Sorting batik scraps.............

There were 2 bins of batik scraps on my tables in the basement.  I decided to go through and divide them by 'keep' and 'don't want'.

I think there might be a third box down there too and I'll look for that today.

This is a top view of the two boxes.  I need to use my yardage and stop using scraps that I don't care for.

All of the pieces had been pressed at one time so this is pretty much stacked flat pieces, not crumpled up and wrinkled so there is a lot in these 2 boxes.

After sorting this is the 'don't want' pile that is pieces at least 2.5" wide (eyeballing, not measuring).  There are chunks, strips and some full width pieces.  I weighed it on my postal scale and it weighs 4 lb. 14 oz. (78 oz). Then I weighed a one yard piece of batik and it weighs 3.5 oz. 78 oz. divided by 3.5 oz. = 22.285 yards of fabric.  Wow, that was a surprise!  Even if I rounded one yard up to 4 oz. (4 yards per lb.) it would be = to 19.5 yards.  If I was a lot younger I might cut it all into squares and triangles and see if I could get 2 twin size quilt tops out of that pile.

This is my 'keep" pile.  It is 4 lb. 2 oz. (66 oz.) or 18.857 yards.  Because the pieces are irregular shapes it probably relates to more like 13 -15 yards of usable yardage.

There was one more group, strips narrower than 2.5" any length and small chunks that weighs 1 lb. 2 oz.  Well that was a fun evening!

I pre-ordered a few pieces of the Kaffe collective for spring 2024.  The top left is by Kaffe, the 2 below it are Brandon Mably's and the 2 on the right are Philip Jacob's

Two more Philip's and one Brandon's.  These will all fill in nicely to the stash I already have.

The orange cactus continues blooming.  It is such a treat at this time of the year.

There is one bloom on the red/orange plant, no more buds.  I have a champagne color still blooming too but none of the other plants have buds.  I counted my cacti yesterday and I have 18 now.  I think I would like to plant about 4 or 5 of the small plants in one pot.  If it gets warm enough for the garage to be worked in I could get into the cabinet where I store extra pots and see if I have one large enough.  Right now I have my mower and my paper recycling bin plus other things parked in front of it.

Sorting and testing............

I sorted all of the I Spy novelty prints into 2 piles, lights and darks.  Then I chose 4 fabrics for the blocks.  I haven't sewn any of the 4 patches yet but might get to it today.

 There are some that the parents may have to explain to the little ones, like the luggage labels.

The fabric at the bottom right is a Catfish Calhoun print.  I'm not familiar with the name but I have a couple other fabrics with his signature on them.

Here is a close up of th bottom right edge of the fabric.

A friend sent me a copy of this UK quilting magazine. It is the 100th issue and had a free gift included.

There was a package included of the templates to make a house block.  All of the pieces are cut from 3 sizes of strips, 1.5", 2", and 2.5".

I made a sample of scraps that were on my cutting table.  I didn't have enough of the light floral so since this is just a sample to try out the templates, I substituted another fabric that was laying there.  It is a 10" block.  I think the door is pretty skinny so I may choose my own variety of templates that I cut those 3 pieces from.

 

Stocking finished............

 I knew I needed to go into the studio early yesterday and finish the Christmas stocking before I did anything else and it was finished by 1 p.m.  It took me about 4 hours total to make it including time looking for the fabric, looking for the embroidery pattern and then the embroidery and all of the cutting and construction.  I took my time and didn't have to rip out any stitches.

While I was making 2 more batches of Chex Mix for the local family members I sorted my large Kaffe collective scraps.  I was looking for some that will work in Colorwash (pile on lower cabinet, low volume lights and everything else (large prints, duplicates).

Here are the low volume prints spread out a little more.

There was one more group, the small scraps.  Some of them will get cut into triangles soon.

Yesterday it was 28 degrees in the morning and the snow started around 9 a.m.  We didn't get much snow but it was blowing around with the strong winds.  By 10:30 last night it was down to -8 degrees.  Next Thursday they are predicting 47 degrees; so much variation in our weather.

Table 3 cleaned off...............

Next up for clean off was my die cutter table.  Here is is folded up so I could wipe off the table top.

Now it is ready for action again.  All that is left to do in this area is vacuuming the floor.

I plan to cut up the chunks of Kaffe collective fabrics into my 2", 3", and 4" quarter square and half square triangles and squares and put them in the appropriate boxes.  I might not make it to the bottom of the box but maybe I'll set a time limit instead of 1 1/2 hours.

I don't buy fat quarter packs very often but occasionally there is one that I like.  I am pretty irritated that they pressed creases into the fat quarters.  It's hard enough to get the soft creases out from piles on my shelves.  I don't pre-wash my regular quilting cotton prints so it is going to take a long time at the ironing board to get these ready to cut.  Spritzing with water will start them to relax, 25 fat quarters.

 

Fun in the scrap patch..................

 

I had a fun day yesterday going through the box of scraps that I define as anything smaller than a quarter yard.  Small scraps and narrow strips are in a different box so these were sizeable chunks.  I cut mostly quarter square triangles in 2 sizes, 4" and 6" finished.  This is the 6" quarter square triangles paired with the 6.5" squares that I had in another box (a box of mostly squares cut years ago).

This is what they will look like when they are sewn together.

Then I cut some 6" finished half square triangles from 4 fabrics.  This is what the blocks will look like.  I went through the box one more time and pulled 21 more fabrics that are large enough to cut 4 triangles.

I went out about 8 p.m. last night and checked on my tomatoes.  This one is turning yellow but because it was getting dark out it looks darker than it is.

My Purple Coneflowers have buds now.  I see there are a few new plants in the back garden.  They used to multiply more than they have in the last few years.

This is my favorite Hosta.  It has grown a lot since last year and I had planned on splitting it but the heat came too soon and I'm not sure I'll have a chance to do it now.  

Sidetracked again.........

I intended to work on the sashing on the Spring Star project.  I started out the day yesterday looking for something and opened my dad's briefcase.  He passed away in Aug. 2013 and I just put everything pertaining to him and my mother in that briefcase.  2 hours later I had cleaned out and recycled or shredded about half of the contents.  Didn't find what I was looking for. One thing I did find was my paternal grandmother's obituary.   She died at the end of the Spanish flu pandemic 1918-1920.  All 5 of her children were sick.  My dad was 6 years old.  That particular flu was deadly for healthy 20-40 year olds and she was 37.  We have come a long way in medicine in the last 100 years.

I went to the basement to get the fabric to work on the sashing and the Blooming 9 patch caught my eye.  I decided to sew some more rows and now have the 3 rows for each corner section sewn but didn't turn on the iron so I couldn't sew them together.  That took up most of the afternoon and into the evening.

I had these boxes of small Kaffe scraps out a couple days ago and they were still on the table in the basement and I looked through them but didn't put them away.

I knitted a little on another dishcloth while trying to decide what to do next.  I decided to just take my photos and write my blog post.  Day done.

Playing outside in the nice weather.............

The weather was so beautiful yesterday that I mowed the front yard and did lots of weeding in the back garden.

I did get one postage stamp block sewn in one direction, cut a lot more little squares and laid out the next block ready to sew.

Then I started looking for more suitable small print scraps.  I tend to keep one project's scraps together in a plastic bag and found these Liberty prints that were colored by Kaffe.  They are the end pieces from cutting equilateral triangles.  I can get one square out of each.

The Tiger Lilies are starting to bloom.  I have some in the front and some in the back garden.

I have 3 pots of red Petunias on the front porch.

I have 2 batches of these Lilies, one group in the front and one in the back garden. 

We have a new Cable company putting in fiber optic cable in our town.  As I drove north yesterday morning I passed their truck 3 houses from me and there was a funny smell.  When I came home I found out they had cut the gas line.  I feel very fortunate that they didn't blow up our houses.  I was worried that they would cut through my Comcast cable but didn't even think about them cutting a gas line.  I sure hope they have qualified people on this job from this point forward because it seems to me that this crew didn't know what they were doing.

Quiet time............

I like a project to unwind with after a busy day.  Last night it was sorting scraps from a zippered bag.  I will be giving a crazy piecing workshop here in Sandwich IL on April 21 and I promised I would have scrap bags to sell.  I divided this bagful into 4 groups, itty bitty, short strips, long strips and not strips (odd shapes).  This is the group that was leftovers after cutting this log cabin quilt top.  On that post I talked about the backing but I ended up selling it as a top.

Here are the rest of the plaids and stripes that are lightweight (not flannel or heavier homespuns).  I know there are more scraps mixed in with the big pieces.  That sounds like another unwind project, looking through all of it.

A color fix............

I designed section 3 of the neutral bricks quilt but I didn't feel like sewing it last night.  Instead I started sorting through a group of batik scraps, pulling out the ones that are too narrow to sew.  I think there is some multi-color crazy piecing in the near future.

Getting back into a routine.............

This table in the kitchen against the wall of my main floor studio is where my embroidery machine usually sits.  I moved the machine so the table could be part of our buffet set up.  While the kitchen table is pushed over to the left I decided to look in the drawers.  I thought maybe you would like to look in them too.

Top drawer left:  mostly pieces prepared to make into bottle/can cozies with a few crazy pieced blocks thrown in on top.

Second drawer left: a lot of play time blocks...maybe for mug rugs.

Third drawer left:
More playtime or trial blocks.

Fourth drawer left: machine embroidery pieces.  I usually don't have a project in mind for the embroideries.

Fifth drawer left, a few started items made with hand dyed fabric.  In the front, trimmings leftover from stratas.  I forgot to take a picture of drawer #6 which has 2 started journal covers.

Top right drawer:
Miscellaneous blocks and cut away strips (created when I straighten my batik fabric for the first time to prepare for other cutting).

Middle right:  All cutaway strips of batiks.

Bottom right drawer:  All cutaway strips.  It wouldn't be so bad if this was the only place I had drawers full of things like this but I have more drawers full in the studio.

Not a productive day............

I spent 2 hours yesterday looking for a pattern; no, I didn't find it.

This is the table that is in the background every time I show a quilt on my longarm machine.  I usually crop the photo hoping it isn't noticeable.  I have decided it is time to take everything off the table, sorting as I go.  This is the table my Studio die cutter used to be on.  It has become a dumping spot.  Time to fix that. 

There were storms predicted yesterday late afternoon and evening.  On the radar maps on TV it looked like we would get some rain.  Not a drop at my house and we need the rain so I guess I'll be out there watering everything today.

I pre-ordered Kaffe Fasset's new book and I got a notice yesterday that I should receive it on Saturday.  I hope it is a good one.