose to make the BBLC in just blue and red instead of light and dark contrast.

My friend, Pattie, has been utilizing my Accu Cutter trying to tame her own fabric collection by making 6” tumblers and I suspect the two tubs of recent small stuff acquisition is from her.  I like the tumbler quilts she has made and one of them was tumblers on the front and back. I decided the tumblers  was an excellent way to use the plethora of scraps I just can’t seem to eliminate.  I sorted through the tubs and found all the red and blue and creams I could find and sat with Pattie one fine Monday and cut my fabric into tumblers.

I’m so in love with how the tumbler backing came out I am planning on doing another two big block log cabins with tumbler backings.

I was sure I was pushing my tolerance of doing the same quilt more than once by the time I hit big block quilt number four, and it just goes to show that you never know!