Sunday, December 31, 2017

Pre - Cutting for 2018

It's so easy to be productive in the sewing room when I have the parts cut out and waiting for assembly.

Today I'll be sharing those strange pictures of fabric piles with pre-cut parts.

These 1st 4 pics are cut for quick donation projects;  I call it Mary's Strippie. I cut extra strips to add to the sides, adjusting the shape a bit.  It is designed by Mary Johnson of Heartstrings yahoo group.  She shares the free pattern on her site   HERE  .

Mary's Strippie










Irish Chain Challenge


This photo shows the pre-cut strips for the Irish Chain challenge.  The alternating blocks will be the beige print fabric.
Irish Rose - *ignore the leaf pattern*




This photo shows a collection of pre-cut 3-1/2 inch squares for a scrappy 9-Patch ICC which will alternate with open blocks for quilting.  There is also the green collection of quarter square triangle pieces cut for Bonnie Hunter's Hourglass quilt.



This photo shows an assortment of green pre-cut 2-1/2" squares.  As I work thru my scrap bins with a cutting system, I can collect for this wonderful scrappy Irish Chain quilt





Related image
inspiration only



This is my version of Bonnie Hunter's mystery, I'm calling it  On Ringo's Starr.  The star blocks are all made from the scrap bins.  I have the alternating blocks cut from chocolate browns.



That's it.  A bunch of new starts for the new year, plus I had  a few unfinished leftovers, just a few.
Aiming for lots of lovely finishes in 2018.

Happy New Year  !!

Saturday, December 30, 2017

Creating a scrap users system ...................

Preparing fabric scraps for more efficient use in 2018,   I'm trying to create a system that will work for me.  I wish I took a photo of the bin before I attacked it with iron and scissors and go cutter.

I  kept my larger pieces of scraps , up to a FQ  in the skinny drawers and the loose bits of pieces, strips and strings in the larger bin, sorted by color family.

Now I'm trying to make my own pre-cuts and organize them in an easily usable system.  I thought of keeping little dividers in the bin to keep the pre-cuts separated,  but now I'm wondering if it will work better if I keep the pre-cuts in the skinny drawers and the bigger pieces in the bin.  I think I'll try that.

At this point, I tossed the strings, anything skinner than 2 inches,  into a bag.  I will collect them there, maybe one bag for warm colors and one bag for cool colors.
This system will be a work in progress , just like my sewing work room seems to be.



Here is the small bin,  2 - 1/2 inch strips,  2 inch strips,   2-1/2 inch squares,  2-1/2 inch hst units and 2 inch squares; the large bin has bits separated in the front and the pile of larger pieces & near FQ size just behind it.  I intend to spend some more time on the larger pile and cut up the unusual shapes.
(P.S.  if the strip is shorter than 1/2 WOF i.e. 20 inches,  should I cut it up into squares?)




Here is some pre-cuts for 2018 projects.......  3-1/2 inch squares for a scrappy 9-patch chain and lots of QST units for  Bonnie Hunters 'Hourglass' - the  L/E project of 2016




I also have alot of odd sized strip - set leftovers, which I'm not good at tossing out and  haven't figured out how to use them yet.  Here is the green collection..................  What would you do with these?



I invite your suggestions to help me make it a useful system. 


 I started with the green bin, to  get a feel of how to approach this process.  I plan to use the RSC18 challenge to work thru the rest of the color bins.  By fall, I should have it totally under control.  LOL  I also have last years RSC projects to finish, need more blocks to add to the churn dash quilt and many more blocks to add to my 20 Triangles quilt, more crayons, more ......  I hope my only new add project for RSC18 is the Hourglass.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Playground Quilt

It's a finish and already gifted out - as of yesterday.  Yay!

I called this one the Playground quilt, that's what all the colors and logs and pinwheels made me think of children at play.  It finished at 41 x 57, a nice play size. 

I saw a photo on the internet which inspired this quilt.  It is also a result of  this years' jelly roll challenge at Stashbusters yahoo group.  I made 4  great tops from that challenge.



and here is the back, a happy lime green fleece;  the quilting shows up very well from the back; the color is a prettier shade than it shows in this photo;  I had to take the pics indoors.

 I used the westalee honeycomb template and a curved template for the pinwheel areas,  and the lineworks template for framing in the ditch.










I'm linking up with a few of my favorite parties this week. Be sure to visit them to see what other creative quilters are sharing.



Have a great Holiday Week.  Thanks so much for stopping by.

Friday, December 22, 2017

Sunday, December 10, 2017

Petals Across The Pond

I know it seems I've been bone-idle for the last couple of months,  but truly I have been working diligently hard on this project, which I can finally share now.

DIL picked out this design from internet photos.  This was a virtual quilt design by Judy Butcher of virtualquilter.wordpress.com.  I was not provided with the project file or instructions, I just made my own plan for it, with a few minor adjustments, mainly to make the center medallion into a rectangle.  Judy lives in Australia, which may help  explain the name of the quilt.  Thank you, Judy,  for sharing this  design inspiration.

This quilt has 1,106 raw-edge appliqued petals.   The quilt finished at  96 x 106 .  It sure feels bigger when you try to lift it.  Most of it was quilted on my Janome 9400 using westalee rulers and templates.  What alot of fun I had!




and here is the back:



and a close up:



a different angle:




As this is a huge finish for me,   I am joining linky parties all week.  Please visit these sites to see what other creative quilters are sharing too.

Wednesday  -  Sew Fresh Quilts
                  -  QuiltFabrication
 Thursday  -  My Quilt Infatuation
Friday  -  T.G.I.F.F.

Also sharing with my inspiring and helpful Yahoo friends!

Thanks so much for stopping by!