More Fabric Scraps

Last weekend, I attended our monthly Quilts for Kids workshop. I turned in 17 scrap quilts, all made since our January meeting. Three of the quilts were made and donated by my friend Terri, and the rest were made by moi. To punish reward me for using up so many scraps, our leader Sandy brought me two more garbage bags full of scraps. One of them was just strips, cut 1.5 to 4” by WOF (width of fabric). Now, keep in mind that last week was the new carpet install, for which I had to clean out my studio, then bring back in at least half the stuff (machines, cutting tools, fabrics, WIPs, etc) in order to work. So then I had to sort through the two new bags of scraps and put them away in their new homes. NEXT week the carpet guys are coming back to install the coving (carpet baseboards), so the fabric (more of it now) will all have to be moved out again. Luckily, this time much of it can just be piled on the four tables in the center of the room since the installers only need access to the baseboard areas. And they’ll move the furniture out from the wall and back again once they’re finished.

I did manage to get one of my monthly blocks done for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and I’m linking up to Scrappy Saturday to share. Meet the red momcat and her litter of five kittens. 

I had good intentions of sewing more blocks, but the week got away from me. I did use up some red alphabet fabric that Angie sent me, along with some red and yellow and blue scraps. Some of the red and yellow had already been sewn into three four-Patches, so I continued with that, and this top came together very quickly. Honestly, I used lots of chunks and strips for the backing and that took longer to sew up. This will get basted and quilted this week and I’ll show that crazy backing, too.

So what did I do in the sewing room, then? Well, Cousin Kim and I spent Wednesday afternoon cutting the new scrap strips and solids into zipper blocks. I’ll be doing a scrappy workshop for QFK in either September or October, and have chosen the zipper block to show them. The zipper blocks (see Lynn Dykstra’s tutorial here) finish at 6x9”, and we will be doing 48 blocks per quilt for a youth quilt measuring 48x54”. So far, between cutting strips and squares, matching prints with contrast squares, pinning block pieces together and bagging, we have completed about 6 kits. I need at least that many more. I probably won’t get them all done this week, but I don’t need to. It was just an easy way to tame the piles of new scraps.

That clear bag (upper left of picture above) has five bagged kits in it, with another kit waiting to be added. Once I make  another zipper quilt to show them, I’ll prepare a handout to include in each bag. Kim and I will probably work on these tomorrow. I know it’s Mother’s Day tomorrow, but we decided that’s how we want to spend it. 

Scraps!! Red scraps in front, zipper scraps in the piles behind. We have our “work cut out for us”, hehe. If only...

On Monday, it was Bruce’s birthday. The day was picture perfect, and we enjoyed a nice walk to the park. Some of the family came over in the evening and we had the much-anticipated mud pie. It did not disappoint. 

Bruce had an appointment Tuesday with his prosthetist to have his prosthetic arm checked. No issues and all is well. Then we went to Home Depot to get flowers for the front garden pots and planters, plus new fluorescent lights for my studio. The coolest thing we got was a wagon (a Gorilla Wagon, LOL) for Bruce to use in the garden since he can’t use a wheelbarrow. We’re having 2 cubic yards of soil delivered later this week, and will have several young men from the neighborhood coming by next week to help Bruce haul it to the garden planter beds.

Cousin Kim was here on Wednesday to sew, but as I mentioned, we cut zipper blocks and made kits. Oh, we also went to JoAnn’s because I needed to get straight pins for the zipper block kits. Some fabric may or may not have come home with us...

Thursday was a work-in-the-garden day, with another trip back to Home Depot to get more sprinkler parts. And a side trip to get iced coffee at Barnes and Noble. 

Friday was grocery shopping, laundry, making strawberry-rhubarb compote (a huge batch to begin stocking the freezer), and more zipper block cutting. Soil was delivered, window washers came by, and things are shaping up ever so slowly!!

By this time next week, my studio will all be put back together , I’ll have lots more RED scrap blocks sewn, the flower pots will be planted and the garden beds will be ready to plant. Life is good.