To Do Tuesday #26 - Ruthless Quilting

My tasks for last week were:

- start my pattern write up for next month's Etsy listing❗(thought a lot about it, but have not started yet)

- write another two blog posts as indicated above✅

- continue on knitting my second sock which will be an evening TV task✅

- continue to sew together my strips to make some room around the sewing machine (until they are all gone)✅

- prepare some fabric for another Wholecloth table runner in preparation for an upcoming workshop✅

So while I have done most of the things, my week has mainly evolved around scraps. As mentioned last week, I was talking with a friend of mine about the overwhelming amount of scraps that we, as quilters, do accumulate over time. She was showing me some pictures of two quilts she made entirely out of binding leftovers. Well, that was it for me...abandoned my original idea for a scrap project and got going on my strips as well as the bag of leftover bindings.

Overwhelming is an understatement. Spent the other day cutting out a few more strips with my Accuquilt Strip cutter. I have got two different strip cutter dies (one for 2-1/2in strips and one for 2, 1-1/2in and 1in strips - very handy!) Worked out a bit of a game plan, i.e. divide my strips into one lot consisting of 2in strips and one lot of 2-1/2in strips separating them by tonal values, i.e. light, dark and medium. Using the binding is a great idea, however I did need to look around for lighter strips as my 

bindings are usually on the dark side.

It was wild. There was fabric everywhere and I did finally wear out my rubber mat used for going through the cutter with the die.

Sorted them as best as I could into their tonal values

This is by no means all that I got...these were just the additions to what I already had cut some time ago.

Started sewing the strips together

Anything that was miscut or off in some way, ended up in the bin. Even when cutting the strips there was this incredible compulsion to keep little offcuts etc, but this time I was ruthless...offcuts from this process went into the bin!

By now I was unsure whether my original idea would work, i.e. I was going to put these two blocks together in a somewhat interesting layout, however trying this out I decided that that was too much of a good thing. Just a bit too busy for my eyes. Well, so now I am making two quilts, one with the smaller strips and one with the bigger strips alone. 

The other thing that happened was that while exploring all the 'hidey' places for fabric leftovers, I discovered this

A whole stack of Charm Squares! Cannot even remember cutting this out, but assume that I did this when I got the Charm Square die for the Accuquilt cutter. There where about 50 in the smaller stack. Yep, so I cut some more just grabbing some of the bigger scraps that I had laying around. It always amazes me how much you can still cut out from the leftover fabric.

So now I am in the process of making three quilt tops, two strip quilts and one larger Charm Square quilt. I do have a number of ideas for scrap quilts and also want to do a scrappy house quilt again, but at this point in time, this is what I have to do to get through some stash. I have been leisurely sewing these blocks...initially a lot out of smaller strips to use up the bitses and pieces but now I am onto the larger strips, so it is going at lightening speed. Yesterday I made 22 blocks in one sitting of about 2 hours. At this rate, this is all very do-able and should come together quickly. Any mishaps, wonky blocks or miscuts...straight in the bin! No messing around...I did notice that some of my strips, presumably those that I cut out myself before I had the strip cutter are sometimes just really wonky. The strip cutter does make a lot of difference...they always come out perfect.

I am hoping that this will free me up for some other, slightly more interesting scrap projects like the wonky house quilt (a design by Bonnie Hunter). 

Made one of those during lockdown and absolutely love it. Fear not, there is still a lot of scrap fabric left for a number of other quilts!

So for the coming week I will 

- continue to sew those strips together until I have got enough to make a quilt top. I am approximately half way through on both stacks of blocks, so this should be do-able

- start on quilting another of my table runner wholecloth quilts

- start writing up my new pattern (this will take a few weeks but I have to have this on here, because I am definitely procrastinating)

- continue knitting my second sock - struggled through the beginning again but am on my way now).

Linking up to 

Quilting is more fun than Housework 'Oh Scrap' Link Up and

To Do Tuesday over at Quilt Schmilt (when it comes around...I am a bit early this time and will have to come back to link up)

Karin