Thinking back that would have been posted sometime the weekend Drama Teen had ACL surgery and we had the roof damage that caused water to leak into the sewing room. Now I know why there wasn't a post for September. There probably wasn't much to report anyway, so I'll just proceed on to where things are now.
In terms of something old, Jigsaw finally became a finished quilt.
Drama Teen has slept with it every night since it's been finished. She obviously loves it.
Since Jigsaw is all finished up, I pulled out the box holding my oldest UFO and started putting it together. All the star blocks were finished I just had to cut the alternating blocks and decide on a layout. It looked like this back in August.
As of tonight, it only needs two more borders added before it will be a finished flimsy.
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Pattern is Folk Art Christmas Stars
by Robyn Pandolph
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This quilt is intended for my Mother's bed, so it needs to be queen sized. Hopefully this one will be sent off to be quilted before the end of the month, but at the moment it's my something old for October.
I had to really think about the something new for September. I'm still wrestling with getting my stash organized, that includes my scraps. The Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler quilt has really helped me understand how to make good use of strips that are already cut, so I'm trying to get all the odds and ends into either squares or strips. My sewing time has been pretty limited and it's not fun to just stand and cut up scraps, but I think I came up with a workable system to "cut as I go". I've been using this blue bin to hold the color scraps I'm working with.
At the back of the bin are some plastic bags that I've labeled with the various strip sizes.
These bags serve two purposes. At the beginning of the month, I go through my already cut strips and pull out the color I'm working with that month. As I cut up any odd sized shapes, I sort the newly cut scraps back into these bags. At the end of the month the strips go back into the the general strip storage, when I pull out the next month's scraps. This keeps all the action at my cutting table and I'm not running back and forth to my scrap storage putting up or looking for scraps. Plus I know what sizes I have available. I did a pretty good job of getting most of the orange scraps cut up and stored without it seeming like I spent a lot of extra time cutting and organizing.
That's my update for last month. You can see more old and new projects over at Never Too Hot to Stitch.
Want to come do my scraps? I've been thinking about it recently as I made a scrap quilt. So annoying to dig through and pull something just to find it's 3.5" instead of 3". But all the time to sort things properly...ugh! Maybe I'll make it my goal for the fifteen minute challenge the rest of the year. ;) And I love the Christmas stars!
ReplyDeleteScrap management is a constant problem! I still seem to group leftovers from a project together--as if I might use them again! Your older and newer projects are growing and getting some exciting changes. Good luck on keeping up with the 15 minutes goal.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Kate, on tackling the never-ending question of what to do with scraps! You might also want to take a look at Bonnie Hunter's scrap management system under the Tips and Techniques tab at quiltville.com. There are some ideas there that I've found useful in dealing with all the leftovers I've accumulated over my years of quilting. But, it's still a challenge! (sigh)
ReplyDeleteDT is looking very comfy there. You're very organized with your strips. I have a friend who swears by that method.
ReplyDeleteStash management is the bane of just about very quilter I think. However you're a ton more organised than I am. Ive got mine sorted (Vaguely) by colour and all in the same place but they dont look anywhere near as good as your system.
ReplyDeleteScrap storage is always a challenge -- I'm still working on mine! Yours seems like a good system.
ReplyDelete