WOW = Working On Wednesday

Today, and every day lately, I'm working on moving into our new home in Florida.   While lining my kitchen cupboards and drawers, the only measuring instrument I had resurrected from packages (beside my DH's pull out tape measure) was my large quilt ruler.  It worked great to measure the shelf liner.  But then I thought, why not get out the roller cutter too.  I was already using the mat to protect the counter top, and it was taking forever to draw a line and scissors cut it.  Wow!  It made quick work of it, and my measures and cuts were much more accurate too!  Just like cutting fabric, which I'm sooo familiar with doing.  The blade was getting dull anyway.

If you'd like to see what gals all over the world are working on today, link to Esther's WOW link here.

SCRAPPY DAY WORKING ON WEDNESDAY (WOW)

I'm cleaning up my sewing room today, and thinking about scraps.  It's amazing how that word means different things to different quilters.  I once took a class with a gal who was throwing out strips 4 and 5 inches wide by WOF.  I was shocked, and quickly grabbed them.  To me a throwaway is something pretty tiny!

This is what my trash looks like generally.  These are small waste baskets and the throwaways are very itty-bitty.

Anything too small to bother refolding goes into my scrap basket which lives right next to my sewing machine. These pieces are maybe 1" by 2" at the smallest -- anything I might make a crumb block with, or use to try out a stitch, etc.  -- anything that might be just perfect for an applique piece.  You never know.

I also keep my selvages.  I usually cut them 1.5".  Here's my basket of those.

And then there's my shoe box full of left over strips -- you know, those narrow strips left over from squaring up fabrics.  I use them as ribbons on gifts.  Or to tie FQs together for a gift.  They come in very handy.

I'm just curious, what to you consider too big to throw out -- too precious, because, after all, you paid the same price per square inch for the scraps as you did for the big fabric cuts?

I know applique enthusiasts save tinier pieces than most gals.  You just never know when what will be the perfect piece!

Maybe I should start a TV show on fabric scrap hoarders!  I bet I could find lots of sewing rooms to film my episodes!  In fact I know quite a few already, LOL!

Click on over to Esther's blog to see what gals all over the world are working on.

WOW = Working On Wednesday

I've been busy selecting and executing a setting for six-inch basket swap blocks that arrived on Monday.  I received 6 straight baskets and 11 on point, so the first challenge was to find a setting to use them together and have everything facing the correct way.

First I put the straight-ons into the center of square-in-a-square blocks.  Then to bring the on-points up to size, I bordered them.  I also made an extra basket to fill in the setting.  I now have 9" finished size blocks.

The setting triangles include the inner border.  Here's a close up.

The blocks are laid out on a twin sized bed in these pics.  Hopefully they will be assembled into a flimsy by the end of the day.  Then to select an outer border, from stash if possible.

You can find out what gals around the world are WOW by hopping over to Esther's blog, here.

WOW = Working On Wednesday

What am I doing this week?

 Enjoying the unusually warm temperatures and the spectacular autumn color.  Here's the view down the road from our driveway.

 Up the road from our driveway.....................

 Along our wire line...............

 And pulling into our driveway.

Nature at its most awesome!  It's my favorite season for sure!

And to make this quilt related, I'm using autumn fabrics in my Mill Girls Quilt.  That Quilt Along (scroll down on the left sidebar for link) starts Friday.

WOW = Working On Wednesday

It's another Wednesday and I'm working on my Across the Spectrum quilt.  This is the third Wed. in a row that I've posted about this quilt.  Amazing focus for me!  All the blocks are here now and I have all the rows sewn and am working on sewing them together.  Here are all the rows.  The ones in the background are stacked a bit so I could fit this on my queen-sized guest bed.  It's the largest design surface I have, other than the floor, and with two dogs there's not chance of it staying the way I have it laid out on the floor.

Today I'm washing my backing and border fabrics.  The goal is to stick with this one quilt, start to finish.  I don't think I have ever done that.  Focus, focus.  I'm hoping I can get the quilt rolled tight enough to machine stitch it on my DSM with my walking foot.

If not I'll either big stitch hand quilt it with perle cotton or tie it.  Be still purists!  I love tied quilts.  They have such a primitive look.  And I don't send my quilts out to a longarmer.  Their work is lovely, but I want the quilts I make to be completely made by me.  And my friends. Now if I owned a longarm, I'd use it for sure.  I just don't want someone else to do it.  Just my little quirk.

If you'd like to visit lots of WOW posts pop on over to Esther's blog where she hostesses this weekly event.

WOW = Working On Wednesday

I should have said assembling packages yesterday.  I gave a few gals a start! Today I'm assembling rows, 8 of 19 so far.  I don't have all my blocks yet, as 2/7 of this quilt is in the mail on the way to me.  I won't attach the rows to each other until I have them all made, in case I want to switch things up.

I love, love, love this quilt!  Can't wait to get it all together.  By the way, the pattern is called Across the Spectrum, and the original in McCall's Quilting, Jan/Feb 2011, was put together in rainbow or color spectrum style.  I love it scrappy.  To ensure it is really random, the only thing I'm doing is making sure no two blocks identical are next to each other.  There are very few identical fabrics in this quilt so far.  I'm just taking a solid and a criss-cross and sewing them together, however they come.  What fun!

WOW = Working On Wednesday

Esther Aliu. one of my favorite designers, posts a WOW every Wednesday.  Gals link to it with their WIP (Work in progress) On Wednesday.  So, here I go.

This week I'm working on criss-cross blocks for a swap (yes, another one!).  This is a rather labor-intensive swap, involving 40 some FQs.  Half are cut into 5" squares to swap, and half are made into these 4.5" finished size Criss-Cross blocks (those little squares are .75").  It's great fun, and we will have all the squares necessary to make the quilt top when finished.  Seven of us are making 7 blocks from each FQ.  Hopefully there will be very few, if any, duplicates.  We are using CW fabrics and Kona Cream.  Love it!  Seven of us will end up with awesome quilts.  This idea was in the Jan./Feb. 2011 issue of McCall's Quilting.  It was all set up for 7 quilters to do the swap.  Who could resist?

My June Taylor shape cuts are really getting a work out this week with these blocks! Notice, I've marked where I need to cut with tape, so I don't have to keep adding by 1.25"!

We gave it 9 months considering you have to come up with the 40 something FQs and then make the tons of blocks.  Due to my machine being in the shop most of the spring, and my eye having issues ever since, I'm running close to the deadline, but I'll make it!