Stripping

 I think I am almost done with  stripping!  I have emptied three large bins: I now have three large bin bags stuffed to the top with sewn up 10  1/2 " units ranging from 2" to 15". 

I have sewn over 2km of seams and used up nearly 5km of gifted poly-core thread in some really ugly colours, and used lots of shirts!

Kiss in the Corner

Then I found 8 yards of moo trimmings from Kiss in the Corner backing. In it went.

 I have made the 8 scrappy houses I found into blocks to be sewn into the top row of the quilt and included some small  random trial blocks.

 Things often got out of hand. 

And who bought all that ugly fabric? 

There was always a way to blend it in.

 I will not be ironing and cutting into crumb strips until the winter, as it will take weeks.  The next job is to clean the sewing room!

Then I need to maintain the Singer 201 mum gave me, she bought it second had with all the attachments at a boot sale 15 years ago for £12!  Runs like a dream, and is quieter than my Bernina.

Use it up.

Hmm. Literally hundreds of sewn up green/neutral four patches found in the reorganisation. Not the nicest of colours. What to do? Go to Bonnie Hunter: More Adventures with leaders and enders on Kindle. 

The four patches were leftovers from 'the big green one'  that I'm piecing, from the blocks that I have made up already.  I will do 'four patch x' from the book, here on the right to use up those green/neutral four patches: well, about half-thats 280, with at least that many left!! 

I found the other fabrics in the stash for 'four patch x', I just need oranges for the accent colour, these will probably be scrappy.  That pale one is really yellow. with teeny white spots, it will be the background fabric.

Does this count as distraction? Yup. I'll keep my mind on those flimsies that need quilting.  I layered one of the charity quilts today. I'll layer one every evening this week, ready to go at the weekend.

Then got distracted!  I have been looking around for a house quilt design for a while now with lots archived on this pinterest board.   

I played in the scrap bin, which had some larger shirt pieces in.

In the far distant future I'll dig out some tree and sky fabric, do a bit of decorative machine stitching and quilt cloud formations on these for a charity quilt. A bit too much attention needed to whiz it together now. 

The background is good quality twice recycled white cotton sheeting, formerly hotel bedding (they bought it as rags for the factory where I used to work) .  Yes, I fished them out of the bins at the end of the day, washed them a couple of times, good as new. Now being used in charity quilts.  Now that's frugal!

I don't think I will be using this free-range design for the one I will make for myself, though it was great for using up those shirt scraps.