Finish #7

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you may recognize these fabrics as those I used in two different crazy quilts. When I was finished cutting out the crazy quilt blocks, I cut the remaining fabric into 2.5" strips, and I made this concentric square quilt. 

When I started working with these fabrics, I started with some half yard-one yard pieces from a line of fabric I liked, Paisley Place by Wilmington Fabrics. I didn't buy yardage of all the prints, and I purchased multiple yards of the border print. I supplemented from my stash so the end result was likely half stash and half the line of fabric. I got three quilts from that, two crazy quilts (one of which was queen sized, one throw), plus this quilt which is twin sized. All the yardage I had from the line is gone, but I happened upon a jelly roll of that fabric on clearance, and I still have that unopened. I rarely get asked for quilts with pink in them, so I had fun working with it. It seems like most of the girls and women I know are anti-pink. One of my nieces was the focus of the first quilt though, and her favorite color is pink, plus she's a huge fan of neutrals. I was stumped untl I saw that fabric line, and then I was inspired. My niece is an adult, and up until I saw this line of fabric I was afraid a pink quilt might come off as childish. I have made other quilts with hot pink and black that weren't childish at all, but since she prefers light pink I was a bit hesitant. 

My niece has her crazy quilt, and a friend of my granddaughter claimed the second crazy quilt, this one will likely be donated unless someone claims it first. It's hanging on my wall quilt rack so I can enjoy it for a bit before it moves on. 

It's mid-April and I've got 7 quilts done so far this year, so I am on schedule to get two quilts done per month this year. I know I'll have some catch-up to do later in the year, because we do have some travel planned, but currently I'm basting the quilts I made Frankenbatting for, and they are all throw sized, so once I start quilting those they should go quickly. 

One really fun thing we did this week was absolutely not quilt related. DH and I love live theater, and he bought us tickets to see the traveling Broadway version of Back to the Future-the Musical. It was on the University of Arizona campus, and since we got there early we had fun people watching for a bit, I was really surprised by the number of dogs on campus. Anyway, the show was great, it was the first show I've seen that used projectors heavily to add scenery to the stage. Between the projectors being able to make the scenery change quickly and the rotating stage, they really did manage to make the car look like it was moving fast, even though it wasn't moving much. One of my favorite things about live theater is watching the sets and seeing how they handle moving them between scenes. The car even "flies" at the end, just like in the movie. 

 

Frankenbatting Monster

 Soooooooo many batting scraps! I just finished up with the poly batting scraps! Final total? I pieced 11 battings that are matched with quilt tops. I pieced another batting that will work for a baby quilt, except I'm think I'm out of baby quilt tops, if I come across one I'll match it up. I have some misc. smallish pieces left that will work for book sleeves. I'd like to make a sleeve for my Ipad and Kindle for travel. 

When I started both of these pop up hampers were crammed full of poly batting scraps. The scraps were all compressed and it was crazy how much was in there. Not to mention all the poly batting scraps that never made it into a hamper and were just in a pile. You can't really tell in the pic, but the pile that's in there now is all fluffy and still not half full. That includes the baby quilt batting I pieced, along with the smaller scraps I want to use in small projects. 

I don't enjoy piecing poly batting, but 11 (12 counting the baby batting I don't have matched) battings basically for free? Totally worth it. I do have a tip that yields better results when piecing batting. 

I use a blind hem foot when piecing batting. If you push the straight edges towards that center blade, and use a wide zigzag, you are golden on joining the edges. Also, if you look closely, the zig zag stitches are being formed over the little finger that extends behind the needle. That makes the zig zag stitches a bit looser, and keeps the batting from bunching up on you. Of course, you still need to make sure the presser foot doesn't get caught in the batting, which is why poly batting is a pain to piece. I've never had that happen with cotton batting.

Pieced batting lying nice and flat with no bunching.

In the interest of full disclosure, I also have the skinny strips from squaring up the batting scraps. I have a lot of them.

I usually toss these, but I'm going to make a 16x38" pillow form and use these to stuff it. I think I'm going to cut the scraps up even smaller, but if you use batting scraps for stuffing and have any tips, please let me know! 

I could tackle cotton batting next, but that is not my plan. My next job is to piece backings for all the quilt tops that are matched with batting now, and baste as I can. I'm currently quilting the last quilt I had basted, so I need to baste more quilts anyway. With almost all my basting pins available, and most of the quilts needing basting just being throw sized, I should be able to baste most if not all of them. Once I'm done piecing the backings, I'll start piecing the cotton batting, whether or not the basting is done. 

When I baste those quilts, I will have scraps of batting from the Frankenbatts. What am I going to do with those? I am going to throw them away, guilt-free. I made myself a deal a long time ago, that if I make Frankebatts to save money, then I could toss any scraps from the Frankenbatting. It's worth it to me to piece larger pieces of batting, it is not worth it to me to piece very small pieces, which is what I'll have since I was making batting the right sizes for quilt tops I had. Sure, some might end up in a pillow, but if some ends up in the trash, I'm ok with that, after all, I'll have a dozen quilts that have batting saved from the trash. 

Oh, and the fabric scraps I showed in my last post, that were from the tote of fabric given to me? It did just take two evenings to cut it into scrap user system sizes. I've got something new I'm working on in the evenings now, but I'll tell you about that later 😉

Finish #6

 

It took me a while before this quilt became my main focus. DH retired the beginning of last year, and I didn't get his scrub top quilt finished until late March this year. Our anniversary is March 30, so I really wanted it finished by then, and once it was my main project, it came together pretty quickly. The pattern is called Chapel Glass. Of course it would look more like stained glass with different fabric choices (I'd like to make it again with a black background and batiks), but there were a lot of scrub tops with black in them, so I opted for a gray background instead. The size of the main unit worked well with the scale of most of the novelty prints. This pattern would be easier with non-directional fabrics, I really had to pay attention to which corner I was adding sew and flip corners to. I found it a bit funny that I was cutting apart scrub tops I had made him, then making him a quilt from the same fabric. Usually when I'm working with men's shirts, I didn't sew the shirt in the first place, but this time I did! 

I did get to give him the quilt for our anniversary. His anniversary gift to me will happen in April. He bought us tickets to see the Broadway version of Back to the Future the Musical. I love live theater, and when a good Broadway show comes to town I'm always game for it. It's been a while since we saw a Broadway show, so I'm thrilled we are going! It's hard to believe we've been married 42 years already! I'd still choose him, and I'm pretty sure he'd still choose me. 

My standard quilting goal is to get two quilts finished per month. With six quilts finished so far this year, I'm right at that goal. I've already started quilting the next quilt, and both that and another need to be finished in April, so hopefully all of that will get done, and I'll stay on track.

I have already started working through my batting scraps to make Frankenbatting. I'm starting with the poly batting, because I don't like piecing it. Cotton batting is much easier to piece. So far I've made three battings to match with three quilt tops. I've got SO many quilt tops right now, I'm just matching up similar sized batting scraps, sewing those together, and then checking to see if I have a quilt top about that size. I know I'll have more batting scraps after a basting spree, and I'll deal with that later. I'm mostly piecing batting for throw sized quilts. If it's twin or larger I prefer to use batting off the roll. Speaking of rolls of batting, I just finished off another roll of batting too, so the Frankenbatting sessions are well timed. I'm going to try cutting up the smallest batting scraps into very small pieces, and make some pillow forms from them. The cost of pillow forms is getting crazy, and I have a couple pillow patterns I'd like to make.

Oh, I went through the tote of fabric I was given, and the wideback fabric was put away, the yardage is on minibolts and put away, and the fat quarter-1 yard pieces are folded and put away. 

There were a few odd shaped pieces I decided to cut up and add to my scrap user system. Compared to how much I had to cut before, this isn't much, and I'm thinking no more than a week before it's all processed. I'd say just two or three days, but with Easter coming up we've got family stuff going on, so there may be days I don't cut at all. I'm only working on scraps in the evening, am most nights for an hour or so, but since it all needs to be pressed before it's cut, it takes a little longer. At any rate, the fabric tote I showed in the last post is empty, and now that those fabrics are integrated into my stash they will get used much faster. 

Empty Bin!

My goal was to empty this bin by the end of March, and I did it! Every piece of scrap fabric in these bins has been dealt with. Strings and crumbs are in with the strings and crumbs, anything larger than that has been cut into sizes I have planned to use in upcoming quilts. A lot of the scraps have already been used in quilt tops! 

I have been watching lots of scrap fabric videos on YouTube. Mostly what I've learned is that scraps are a very personal thing. Some people don't enjoy working with them, and if that describes you, by all means, give them away, or even sell them if you can. I love working with scraps, but I have learned by trial and error what works for me.

 

I notice that a lot of quilters only sort their scraps by color, and don't pre-cut anything. I do sort crumbs and strings by color, because that is how I use them. I like crumb blocks to be one base color, and not a mishmash of everything. String quilts I sometimes mix up, but if I do mix them I tend to have a color scheme going. I currently have a blue/purple string quilt in the works, but I've done several in autumn colors, but whatever I do it's easiest for me to have them sorted by color. 

Anything larger than a crumb or string, and I only use them if they are cut to size. A bin of messy fabric scraps, even if they are all the same color, does not inspire me, it just makes me realize how much work it's going to take to press it all and get it ready to use. On the other hand, give me a box of scraps already cut to size that I can start sewing right now, that gives me inspiration! This go around, I did cut a lot of rectangles, but that is because I have several quilts I want to make that use them. Normally I only cut squares or strips. My strips are sorted by size, and color. Let's say I need a bunch of 2.5" red strips, I can go grab them because they are all together. Green 2" strips, same thing, I can go grab them. My squares start out sorted by color, but they get mixed up a lot, so normally they are not, but they are always stored neatly in stacks or rows, so it's not that difficult to go through them and pick out what I need. 

I've been wondering how much of our scrap preferences is a result of the way we think, and how much is about the size the our stash. My stash is BIG, so I never worry about the "What if I cut this down into strips, and then I decide I should have cut a larger strip?" Honestly, that question just never applies to me. If I don't have the color I need already cut to size, I'm just going to go to yardage and use a different fabric. I almost always have something else that will work. Maybe it's not as perfect as the scrap I cut up, but the person who's getting the quilt never saw the other fabric so they won't care. If I had a very small stash, that question would pop up a lot, and I could totally see sorting scraps by color without pre-cutting.

I think the size of your stash determines what you think of as a scrap too. To me, with a large stash, anything smaller than a fat quarter is a scrap, and if it's full WOF, anything narrower than 12" is a scrap. If I think it's ugly, it goes into scraps and gets cut up even if I have two yards of it. 

Does that mean I don't like fat eighths or precuts? Nope, I actually prefer buying fat eighths if I want to make a Civil War or 1930's repro quilt, because I get variety without a huge amount of fabric coming in. I don't make a lot of quilts like that, so fat eighths or other precuts are a great choice for that. Because I don't make a lot of quilts like that, as soon as I'm done making the quilt, I'm going to process any scraps and just use them as a color afterwards. 

I like other pre-cuts when I want a fun fabric fix without bringing in a lot of fabric. If I wanted to try using some Tula Pink fabric, for instance, which I have never purchased but I do like, I'd be most likely to get a pre-cut, likely a layer cake since she has some large scale prints. I like Tula Pink fabric, but don't want a stash filled with it, so a pre-cut or maybe a scrap bag if I could find one, would work best for me. I could have fun making one project, and be done with it. 

Last week was spring break for the grandkids, so I didn't get much sewing done, but I finished with the scraps and made memories with the grands, so big win on both counts. I've even got all the scraps (aside from some strips) put away in their correct containers. I'll put the strips away this afternoon. 

So what is my next project to tackle in the evenings while watching TV?

I was given all the fabric in this bin, but I haven't sorted it yet. I already dealt with the small scraps and strips I was given (I've already used almost all the strips). This bin has everything from under a fat quarter pieces to wide backs. I need to sort this and get it integrated with my stash. Wide backs go into the quilt closet with the quilt tops. Anything over one yard goes onto my fabric shelves, fat quarter - one yard pieces gets folded and put into my fabric drawers. That's what works for me. I'm not likely to even think of going into the bin, I need to get it all integrated with my stash so when I'm looking for something I'll see it. There are some great fabrics in here, but I have to see them to use them. If I find any pieces smaller than a fat quarter I'll be cutting scraps again, and that's perfectly OK. 

Sorting the fabrics will give me loads of inspiration, but I'll need to reign myself in. I have two quilt tops to finish, then I'll finally move on to piecing my batting scraps. I should be able to finish the quilt tops this weekend, so April will be Frankenbatting month! I can't spend all month on batting, because I need to make a couple small projects for May birthdays, but I need to at least deal with all the poly batting scraps, and it's a LOT. I'd like to get several quilts basted in May, so spending April on Frankenbatting will work perfectly with my May goal. 

 

Still Processing Scraps

Scraps...the word brings both joy and dread to my heart. If you craft at all, you have scraps. DH has wood scraps in his workshop, DD#2 is drowning in yarn scraps from her crochet projects, and I have fabric scraps, sooooo many fabric scraps. Sometimes I am very good about processing my fabric scraps immediately, other times I toss them in a bin and deal with them later. Later has come, and has been here for about six weeks. When I am far behind on dealing with scraps, I try to do a little bit at a time to get caught up. I can't just power through and get it done in a couple of days. If you can, that's awesome, but I can't. 

I go through phases when it comes to scraps. When I first started quilting, I did a lot of kitchen sink type of scrap quilts. Mostly divided into dark and light, but aside from that, no rhyme nor reason on which scraps were used together. I love those type of quilts, give me a super scrappy log cabin quilt set in a barn raising setting and I'm in love. My family? They want a less scrappy look. I started doing color controlled scrappy quilts and those went over better. In fact, the scrappy quilts that go over best with my family are two color quilts, blue and yellow, red and white, black and pink, brown and cream, it doesn't really seem to matter which color combination I do, but if I stick to just two colors, I can get away with using any fabric of those colors and everyone is happy. I've had pretty good luck with all cool colors, or all warm colors with a neutral too. Since I love autumn colors, I still make a lot of autumn themed scrap quilts. Those get mixed reviews from the peanut gallery. 

I don't keep very many of my quilts, most of my quilts are gifted or donated. Since I know there are all kinds of taste in the world, I just hope that whatever quilts I donate end up with whomever will be blessed by that particular quilt.

I even go through phases on what patterns I use for scrap quilts. One year it's log cabins, I went through a Flying Geese stage, and HST's are always a winner. Some years it's stars, QST's, or rail fence blocks. I like blocks that chain, and create a lattice on the quilt, so Jacob's Ladder, Carolina Chain and nine patches can be good ones.

I started with my scrap bin overflowing, more than twice than what should actually be in the bin.

This is my scrap bin right now, about half full, but considering I've actually refilled it a couple times as I clean up more of my sewing spaces, I'm pretty happy with that. 

While I was cutting scraps, I used whatever I could in current projects, so a lot of what I was dealing with was used immediately. 

The scraps I'm cutting to specific sizes are piling up. All the squares are sizes I always save, the rectangles I'm cutting are for specific projects.

When I am cutting fabrics I treat novelty scraps differently than say a floral or stripe. If I am going to pre-cut novelty scraps into sizes for I Spy quilts, my go to is 6.5" cut squares. I have a lot of patterns that use that size square, and even most large scale novelty prints do OK in that size. If I don't have a large enough size scrap to do a 6.5" square, my next choice is a 4.5" square. I don't use these as often, but I have made a few I Spy quilts with that size. I rarely use 5" squares for anything, but I do have a cat quilt partially cut out that needs 5" squares, so any cat fabrics I found were cut to that size. I have a pretty nasty allergy to cats, but several of my grandkids love them. You can see I have a big pile of novelty rectangles on the left, they are cut 3.5" x 6.5". When I'm done cutting scraps, I'm going to go through that pile and separate the fabrics into a pile of vertically oriented motifs, and another pile of horizontally oriented motifs. I want to make an I Spy quilt using Bonnie Hunter's Bricks and Stepping Stones pattern with the vertically oriented rectangles, then, with the horizontally oriented ones, I have a pattern in my head which I'm calling "I Spy a Brick Wall". I'm planning on using solid gray sashing for mortar, and with the addition of squares on some rows, I think I can get a good brick wall effect. I'm really excited about sewing that quilt up, and seeing if it looks as good in real life as it does in my head. 

I had a big pile of 3.5" squares, but those are now used in one of the latest quilts to hit the design wall. 

I had already assembled a few rows before I remembered to snap a photo, so the quilt will be taller than this. Yes, it's a kitchen sink light/dark scrappy, but sometimes I just have to, I love them. 

I did notice several of my scraps would play together nicely, so I cut a quilt from those while I was dealing with them.

I sewed up all these blocks as leaders/enders while I was assembling the orphan block quilts. Now I'm sewing these up into quilt tops so they don't get added to the tote that has quilt blocks in it. I've still not started on the batting scraps, I think that project is going to get moved to April. DH  added another scooter quilt to my to-do list, which is fine, I already had one mostly cut out, but now that I'm working on making another quilt top, I'm finishing up a few more projects that were hanging around, using all of these as leaders/enders for each other. 

I did get a couple more quilts basted, but I'm still figuring out a quilt setup. My Janome had lousy timing to break, but then again, a machine breaking is never convenient. 

This week I've got the granddogs, who I swear demand more attention than the grandkids! I enjoy having the dogs around, but it does cut into my productivity, I can only listen to them whine for attention so long before I give in. I can still work on cutting scraps in the evening, that will be DH's time to pet the dogs!