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Thursday, June 16, 2011

Just Can't Throw Those Little Suckers Out!

I spent the weekend sorting through various containers full of scraps. Teeny strips, misshapen squares, remains of fat quarters etc. They are now in labelled containers. It's really hard for me to throw out those little pieces, especially the strips produced when making the first clean cut on a fabric. I've decided to try and use the pieces as they come. 
All the dryer sheets that I've been collecting (finally ironed and neatly stacked) are now beside my machine. The scrappy strips will also go by the machine and whenever I start sewing, I'll add a few strips to a dryer sheet. Maybe one day all those strips will become a quilt, maybe it won't be very pretty, but it could always be used as a dog bed!

I've already made my first mistake sewing on the strips. Before adding a new strip I would trim the previous one - I made a couple too short. Oh well, live and learn! The block doesn't look as bad as I thought it would. They will all be different. I'm determined not to be choosy, just sew them as I grab them. If they are narrow at one end, it doesn't matter, they will just be an angular strip.

A couple of weekends ago I was fortunate enough to take a class with Vicki Pignatelli on improvisational curves. I already had her book "Quilting by Improvisation" and was a big fan. She was the most amazing lecturer, teacher and just all around down to earth friendly person. The 2 days flew by! Now the blocks may not look like much yet, in fact the pieces are only pinned onto the foundation so far.
 Once I get a few more set up I will sew them up. My progress might be a bit slow (I think my project track record speaks for itself!) but I plan on finishing it sometime in the future and will post my results (hopefully the internet will still exist at that point in time!).

Happy Stitching!
corina

3 comments:

Flo @ Butterfly Quilting said...

Those curvy bits are quite amazing! Cant wait to see more of those!
I like the idea for you little bits of strips...I have a tub full too. Do you just leave the dryer sheet on when you sew the blocks together?

Myra said...

Good plan with your strips there Corina! You should see my scrap bin...Yikes!!!

Some of my gals went to see Vicki Pignatelli also. I looked through one of the books they bought... Very interesting...

I gather you are somewhat of a sluggish quilter by your last comment on the post... LOL! Me too... I am just quilting on my second quilt ever, that I had put together about 10-11 years ago now... One of my PhDs!!!

Happy stitches! 8-)

Jenniffier said...

I am interested to see what the curves turn out like. It looks very interesting and you strips block looks nice too :)