The Great Sort: How I Deal(t) with Scraps

During my blogging hiatus, I was still sewing.  Usually in spurts.  While renos continued, I could only set up my space for a bit at a time, and if I got to leave it up for days!! in a row, then it was pedal to the hardwood...

In February, I had vast amounts of space to myself to fill with nothing but a makeshift studio, conveniently located near the refrigerator and coffee maker.  Also, with extra plug-ins so I could stream the Olympics on my laptop while the fabric was flying.  And flying it was!  I took the rare opportunity to spread out over two floors and organize my stash, supplies and most importantly, my scraps.  This was an "in-progress" photo of the front room as seen from the dining room/kitchen "workshop" I'd established.

Indeed. Whatever you are thinking about this photo, I agree with you.

The process took awhile.  Several evenings.  But the benefits!  I had a "eureka moment" of scrap storage idea that is incredibly useful to me (steal it if you want to) considering my lack of space and cold, cash dollahs!  Yes, necessity invented this mother of a scrap system.

Yes, the blues are out of control, as are the greys....

Hanging folders from IKEA.  Plastic filing boxes. Twelve different sections.  I can see all my small scraps and still pick from many different colours at once. I can also remove an entire colour, lay it open on the table, and the fold it back up and "refile" it. Plus, pretty.  (Ok, I'm not really thrilled about the plastic part but the need to keep things portable, stackable, and dust-free trumps my qualms. I also make sure to allow my fabric plenty of time to breathe on a regular basis. )

My large scraps were pressed and folded and sorted by colour ( I use a 12- colour category system: purples, pinks, reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, blacks, greys, whites, creams, browns, which is preferable to the old system of "stuff 'em willy-nilly into whatever container is closest").  Then I stacked them in a box with my baskets of various-sized squares.  Strings and selvedges also sorted by colour, in their own box. And then my stash, on comic boards, solids separated from prints. Battings, interfacings, etc in another.  To be fair, I do have a smaller stash than most - less than 150 yards on hand - with most of that earmarked for specific projects. I'm trying to get better at mindful purchasing, because let's face it, I simply don't have the money or the space, and fabric's only as valuable as it is useful.

Nope, this isn't all of it....

And now that everything is contained and organized, my space (which sometimes needs to be completely dismantled - hence the lack of shelves, no using wall space, and collapsible desk) looks like this.

Batting and interfacing box is actually kept in a different room...

And it works.

Scraps in action! Tiny tiny tiny....

Pouch for a swap

So does the scrap system.  And that makes me very happy.

Pouch for a gift.

Yay for tiny!

Bloggers' Quilt Festival: Broken Windows

So the BQF totally snuck up on me this year. It was only a month or so after the last one that I fell off the internet and while I have been making and sewing, I was feeling like I didn't have anything I wanted to enter. However, there are a few things I haven't shared yet. Like this one...

As a mini with fabrics I would never choose, this piece was a little out of the box for me. And I dealt with it a little in the box, too.  At Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guid, we had a challenge to use a bag of someone else's scraps. I got Erin's and she actually enjoyed handing over the ugliest bag of scraps ever seen in Saskatoon.  She even taunted us as she threw the bag in the mix.  Fabrics? Not modern. Colours? Non-descript.  Size? Larger than your average scrap. Hmmm.... Workable?

I embraced the messy!  I started with the batik. Some folks love 'em, some hate 'em and I'm somewhere in the middle. I use them, sparingly, and not on their own.  But this one had nice little boxes in a regular pattern, like frames.  I freehanded some shapes,  stay-stitched the lines, trimmed the excess and folded the seam allowance back. Then I backed each opening with a little piece of one of the horrid little scraps, and reverse appliquéd it to the batik.

Then I quilted it within a sixteenth of an inch of its life.  I started with a neutral cream colour and decided it needed red!

The binding was made from another one of the scraps. I knew it was going to be difficult and there was no way I'd be able to hand-finish it with the density of quilting on the back - I even debated ways I could get a way with leaving unfinished.  Once it was trimmed, I felt I lost a lot of the rustic, broken quality I was getting so I recaptured it by attaching the binding to the back and stitching it down unevenly along the front.

This is the first quilt I've actually hung on my walls and I'm happy with how it turned out.

Title: Broken Windows
Size: 18x11"
Category:  Small quilts?
Pieced and Quilted by me.

Thanks so much to Amy and the sponsors, everyone who stops by, and everyone who shares their work with the rest of us to make this festival so much fun! Can't wait to see what everyone's been up to!

Colour Challenge Pillow

First off - thank you to everyone who's stopped by during the Blogger's Quilt Festival, left comments, nominated my quilt, or voted for it!  It's very kind of you and I'm flattered beyond words. You've put me in some pretty amazing company. Thanks!  It took me 10 days to get around to see everyone's quilts so I do appreciate the time it takes to look, read and leave a message.. <3 p="">
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The Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild had a recent colour challenge. We had to make something using a colour scheme that had been discussed at our meeting in August.

In a move that surprised absolutely no one, I chose blue and orange.  Blue + Orange = Complimentary Colour Scheme!  After playing around with some scraps, I had some little boxes.

I played around a little more and framed them into boxes using a FQ of shot cotton I'd been hoarding.

Then I tried to counteract all that square corner-ness with some circle quilting.

Et voila! A cushion!  I tend to give away a lot of my challenge pieces since Mum and Seester usually call dibs.

Totally keeping this one.   It's my colours. :-)

I've got more to post - a month or more of not blogging equals lots of little things that need showing and telling... but it'll have to wait until next time! Have a great Tuesday!

Opportunity to Help: Slabs for Calgary

Hi all!

I'm headed south for the day - spending time with family.  Some of whom are moving to Calgary.

Speaking of Calgary....

If you live in Canada, you'll no doubt have seen the devastation in Alberta on the news. (Or in person - our prayers are with you!)

The Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild is throwing their support behind Just One Slab - Quilts Recover - Southern Alberta. We're making slab blocks!

It's a fantastic way to use up some pesky scraps and do some good will sewing.

To learn more, (especially if you're in Saskatoon):  Check out our post on Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild

OR

Cheryl's Just One Slab post at Dining Room Empire.

Have a safe (and dry!!) Canada Day long weekend!

Every block - made with love!

Hexes Finished!

Somehow, February always gets away from me....

I finished the hexie table topper on Sunday, just before our guild meeting. I filled in the edges with half hexes and tiny kites (only every other half hex on the two sides they fit - I'm not THAT intense, though some folks and good for them!)

I used four or five long, skinny pieces of batting - you know, leftovers that aren't good for much, you hate to throw away, but leave you with a big pile of batting that makes you THINK you have a piece big enough for your next project...? Yeah, those. :) I didn't join them; I just cleaned up the edges, butted them together on my back piece and then laid the top over it. I quilted pretty thoroughly, (leaving this sort-of jewel shape...) and since this isn't going to be used in a cover hog battle or for making forts in the living room, that''ll do.

In keeping with my scrap plan, I used only bindings remnants from other project. Between this and my scrappy trip blanket, I have few binding scraps left! Yay! I did have to go into my stash to grab a yard for the back but that's what a stash is for.

Title: Compulsive :D
Approx 30x34"
Given to my mum
Never want to see another hex for as long as I live (or a year, if it turns out I'm exaggerating... )

I also finished my bee block for Simply Solids Bee for March. My lovely guild mate sent out these beautiful fabrics, for squares in squares... On Sunday, she showed us her inspiration piece so I'm really looking forward to seeing this one when it's done.

Off to take a thread-painting class from My Sweet Prairie.....!