Finish #12

 Finish #12 of the year is also a deadline quilt, so it's a double win!

Well, I say it's a win, but the recipient grandson just asked me for a Minecraft quilt, and I just finished his Lego quilt, so we'll see how that goes. His birthday is in a couple weeks, so I guess I'll see then. I'm preparing myself for a less than enthusiastic reaction. I might have enough Minecraft fabric to make him and his brother Minecraft pillowcases, so maybe if I do that I'll be OK. 

I already started FMQ on another quilt, but even if I get that one done in April, I'll be a little behind in my goal of finishing 40 quilts this year. I'm not expecting any out of town company coming up, but grandkids for the weekend may come up soon. We'll see what happens later this year. The biggest interruptions I knew about have already happened, so maybe I'll pick up speed again. 

I finished April's Greek murder mystery blocks.

Come to think of it, I don't think I ever showed you March's blocks.

February and March's blocks were all in blues, January's had some of the same colors as April's block, with the addition of green. The Viking murder mystery was easier to figure out what most of the blocks were going to be in the quilt than this one has been so far. 

I already started another deadline quilt, but I have had a baby quilt that needs to jump the queue. The baby isn't due until September, so I was thinking I could finish the two quilts due in July before I worked on the baby quilt. Well, they are throwing the baby shower in May, which is insanely early in my book, so now I need to work on it first. My goal is to get the baby quilt cut out this weekend. (I did finish the other cutting I needed to do). I've got all the deadline quilts cut out except the baby quilt, so I can just keep using them as leaders/enders for each other until I have all the tops made. 

This afternoon we are going to the county fair with DD#2's family, so I should get some quilty eye candy! There is a quilting category for prizes at the fair. My kids keep telling me to enter, but that's absolutely not something that interests me. I quilt for fun, and my perfection quotient is not that high. I don't want the pressure of needing perfect points or having my binding be just so. That kind of pressure would take all of the fun out of it for me. I do enjoy seeing the quilts that have been entered, so for all of you that enjoy entering quilting contests, thank you! 

I Have Some Cutting to Do!

 I'm really trying to get all the projects I partially cut from 3.5" strips sewn into blocks. I never had a huge variety of 3.5" strips, so I ended up with a lot of duplicate blocks. I planned several projects with HST's made from 3.5" strips, and on those I have all the HST's made, and a few blocks made, but mostly those are stalled there. The thing is, all those HST's are in project boxes, not hanging around my sewing space. The pieces I'm sewing up now were just sitting on a shelf. I decided to sort these longer strips I'll be using for hashtag blocks. They will be big 15" blocks, so with sashing and borders, I only need 20 blocks for a twin and 12 will make a throw. I divided the sets up into three throws and two twins. The piles that are spread out will be the throws, and the piles that are stacked will be twins. I'm matching them up with background colors now. The pattern I'm altering has sashing in the same color as the background in the blocks, but I might not go that way on all of these. I think that mustard yellow may be a bit much in that big of a quantity, so I'll likely use contrasting sashing for that throw. You can see my instructions for April's murder mystery block peeking out in the lower left corner, and I need to cut that out too! 

I'll end up with five hashtag quilts after I cut the backgrounds and sashing/borders. They will be donation quilts, so duplicates are not a problem. They should be pretty quick to make once it's all cut out because the blocks are easy and big. 

I had some leftover strips cut for hashtag blocks but I'm sure I'll be sick of making those after doing five of them, so I cut the rest into the donut-ish blocks I showed last week. I think I have 70 blocks made with the gray background, and 90 or so with a white background, but I cut more white and now I have more to make with those. I'll definitely get multiple quilts from those blocks, but I'll get at least one quilt, if not two, from the bonus HST's I'm getting from making those blocks. 

I didn't finish any quilts this week, but I snapped a pic as was finishing up the quilting on Mr. T's birthday quilt.

I finished quilting this today, so once it's trimmed I can sew the binding on and it will be a finish! 

On the homefront, the ductwork is finished, and the holes in the walls repaired, but DH doesn't have time to repaint for at least a couple weeks. He's overbooked himself over the next couple weeks, so I will just wait for him to have time. I am terrible at painting, so I'm better off waiting than trying it myself. 

I had to switch out my seasonal clothes, and that makes me sad because I hate summer. Our highs have been in the 90's but the lows are still low enough that I've managed to keep the air conditioner off so far. It won't be that way for long, and I'm dreading the high electric bills, but really hoping that ductwork replacement pays off! 

I'm also in a reorganizing mood again. For now I'm trying to tackle the kitchen, pantry, and one of the bedroom closets. This afternoon I was rearranging the kitchen drawers. I emptied one drawer, but what I wanted to put there didn't fit. I do like some of the things I've rearranged, but some I'm still debating. I'm going to try using a knife block again, and I'm not sure how I feel about them being in sight again after they've been in a drawer. That said, I know from experience they are easier to access from the knife block. Just like I kept the knife block (which are crazy expensive now, so I'm glad I kept it) I'll keep the knife drawer organizer for a while until I decide which storage method I prefer. 

I want to move the most common cooking utensils to the drawer closest to the stove, but that drawer was the only one the knife organizer fit into. Now that I'm going back to the knife block I can go back to the the cooking utensils in the drawer by the stove. As I'm going through what's in my drawers and decluttering what I don't use often enough to warrant keeping it, I'm realizing I don't own a spatula I actually like. DH's favorite spatula is huge and takes up way too much space in the drawer, and I'd love to donate it but he'd definitely complain. I haven't been able to find a spatula I've liked for years, why are all the handles so huge??? My current ladle has a huge handle too, and I just don't get it. The handles take up too much space in drawer, they really don't work in a countertop utensil jar, so there are no good storage options for these giant handled utensils. I've been looking for a new spatula ever since DH melted my favorite one, and I cannot find one that same style anywhere. Our pots are stainless and can have stainless utensils, but I prefer non-stick frying pans so I normally buy non-stick safe utensils. If you have a spatula suggestion for me, send me a link, and I'll take a look. I've got too many spatulas, but until I find one I really like, I'm hesitant to declutter them. 

I hope any spring cleaning you are tackling right now is less frustrating!

Sewing Drought

 Our visit with DS the Elder and family was great! Easter went well and we all had a good time. During the time they were here we made it out to the Sonoran Desert Museum, and to DD#1's homestead where we held the baby goats and pet all the animals. We had quality time with family and nothing beats that!

They left last Friday,  so you'd think I'd dive right back into the quilting studio, and I have sewn some, but not as much as you'd think. The thing is, we've needed our ductwork replaced for a while now, but kept putting it off. Now that DH is seriously talking retirement, now is the time to tackle those jobs we've put off. Timing ductwork replacement is tricky because you can't use heating or cooling while it's being done. I'd much rather be cold than hot, so I really wanted it done in March, but March was really busy, and we didn't get estimates until late March. 

The first estimate was crazy high, and the company was unfamiliar with our style of house. We own a tri-level house, which is much more common in the Midwest than the desert Southwest. I had done some internet research on how much duct replacement should cost, so I knew they were way outside of normal pricing. The next estimate we got was very reasonable, and when the repairman walked in, we found out he was from the Midwest and had owned a house just like ours! Just the familiarity he had with this style of house made us feel much better about going with this company. 

So, days before DS the Elder arrived, we scheduled the duct replacement for the week after he left, which is this week. We knew it would take multiple days, and on at least some of those days I wouldn't be able to get to my sewing room at all. I had all of last weekend to sew, but I didn't want to get into anything that mattered, because being interrupted on a major project can be really frustrating for me. Rather than work on a deadline project, or be in the middle of FMQ a quilt, I opted to just work on a random project or two. 

A couple posts ago, I showed you a block that used partial seams. That project has been cut out for a year (or maybe two).

Here are a few of the finished blocks, but I've actually finished all the blocks!  Right now my colorway of Indigo Way is up on the design wall. so I laid out a few blocks on my bed to see how they'd look. This is one of the rare occasions that I only cut out as many blocks as I needed for ONE quilt, and I cut out the borders at the same time, so once the center is assembled I'll be adding borders immediately.

I also worked on some other blocks that, again, have been cut out for a long time.

This project is quite typical of me. I was cutting up 3.5" scrap strips, and I cut as many blocks as I could from the colorful scraps. No counting, no sorting, no plan. I took a length of white fabric and cut as many 3.5" squares from it as I could. I knew that wouldn't be enough, and some of my colored scraps were quite light in color. I had a piece of darker gray fabric lying around, so I cut as many squares from it as I could. Again, no counting, no sorting, just cutting what I could from the lengths of fabric I had. I knew that wouldn't be enough squares for the blocks either, but no worries, I can cut more fabric later. I started with the blocks with white squares, and sewed up blocks until I ran out. Now I'll be working on the blocks with gray squares, which I'll be matching up mostly lighter scraps. When I run out of gray squares, then I'll count and see where I'm at. I'm planning on using these for donation quilts, and 9" blocks add up pretty quickly. I'm sure I'll end up with multiple quilts, but how many I don't know. I might mix up the background colors, and go for a positive/negative thing, or keep the same colored backgrounds together. Will I end up going for a third background color when I run out of squares? All of that is yet to be determined. I have another gray fabric that is close to what I am using, and of course I have more white, but not the same white. Until I finish the blocks I can make with what I already have cut, I won't be making any decisions on that. 

My pile of bonus HST's is piling up as I finish these blocks too. I didn't draw lines on these squares to get my bonus HST's the exact size I want them, so I'll be trimming these before I press them open. That's an easy job to do in my living room while I can't get to the sewing room. I get four bonus HST's from each bigger block, so I should have enough for a bonus quilt when I'm done. Doing sew and flip corners is never wasteful for me, because I always use the "waste" in another quilt, or sometimes for borders in the same quilt. 

Wondering how the replacement is going?

That was some rusty ductwork! This house had been cooled with an evaporative cooling system for years, also called a swamp cooler. Systems like that force air through wet filters and use the evaporative process to create cooler air. They work well during the dry months, but just make things humid and miserable during monsoon season.  They also rust out your ductwork. We took the evaporative cooler off the house years ago, and only use an air conditioner for cooling. Replacing the ductwork with definitely help it be more energy efficient like it should be, and since we no longer use evaporative cooling at all, we shouldn't have rusty ductwork again. I am very happy we are getting this work done before summer hits again, but we cut it close. The forecast says it will be 90F today. 

This afternoon the drywall guy will be coming by to start repairing the holes they needed to cut in the walls and ceilings to replace the ductwork. I'll be glad to have this project behind us. Now to decide which house project to tackle next!

Finishes #10 and #11 for 2024

 I've been busy clearing the decks again. DS the Elder and family arrive on Saturday for a week of visiting. I wanted things cleaned up before they got here. One of my deadline quilts is for their son, and here it is, finished!

He really loves dragons so I'm hoping this quilt is something he'll enjoy. They are allowed two bags a piece on the airplane, so I'm just going to send this home with them and not have to pay postage. 

I also finished a random scrap quilt. It's slated for donation. 

I've finished so many quilt tops in the past couple weeks it's crazy! I think around a dozen, but I've completely lost count. It could be higher, but I don't think it's lower. One of the quilt tops is a deadline quilt, and I've already basted it. It will be the first thing I start quilting after my company leaves. I won't be blogging next week, because no sewing will occur while family is here. I'm really hoping I hit my goal of finishing 40 quilts this year, because I've got 30 quilt tops hanging in the quilt closet plus a stack I don't have hangers for! 

I'll still have sewing time tomorrow, and I'm hoping to get my March blocks done for the Greek Murder Mystery. If I can get those cut out today, I think it's likely I can finish them tomorrow.

Saturday is our 40th anniversary! I may have married "too young", since I was just 16, but I chose really well. I don't regret a day of the time we've spent together, and a lot of time it is!

A while back I bought some decor for our bedroom.

It's hard to get a good photo of it because it's in the hallway entrance to our bedroom. The first sign says, "I choose you. And I'll choose you, over and over and over." The second sign says, "Without pause, without a doubt, in a heartbeat I'll keep choosing you." When DH saw it he loved it, and we both agree, we're going to keep choosing each other!

Do Partial Seams Scare You?

 My first quilts with partial seams were not long after I started quilting. I think I hadn't been quilting long enough to know they intimidate people. Don't get me wrong, there are lots of things in quilting that intimidate me, I've done Y seams, but if there's a way to make a block without Y seams I'm going do that. I haven't done much with curved seams, I've never done mitered borders. I've done paper piecing and although it doesn't scare me, I don't prefer it. 

I watch a lot of quilting YouTube videos, and I really enjoy Conquering Mount Scrapmore with Brenda. I watched a recent video about partial seams. That video got me to thinking, one, I may have to make a quilt with the block she demonstrates, and two, I had a project already cut out that uses partial seams and maybe I should get it out and start sewing it up. 

The project I had cut out has two partial seams per block, but aside from that it's a good leader/ender project. I've been working on assembling quilt tops all week, and I needed something more interesting to work on. 

Here's my first block finished, and I really like it! Everything I've been working on is either a deadline quilt or a scrappy quilt. This project is something I cut from fat quarters that I curated. A few of them came in small fat quarter bundles, but I mixed two bundles together with stash fabrics to round it out. 

For anyone wondering, the pattern is in this book and is called Caught in the Middle. I have one of the hashtag quilts from the cover cut out as well, but I resized the blocks to use up some scraps I had. There are several patterns in this book I plan on using. 

Assembling quilt tops- I already mentioned that's been my main thing this last week. The largest quilt I've been working on is a twin, everything else is a throw, I have five quilt tops together that aren't getting borders. One is an on point setting with oversized setting triangles, and it needs to be trimmed. I debated putting a border on that one, but I find myself using borders less and less, so I'm going to skip it. I did assemble two other quilt centers that do need borders. All seven of those I just mentioned need to be pressed. We were dog sitting for several days, and that dog sheds like crazy, so I didn't want to press quilt tops with so much fur around. Yesterday was big vacuuming day, so now I can get caught up on the pressing, which will allow me to get those borders sewn on the quilts getting them. I often just finger press a block as I go along, then press when the block is complete, but I'd never add borders to a quilt without pressing the quilt center well first. 

Good quilt progress this week, but a stressful week overall. We're getting estimates for some house repairs, and the first one came in 50% higher than the figures I found when researching that repair. We are getting more estimates on that. I had a package with $100 worth of quilting supplies say it was delivered, but it wasn't delivered here. We have a video doorbell, so I would have seen a delivery. Not a porch pirate situation, but a delivery to the wrong house. Our neighbors are usually good about bringing over a mistaken delivery, so I'm researching my options. It's not the sewing companies fault, it's all on the post office. I'm still hoping the package shows up. 

Next weekend DS the Elder and family come for an Easter visit. I only have a couple things I really want done before they come. I need to get the binding sewn on his son's quilt so I can send it home with them and not have to mail it. I'd also like to finish Mr. T's quilt top (just needs borders) and get it basted before their visit. Mr. T is local, but his is the next deadline quilt I need done, so getting it basted before having out of town company will give me a great starting place once the company leaves. Other than those couple things I'll just be working on random projects until my company arrives on the 30th. 

How Many Projects in a Week?

 I mention working on multiple projects often on this blog. I don't think I've ever given an example of how many projects that could mean. Since last week, I took photos of every project I've touched in the past seven days. I'll start with the basting/quilting/binding projects first, because that list is shorter. 

Project 1- I finished FMQ and bound this baby quilt. That's finish #9 for 2024.

Project 2- I basted and started FMQ this deadline quilt.

Project 3- I prepared a backing and laid out another quilt for basting.

Projects 4 & 5- I'm not sure if I actually sewed on the project on the left, but I did take the time to count the blocks and make a plan to use them all. I have 100 blocks, and I could make a king sized quilt or multiple smaller quilts. I don't need a king right now, and I have several king sized quilts on my docket, so I've decided to make two quilts set 5x7, and one set 5x6, which will use all the blocks. The blocks on the right I absolutely sewed on this week, and I have 72 of those. I could make one queen sized quilt or three throws, and I'm going with the three throws. So these two projects will actually become six quilts.

The first throw I got up on the design wall and sewed it into rows. 

After I was finished those blocks with the black background, I still had quite a few solid squares left, plus I had a few solid strips left. Rather than put all of that back into the Scrap User System, I decided to use up as much as I could in another project. I made more 16 patches, strip piecing as much as I could and adding in squares to keep up the variety. I was out of the black background, but I had extra WOW strips that I had cut for the other scrap fabric. 

Project 6- I'm going to have enough of these blocks to make another throw.

Now only these squares and two strips will be going back into the scrap user system. 

Project #7- The pieced neutral strips have been done for ages, but I cut the blue/green strips and sewed up all these blocks as leader/enders this week. This is already sewn into rows too. 

Project 8- This lego quilt for Mr.T was started this week. I made all the blocks in a day, and now I need to start assembling it with black sashing. I have enough fabric left for at least two throws for Project Linus. 

Project 9- I ran out of leader/enders, so grabbed another cut project to use as leader/enders. I need to add another round of printed strips outside of the black, so these can be my leader/enders for a bit longer. 

That's it, in the last week I've worked on nine different projects! 

Using the Same Fabric Twice

 The grandtwins are 13 now, but once upon a time DD#3 and I were decorating their nursery. With boy/girl twins in mind, DD#3 wanted a samurai/geisha themed nursery. I bought some fabric from Japan, and made some curtains for the nursery. When we took the curtains down, I put them aside because the fabric was in great shape, and eventually I cut them apart and put them in a couple quilt tops.

I just finished sewing the binding on this quilt top a few minutes ago. It's finish #8 for the year. Without looking, I think I made a smaller quilt top from the leftovers of this one. This one is twin sized, the other I think is a baby quilt. Like I said, I didn't look through the quilt closet to check, but if my memory is correct, those curtains went into two quilt tops. 

Originally I wasn't planning on using sashing, but the quilt was much too busy without it. There is actually quite a bit of black in the novelty fabric, so black was the obvious choice. I used a solid black, which looked rather stark against the busy print, so to soften the black a bit, I quilted with a pastel variegated thread. 

The thread mostly looks white in the photo, but it's not white at all. I took several photos, but I couldn't get the thread colors to show up. A pastel thread on black is not an intuitive choice, but I wanted to soften the solid black, and I knew if I quilted with a strongly contrasting thread, the black wouldn't look solid anymore. I could have just chosen a solid light colored thread from one of the colors in the quilt, but I happened to have a variegated thread with all the colors in it. The black and white gingham binding was another choice meant to soften the look of the black. 

I'm happy with how the quilt came out. Quilting flowers on a twin sized quilt was not quick, so my next quilt will be a simple baby quilt I'm just going to meander on. I switched my Janome over to FMQ as soon as I had the binding for this quilt sewn on, and it's threaded and ready to go for the next quilt in the queue. 

As far as piecing goes, I finished a quilt top for a deadline quilt today too, and I'm planning to baste it this weekend. That quilt needs to be finished this month, so it will jump ahead in the quilting queue, but I think I can get the baby quilt quilted first without any risk to getting the deadline quilt finished in time. 

Finish #7, Five Of Which Were UFO's

 I'm starting to think of this year as Operation Clean Slate. I won't finish the year with no UFO's, I have too many to catch up in one year. If I had a longarm, maybe, but I don't so I'm not going to stress about it. Quilt tops don't stress me out as long as they are hanging in the quilt closet, BUT, I now have more quilt tops than I have hangers, and I refuse to buy more hangers. What I'd love to have is some empty hangers at the end of the year. Two empty hangers, if I get enough quilts finished to have two empty hangers I'll count it as an epic win! 

DH took this photo for me, and he was standing on a chair holding the phone way out in front of him. The quilt is rectangular, not wonky like it looks in the photo. This quilt used up all the leftovers from a quilt I made back in 2016, plus the leftovers from a baby quilt I made a couple years ago. That fairy fabric and metallic star fabric is gone. Well, I might have an odd square or strip in the scrap user system, but there is no yardage left. This quilt is twin sized. 

I'm quilting another twin sized quilt now, but I'm quilting flowers on it so the quilting is taking quite a bit longer. I'm hoping to finish it by the end of next week. 

On the piecing front I've got piecing projects going on two different machines. I'm assembling the men's shirt version of Indigo Way, and I'm using a UFO as my leader/ender project than can use the same light colored piecing thread. 

My vintage machine had dark gray piecing thread, so I'm making One of the deadline quilts for a grandson on that, with a UFO that can be pieced with dark thread as my leader/ender project on that. 

One of the reasons I have so many quilt tops right now (aside from the fact I made 18 quilt tops while living in a hotel for three months last year), stems from my decision to try to use only UFO's as my leader/ender projects. 

These blocks are a great example of this. I have had the colored pieced strips done for at least two years. All that needed to be done to finish the blocks is to add the three WOW strips. This project languished because I never prioritized it to be the main project, BUT, finishing the blocks as leaders/enders while having another main project, THAT works for me! I assembled the colored strips as leaders/enders too, and I think I'll have enough blocks for two quilts. I don't plan on adding borders, so making two quilts from scraps, while never having either be a main a project until assembly is a good way to be more productive. 

Today is the last day of February, and I've finished 7 quilts so far. If I can keep this up, it will be a really good year, but I'm not going to hurt myself trying to reach a big goal. So far my plan is working well, and I'm able to keep my RSI from complaining. It feels good to see projects getting to the step, parts into blocks, blocks into quilt tops, quilt tops to basting, basting to FMQ, quilting to binding. If I can keep things moving along, I'm not going to stress about UFO's. 

Finish #6 for 2024

 It's not a big finish, but it is finished!

It's a baby quilt, about 45" square, and it's the last of some fat quarters I used in three quilts, this being the smallest. 

I'm almost finished quilting another quilt, a twin sized one, so once that one is bound I'll have another one to show. 

I had four blocks to make for the Greek Murder Mystery quilt for February, and here they are all finished. I put them side by side for the pic, but I don't know how they'll be set in the quilt, it is a mystery after all. I'm very happy that I had swapped out a couple of my blues before the mystery started. These blues have better contrast than my original choices. 

I'm having a little bit of trouble getting back into a routine after the family reunion we hosted. I'm fully recovered from the hubbub, and I got my house back to normal the next day, but my original thoughts for what I'd work on after the reunion have changed a little bit. We will have out of town company for a week next month, and I decided it probably wasn't the best time to get neck deep into my strings. I LOVE string piecing, but it really makes a mess!

I decided it's probably best to put the strings on the back burner a bit longer, and go back to working on deadline quilts. The next deadline quilt I need is a really quick quilt kit. It starts with two different panels and I had cut it out before the reunion. I started piecing it today, and I'm really thinking I can get this twin sized quilt pieced in three days max. Tomorrow is a no sew day, I'm going to the zoo with some of the grands since they don't have school. You know you live in the west when school kids get vacation days for rodeo. 

I also finished two quilt tops I had started assembling before the reunion. I have a third ready for borders, and I just cut those, so almost another top done! 

I guess when I list it out, I've finished more than I thought. I think it's just not as much as I had hoped. 

DD#1 told me Miss A wants a sewing machine for for her birthday in the fall. I was debating whether or not to give her one of mine, or buy a newer one for her, when a sewing machine fell into my lap for her. 

When my oldest sister and I went up to see our new great nephew last week, our nephew told us he'd like his mom's machine to go to a family member. I told him I had a granddaughter asking for a sewing machine, and he said his mom would have liked it going to the next generation, and my sister and I agreed. I want to take it in for servicing before I pass it on. Our sister passed five years ago, so I'm betting that machine is bone dry and the grease in the gears should be replaced. It should be a solid machine for my granddaughter though, and it having a cabinet is a nice perk. I was leaning towards a vintage machine for her anyway, and this way she'll have her great-aunt's machine which is pretty cool! 

My nephew even gave me my sister's sewing box with all the accessories and notions, so it's a good start for a new sewist. I'm going to keep her and her sister soon for a couple nights, and we are going to make some simple skirts for them. Miss A is nine, but her sister is only five. Of course the five year old whom I've never sewed with wants to start out by making a dress, but I talked her down to a skirt. Miss A seems to have a natural aptitude for sewing, so I probably could make a dress with her, but since we'll be trying to make two matching garments in two days, I'm thinking elastic waist skirts are a safer choice. Once I know how patient the five year old is with sewing, I'll have a better idea of appropriate projects. 

Go-To Block Sizes for Scraps

 I love a good scrap quilt, and for scraps, my go-to block size is 6" finished. Why 6" blocks? Here are just a few reasons.

Novelty prints-

This particular novelty print is fairly small scale, but some novelty prints are huge. I've found that when I cut 6.5" squares (to finish at 6") even the larger prints have enough of the design to tell what it is without fussy cutting. I know some quilters LOVE fussy cutting, and if you do, kudos! When I'm busting scraps, I'm trying to get rid of fabrics, and I've got no desire to spend a bunch of my time fussy cutting, which just makes smaller, weirder shaped scraps. 

These are all 6" finished blocks. All of them can be made with either 1.5, 2, 2.5, or 3.5" cut strips. I use the EZ angle and Companion angle rulers for HST's and QST's, so I don't have to cut huge squares then trim down to make those units. Some of these are scrappy, some are not. I have dozens of other block patterns I use to make 6" finished blocks. The thing about sticking with a consistent size, is that you learn different ways to set the blocks to make the quilts look different, but you can bust lots of blocks even if they are different if the block size is the same. Got a bunch of random 6" blocks? Sash them with cornerstones. Use them as the centers of sawtooth stars and push them up to 12" blocks. Frame them with alternating colors and set them next to each other. Make matching QST's and use the scrap blocks every other block and you'll have a quilt that looks on point but it was easier to make. Use matching nine patches as an alternate block and you'll get an Irish Chain look. 

I see a lot of quilters who like 12" blocks. You don't need as many blocks to make a quilt when your blocks are that large. There are advantage to large blocks too. BUT, my preference for SCRAPS is smaller blocks. A lot of blocks need matching fabrics in certain placements. When I'm using up scraps, I may not have enough of any particular fabric to do repeating units. I like blocks where I can use up the smaller bits, strips that aren't WOF, maybe not even half that much. 

Go, Chiefs! Superbowl champions 2024! For this block I needed 2- 2.5 x 6.5" pieces, then 2 matching 2.5" squares. You can get that from 18" of a 2.5" strip. So if you have strips from a fat quarter, you're good. Have half a jelly roll strip leftover from another project? That's plenty of fabric for this block.

For this 6" block, I needed 4 scraps 2" x 3.5" So, when I'm tackling the Scrap User system, the bits that are more than one square wide, but not quite two squares wide can go into this pattern. 

What about scraps that aren't strips? Crumb blocks? I make 6" blocks. String blocks? I usually make 6" blocks. Six inch blocks help you get rid of the smaller stuff. If you want to make 10 or 12 inch string blocks, you need pretty long pieces, especially if you are piecing them on the diagonal like I usually do. To make large crumb blocks I usually end up having to use a bunch of longer pieces so I'm digging into my strings when I want to be using crumbs. 

Another reason I like 6" squares? The math is easy. Sew four together and you've got a 12" block. I tend to make baby quilts around 48" square. That's 64 blocks set 8x8 if I don't use sashing or a border. An 8x10 setting gives me a 48 x 60" quilt which is a good size for a kid. 10x12 setting is a 60x72" quilt, good for a adult throw. 12x15 setting gives me a twin. Most of my scrap quilts aren't going to be larger than a twin. 

I'm not saying everyone needs to make 6" blocks out of their scraps. I don't even care if you toss your scraps, it's not my business. What I am saying is that IF you WANT to make good use of your scraps, making consistent sized blocks from your scraps will make them easier to use in quilt tops. Choose whatever size blocks you like. I like pre-cutting my scraps, and all the sizes I cut can be used in 6" blocks, so for me, this makes sense. Whichever size blocks you like to make, find several block patterns that are good for scraps, then find several setting options for those blocks. 

If you have some Go-to options, you can just make scrap blocks as leaders/enders, or just for fun in between big projects, and when the stack is big enough, make a quilt top. Scrap quilts don't have to be a chore, and they don't have to be the main project. With a little planning, they can happen organically, and then you'll be making more quilts than ever, without even trying. 

What Did a Month of Tidying Get Me?

This weekend DH and I will be hosting a family reunion. There will be little, if any, sewing going on this week. Coming off the holidays my sewing area was trashed, so I spent a lot of time in January tidying up my sewing spaces. It's far from perfect, but maybe you can tell me if it's company ready. 

 At the beginning of January, my ironing station on the left was piled high with stuff, as was every other surface in this room. It was MUCH worse than normal. You can see my Studio cutter folded up along the back wall. At the beginning of January, the surfaces were so bad, my Studio cutter was sitting on the floor!

The cabinet under the window still has too much stuff on it, but it had been piled almost to the window sill. It's not great, but better. My cutting table is completely cleared off and that's HUGE!

The dressers that hold fat quarters-1 yard pieces of fabric are mostly cleaned off. The pink basket has some scraps I haven't put away yet, but are cut to sizes I save. My jars of pins live on there, so those are supposed to be there. All my quilt books are put away, there had been a stack of them on the floor, and my trash has been emptied, so yeah!

That set of plastic drawers had been covered with stuff, but in this pic the only thing on it is my coffee cup, which is no longer there! 

That's how my fabric room is looking. People can easily see into it when going to the basement bathroom, so this room being cleaned up was the most important.

How about my actual sewing room? To the untrained eye, it's still a disaster, but to me it's SO MUCH BETTER! 

Indigo Way from men's shirts (a smaller version) is on my design wall, along with a strip of what will become a thermometer for my 2023 temperature quilt. You can see my colorway of Indigo Way on the table with my Singer 201. 

There had been a big stack of stuff next to my sewing cabinet that houses the Janome M7. That has all been dealt with and put away. Yes, there are project boxes all over, but that's ok. 

The quilt closet has been tidied and you can actually walk into it! One of these days we're going to have to get a door for it, there hasn't been a door on that closet the whole time we've lived here. There's still stuff on my cubbies, but it's active projects, and it's the same with the stuff on top of my rolling carts. It's all stuff I'm currently working on. 

The best part about taking a month to tidy is I think I touched every single project I have going, whether it's only cut out, started, or just waiting for assembly. I found some nine patches I had completely forgotten about, and I've already put those into blocks for two throws. They went from forgotten units to finished quilt blocks in between other projects. There will be 80 nine patches in each quilt, but I've got them sewn into forty quilt blocks, twenty blocks for each quilt. 

See what I mean about other people may think it's a mess, but it's actually not bad for a working studio that is being used on a daily basis? I don't need it to look like I don't use the sewing spaces. There is ample proof I do in the living room!

DH and I finally got quilts hung on my new quilt rack! In case you are wondering how hard it is to hang them, the answer is not hard at all. We started by taking all the bars off the rack. We put the bar that would become the top bar on the bottom. I hung the baby quilts I wanted to show on that, then with DH on one side and me on the other, we lifted the loaded bar to the top position. We did the same thing for bars 2 and 3, so only on the bottom bar was I hanging quilts that were actually touching the ones above it. The largest quilt on there is a full sized, the blue on the bottom left. Four are twins, and all the rest are throws or baby quilts. Yes, the rack is screwed into wall studs. 

I did get a quilt finished over the weekend. 

It was a UFO so it's nice to cross it off my list. Since I was mostly busting busy novelty prints, I kept the center squares constant. DH is picky about scrap quilts but he likes this one. This is finish #5 for the year. 

I won't be sewing the rest of the week, it's some cooking and lots of cleaning. I've already gotten a head start on the cooking because I like to make ahead whatever I can. I don't want to spend all my time in the kitchen when there is family from out of state here to visit with. Now that my sewing rooms are clean-ish, I am at a good starting place when life is back to normal. 

Two More Finishes

My original goal for 2024 was to finish 40 quilts. That sounds like a lot, but between basted quilts and quilt tops, I actually have that many quilts ready to finish. Potentially, I could finish 40 quilts this year without piecing at all. If you add in the quilts where I have the blocks done but they need assembly, that brings me closer to 60 UFO's! Crazy, right? 

I will be piecing this year, I have four quilts that need to be made for grandkids birthdays. I finished cutting the last of those out this morning. I have five other quilts I'd like to make for family members this year, all of which are cut out as much as is practical. Some things, like strip pieced quilts, need cutting along the way too. I have a few leader/ender projects pre-cut as well. 

So why did I do so much pre-cutting of projects? So I can keep my cutting table free for basting! Most of my finished quilt tops are not that large. There are several baby quilts, lots of throws, and a few twins. I have a ton of batting scraps that need to be pieced into Frankenbatts, and smaller quilts are a great place to use those up. Having my cutting table free will help me deal with all those batting scraps too! 

Meandering seems to put the least amount of stress on my arm, even less than walking foot quilting. I end up repositioning the quilt more frequently with most walking foot designs, which is harder on my arm. Honestly, if I meandered on every quilt I ever make, but I die leaving behind quilts rather than quilt tops, it's a win. Quilt tops don't stress me out though. Should something unexpected happen to me, and I leave behind a bunch of finished quilt tops, those can be turned into a charity that has long arm quilters in the group, or if my family wants any of them, there's a long arm quilting shop within walking distance of my house. They can be finished easily enough. 

I like finishing quilts myself, and the smaller ones are pretty easy for me. I don't see myself quilting a lot more queen/king quilts in my life. Every once in a while, sure, but often? No. Baby quilts are a great opportunity to try out new quilting designs. I may meander most of the time to protect my RSI, but I still like learning new stuff. 

I'm not confident I will finish 40 quilts this year, but I'm off to a good start. I finished four quilts in January. Besides the two baby quilt I showed last week, I finished these two as well. 

This quilt is twin sized. If it looks familiar, I actually made three quilt tops out of the same stack of black/neutral log cabin blocks. How in the world I ended up with so many black scraps I'll never know.  I know I finished the other twin sized one in 2023, but it had a different layout. I think the baby sized quilt top made from the leftover blocks is still hanging in the quilt closet. 

I finished this quilt too. It's just a throw 48" x 60". 

These aren't my fanciest quilts, nor my favorite ones. They are, however, finished. I hoping they can bring comfort to someone when it's needed, after all, isn't that why we quilt at all?

I quilted about 1/3 of another throw this morning. My goal is to get it finished this weekend. After that, I'll probably not be sewing much if at all for a week or so.  The end of next week through the weekend is a family reunion we are hosting and I will be very busy with that. Sewing can wait, family is more important.