Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Stripping can be fun!

No, not that kind of stripping! And not even strip poker - which, actually, is especially fun when played with other quilters. (With fabric strips, of course.) Anyway, after I finished the "Sabrina's Garden" quilt (see below), I needed to cleanse my quilting pallet with a sewing activity without purpose. As you may know, I am not a stash builder, I am a project buyer. Over the years I have collected a little stash of leftovers. I rarely go to the leftovers when I am ready to select fabric for a project, so they are just "going to waste."


So, I collected all of the fabric left-overs I could find that had at least 1 good 2 1/2" x wof strip's worth remaining. I pressed them and cut between 1 and 4 strips each. I needed one box to put them in, but wound up ordering a bundle of 50 to get the size I wanted. (acid free document boxes) I'm willing to share at my cost. Just let me know.

In just a few hours, I had prepared the fabric, and cut enough strips for 3 1/2 jelly rolls!! Who'd a thought. And so, what will I do with the strips?  Well, there are at least 3 charity quilts in that box waiting for the next pallet-cleansing activity.


 
In the last post, I told you about my desire to make a comprehensive index of all of the quilts I have made. And, I DID! Okay... so I found 2 more project boxes buried in the studio closet yesterday - both UFOs. I wonder how many more there are....  But this has been a great project. Not only did I dig in all of the closets to find quilts and projects, I examined every quilt to see if it needed a sleeve or label, and made a note of whether it has been in any quilt shows or if it wants to be in one. There are a few shy quilts in my collection that would have a hissy fit if I tried to put them in a show. If you would like to have a blank version of the Excel spreadsheet for your own index, just shoot me an email.

News from the studio


Sabrina's Garden

Sabrina's Garden
Panto: Pipeline
All done! Including sleeve and label. Sabrina's Garden has had a few names along the way. When I first designed it, I called it "Fancy Pants Dance".  It has always reminded me of happy dancing, and America's Funniest Videos once had a toddler who did what her dad called the "fancy pants dance". That gave way to "Promenade Home" - no doubt the result of a brain-cramp. But when I took Sabrina off of the longarm, she was too elegant for a promenade. People dancing in a garden... reminded me of the movie Sabrina, and her dancing in the atrium. Ah - perfect. Sabrina's Garden.

Current Project: Hunter's Star

I have wanted to make a hunter's star quilt for a good while, ever since I saw a beautiful powdery blue and white one at the 2013 or 2014 Sycamore Stitchers' show. So, not long ago, I was snooping around pinterest for hunter's star quilts, and ran across a very scrappy and adorable project from the Hopeful Homemaker called Scrappy Hunter's Star. The pieces are all cut from layer cakes! Do you think I have some gorgeous layer cakes in the studio? Of course I do! I was totally overwhelmed to think about making the quilt all scrappy like the pattern, so I'll just use all the same fabric in a block, and scrappy up the block layout.

New panto in the studio: Pipeline

Pipeline












Learning for the week

There is a difference between a hissy-fit and a conniption-fit, and southern girls know what it is. We also know the difference between a smidge, a hair, a tad, and a bit. It's just a fraction.


Enjoy! Now let's go quilt something!