Epic Battle With the Scraps

Victory is mine!

A month ago - after teaching multiple scrap and Values Plus workshops - I got it in my head to buckle down and hit the scraps. And I hit them hard. While I have my lovely little bins of colour sorted a blue IKEA bag kept getting filled with strips and random bits. I sorted out a bunch of little bits back in May, but otherwise the bag sat there taunting me.

Hey you! Hey! I’m talking to you. You know you won’t throw me out, you simply can’t do that. But did you know I grow when you aren’t looking. The rest of the fabric? It comes to me at night and fills me up. You will never take me down!

Oh yeah? Let the battle begin.

I spent an hour or so sorting that bag by colour. Easy enough. And usually sorting is enough for me. It gives me the calm I want and finding order makes me happy. But there were just so many scraps! So I went headlong into the fury and am happy to say I emerged victorious!

This morning I finished the last of the blocks for a queen size quilts based on my Values Plus class. As I sorted, sewed, and trimmed for those blocks little bits and little strings revealed themselves, like soldiers stalking me in the grass. Well, they’ve been tamed too. I have a pile of skinny strings ready to action on my side - in some little log cabins. And the little bits leftover from battle are contained in colour sorted bags, another project in mind.

All my Morning Makes and any other free time in the last month has been spent on this battlefield. I became solely focused on this. While I generally have no issue with scraps something just got in me that these needed to be dealt with. Like an itch I couldn’t scratch it became an obsession to empty, sort, and use everything in that blue bag. While not everything is used yet, it all is designated or tamed. I am winning!

Now I hope to spend some time actually finishing a quilt or two, that’s a whole other battle.

Walk the Walk

As a quilt teacher one of my more popular classes is all about Scraps. It is a fun class to teach because people really do embrace their scraps in new ways. They’d been ready to give up and are suddenly rejuvenated.

I’ve actually taught Little Scraps, Big Options many times this year. When I prep for the class I’ve been digging in to an IKEA bag of random strips and pieces for a heavy handful. This comes with me for demo purposes and the leftovers thrown back in the bag. After my last trip I decided that I needed to walk the walk and tackle the sorting of that bag.

To be fair, I have scrap bins for fabric and they are used as I cut fabric all the time. I dig in to them regularly too. Little bits go in a special basket, triangles in another. But this huge IKEA bag keeps getting filled in the night. Like the opposite of the Shoemaker’s Elves, adding fabric instead of making with it.

So I poured a glass of wine one night last week and dove in to the big blue bag. In less than an hour I had piles of colours making my sewing table pretty. Yes, less than an hour. Sorting scraps is one of those overwhelming tasks that when we finally tackle it we wonder why we procrastinated. It ends up being not so bad, and in the case of scrap fabric, inspiring.

That was certainly the case for me. I immediately set to sewing some of those strips together. Okay, I might have been inspired by my Values Plus students. I taught that class a few times on this last trip too. And boom! In 4 days my orange and purple scraps are nearly gone in a stack of fun blocks.

Working on these blocks is a great scrap buster. As I go I am sorting out any trimmings in two piles. One is for my mini log cabins and the other for a different scrap project I’ve got in my head. It is putting so much order in to my scraps and that feels so, so good.

Scraps are a lot to deal with. Not to mention, working with them gets messy too. It can drive the organized person crazy. That’s why some folks like to cut everything to the same size and store them in neat piles. I get that. For the rest of us, sorting and using them in a planned manner gives us that same order. And 3 different scrap projects.

Little Log Cabins

Add another project to the Quilts Under Construction List. 

I was tidying up the sewing room a few weeks ago and came across a few little log cabins I made as class samples for my Little Bits class. At that exact moment I had a little time and impulsively sat down to create a few more. And a few more.

The log cabins finish at 4.5'' x 4.5''. I was quite taken with the 4-patch layout so I started sewing them together that way. As I made more I realized this has serious potential as a quilt, not just some scrap play. That means I'm planning for at least 100 blocks, or 400 little log cabins. I try not to think of it that one. One block at a time.  

So it is now a solid Morning Make option. I can make 4 little log cabins in 20-30 minutes. Summer is still lingering here so I've been able to dedicate that much time most days. I'll play with these until I bet bored, then they can be tucked away. No rush, no rules, no pressure. Just play.

Truthfully? Hopefully these will make a dent in the big blue IKEA bag of scraps. We'll see, those scraps are like gremlins, multiplying when you aren't watching! Ooh, that gives me an idea for the name:

Little Gremlins.

Ballet Blue - A Donation for The Blue Gala

Ballet Blue

72'' x 72''

When the fact that you have 3 bins if blue fabric combines with a request for a donation quilt for an event called The Blue Gala this happens.

It actually started when I pulled out some scraps to make a sample strip set for a class I was teaching. Just one block. But then the donation request came and the block was sitting there, demanding my attention. It was rather bossy, actually. And before I could stop myself I spent my mornings making more strips sets and cutting more blocks. I fell in love with the process as much as the final result.

Sew strips together, cut a block on point. Take the scraps and add more strips, cut more blocks. I became obsessed with minimizing the waste after cutting. And when the blocks are together I loved the lines the precise squares brought back. I always say with improvisational piecing that at some point you have to add the order back in. This quilt ends up a great combination of improv and precision piecing.

I digress...

When I posted the quilt top a few months ago the amazing Dara at Stitched Quilting Co offered to quilt it for me, a donation of her services to the cause. Thank you so much Dara! That girl loves her free motion work and it shows. She added depth and even more movement to the quilt.

This quilt will be part of a silent auction at The Blue Gala. All proceeds go to Pancreatic Cancer Canada. I am thrilled to support the cause for two reasons. One, my son is part of the ballet school, H/W Ballet, hosting the event and will be dancing. More important than that though, is that my father in law was taken from us too young and very quickly from pancreatic cancer. In tribute to him, I make and donate this quilt. 

If you are local or looking for a good Saturday night out you can come join us at the gala. If you aren't local but are interested in bidding on the quilt shoot me a note. I will also be on Instagram Stories that night, watching the bid. After I watch my boy dance, of course.