Monday, April 9, 2018

Wrangling Scraps

I love scrap quilts—all scrap quilts. I have LOTS of scraps (and I’ll bet some of you do to). Okay, okay, I’m a fabric hoarder! For the last few days, I have been organizing my scraps (at least some of them). 

When my sister was here for my Dad’s memorial/burial, she stayed at my house a couple of days. She isn’t a quilter, so we decided to do some marathon “Game of Thrones” watching. The problem with that is I find it hard to just sit and watch TV without working on SOMETHING. This is how I solved that problem. She ironed some of my scraps, while I cut them into useable segments on a portable table set up in my living room in front of the TV. (These pictures are of the same “stuff” only from different angles.)

I also made an “Opportunity Block” for a quilt retreat I’ll be going to in the fall. The retreat committee makes a quilt from the blocks turned in, and someone who has made a block will win the quilt in a drawing.
I made strip sets in sizes from 6” wide decreasing in size by half inch increments down to 1 1/2” wide. I have stacks of these strips sets and am working on a quilt design to use them.
My house in an ABSOLUTE disaster area. I have fabric in the kitchen, dining room, and living room. I can’t eat at my bar or on the dining room table. You can see why in the next picture—that’s my dining room table. Luckily, my husband is out of town, so he doesn’t have to look at all this. I’ll have it all cleaned up before he gets home—maybe!
In addition to working with my scraps, I have made binding for three quilts, I have machine quilted the golf quilt (My sister said she had no idea how big it was from the picture. It measures approximately 60” X 72”.), I’ve made a mug rug, I have three “kennel quilts” cut out and ready to quilt, I have cut out lots of pieces for a red, white, and black scrap quilt, and have cut out lots of pieces for a scrap “L” quilt. (You can see the blocks for that slightly above the blue shoe box on my dining room table in the picture above.)

Now isn’t this fabric “rope” cool. I’ve been making this from my scraps too. I’m really liking the way it looks; now I just have to figure out what to do with it. Suggestions?
I have also spent time folding fat quarters into segments that should be easy to store. Now all I have to do is find the pattern for making the bins to hold them. It looks like I’ll be needing LOTS of bins, because this picture only shows a few of the fat quarters I have accumulated!

8 comments:

Lisa at Greenbow said...

You do have quite a collection of scraps. I think it is pretty clever getting your friend to help you get some organized. :) As to the rope, I can't think of anything to do with it unless your hang a quilt from it. Oh yes, I like the block you made too. The flower looks three dimensional.

Beth@IHaveANotion.com said...

Lots of work and fabric going on!!! I have messes everywhere too it seems... going to have to work on cleaning most of them up... as I have house guests coming later this month. Too many irons in the fire!

Ronda K. said...

Wow!!! It’s like a Wonderland of fabric!!! Looks like you’ve got plenty to keep you budy this year! I love how you’ve organized your scraps. They’re ready to sew!!! I’ll have to Google the ‘L’ quilt. Happy Scrapping, Beth!!!

Diana Dearing said...

Your home sounds like mine. :) I love scrap quilts also and collect scrap quilt books and I really like unusual pin cushions. Have you seen the funky chicken and snail pin cushions?

dana said...

I decided to try to corral some of my scraps a couple of years ago. Got three drawers organized before I ended up throwing everything else in a big tote and that's where it still is. You should be so proud of yourself! I'm hoping to get more scrappy projects done this year. But then, doesn't everyone....

Anonymous said...

Great organization of fat quarters, and I love the rope. There's got to be some wonderful artsy thing you could do, but it could also be useful for so many other things - like identifying your luggage at the airport. =)

Mary said...

Gotta love scraps! Most quilters seem to be OC; mine are sorted by size.

Mindy said...

Zig-zag the rope together into a basket or rug. If only I could add a photo of what I have made.