Showing posts with label scraps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scraps. Show all posts

Sunday, June 16, 2024

Back in the saddle - new sewing spot along with some Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Four years since the last entry, which can certainly be considered a long time despite how quickly the passing of that time now seems.  "Life happens" is an old adage and perhaps too overused as a simple excuse of one's absence, however... life has certainly been happening.  All three girls have become young adults with the baby having just graduated last month. What I've missed most about blogging is having everything documented, and there'll be time for catching up, but let's first focus on the most recent changes and updates.

The girls' bedrooms haven't been taken over, BUT the loft area was cleared of most items and transformed into my sewing/crafting space.  Standing atop the staircase, the panoramic showcases most of the setup.  
In the process of clamoring two sets of staircases repeatedly these past few days, much of my focus has been the complete overhaul of purging of old fabrics and other items that simply haven't been touched or used quite honestly in over a decade (or two!) and organizing much of what remains.

 
I mean, some of these fabrics were inherited from my Aunt and Gma back in the 2000s when I began quilting.  Both of these fabrics were kept for certain, but there were definitely some I was finally ready to say see-ya to.  Shelf after shelf of partly organized and mostly scattered fabrics were unfolded, pressed, refolded and organized.  Then, this morning, these two completely-forgotten-about totes of gifted fabrics were dragged from their hiding spot underneath my quilting frame.  

Much of the day was yet again spent sifting, unfolding, pressing, unfolding, pressing, unfolding, refolding, and although I don't have shelves and shelves of fabric, I'm pretty tickled at how satisfying it is to have much of what I own now neatly tidied in one location.  The folding of the fabrics was like a riding a bike!  Bonnie K. Hunter's method is engrained forever!
After three full days of working on this new space, a little break was deserved.  I ventured into my blog land to see who all is still around going strong, and was not disappointed.  Angela (soscrappy) continues to be active with her Rainbow Scrap Challenge!  Nicely done!  This month's color:  blue, which I clearly have an abundance of, and even though today isn't Saturday, a few moments were enjoyed with some rather mindless piecing.

Tomorrow, I'll be back to work on the transition as there are still items that need attention in the basement area where my sewing room used to be, and I think another box of fabric is tucked away, hiding somewhere.  Eventually, catching up will occur.  Until then, little manageable chunks will suffice.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Organizing scrap boxes

Alright...I KNOW this doesn't look very organized, but this IS my "AFTER" picture. :\ On second thought....perhaps I shouldn't call it an "AFTER" picture quite yet. It's definitely more like a "DURING TRANSITIONS" picture.

THIS was the "BEFORE" picture. You can't even SEE much of the carpet, or even really determine how many boxes are present. Yesterday and part of this morning, I spent time sifting through these boxes; pressing, cutting, and reboxing fabrics that were not quilt-worthy (some homespuns, lots of polyester and some too-flimsey-fabrics that have been given to me in garage-sale-find boxes).

I've been cutting up loads of "nickels" and piecing a few more "Scrappy Pieces".

And when I had had enough of that.....I headed over to the quilting frame and spent a couple of hours behind the machine.

I just ran out of wound bobbins, so I took that as a sign for a needed break. A little coffee and bagel....checking to make sure the girls are being respectful to each other (aka: not killing each other), and I'll be back at it all again soon.

Happy Easter Saturday!

Friday, December 30, 2011

Guess who's all caught up??? ;0)

Pictured: Steps 1-7

As the picture shows, it was a full day in front of the machine, cutting table and ironing board. Can you say....'ahhhhhhhhh' ?? :)

Attaching the 'wing' triangle units to the green strings was first on the to-do list. I grabbed, I stacked, I pieced .....and when I took a break.......I counted.
:\
I was eight short.
Hm....
I counted again.
Yup, still eight short.
:\
...**scratching head**.....thought for sure I sewed 64 strings a few weeks back....**shrug**... but who knows.

So, I was side-lined for a bit to complete those eight.

And then it took a bit to complete Bonnie's 'easy' request to make up "only four more" "wing" triangle units.
Only....I didn't have ANY 2" scrap strips/squares left in my purple. Can you believe that?!!!?!? Seriously. When I finished steps 3 & 5, I used the last 2" purple strip from my scraps/strips/bins.
....so I dug and dug and dug in order to finish those up. Remember the other day when Bonnie was asked if she kept 3.5", 4.5"... strips? I haven't done ANYTHING with my 3.5+" bin in AGES, so I decide to blow the dust off the cover and see what it had to show.
JUST enough purple strips to cut down to 2" is what I found :0)

And while I was sorting and cutting 2" HSTs for those four additional 'wing' triangles, I also cut up the QSTs pieces too.
So......by late afternoon,

I WAS DONE!!!!

It wasn't 5:00 yet (my predetermined ending time)....
I did some tidying.... swept up some dust balls (ick)....moved some projects around.... filled a couple of bags with some old, questionable fabric that I simply WON'T ever use ...

and then......

I pulled out the ScrappyHappy (name????) blocks from Angela's 2011 Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Eight of them had been completed, so I pulled some yellows to make a ninth. And then...quite honestly, while looking around my room for another color and some more scraps......I came up empty (psht, yeah right!!! Do you really believe that????). But, rather than packing them back up for the shelf, I decided that a small crib-style quilt would be ideal for the nine blocks. I SURE hope they don't remain like this on my design-wall for the next few months!!!... :0)

Happy Friday

Sunday, January 2, 2011

In need of design wall space; Rainbow challenge stalled

8:00 - 12:15 I was dutiful and worked diligently on my AP Statistics lessons; moving into the subject of Inference on means via t-Distributions........blah, blah, blah, right??? ;0)

From that point until 2:00 it was a combination of lunch and super-speed house cleaning with Christmas items being stashed away from another year and gifts finally finding homes in various locations.

Then, at 2:00----I said ENOUGH. Time to get downstairs....

My first goal: start sifting through THIS mess {{pointing up}} to find some blue fabs. This mess {{pointing up}} are boxes and boxes of donations from my mother; donations via garage sales and cleaning up the Church Volunteer quilt-group supplies (a group that never meets anymore) :0( Hm, too bad I wasn't closer to her; maybe I'd volunteer to get it running again.

I found a couple of nice blues. **chuckle** In fact, those bottom two fabrics were TOO nice, so rather than cut in to them, I pressed them and folded them neat and added them to my stash :0) **shaking head, giggling** So much for busting THOSE fabrics! BUT, the top darker blue plaid-style has been cut into 2.5" strips to be used for some more Star Struck Blue units AND to be used as binding for either that quilt and/or Blue Ridge Beauty. Through this process, I've decided to set a newly updated goal to help me tackle that mess of boxes:

Each month, I will VOW to use at least four fabrics for my Rainbow Challenge from the depths of these boxes. {{I'm actually hoping this will help me knock these stacks down to little or nothing and get it either in projects or pressed/folded nicely on my shelves. Who KNOWS what other gems lurk in there????

Anyway...THEN I wanted to see how many units I have for each of these UFOs (Blue Ridge Beauty and Star Struck Blues), BUT....

....this was still the state of my design wall. I had NO room!

No biggy....I just started piecing those blocks together. I couldn't BEAR just taking them down only to have to reset them some other day. Psht....that's just stupid, right? So....about an hour in and half is pieced, but sadly, family duties have taken me away from my room for now. (until maybe after the girls go to bed).

I ordered Bonnie's new book. Excited to have yet another signed copy of a Bonnie book in my sewing room come February!

LOL!
I just checked in on the girls because they were getting a bit loud and crazy....

Oh dear....


...tell me Candace, how does that make you feel??


Okay...off I go.

Oh, and YEAH PACKERS!!!! We made the playoff after beating the Bears!!! WOOOO!!!!