Design Wall Monday

First up are two pictures of the beautiful blue sky I discovered this morning.  Today, the temps are suppose to be in the 50's.

Design Wall Monday  01/20/2014

The pattern for this quilt is based on a pattern by Sherri Bain Driver as shown in the July/August 2012 issue of McCalls Quilting. Her quilt was called "Playing with Patchwork".
Be sure to check out what others are doing with their Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

Sewing Room Organization in progress

Obviously, I cannot continue to keep adding scraps of fabric to plastic bins without creating a "mess".  The Scrap Challenge got me in gear.  I am showing only one bin of scraps.  There are two more bins to sort through.  Even though I have shown below what I have cut, the blocks below did not come from this red bin. 

My idea to create order and enjoyment for future projects is to cut all scraps smaller than a Fat Quarter into usable squares and strips. 
I started working on this massive project the middle of December.
It is not a week-end project.  My plan is to cut fabric for about 1-2 hours per day.

Here is what I have accomplished:

 

Pre-Cut Fabric

The pink project box has pre-cut strips for foundation piecing.

The box up front has 5" charm squares.

The containers to the right have:  4.5", 4", 3.5", and 3" squares.

The bag sitting up against the pink bin contains (60) flannel blocks front & back with batting in between sewn with an "X".  (I'm taking those to my weekly sewing group to be sewn together into a rag quilt)

The white bag has flannel strips.  Flannel blocks in the sizes of 5", 4.5" and 3.5" were cut for making baby quilts.  The flannel cutting project is complete.  Hooray!!!

 

Birthday Gift for Sister

My sister loved her birthday quilt. 
88 charm squares to celebrate 88 years.  The quilt 54" x 56 1/2".

Design Wall Monday

Yes, I know it is now Wednesday, but I "was" working on this quilt on Monday.  I just loved searching through all my blue fabrics, cutting each one into a 5 inch square.  The white sections were cut 2 1/2" x 5" and I used every remaining white scrap that I could find.

I started out cutting each blue fabric that I came upon into usable squares but realized that was taking too long and I wanted to get this quilt done. I would love to make another blue quilt using a different pattern.  As I proceeded, I realized this would make a great birthday gift for my sister.  Her birthday is this month.  I wanted to make the quilt 12 columns by 8 rows for a total of 96 blocks.  By the time I found 85 different blue fabrics, I could see that was not going to work because I was running out of that many blue fabrics.  So, I went with 11 by 8 to equal 88 blocks.  Then the light bulb came on and I knew it was perfect.  My sister is turning 88 this month.  I doubt I will get it done and to her in time for her birthday, since I still need to finish it and ship it to California.

Here is the next picture with a couple of the borders I plan to use.

So, I had better get busy, since I will need to piece the back before I can quilt it.

First Scrap Happy Saturday of 2014

January is for the Blues--fabric that is!

I decided to start with 5" charm squares of blue and add some strips of black & gray.  It made the piece too dark and all the blocks disappeared.  So, I took all the dark strips away and replaced them with white.  It is much better.  Now I may be running low on white but I haven't looked in one more bin.  Since this is to use up scraps of blue and scraps of white, I will not be buying any more white fabric for this piece. The purpose is to stretch my creativity and imagination and try new possibilities.  So here is what I have so far.

Happy New Year 2014

Twelve more baskets have been completed.  As I go through each basket of fabric, I pull out all the smaller odd pieces and cut them up into usable squares (5", 4.5", 4", 3.5", 3" and 2.5") and the rest of the odd fabric into strips.  It would not be so overwhelming if I had cut the odd scraps as I completed a project but I'm always in a hurry to get started on my next project.  The next project always seems to have a looming deadline with not enough time.  

I'm especially excited about joining the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2014 with Soscrappy.  January is "Blue Scraps" month and we all have plenty of those.  I seem to have acquired two huge bins of blue.  I wanted to pick just the right pattern to begin this challenge but have decided to work with my blue 5" charm squares and add a small piece of  gray & black to blend them together.  Just white or just cream doesn't seem to go with all my blue fabrics.

Judy Laquidara of Patchwork Times.com continues to challenge me each year, so I plan to join her Scrappy Challenge 2014.  While I was sorting this week, I discovered 40 HST which will finish at 4", so I plan to use those in January's block challenge.  I made these HST over 7 yrs. ago for a Mystery quilt.  I only completed one block, so what to do with all those HST.  Save them, of course.

January Scrappy Challenge 2014

  

Get It Done in December

Get It DoneThe items I accomplished in December were not even on "The List".  An attempt was made towards my goals. 
Goal #1 was to clean up my sewing room.  If I dared to take a picture of the entire mess; you would know I have a long ways to go.  But I have begun the process.  I am going through every single wire bin, sorting and cutting up all the little bits and pieces of fabric into usable squares and rectangles.  It took several days to work through the Christmas scraps.  I only have 55 more bins to sort through.  Every bin generates more scraps that need to be cut.  Yikes.  I could just dump the scraps into the Red & Green Plastic Bin but that has only created an overwhelming.....problem with nothing fun to sew.

Organized Fabric Bins

Goal #2 was to add borders and quilt the "Over the Rainbow" quilt top, and at the moment, I'm not sure where it is.


Goal #3 was to quilt the Santa and His Reindeer Table Topper Quilt.  I discovered it needed a border, so it has been sitting on my dining room table during the month of December.

Thank you to all the quilters and their Blogs, who have inspired me through-out 2013 with their comments, accomplishments, and their photos. 

Many thanks go to Judy Laquidara of Patchwork Times.com
Check out what others have done and plan to do in 2014.   Get It Done