First there was one... and one became two. Two became four, and then things slowly started to come together...
Color experts, where are you?... I really need your help!
I've been debating back and forth whether I should continue my Scrappy Windmill quilt with some of my dark brown snippits or not. Somehow when I look at the individual blocks, it feels like it is too dominant and takes away from the fresh and juicy feeling that I am going for since I am using lots of greens, pinks (of course), oranges, and yellows.
For the second photo I took the dark blocks out to compare. Does the quilt need the dark contrast to make the other colors pop, or does it look brighter and fresher without them? Any thoughts?
I really am using several of my all time favorite scraps that I had so much fun rediscovering when I did my major scrap sorting earlier this month.
As silly as it may sound, pulling some of them out again was like running into old friends that I hadn't seen in a long time... and I thought, oh, I remember you... it's so nice to see you again... where have you been hiding all this time?!?
Are there any seasoned paper-piecers out there too?... I'm a little unsure as to whether you really have to leave the paper in the blocks until the rows are sewn together? I had a big "oops" moment when I realized after reading through the pattern directions that you are actually supposed to leave the paper in... I didn't do this with my Facing East blocks, but so far so good.
Linking up with WIP Wednesday.
I'm quilting now, so the way I think about fabrics is a little bit different than I did a year ago. Over the years I've collected a lot of fabrics that I would consider to be "main" or "focal"
prints, but since I am now regularly quilting, I realized that my fabric stash was seriously lacking in the supporting prints section... not
everyone can take center stage, right?
If you live on the US side of the pond, then you might look at my newly acquired stash and think "cha'ching"... dollar signs showing up in your head, knowing very well how much a stack like this might cost. If you live on the German side of the pond, then you know a different story. So to bring the first group up to speed with the second, I'll calculate it for you this way: Take that price that you just calculated, and then double it, yes, I said DOUBLE IT! - that's the price you would pay for the same high quality quilting fabrics in Germany! So while States side, I just had to take advantage of prices that essentially feel like half-priced (I'd be crazy not to, right?) - but I think it's safe to say, that this will be my stash for the year!
The quilting scene in Germany runs at a totally different pace as it does in the US. Quilting in Germany is not as big, even though there are some really fantastic quilters on this side of the pond, and as you could very well guess, tastes, interests, and skills are quite different. Often I can't find fabrics for quilting projects in one place like you can at some of the one-stop-shop, we-carry-EVERYTHING online shops in the US. There are a lot of main fabric prints available here, but often the supporting fabrics are missing, or maybe just one or two other fabrics from a collection are sold together.
Supporting Prints by: Lizzy House Jewels & Constellations, Alison Glass various Sun prints, Marin Sutton Good Natured, Bee in My Bonnet Gracie Girl, Eric and Julie Comstock S'more Love, Carolyn Gavin Spring Street, Gypsy Girl Woodland Key, Carolyn Friedlander Botanics, Jane Dixon.
Text Prints by: Patty Young's Just My Type, Kumiko Fujita First of
Infinity, Carrie Bloomston Paint, Eric and Julie Comstock Baby Jane,
Sweetwater Elementary Penmanship.
What are you stacking today?
Linking up for the first time for Sunday Stash from Molli Sparkles.
Since properly sorting my scraps by color, I have had it in my head to start a scrappy quilt to make some kind of dent in my piles. I am pleased how well I have managed to stay on track with both of my current WIP's. I even have all my pretty little stacks of pre-cut fabrics for my two quilts in progress waiting to travel with me... just sit down and start sewing, right?
... and then I walk into my sewing room.
Well, now what?!? If I pull out all of my prepared snippits, then what will I work on during vacation? I'm the kinda girl that would actually take her sewing machine to the beach if I thought there was an outlet somewhere... and the thought of a solar powered sewing machine - pure genius! If you've ever done any take-along-sewing, then you know that is not exactly easy... one must be EXTREMELY planned, and if you forget just one thread, bobbin, seam ripper, sewing foot, or small, but important, scrap of fabric, then you are shut down faster than a dirty ol' restaurant.
What IS a girl to do?...
I've had my eye on the Scrappy Windmills quilt from Judith Dahmen featured in Issue 10 of Love Patchwork & Quilting magazine, released last June. (does that at least indicate the control I've shown over the last year NOT to start yet another WIP?)
When sewing, I get a big kick out of pretty little stacks... whether it's stacks of cut squares, stacks of sorted colors, stack of hexies, or stacks of paper pieced blocks. And with the paper still in, it really looks like a nice significant stack and real progress.
What are you stacking today?
Linking up this week to WIP Wednesday and for the first time to Let's Be Social!
In the most recent issue of Love Patchwork & Quilting magazine,
regular columnist and contributor, Jeni Baker, gives
a few tips for saving time in the sewing room and maximizing the actual time
that you can spend sewing. Her tips were insightful and gave me something to
think about in regards to my own projects:
*Plan and prep your projects ahead of time - Jeni said that she saves
time when she sets aside time to plan a project, i.e. look for material sources,
fabric prep, washing, etc. She suggests to do this at all once because it
saves time. There is no need to decide what project to work on because it's already prepped, and you can
simply sit down and start sewing.
*Repeat steps. When you are cutting, cut everything. When you are
pinning, pin everything. When you are ironing, iron everything... well, you get
the point. Flipping back and forth from station to station can cause you to lose
valuable time.
"Planned creativity" is somewhat of a new concept for me... it almost
sounds like a contradiction. I often find myself working according to
inspiration, and may not want to work on an already prepared project at that particular time. On
the other hand, it is definitely something for me to seriously consider to be
more disciplined with my projects. Without question, following such a
suggestion results in far less WIP's.
When I start a new project, I can hardly wait to just sit down and start
sewing, so I usually cut what is necessary to do so. Sometimes in the middle of
one project however, I actually feel like I need to mix things up, take a mental break, and work on
some other step. For instance I might get bored with cutting and need to move
onto another process, or even project, or I find that I lose interest. Does
this statement give any hint as to why I avoided quilting for the longest time?
One thing that "time saving sewing" does not allow for is when issues or difficult design decisions arrise. If I
run into a problem, or I am simply not feeling inspired to
work a certain WIP, then it often works best for me to set it aside. When I force
myself to work on what I'm not inspired to do, then I end up making major
mistakes... and I mean sit-down-on-the-couch-with-your-seam-ripper-for-the-evening
mistakes.
We are planning a little trip where I will also have a little time to
sew and I am excited to make progress on my two major WIP's. Cutting is
finished, then it's just sit down and sew time. I will be interested to see if
I actually have as much time to sew as I would like, or if other distractions
will keep me busy. Either way, it feels nice to have everything prepared.
How about you, do you plan your creativity or do you just let it happen?
Do you do assembly line sewing, or flip back and forth between steps?
I've decided to take a quick breath before I gear up to push through and enlarge both of my quilts in progess. After much debate, back and forth, and some wonderful encouragement to see it through, I've decided to do it! I can't help it that in my head I've already jumped onto the next quilt, but surprisingly I've found some way to pull in the reigns and hold myself back. I have my eye on a really scrappy quilt as the next big project, but I needed to do some serious scrap sorting and editing, and found it to be the perfect in between distraction project.
Of course I knew before I started that my scraps would be heavy on the pinks and greens, but what I did not expect was how many turquoise scraps and how few purples were in my stash. (mind you, my mother-in-law has believed for the last nine years that purple IS my favortie color... it's actually green) So, in an effort to find a
way to keep my scraps organized, I decided it would be fun to give my
boring storage boxes a little pop of color.
... and of course, share with
you this quick little how-to:
Measure front side of your box. (I used the Skubb boxes from Ikea) Sew random fabric scraps together. Finished pieces should be at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) larger on each side to allow for trimming later. For final cutting size calculation add 5/8" (ca. 1.5 cm) to your box measurements. (That's ca. 1/4 inch to each side) Once your piece is cut to size, apply interfacing to back side and trim. I used Vlieseline G700 (Pellon Shape Flex101)
Fold side edges under (towards the back) approximately 1/4 inch (ca. 6.5 mm) for the side pieces and iron in place. On the front side, edge stitch in place.
Once the side edges have been turned and stitched, turn the bottom and top edges under 1/4 inch (ca. 6.5 mm) and iron in place. Make sure that your corners are lined up and tucked under the first stitched seam.
Once fabric piece is finished, line it up on the box and used a hot glue gun to glue in place. Press and secure the piece in place.
Now you're ready to fill up your boxes with your favorite color scraps! And this pretty little stitching lady just had to have her own box... quite fitting, don't you think?
How do you organize your scraps? By color, by cut size, or some other fun way? Which color has your scrap bins full?
P.S. Just so you know, my fabrics don't always look this orderly - only about once a year when I do a whole office redo... in general I fall under the "messy, creative" category.
Linking up to Scraptastic Tuesday & Stoffreste Linkparty.
