Crumbs, no strings!

 All the crumbs are sewn, every last one.  I have a whole pile of two tone hexies to be trimmed, go into the Random Hexie quilt box- so glad I didn't throw out these half hexies from ends of rows when cutting.

All the part crumb/string strips have been sewn onto 

1 1/2" strips I pulled from the bin, to keep them tidy for the next round of using up scraps.

Whilst stock taking I found all these, many more than I thought I had-blue, random and black and white nine patches, and ugly green 16 patches!  

The black ones are for Morphine quilt. One set will be a churn dash.

I also found lots of 10 1/2" squares from my last attempt to use up the crumbs, when I gave up!

I am going to have a lot of crumb quilts.

Crummy

Stripping over. This is all I have left in the bottom of an 80 litre bin-I had three of these, stuffed full.

 All the 3/4" strings have been put aside for the Spirit Level cross quilt. 

                

Life is crummy today.

If I don't tackle these now they won't get  done. 

 

Lots of angles pieces at 2 1/4" from cutting diamonds and hexies to piece into 10 1/2" strips.  These will add motion to the quilt.

 

Half hexies are being pieced to go into Random Hexie quilt, that I am still working on as my busy bag project. I can't just sit and visit these days, I have to sew or I end up fidgeting with my hair or drumming my fingers!

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.

Decision made

OK, so, after yesterdays post...............

.............and the decision not to go down the multi-colour background/design wall route, I have decided on two variations of wonky crosses as leader-ender type projects.  

As I have been sewing up my strings into  10 1/2 " strips, I guess another 150 done..............

............I have sewn a few crosses with recycled cotton sheeting background and blue striped shirt background.  I have several of these shirts. The blue one is for me:  I have named them 'Spirit Level 1' and Spirit Level 2'.  

I am not religious, I liked the idea that they needed a spirit level to be straighter!  The seams are coming out at nearer 1/8" on these teeny strings, so the quilts will have to be finely quilted to keep them stable.

More ways to use it up

I have been seriously contemplating taking part in Bonnie's leader-ender challenge, tumblers. I looked around Pinterest and found this quilt and saw FISH!  Then I thought I could add fins with prairie points and buttons for eyes and the whole idea stopped being a leader-ender challenge and became a design wall challenge!  I have shelved that idea, temporarily, as I have enough half done!

I am still powering away on the strings, I feel I am making some headway.  I threw every trimming in the bin without sorting as I cut my projects, so there are some strings less than 1/2" wide, they have to be thrown out. There were a lot.  I was also throwing out 3/4" strings, and really didn't want to, even though they were too small for use.  There were a few hunks and chunks in the bin, so the two came together as an experiment in wonky crosses. 

Not sure about the mixed backgrounds.  I have lots of recycled white sheeting, I may use that and make the 'string' part the highlight. Unless I manage the background colours on a design wall, I think it will just look a mess-I have already decided no new designer projects!

Scatty

I haven't been able to settle to finishing anything in the last few months.  A bit of crochet, knitting, machine patchwork, English paper piecing on several projects, nothing has held my interest for long.  

Two weeks ago I need some mindless therapeutic sewing: I decided to try string piecing onto paper. First with crumbs before I committed.....  Not for me, way too fiddly!!  

What was I to do with all the strings I had collected over 5 years, three huge bins crammed full? (Excuse the terrible camera on my phone!)

 Sew them up in 10 1/2 inch long strips, of various widths to make a crumb quilt!  I have been sewing for two weeks and have barely scratched the surface of what I have.  I counted them yesterday, over 1000 of various widths already.  I use all the writing and dots on the selvages. Those little bits in the middle are the ends from the chain pieced strips, I take great pride in  using even the smallest  crumbs to add variation.  

 

 I see weeks of pressing and trimming ahead:  I may well save that the winter months.   

As I write this, there is a rather good blues-  rock band playing at at the school fete  in the field at the end of  my garden. Very civilised on a sunny Saturday.  As its 4th July, it seems appropriate that they are playing 'Sweet Home Alabama'.   Bcak to power sewing, to live music!

Scrumbled cushion cover

Back and front, variegated yarn. About 15" square.

Lots of freedom

Pillow lava: free motion quilted border, 1/2 way round.  Pink variegated thread.

And a bit of freeforming, to make a cushion cover........

Second finish 2015

Second finish of the year, charity quilt for Portage, around 40 x 40"

Quick work

I have to be quick, I have lots to do by March. 

Lengthened stitch,  number 4 on my Bernina, walking foot, sewn in green and white variegated thread  on random diagonal lines to match the colour movement of the patches: charity quilt for Portage, West Sussex.  I quilted across the border too as the thread blends with the fabric, so no sewing ends in!  Awaiting binding.  I'll use this stitch again.

Large  'single', lots of ends to sew on this one. The picture is from the layering process at work.  I will heavily free motion quilt the purple border. 

Quilted with King Tutt variegated thread, hides the wobbles nicely!  Not the best quilting, but this was the largest thing I have stuffed under the machine so far-by the end I had the hang of it!  Like the King Tutt thread a lot, but its pricey!

The reverse thread was Guttermann variegated pink, blends nicely with the fabric and picks up the directional pattern.   LOVE this backing fabric.

Now off to Leah Days site to choose a pattern for the border quilting, and cut some binding. .

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.

A finish!

Charity quilt, about 40 x 40".  Apple backing to keep the doctor away!  I love the way the quilting turned out on this, though there were lots of ends to sew in.   As the border was narrow, I didn't quilt it.I did the quilting with the walking foot, and still I have three small tucks in the back. A record of my inexperience.

 I pulled another UFO off the shelf, this is for son number two. It's been hanging about for around a year.  This is the sample of the layout I made to show him: as soon as I got it out I saw all the mistakes!!.  Now disassembled, ready for second round.

Bow tie surplus (understatement!)

Well. I had started to sew some of the bow ties together for my quilt. I just powered away, as you do.

I had thought I had too many for one quilt. I was right. I have made strips enough for 2  quilts at 60 x 72". 560 bow ties in each.  One of these is for me, another a gift.  Here are the strips hanging over the door.






I sewed a few pairs the wrong way round: I have a baby quilt to do in the summer, problem solved, I sewed a few more, now all I have to do is add a plain border to bring it up to cot size.  I don't know the sex of the baby yet, so I threw everything in there!





Leftovers: enough for another 5' x 6', or a fancy border for another quilt. I knew I had overdone it, but really!