Cleaning Away

We work so hard in our sewing rooms. The mess is as constant as the quilts coming out of it.

This past week, I spent many hours cleaning and reorganizing my fabrics. It's overwhelming, distracting and rewarding at the same time. Found many old projects. mostly tops that need to be turned into quilts and few UFOs. I did find a long lost block from 1998 I was looking for a while back. I was a new quilter trying to teach myself how to applique. I drafted my own pattern looking at pictures of old quilts and followed the instructions in some book on applique.

 Oak Leaf and  Reel.

You can tell from the wrinkles how neglected this poor block has been.

And the back..

I didn't know I was supposed to tuck those ends of the thread in between the layers.

I am certain I used the freezer paper for this block. Why else would I have cut the back of the applique?

Nothing like the rhythm of the stitching in hand work. Now the question is, what to do with this block? I might just put it on the back of some quilt as a label.

Here is what's happening in the sewing room.. Fabric, machine, vacuum cleaner, scraps, containers... everything everywhere. And, I am not done just yet.

My friend Christine and Kelly went through major cleaning of their studios. I do this heavy cleaning only once a year and every year I have come out on the other side with a fun scrap quilt.

This is one UFO that was easy to finish.  
Half of it was pieced together so I took a break from cleaning and finished the top. It was probably an ugly fabric swap challenge. Why else would I have fabrics like these in my quilt?

 

I actually had bought some of these fabrics!!! 

There were some pretty scraps given to me.

Like this blue batik.

 

and this golden-rust print.

I like the way this quilt turned out in spite of all the uglies in there. It's twin size quilt, good for a chair by the window.

The Green Belt 60'' x 84''

There were few kaffe fabrics added to the pile as pick me up and I think they served well doing just that. 

This distraction from cleaning was pretty nice. 

I see a bit of machine quilting in near future. I named this quilt, The Greenbelt. More about it when I finish the quilt.

Back to cleaning!

Lessons Learned...

As you all know, I have been making a sincere effort to work with my scraps while cleaning the studio.  It worked out perfect that I am participating in a 15 Minutes Quilt Bee that requires use of scraps.

The theme? Improve blocks with made fabrics.

Each of us decided on the block we would like for our assigned month. I was very influenced by the book, "Accidentally on Purpose" for last couple of weeks.. So I decided to try to make one of the quilts from the book. I also wanted to try to stay with the style of my Confetti Quilt. Only this time, I decided to make long strips sewn into blocks.

This one has taught me some lessons I thought were interesting.

For this quilt I had set up some rules for myself.

I wanted to work strictly with scraps.

Value each piece for it's size. 

No trimming unless it was absolute must.

Since this block required small scraps, I saved the larger ones for a different project. So I thought!

I started sewing up little scraps one piece at a time. As long as the two bits of fabric looked good next to each other, they went into the block.

I made adjustments to the size of the scraps as needed. But mostly tried to match the size of the scraps rather than cutting them to the size. That way I would not loose fabric.
( I was really stressing on maximizing the use of what I had and pretending that every bit was precious.)

Once the strip of a desired size was sewn up I trimmed the sides and made another one.. Made a few and pieced them together to make a block.

Soon I ran out of all the small pieces and was left with little longer and thin strings of fabric strips. That's where plan B came in effect.
Instead of making more smaller pieces to stay with the theme of Confetti Quilt,  I used the longer strings in the bin. I started piecing them in a slightly wider patches. Suddenly the colors were also changing.. Because these scraps were from a specific project. 

The wider strips with lots of skinny strings are enough to make a block for a center medallion OR I might scatter them around the entire quilt. 

Next, I used the patches that were squares or rectangles. I was hoping to make most of their size, use them cleverly and not loose any more than I absolutely had to in seam allowances. So I paired the squares together and made HSTs out of them.

These were also hand cut and without any specific size in mind. Silly as it sounds, I also discovered that I was more likely to use the tiny bits of fabric in quilt if I cut them by hand..

My Inspiration for the quilt.

  I am not sure if I was cutting the yardage, I would have cut them as skinny and as tiny as some of them I ended up with.  The standard quilting and cutting measurements are so easy to work with that it is difficult to cut skinny strips on purpose. 

Besides, if I was in hurry to finish the quilt, the first thought would be the time and patience it would take to make this kind of quilt. Can you imagine how long it would take to actually cut scraps from yardage and refold them and put them back?

Thankfully, I have my bee friends making some blocks. They are fabulous!

Another advantage of being in the bee, each block will come with maker's personality...and from many different projects.   

I started with an inspiration and designed the block based on above quilt. I have a feeling that once all the bee blocks come together this quilt is going to take it's own shape and form.

After all that's was improvisation means.. right?

While I was cleaning the scrap bin, I also found lots and lots of strings.
This is what I have started with all those strings.
A simple idea of using up all I had in the bin is keeping me quite busy.
I am running out of scraps.. Still lots of fabric in my stash... Just no scraps. One of these days, I am going to have to make those quilts that use yardage. It has been a while since I have done that!
 
I urge you to check out the 15 Minutes Play to see more of these blocks and other cool projects that everyone is working on.
It is truly an inspirational place!

My sincere efforts for cleaning has made my sewing room look like this little house from inside. 

 

 

Hope you are having fun in your sewing room.