Scrappy Unit Sewing Marathon

I was reminded over at Ann's that scraps play nicely with Improv. Well, that is right up my alley as scraps are always overflowing over in the corner of my quilt room. I kind of circled the scraps a few times and honestly felt a little paralyzed by indecision. What to do? What to do?

Starting to sew...

Then I got a grip and started sorting out the colors that seemed to be calling to me just now. I don't know about you, but I just can't deal with my scraps whole sale--it's way too confusing. First I have to set up some perimeters so I can relax and go with the flow while I'm sewing. I sorted two small totes of scraps, one a yellow, tan, rust, dark brown mix and the other a pink to bright red mix. Yep, been here, done that, but it's important for me to feel the mood of the fabric or I just can't sustain the tedium of the sewing marathon.

A few units on the wall

Sewing a million scrappy, Improv. units is fun and yet not. After awhile my mind kind of zones out and I'm just grabbing, sewing, and chopping. Making a huge mess and just enjoying the color, but not really paying attention to the individual units. Which is probably what I'm supposed to be doing. Oh well. I like to pre-sort my fabric mixes so it takes away the agonizing, the lingering over specific fabric choices. It helps me move through the fabric sooo much faster and well, keeps me on task. Chain sewing was a marvelous invention for us easily bored types!

Looking a little closer

I quickly settled with a smallish unit. A bit smaller than I expected really! I sewed the scraps of fabric together until they were obviously up to size and then my trusty ruler and rotary cutter trimmed them into submission. There is something incredibly satisfying about bringing order to the bits and pieces of scrappy chaos. Nothing too precious or matchy, colors wondering how they could possibly belong alongside each other but somehow with the repeats of oddball fabrics and random piecing, it works out just fine.

Lots of different shades and tones....

After Friday night, Monday night and now today, my yellows are all but gone. And this was after I went through my big scrap baskets {for the second time} with a fine tooth comb, pulling out anything and everything that might work! We got to get away for the weekend and so it was really interesting to come back on Monday with a fresh viewpoint of what I was looking at on my wall. So very glad I got to do that. Where before they were starting to look sort of mushy to me, with fresh perspective I could see possibilities!

Decimating the scraps...

So now I have 170 total {I know, look at those wimpy little piles} 4" scrappy Improv. blocks to work with. There are several ideas pinging around in my head, but I think it best to wait a day or two before diving back in. Maybe I can actually begin to see the colors again and narrow down how best to 'set' these units.

Three stacks of scrappy units ready for play!

And of course I have been faithfully picking out a fabric circle every day possible for Quilty 365. These four circles represent days 13-16! lol  Don't have to wonder why I'm grabbing pinks and reds!

The next four circles

Time to link up with Scraptastic Tuesday with Nicky and Leanne. It feels good to be playing in the scrap bin once again!