Scrap Management

   It was a nice, quiet week here-- the kind you think you’re gonna have before all heck breaks loose-- but nothing happened here except a ton of sewing!

     The Haberdashery quilt is finished...

     The Fromage Tablecloth has been hemmed and delivered to the cabin...

     One of my long armed quilts has a binding (that still needs to be handstitched down)...

     and Block 10 of my Pressed Flowers quilt is done-- it is almost time to make this into a quilt!

     And not just sewing happened-- we had a beautiful Valentine’s birthday party for Mr. SFO.

   And I even did some tidy up-- the U.S.S. Constitution is saved! (As a side note-- I'd like you to know, there was so much stuff covering that countertop, that not one speck of dust was under there! :-)

     After finishing up the Haberdashery January Sew Sampler box quilt and block, I’m in a bit of a lull-- I really didn’t mean to commit to making all the Sew Sampler boxes this year, but I loved the hats. Next, I want to start working on some of my own projects. 

     There’s always a few designs each year I am especially proud of and would like to make into a larger, original piece-- this is what my "Coffee Art Mug Rug" turned into a few years back-- "DOT ZERO." It won a couple of show ribbons-- but even better, it is Mr. SFO's all time favorite quilt.

    

     In that category is my Heartland Quilt Block-- I do LOVE it. I’ve been thinking of making it into a pillow or maybe a wallhanging since I finished it. 

    I decided to look through my stuffy, outdated stash for coordinating fabrics. I have an entire box of Valentine fabrics-- I love the holidays, so of course, I do! I did a little fabric pull for my Love block. Good times-- I came across remnants of one of my all time favorite collections-- “Kissing Booth” by Basic Grey. I bet I have the scrapbook paper of this, too. I don't know why Basic Grey gave up their whole paper line-- I guess they saw that a lot of scrapbooking would go digital-- but there is still plenty of scrapbook paper being sold.

    Back to my stash. My stash is always such a crumbled mess as you can see in the photo above-- I am always reading about how to organize it-- did I hook you, too, with the headline on this post? Make 2-1/2” strips and store them in shoeboxes, take charm size squares and keep them in baskets, la-di-da. But no one ever tells you what to do in this situation:

File it in the oversized trapezoid bin?

   And how about this beauty, below-- like a diamond in the rough, it would take months of study to decide how to best cut it. I'm happy to just figure out how to fold it for now. Do your scraps look like mine, or is it just me?

     

     I lit a candle, pressed, and folded for a few minutes. Here’s my Kissing Booth fabric now, ready for use-- good job, huh!

   I’m going to just start adding borders around my cross stitch and see where it takes me. Did you know, the earliest quilts were medallion style, not sampler blocks? It make sense if you think that people who really needed blankets would take an ADD ON approach with what they could find--like a medallion quilt. A quilt made of blocks, like we make now, would take planning.
     

    Anyway, my Kissing Booth fabric has the perfect colors, and here's my first border!

    I am leaving my stabilizer in on this one for added stiffness-- you can see how I just cut the stabilizer out of the seam allowance before adding the borders.

     It looks like there is plenty of opportunity for a little fussy cutting my Kissing Booth fabric, too. Maybe some appliqued hearts?

    The February sew sampler box is on the way-- no one has done a spoiler yet, and I really hope I don’t like the project in it! I want to spend the month on this-- let's see if I can get some X and O blocks made for the next border this week.

     I'd also love to get my Kona Cotton star block for January done-- hee,hee. My charm squares are waiting patiently. So this quilt is a pattern, but I'm going to do some free-wheelin' with it. It's a different star every month-- I tend to like the more complicated ones, so I may go way off script. My current thought is to just take my favorite star and make them all that way. There's a ton of different colors in each charm pack, and I'm going to just randomly stitch them together. Look like fun? It's a free sew-a-long here. My favorite block is the aqua one-- third row, middle.

   I've been "good"-- starting and finishing projects-- I think I will treat myself to some new material-- pun intended!

    I’m also putting together the Zen of Thread Table Runner this week-- it matches the Zen of Thread Mug Rug that is already out. 

Finally, a table runner that can be left out ALL THE TIME in this establishment!

I'm using the new Pink Lemonade collection-- it has FIVE different greens and I just love it A set of fat quarters is way out of my budget for now, but I bought two charm packs. I also signed up for the Moonbeam Fat Quarter Shop stitch-a-long that starts later this spring. I'm disappointed in myself that signed up for another kit-- but it's just so easy to order stuff on a whim with the click of a button these days, isn't it? It does benefit Make-a-Wish, so there's that.

    The only kit type project I have going this week is the Prairie Meadow quilt-- I finally got my 11th block prepped and am really enjoying stitching it. I missed my appliqué! I am going to shoot for 16 blocks-- if I can get one done a month, I’d be done by early summer. Then I’ll make a decisions on borders. By that time, it will probably need a rest again. If it was all stitching, I’d be fine. But these blocks take a tremendous amount of time to prep!

     Someone on Flosstube threw out the question-- how do you stay motivated to keep moving projects along? One of the answers that resonated with me was-- force yourself to do at least two lengths of thread a day. If I do two shapes a day on this, it will be done in no time. The next one I do, I am taking Lori Holt's shapes and designing my own block-- that makes it more fun for me.

    So that’s what I got done last week-- this week also seems like it could be a good one-- fingers crossed, for that!

   We're over the hump of winter-- I checked the yearly temperatures here, and after the middle of February, they start to rise again. But not too fast-- I'm really enjoying these quiet days, to be sure.

xox

Carol