Getting my scraps under control

I have lost control.  My scrap bin overflows.  It is so unorganized that I avoid digging through it to find bits I need.  I instead cut chunks out of my pretty, organized, untouched FQs.  I can just see them better and can quickly pull a fabric I want instead of digging through that outrageous bin, creating dust and having to iron silly little pieces.  Something has to change.

After watching Di at our sewing weekend scoop up every unattended scrap and trim them to usable pieces, I think I have found my solution.  Now, who wants to dig through that bin and spend a weekend pressing and cutting?  Not me.  Instead, I tossed them into a suitcase and brought them to a week-long conference so I could iron and cut in a hotel room when I had nothing else to do!  Pretty smart if I do say so myself.  (Cheeky!)

In the end, my scrap bin was turned into this:  Ta da!

It's prettier, anyway.  I pulled each scrap, pressed it, then started cutting the largest piece I could out of the scrap and worked my way down to cutting 2.5 inch squares.  I have more 2.5 inch squares than anything else....

....have a reasonable stack of 3 inch and 3.5 inch squares....

...and then finally have a mini pile of 4, 4.5 and 5 inch squares....

There's also a good sized pile of 2.5 inch strips so I could make a scrappy jelly roll quilt at some point.  Needless to say I do not have a plan for any of these pieces, but they are more manageable to store and easier to use.  I'll be happy spending time google searching for scrappy quilts to put these to good use.

Here is what's left:

My stash of scrappy solids.  I do not have the heart to cut these down too.  Would anyone want them?  I would like to split these up into two large bags and give them to someone who will use them (you pay postage).  If you are interested, email me at fluffysheepquilting at gmail dot com, please.  First come first serve.

EDITED - The scraps have now gone to three good homes.  

I will leave you with a photo of Molly, my photographic assistant.  She was great company while trying to take these snaps.  Love her.

Time To Stop Faffing....

 ....and get serious about sewing the goose border for my medallion quilt.  I had all of my focus fabric and most of my LV charms cut out last week.  I have my paper piecing templates printed and ready to roll.  I just needed a bit of time to dust off my reversed-piecing-guided-by-sunlight skills.   Time to settle in mentally.

This past weekend I dove in and pieced geese like a maniac.  I had a small bit of help...or distraction...or spot quality inspections.  It's good he's cute.

After a day and a half I had 19 of my templates finished and five remaining.  Now that's real progress - enough to keep me motivated to finish off those last few in no time at all.

I am 100% jazzed about they are coming together.  Paper piecing makes those points extra pointy, which I love.  The color in this photo doesn't do the focus fabric justice - stinkin' winter sun.  They are bright, saturated and shine with the LV background.  De-lighted. 

Although I am not looking forward to pulling the paper out of the back, I can not wait to stitch these together into rows.   Do you think we'll have a finished medallion top next week?  Here's hoping!

Sewin' Scraps

It is so satisfying, isn't it?  Digging though your scrap bin, finding little tiny scraps and chain piecing them together willy nilly.  I love it.  It's quite peaceful.

I have three borders remaining in my medallion quilt.  The flying geese (which are coming along!), followed by a thin 3/4 inch scrappy border and then a wider (2-3 inch) border in block color.  The scrappy border seemed like a quick and easy project to take on in evenings after work last week.

I stitched together anything 1 inch - 3 inches long by 1.5 - 2 inches wide until I had a chain 240+ inches long.  I trimmed the whole thing to 1 1/4 inches wide to finish at 3/4 inches in the quilt.  There are some of my absolute favorite fabrics included in this border by using scraps that would be too small for me to use in any other project.  They make me so happy popping up like little pieces of confetti.

One of three remaining borders finished and ready to assemble.  Check!  Now back to focusing on those geese....

Dusting off a UFO

I absolutely love my medallion quilt top. I love the colors.  I love how each of my favorite fabrics make an appearance.  I love how the random unplanned borders work together.  Sadly, though, it has become a UFO.  You see, I hit a bump with my last attempt at a border and then could not find my rhythm again.  This past weekend, though, I dusted it off, spread it out on the landing and had a good planning session to find a way forward....

I'm sorry for the very poor indoor lighting....its winter, you know.

My next border is going to be a series of flying geese, using a template made especially for this project by the wonderful Kelly of Jeli Quilts.  I gave them a test run 6+ months ago (the template makes them so easy peasy!) and then promptly lost interest.  I do not know why.  For some reason, though I have the itch to finish this top off.  I keep day dreaming about the corner blocks for this next border.  About how it will be quilted. About the binding fabric.  I had better get stitching while I have medallion mojo!

So, my quilty math tells me that I need 80 low volume charms for this next border.  That is a bit of a problem for me as my LV stash isn't huge.  I have 68 cut and am sure I can find the last 12 if I dig deep enough.

And then I need 80 focus prints for the actual geese.  Now here I had no problem pulling fabrics.  Are you sitting down?  This is the first time EVER that I have voluntarily pulled a few brown fabrics to be included in a project.  I have even shocked myself.

I cut like a maniac this weekend and now have 80 focus prints ready to be paper pieced into a pretty, color-saturated flock.

As my Sunday was drawing to a close and I would not have time to truly, diligently sew flying geese blocks (even though I'm now mostly prepared...), I thought I would have a dig through the old scrap bin to pull out my mini scraps for the next (after goose) border.  I know I am really getting ahead of myself, but it's a pretty mindless, rewarding project that I can dive in/out of during the week after work.  There's something to be said for having a go-to goal for nights when I'm tired.

I think I have found a bit of a medallion vibe.  I am energized, excited and inspired so I am just going to run with it.  I can already imagine where it will hang in my stairwell, so I had better get my bum into gear and start stitching!  Happy happy to be back in the saddle again.   

Modern Irish {Scrappy} Bee: September Blocks

It's a rare month that I have my bee blocks finished already!  This month in the Modern Irish Bee, Helen has asked for four happy, bright, loud, clashing Wonky Cross blocks using her own tutorial.  We were to use Kona Solids as the background fabric and then use (non-floral) scraps for the crosses.  

I had great fun making these blocks.  We usually only make two per hive member, but as these were so easy to make I was happy to make four.  

I have to say I was surprised to find four different colors of Kona Solids in my stash.  I was sure I would have to go to the shop and pick up a few FQs.  Lucky me, though...a little dig and I found enough.  They are quite Eastery, though, aren't they?  Sure, when they are mixed in with all of the others from the hive they will be fine.

We were asked to not trim them.  To leave the little crossing strips dangling from the edge.  I feel like I have not finished my job sending them all scraggly.  That said, if you tuck in the edges and align the blocks, you can see they will be quite pretty together.  Helen, I hope you like them.  They will be in today's post.

Final Medallion Border: Test Blocks

My medallion top has been hanging on my design wall for weeks and weeks, waiting for inspiration to strike.  What block will I make for my final border?  I wanted it to be 6.5 x 6.5 inches and pieced without templates.  As every other part of the quilt has been paper pieced, I'm getting a little tired of that and have been wanting to just sit and sew.  

As the rest of the quilt is very angular, I thought a basic square/rectangle block might be a nice change.  After a quick vote on Instagram (@fluffysheepquilting) it was decided that I'd start making super scrappy blocks on a LV background.  I went to town and made 8 tester blocks.

But then when I placed them side by side on the design wall, the design didn't pop against the LV prints.  Out came the seam ripper....

And instead I made matchy scrappy blocks on a LV background.  Now these you could see easily. 

Although the rest of the quilt is hog wild scrappy, I sort of like the grouped, color-coordinated scraps in these final little blocks.

I think the coordinated scrappiness jives relatively well next to the crazy scrappiness of the rest of the quilt.You can easily see the block pattern against the background, too.

The one thing I'm not sure about is that there's no secondary pattern between the blocks in the outer border.  They seem quite jarring against one another.  I tried making mirror image blocks and inserted them in between, but that's even worse.

Suggestions are welcome, but for now I'll just keep piecing these little cuties until (again) inspirations strikes and I find a better way to unify the blocks in the outer border.  I have two pretty good sized piles of scraps cut ready for chain piecing, so it's perfectly mindless and rewarding just sitting and piecing a few blocks as I walk by my sewing room.  Happy days.

Modern Irish Bee: April

Whew!  April is flying by!  With it, though, has come some beautiful weather.  Would you believe I'm sitting out at night in the back garden writing this post?  Shocking.

This month in the Modern Irish Bee, the talented Miss Anna went for a few wild improvisational blocks using this tutorial as a guide.  She wanted a fussy cut to anchor the block, but wanted it to be off center.  From there we were let to dive into our scrap bins and stitch.

Now, I must have added in additional instructions to Anna's request because in MY mind (apparently in my mind only....) these blocks were to be somewhat monocrhomatic.  Even though her inspirational mosaic clearly has multi-colored blocks.  I wonder if I picked that theme up from the tutorial?  Anyway, everyone else has gone wild scrappy and I'm the only weirdo with monochromatic blocks.  Anna's nice enough to take them for her quilt anyway :)  Thank you, Miss Anna!

When digging through my scrap bins I really only had two piles of scraps big enough to make a block: teal/aqua and pink.  I thought they looked OK as a pair, so I went for it.  The aqua block has a Melody Miller teapot as the fussy cut focus point.  The pink block has a little Hello Kitty, the only thing in a pink vein that I have to fussy cut!

I squeezed in a few DS goodies, a small bit of Liberty, Nordika (because Anna digs it) and a few selvedges.  All in all I'm quite pleased with the result.  I love making these blocks, Anna.  I could stitch these all day long!  

Sew & Bee Happy September Block

You know when you start making a block and it's the perfect block to match your  mood?  I hit that moment.  This month in Sew & Bee Happy, Judith has requested improv pieced blocks for Bee Blessed.  I was assigned a dark or royal blue colorway. 

It was a bright sunny day so the freedom of a improv pieced block was perfect.  As my little pile of happy scraps has grown quite a bit, I was more than happy to dig through and find pieces that might work for Judith.  I was lucky to have a few larger scraps, a few smaller scraps, a few solids and a few nutter prints.  Together they make me happy.  This is 10.5 inches of color with a white sashing to bring it up to 12.5.  Happy days.  Hope it suits your quilt, Judith!

Granny Mania

Whew!  How are you doing checking out new blogs in the SMS give away spectacular?  I could spend all day blog hopping looking at all of that eye candy.  But, it's time to re-focus and gain sanity in my life again.

I couldn't hold out much longer.  I had to make a granny square.  I am over obsessed lately with collecting Stitched In Color bits and pieces...a happiness that was greatly supported by Di in the Mouthy Stitches swap as she sent on delicious jelly roll "scraps".

And then more so when I found FQs at a pop up shop appearing at our Patchwork Society Meeting.

The help of Google, I found this quilt and fell in love.  I am not at all being creative in shamelessly reproducing someone else's idea, but I am happy as happy can be.

It's been a long while since I made something with a line of fabrics instead of scrappy bits and pieces.  I forgot how effortlessly things come together!  Three blocks down.  Seventeen to go!