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!

Progress is Being Made!

In November of 2013 I posted about my current leader/ender project, Bow-dacious, which is found in Bonnie Hunter’s book, Adventures with Leaders & Enders.  My update report:  Progress is being made!

I have finally turned all my prep work of paired up colors into 8 colors of scrappy bow ties and on January 17^th I finally sewed the last set of 4 bow ties into a block. 56 blocks later I am ready to choose a color for the sashing that connects the blocks.

Finished blocks!

I will back up here for a minute and tell you about the sashing that connects four bow ties.  I looked at the picture in the book to see what color she sashed her bow tie blocks with.  Bonnie used a wonderful white and pink small check which reads pink to me and I dug through my shirts to find a pink one to use because I liked the look with the pink. (Tammy, stop laughing!) I used every bit of one men’s shirt to get all the pieces I needed. I had to piece 30 sashing strips and kept every bit of scrap I had left after cutting to make sure I did not come up one short.

 

All that is left from shirt!

One of Bonnie’s delights is to use things up.  She incorporates a lot of old 100% cotton men’s shirts in her works.  I have some in a tub or two which patiently wait for me to become as prolific as Bonnie and I even stopped taking the buttons off of them as I realize they will probably better serve mankind as shirts and I will give them back to Goodwill one day. Laura made a plethora of greeting cards with the buttons I did manage to take off shirts.

Sampling of Laura's blank cards

Back to my progress report; the blocks are amazing.  I had no trouble getting the variety of scrap 1 ½’ strips to do the job with.  I outlined this part of the block building in my earlier post, Weekend Warrior of Sewing.

Current leader/ender project in a box

This has been my only leader/ender project for this entire 14 months.  I am always prepared with a leader/ender project to sew off with and have already started using my next project which is pairing up 2 ½” squares with off-white muslin, the first step in making 9 patch units for a future quilt.

The Bow-dacious project is being done in tandem with my friend, Pattie.  She has gone off on her own tangent of recreating, redesigning and rethinking her color palette and is a little behind. I’m not sure what size her quilt will be, and it may even be two quilts.

Dark brown sashing choice

I have found a brown that is suitable for the final sashing and before the day is done I will cut the pieces so I can begin the last step in construction.  Now I just have to wait for Laura go get home from her overnight with her little school chum so she can crawl around on the floor and lay out the blocks for me.

Scrappy Spinner

With just a little extra effort…

I found a block I liked in the Ladies Art Company Block Tool, Mosaic no. 18, which I decided to adapt to a technique I learned from Bonnie Hunter.  The units for the block are parallelograms that are easily made with a rectangle and two squares.  The squares get a diagonal line marked from point to point with a mechanical pencil and if the little extra effort is made to mark another line 3/8” from the first, you can sew both seams, cut down the middle of the two seams and have a bonus half square triangle.

2 diagonal lines drawn on each square with mechanical pencil

The size of the quilt the Scrappy Spinner blocks will make netted me over 1000 bonus blocks that are 2” unfinished,  and can be used in another project.  

I knew from a class I took with Bonnie about adding the second line and the bonus blocks from that class, Pineapple Blossom, were used in the border of that quilt. What I didn’t realize was how useful the little bonus half square triangle could be because it combines well with a 2” piece of fabric. In my short sightedness, I have never really used a pattern that had 2” strips as the size to work with because I had 2 ½” strips available by the gazillions.

Recently I was gifted a box of scraps that when combined with the tub of scraps I already had waiting to be utilized became TWO tubs of scraps.  I promptly bought a Go Cutter and Laura has been working her way through the scraps, one color at a time, cutting them into useful things.  The most useful things at the moment are 2 ½” x 4 ½” rectangles and 2 ½” squares.  Emily has been cutting what won’t work on the two die sizes into strips that are 1 ½” or 2” or into squares of the same size.  All are getting sorted, stacked, organized and thought about.  Some are even getting used!

Because I was excited to start this project and the only two colors that had been cut up were the red and green, I decided I was making a red and green scrappy quilt.  The sample block I made looked pretty cool, but blah, so I made another sample and on one end of the red rectangles, I sewed yellow on the diagonal which as a block will become little yellow pinwheels set off by the red.  The green units will go beside the red units, but all other diagonal pieces were just random scrappy colors that were NOT red, green or yellow. 

red units with yellow for corner

chain piecing squares to rectangles

Red units done, green waiting patiently

Today’s little teaser is seeing the quilt pieces in a box

all units ready and waiting!

…all red and green units are ready for me to pair them, sew them into units that will then be made into blocks from 4 pairs of red and green units; 63 blocks in all.  I am still blown away by the number of bonus half square triangles.  

bag of bonus blocks waiting to be pressed

Stay tuned!

Spring will come...

Sunday afternoon

This morning Tom and I decided on a tree to move a new birdhouse to.  It had been hung too low last fall, and facing east getting full sun for too long and it had not been a ‘home of interest’ to the locals feeding here all winter.

small bird condo

The wren builds a nest next to the air conditioner in my studio window every year.  Most times it is on the east side of the a/c and some years it is on the west side.  I checked this morning and it is on the west side for a change. The window faces north so is always in the shade.  I feel guilty using the a/c before the birds fledge figuring I will scar them for life with the noise, but I get hot and my machine gets crankier than I do when it gets too warm in here, so I do not hesitate to run it when the need arises. The way the weather has been acting this spring, it may never  need to be run this year and a whole generation or two of wrens may grow up in the relative quiet of 61 bird heaven.

The birdhouse that got moved my sister bought last year from a gentleman in Peninsula.  As I recall, she had to come home for her wallet and someone else wanted the double birdhouse but the seller knew Joanne was coming back so he declined to sell to the ‘sure sale’ standing in front of him.  It is an interesting piece of folk art made from barn wood and slate.  It has two levels and hangs from a chain.  The tree we moved it to has a convenient stump of a branch which Tom hung it from.  Hopefully it will get some attention now that it no longer faces east to get the full sun.

Since I had the camera out I walked around the yard taking pictures of the other houses we have.  The brown one is being ignored.  I saw a chickadee check it out a few weeks ago but no takers.  Maybe where it hangs seems too trafficked since the bird feeders have hung here all winter under the oak.

little brown house...too close to feeders?

pottery wren house,unused for a few years

In the back yard I have a blue one that was not being used because it was full of twigs from previous years.  I see upon taking a pair of tweezers to pull all the stuffing out that it must have been a popular abode.  It was a stupid build, though.  There is no way to open it to remove the leavings so after a couple of years there was no room for babies. 

poorly designed, but nice slate roof!

I hung a turned wood birdhouse I bought at a craft show several years ago.  I had kept it in the house because it is so lovely, but it was built to be used.  The maker attached the top with two tiny nails that easily can be pulled so the insides can be cleaned each year.

Lathe turned

Last spring Tom and Laura spent many hours when Laura got home from school making bird houses for me.  Some were used as gifts and finally this year Tom hung one.  Before the morning was over I saw a Chickadee checking it out.  You can almost see him just above and to the right of the house.

3 houses for small birds

3 blue bird houses

Tom decided to plow the garden to plant asparagus before the rains come.  It is supposed to rain for days starting tomorrow.  I bought 3 year old plants so next year we get to eat what grows.

Friends

...and the things we do for them!

I spent the last 3 days of my week off doing something I’m grateful I don’t have to do anymore. Prepping for weaving is hard work!

I took the kids to a dear friend’s house and helped her get her studio back in order.  Like everyone else, her life got in the way and things got out of hand. 

Linda is a weaver of the finest caliber that I met early on in my weaving career.  I remember walking with Linda through a field in Akron at the Hardesty Park Art show where we were both setting up our booths.  Her daughter, Cara, zoomed up to her and whispered that the ‘competition’ is here.  Linda replied to her that she knew, she was walking with it. I don’t know who was more astonished, Cara or myself, as being someone’s competition is really outside my thinking.  I have always looked at Linda as a friend. I will admit I am a competitive person; I just tend to compete with myself. I want to do better than I did the last time, that sort of thing. It’s part of what drives me to excel.

Weaving is hard work. I did it for 2 decades.  Linda has 3 decades of weaving under her belt.  Making a living as an artist is not easy no matter the medium and I’m not saying any artist has it better than another when it comes to whether work is hard or not. To me the best part of doing something you love and making enough money doing it to pay the bills is that you are doing what you love. How many people stumble through life stressed out over work?

One of the things I found myself most grateful for these past three days is leaving all the dust behind.  There is a smell to fabric, it is not a bad smell, but it is very prominent. As you descend into the stairwell from Linda’s house to her shop you become aware of the difference in the air.

The kids and I sorted, stacked, moved and sorted some more and came home exhausted and sore.  We all went to bed early on Wednesday. I hurt so bad in places that apparently muscles have not moved much in the last 12 years that another thing I was grateful for was a soft bed.

Before Wednesday was over Emily and I also warped a loom. 

Ironically, weaving is like riding a bicycle; you just get back on the seat and remember how it all works.

On Thursday Emily tied on the threads we put on the beam to the existing threads in the heddles and Linda showed her how to pull it through and prepare the loom to weave. Laura helped me warp the second loom on Thursday between bouts of her sorting work areas. 

On Friday I had Laura tie on the threads from the second loom to the existing threads already in the heddles.  Emily helped her pull through and Linda tied that one to prepare for weaving.  By Friday Linda was getting pretty excited about being able to weave again.

not quilt finished tying on, that is why there are sagging threads

Just seeing the floor seemed like a miracle to me!

I promised to go back when Linda gets warp in to help warp this big loom

Today I am back to sewing quilt blocks, quietly being thankful that I am a quilter now. Weaving is hard work.

Weekend Warrior of Sewing!

Leaders and Enders

I learned a wonderful trick years ago reading Bonnie Hunter’s web site, Quiltville, about using prepared cut fabrics to use as sew offs between blocks instead of using one scrap piece of fabric over and over. She dubbed these leaders/enders and set aside her slowly accumulating sewn together bits until she had enough to make a quilt with.  Those lovely little bits become blocks and become the current project to sew into a quilt top and another set of prepared scraps becomes the leader/ender project.

Over the years I have netted many “free” quilts which result in that little bit of stitching that is done after one block is done and I don’t want threads hanging from my sewing machine that I would have to hang onto to sew the next block together.

My current leader and ender project was not one I had been attracted to, but my friend, Pattie, wanted to do a project together and she fell in love with the Bow-Dacious! bow tie quilt in Bonnie’s Adventures with Leaders & Enders book.  I looked at this quilt many times before and rejected it out of hand because so many 1” squares are used and I don’t really want to sew stuff from squares that tiny.  When Pattie desired to make it, I had to think of a way that would seem easier for me to tackle it.  I do have bags and bags of sorted strips of fabric that are 1 ½” wide which I use in scrappy strip piecing blocks.  With my thinking cap on, I figured out a way to make using them work without having to cut a gazillion squares.

So the sorting and prepping begins. I have to take a break while I’m qulting and instead of sitting at the computer playing games or reading blogs, I can choose to go to my sewing machine and sew for the 10 minutes I need to sit.  I learned years ago when I had to wait for Emily’s bus to show morning and afternoon, that I could get an unbelievable amount of sewing done in 15/20 minute increments twice a day.  Sometimes back then those were the only minutes I had to spare to sew.  I got a lot of quilts done those two years the kids lived here in the early part of this decade.  They live here permanently now and I utilize their free time to my advantage doing various sorting and prepping when possible!

Laura sorting for the next step

Just for inspiration I have sewn ONE red bow tie together to encourage me to keep at this project.  Sewing the red as leaders/enders between setting triangles on the sides of a column quilt, I have completed almost all of the red four patch blocks in a weekend for the first part of my Bowdacious Bow Tie quilt. 

4" sets sewn and pressed

4" pressed sets ready to be trimmed

sets trimmed into pairs of 2 block units

green units to be sewn into 4 patch units

I will keep you updated on its progress over the next however many months it takes to complete. If you want to learn how to utilize your scraps to their fullest potential I recommend you take a look at Bonnie’s website for her ideas.  She provides a lot of free patterns as well as an opportunity to purchase her many books.

Another lovely quilt show

Streetsboro Quilt Show 2013

Pattie got up early today to get us to the Streetsboro quilt show early enough to shop in Rosemary’s booth of vintage quilt tops before anybody else had a chance to paw through them.

Rosemary is a retired teacher who spends a lot of time perusing flea markets and antique shops for quilt tops that need someone to love them.  I make it a point every time I go to this show to stop in her booth and find a treasure to add to my collection.  Many I have quilted, but some are just treasures I wanted to bring home and have under my watchful eye for some future use.

Rosemary's booth of treasures!

Pattie thinks I always find the best thing in there and she only gets seconds, so I let her have at it in the booth before I made my choice today.  There were many lovely quilt tops to choose from and I was sorely tempted by more than one or two.  I only purchased one top, though, and that is a good thing.  I do have quite a collection already.  Pattie bought a lovely antique with fabric dating to the late 1880’s  I did not think to take pictures of our two finds.

This quilt show fills the church to bursting every year and is always a joy to attend.  I see many friends I haven’t seen in ages and I get to see lots of quilts I have done for my customers.  It is like a walk through memory lane.  I do so many quilts each year it is hard for me to remember all of them.  Often I will be standing in front of one, loving what I am looking at, feeling a familiar pull and when I read the tag I see I have quilted it.  I can’t explain it, and sometimes it is just plain weird but I don’t remember every face I see, so I guess it is normal to not remember a quilt.

I believe Pattie and I may have been very close to the first people through the door this morning, as not long afterwards I heard someone exclaim that “they are lined up out in the parking lot waiting to get in.”  I was happy we had arrived early enough for a parking spot.  Many were parking on the grass.

Emily and Laura each entered two quilts and received participation ribbons.  I was hoping they might place; they both did a lovely job on their quilts.

Emily and Laura's quilts, 2 each!

I won a ribbon with my recent quilting project that Pattie fondly calls “Argyle.”  I call it "A Pathway to No Where Can Still Be Interesting."  I got a blue ribbon for my efforts and a ribbon for Best Use of Color.