Love Seeing the Abandoned Bits Come Together

So the Scrapbin Improv. {Wing and a Prayer} quilt top is completed. It ended up being 51" x 57" after I decided to throw on the black print border.

Scrapbin Improv. quilt top is finished

That's barely up to a size that seems properly useful, but I had started running out of anything except itty bitty pieces. Ughh.. Not in the mood to work with those right now at all!

Just trying to see what can be done with the scrappy bits...

The black border is the remains of leftover strips cut off from a backing on some other quilt. Love that it carried on the use-it-up mentality of this particular effort! I'm thinking these were good colors/fabric to use for my first time attempting this style of freewheeling scrapbin sort of quilt. All the bright, happy colors just seemed more than ready to match up to each other with little to no fuss. Eventually I hope to try something similar in a much more subtle or muted colorway. This may be the start of another series, we shall see...

Love all the different pieces that ended up being included

On another note, the last three weeks have been brutal. When I posted last, I was just finishing up with a nasty flu and then promptly relapsed. Probably because I've been having to take care of my husband who had the flu, recovered, worked one day and then started having other health problems. He isn't always a particularly healthy person and has some ongoing issues which this flu has seemed to exacerbate. February has been going by in a blur of coughing, hacking, tending, and oh yes, little pockets of hand work. Not getting a lot accomplished in the quilting room, but it sure feels good to have a needle in my hand elsewhere. So very grateful for a well stocked hand work bag! We are definitely on the mend finally, but I just cannot find time to connect better. Will return when things settle down...

All Finished With the String Blocks

Here they are, those string blocks that I almost gave up on doing. While I love and adore quilts made out of the scrap bin, there's just something about the process that requires a certain mood.

String blocks

In this case, it was a desire to bury my head in some well loved fabrics, not have to make a lot of decisions and just chain piece myself into a place of serenity. Or calmness. I don't think there's ever really any true serenity when doing foundation piecing! It worked pretty well right up to the point where I had to high step, jump or practically crawl over the messy little totes of spilling scraps just to get out of the quilt room. And we're ignoring all the bits and pieces of trim-offs scattered all over the floor everywhere. Wowsers! Oh yes we are! The string blocks are completely done though. All 56 of them! After working on them in fits and starts for two days, I went back upstairs last night and powered through the last 19 blocks. Didn't want to push them off for another couple months once again.

Thanks to Kyle for mentioning that she's been a 'sewing maniac' lately. She blew out her wonderful 'Burgoyne Surrounded' quilt top in just days! While I was sewing on my string blocks, her words would resonate with me and inspire me to push through {I don't like foundation piecing at all, though I love the finished product}.

I can also thank Julie for helping to inspire me too. Her blocks have been popping up on a daily basis and though I couldn't even image wanting to make one of these a day, it forced me to consider my languishing project. Like, really deeply consider it! Did I want to have this string quilt or not, 'cuz it wasn't getting anywhere all by itself? lol  

Linking up to Lori's Stringalong. Without this particular QAL, I probably would have never even started this quilt! Next up will be to trim up these blocks and then decide on the ever-other-block fabric that are needed to continue. Or if I want to make the quilt larger and make more blocks. Or if I want to add applique. Or a border. Or any one of the myriad of decisions that I love to torture myself with. Totally kidding! With the foundation piecing behind me, the torture part is OVER....

Lots of Things Going On This Month

What have I been up to? Oh the list is so very long! For one thing thing, at the prompting of Ann, I attempted to clean up my blog. That resulted in having to eliminate a few widgets that I rather liked, such as 'LinkWithin', thumbnails at the bottom of each post to previous, but similar subject matter. I don't understand a lot of it, but don't want people to feel unsafe coming to my site.

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The Big Woven Basket quilt in the hoop....

I cleaned up some of the clutter, deciding to keep the 'Current Quilt in the Hoop' at the top of the sidebar. You've probably seen the progression of hand quilting projects there for years and years now. The latest quilt in the hoop happens to be 'Big Woven Basket'. It was one of those improv. projects that also sort of jumped into my Big Basket quilt series. I really love this one so was happy to get this one sandwiched and snug in the hoop awaiting quilting efforts.

Getting it ready for quilting

The hand quilting has been really sporadic on this one though, not an every night sort of thing like I expected. Sometimes I want to hand quilt so badly that's all the quilting that happens of an evening, but with other quilts, it's a different story. I've discovered that it's usually a stitching dilemma most of the time. Decisions, decision! If I can just push through, then it all gets sorted out and I'm back in the groove of wanting to stitch again.With a quilt like this, I often tend to get paralyzed at the thought of 'what' to stitch in those wide open borders. Stencils are just not my thing, so it can take me awhile to make up my mind how to address all that yawning emptiness. It's scary. That's where people can more readily see the stitching...

Always trying to figure out the game plan for stitching!

Being a new year, I've also been diligently trying to trim down the open ended quilt project list. How can I start all these new projects tantalizing me if I have oodles of old projects demanding my time and attention? One of the things that help to make certain projects drag on for so long is the addition of applique. Which is totally fine by me. There are always at least two or three {or more} projects that need applique attention around here and that is completely by design!

Quarter Circles sewn together

Eventually they all need some piecing work done on the machine though. This particular project was started with the leftover quarter circles cut from the back of another project. Rather than throwing them away, I saved them for a rainy day. In my original thinking, these blocks {after the spiky bits were added}, would have been left in the quarter circle presentation and simple joined together in rows. Then sometime during layout auditions, I absolutely fell in love with the look of four quarter circle blocks being joined together and making a sort of 'sun'.

Initial block layout

Okay. So off in that direction we went, having a grand old time. The reality was, unfortunately, that I wasn't truly happy with so much lightness glaring out at from what had become a busy, busy quilt. I played with all sorts of colors and ideas for sashing , alternate blocks,and/or applique in the centers. Finally, I settled on a cream/gray text fabric for the sashing and a basic dark fabric for the cornerstone squares. The text fabric was a last ditch effort to find something, anything and it worked because it adds whimsy, which I love. The center of the larger blocks took quite a bit more time and effort and in the end I just had to sleep on the idea one more night. The final solution just seemed way too easy, which always makes me nervous for some inexplicable reason.

Looking at the applique centers

Can you see that the circle applique is all the same fabric? The pink with white print really did the trick for me. And it's not a great fabric, just a basic two toned floral print! What's funny is that I pulled it directly out of the scrap bin totes, all that was left from the backing fabric on another quilt! Nothing else even came close to giving the feel that I was looking for. Okay then. All the circles were rough cut in different sizes and deliberately placed slightly off center. It's a really subtle thing from a distance, but really gives excellent feel-good vibes. Well, to those of us who like that sort of imperfection....

At least one thing about this project has remained constant from the beginning! Back in 2017, I saw a picture over at Kankerdoodle blog. At that moment, I knew the antique crows would be making their way into a quilt of mine at at later date! Isn't it funny the things that set off a spark of inspiration? I've been fiddling around with the parts and pieces, trying to expand the graphic out to a longer border look. Still have to get the bias stem sewn up of course, but I'm almost at the point of being able to situate the pieces and get them ready for the applique stitching.

Playing with the applique border parts and pieces for antique crows border

And last but not least has been the quilt room re-organization, de-clutter attempt. It started when I took an afternoon and pulled out a few small totes worth of scraps, thinking to use them in my string quilt blocks. The impulse was very strong to get rid of all the rest of the scraps--just toss them into the dumpster!

The larger scrap re-organization attempt....

Being a frugal soul, I resisted and delayed, thinking there had to be a better solution. Then one evening I read through Cheryl's 'KonMari Your Sewing Room Space'. I've heard lots about the book and recent show, but am not much of a trend follower honestly! Cheryl's blog though, is something I generally read. This post was very timely for me as it hit on several of the key things I had been struggling with. 

Getting things organized....

Although I do keep things fairly tidy {else I couldn't ever even function properly}, the scrap bin for sure had gotten completely out of control, my love of quilting books were crowding into every corner of my space and entirely too much 'stuff' had resulted in yes, a feeling of being flooded and overwhelmed.  Cheryl made the case that , 'We are sewers and quilters, arguably everything we have for creating sparks joy - eventually.'  That really made me think. She gets it, us, the whole creators extraordinaire! Maybe I should pay attention and see how it could apply to my lovely mess.

She started from a different angle altogether, and broke things down into simple categories. Then she lined out a plan of attack in a direct and no-nonsense way that totally made sense to me. And part of the good timing was that it happened during those days while I had such a bad head cold so didn't feel like doing much else. Otherwise, I might never have done anything but read through the post and think 'what a good idea that is, maybe I'll get to it sometime later in the year...'

The wall of totes between my sewing room
and my sons bedroom....

It took three very long days, but I went through every single drawer, tote and shelf except for the stash fabric itself. In the end, I tossed out three black garbage bags full of stuff and kept back one box of quilting books, patterns, blocks etc. to give to some quilting friends. I organized ALL of the scraps by color and put them into totes--something I've always scoffed at before. If they don't see a whole lot more use by being organized in this manner, then the goal is to eventually start tossing certain un-used colors at the time of cutting. I keep all the stash fabrics in opaque totes so that the sun doesn't bleach them, but the scraps were put into see-through totes. Hopefully this way they will catch my eye on occasion and inspire me to do a little bit of string play or whatever. It just feels weird to keep so many scraps, but I could NOT ditch them all, though I did dump more than you realize. Part of one black garbage bag was filled with scrap fabric. That's a start!

My quilting space feels so much better now. It's been needing this for several years now. I was brutal in throwing/giving away things that hadn't been looked at for a very long time {other than the scraps}. The books are down to two shelves and a small book caddy on my ironing counter. All the old thread has been discarded and the batting remnants organized by size into two totes or otherwise tossed. All the old applique templates {kept from every project ever attempted}, have been gone through and reduced to a small drawer full. I found things that I didn't even know were lurking in the corners of my quilt room! It felt good though I was exhausted every single evening after. 

The stash fabric itself is still up in the air. As long as it fits into the current totes I use, it feels okay. One of the things I love most about scrappy quilts and flying blindly through quilt making, is the idea that I can somehow manage to use a piece of unloved, deep in the stash totes kind of fabric and make them shine. Tossing every piece of stash fabric that is years old, an odd color or so-dated-as-to-be-ugly might take away from my joy. So I'm calling it good. Brushing my hands together in a 'project finished', 'putting it all behind me' sort of way. The lure of those new projects is starting to sound pretty irresistible....

My AHIQ Make-Fabric Geese

So this 28'x 28' scrappy piece has resurfaced after about a two year nap. I've almost tossed it a time or two and then reconsidered. Nah... There's just something about it that makes me wonder.

Make-Fabric Centerpiece

Wonder if it could be the start to something a lot more interesting. The entire thing is made up of 4" make-fabric {or crumb} blocks straight from the scrap bin. I like that. In the past month I pulled it out where it could be seen and have been letting it sort of simmer in my mind. And that's how I came to the idea of making a whole bunch of make-fabric flying geese {yep, I'm the crazy lady}. Creating wide rows of them in different colors. Possibly have them going in different directions vertically for lots of energy. I'm still contemplating, but need something I can put my hands on for auditioning purposes!

Adding potential flying geese rows

For now I'm working with the red scraps, but next up will be blue, brown/black and then probably some spots of orange too. I'm just sewing bits and pieces together, ironing the tar out of them and then using a template to cut my triangles. To make the rows as neat as possible, I won't be making the end pieces of the geese out of scraps. Very tempting, but I think the rows will look better if there's a straight of the grain somewhere in sight!

Make-fabric flying geese units

So here's my start, about 1/10th of what my math tells me is needed. And I really enjoy sewing bits of the scraps together and watching that new piece of fabric emerge. Then when it all comes together, there's the surprise of how it fits together as a whole. Very unpredictable, ofttimes a bit challenging, but still, so interesting! Will it work? Can it work? All we can do is try or there's really no way to know.

These are the scraps from good things, projects of the past. It becomes glaringly obvious to me when I work this way that working from the scrap bin feels a bit more freeing. I have zero anxiety about the outcome because, hello! I'm not about to {potentially} waste any 'good' fabric.*sigh  Which could definitely be a crutch that stops me from making good things from the stash. Got to watch that! In the meantime, it's fun to charge off in pursuit of yet another AHIQ idea! Linking up with Kaja and Ann for their great monthly linkup....

A Reflection of the Past Year {Quilty-wise} and Essential Elements for 2017

2016 has been such a busy, scattered year for me. I've felt rather like a leaf floating down the currents of a river at times, totally at the mercy of all the elements. Now that we're full swing into the holiday mode, I've found myself very reflective about my quilting. I suppose that's why Kaja's latest post really struck a chord within me and I decided to join in with the latest fun over at Quilting JetGirl too!

Goals for 2017 quilting:  1.  Fabric Love. Flitting in and out of my quilting room this past couple weeks has made me realize how delighted I am to be greeted by colorful, ongoing projects. I want to be more intentional about digging through the stash and using the fabrics and colors that speak the loudest to me--working to get it 'right' no matter how much time that may take.

Working to put Quilty 365 together...

2.  Applique. So very key for me. Sometimes I feel almost overwhelmed by all the projects that need/want/demand applique work, but in the long run it makes me very happy. Doing this sort of hand work helps settle me and causes me to look a little closer at the details--very necessary in my busy, busy world!

Vintage Coxcombs applique coming along slowly but surely...

3.  Repetition--very often a part of my quilting. Call me old fashioned, call me whatever you like, but I really, really like the structure and framework of having 'repeats' in my quilts. This is an element I want to remember to use moving forward.

Next border on Peachy Cameo Medallion

4.  Which leads me to borders. Oh how I love me some borders! The sheer challenge of making it all work is so good for me and there's nothing quite like finishing up a border and feeling that sense of accomplishment! Lots of small victories in this type of work which absolutely gives me energy to do more designing and brainstorming. Bring on the medallion quilts, 'cuz they aren't going away anytime soon.*wink

Another border on Folksy Flowers. Going to have to address that bias edge soon!

5.  Scrap Attack quilts. So overlooked. Do you know that the scrap attack quilts are the ones that generally end up being the most used on my beds? I just can't seem to resist their charm. In 2017 I want to keep 'working straight from the scrap bin' part of the rotation. There's nothing quite like taking those insignificant little scraps and creating something surprising and yes, genuinely lovely. I adore the unpredictability of using those scraps!

One of my favorite Scrap Attack quilts

6.  Ad Hoc Improv. Quilting.  Love, love, love this freewheeling style that by turns makes me feel like a total moron and then flips around and makes me feel quite brilliant in the very next quilt project.  If it wasn't for challenging myself to break free and work in this difficult-for-me method of quilting, I wouldn't have my big 'ol Improv. Woven Basket centerpiece. That would be sad. Big intentions to do more and see where and how it evolves in the future.

Improv. Woven Basket quilt

7.  Simplicity. Something that is almost stark in terms of emotion, but whatever that emotion may be, is solely up to the maker! The deliberate choices that have to be made seem to gain in importance--that's just reality when working this way. Whether or not I do another 'wholecloth' style quilt, I want to at least start with simplicity on occasion. It's such an interesting way to work and I simply love how it strips all the pretense and/or fussiness out of the equation.

Be Still, my sweet little wholecloth lap quilt

8.  Series Work.  There are often repeated elements from one quilt to the next in my quiltmaking. Whether this is deliberate series work or simply my subconscious operating behind the scenes {I've done both}, it is a very meaningful in a sense of  'progression' of personal style. Sometimes my knee jerk reaction to 'yet another basket quilt' is a feeling of despair or inadequacy that I can't come up with something new and exciting. I want to remember that those elements {that I continually seem to connect so personally to} are part of my quilting voice. I need to be unafraid and unashamed to be the 'basket queen' or whatever it is we're focused so intently on. Continue to let those elements be fine tuned and honed into that someday amazing quilt we're always striving for!

Gather Ye Roses quilt project

9.  QALS and Connections.  I prefer the open-ended QALS and no-pressure outcome. For instance, the quilt below {my most recent finish!} was a result of joining Wendy's Basket Galore BOM a couple years ago. Make the blocks, do whatever you like with them sort of thing. Lori made one as well and it's so interesting to see how we all ended up adding applique blocks to go along with those very challenging basket blocks. In my case it was probably a case of busying the quilt up so the mistakes are not as obvious!

Completed Red and Green Applique & Baskets Galore quilt

But the real point is the connections we make. Making something similar but different is often quite eye opening. I tend to shy away from QALS, but I can definitely see the benefits from these types of projects. Hopefully in 2017 there will be another QAL or two that fits into my personal requirement of 'has-to-be-on-my-bucket-list-to-join-up'. I never know where it just might lead....

Add caption

10. About that 'Process' thing which {should} eventually result in some really great quilts. In theory! Full circle brings me straight to the Cactus Basket quilt finished earlier this year. It's absolutely a direct result of that red/yellow basket second over in the previous picture. I had so much trouble with making that particular block, I decided to try it with hand piecing. Wallah! One things leads to another blah, blah, blah. Somehow I ended up with a totally different kind of quilt. And it feels more like a 'me' quilt in some perfect and indescribable way. In 2017 I need not forget the sheer value and importance of the process. That pure and simple doing.

The Cactus Basket quilt

Sorry for such a lengthy yawn of a post, but it helps to have a clear examination our of quilt-making once in awhile! At least for me. Thank you Kaja for the nudge and thanks to Yvonne for the initial inspiration!

2017 Planning Party Link-up

Now I'm off to finish baking my sugar cookies and other assorted holiday goodies! Merry Christmas to all of you. Hope your weekend is filled with lots of love, laughter and good eating...

More Scrappy Strings

Finishing up my String Play quilt made me realize once again how much I love a good scrappy quilt. Not just a quilt with a hundred pieces of fabric. No. I'm talking about something made from the overflowing scrap bin over in the corner of the quilt room.

Blue and green scraps

I get this weird idea in my head that every single quilt made needs to be vastly different from the ones I've made before or it's simply a waste of time. Which is ridiculous, especially when it comes to scraps, because hello? Even if I use the exact same pattern design, it will never be identical if made from the scrap bin!

Looking at the blue strips on the wall....

How could it possibly be when the scraps are ever changing depending on my latest quilt making efforts? But I'm kinda slow that way. There needs to be a good reason. So this time I'm working toward a blue and green string quilt. Just because I'm still in love with the whole string thing. That's good enough for me.*wink

Gonna need a lot more 6" strings than this and
then a whole stack of green ones.....

And yeah. I don't have a lot of strings either, just oddball bits and pieces like the rest of you. The thing is, it's all part of a string if you want to make it one. I just use my scissors a lot, trim and sew pieces until I have a string. I try to let the strings end up however wide they end up, but I do have limits, otherwise they wouldn't be strings would they? Somewhere around 3" wide, I whack off the extra--it's really just that simple. No rotary cutting here until I have multiple string units ready to trim to a uniform length.

This quilt doesn't feel very urgent so I have a feeling it's gonna be an 'in between' sort of project. For now it just feels good to have another stringy, scrap attack sort of quilt in the lineup! Linking up to Nicky and Leanne for Scraptastic Tuesday!

String Play a Reminder to Keep Playing With the Scraps!

Picture heavy post! String Play is a completed quilt now. This is a quilt made almost entirely from my scrap bin. Before quilting her {I want to call the quilt a 'her' for some reason}, I would have said she wasn't one of my favorites. Now I'm completely besotted.

Looking across the quilt

There's just something about a scrap quilt made up of hundreds of little pieces from other quilt projects that really gets to me. Upon starting this quilt, I dug through my scrap bin and pulled out specific colorways. As you can see, this quilt does not have any green--it's not the entire rainbow. For me, a crazy, million-pieced scrap quilt has to have a certain level of control or it just feels like chaos. Which just makes me nervous.

String Play on the railing!

I've come to realize the value of a pre-sort. I pull fabrics in specific colorways, pushing the boundaries as far as I dare. In this case, the yellow and golds included some rust and orangey tones, and of course, plenty of brown. The purples went all the way into black, excluding most lavenders. Pink colors included the entire spectrum from the lightest of pinks clear to the rosiest of red--no bubblegum pinks or tomato reds allowed, but yes on the peachy, apricot pinks! The blues included a wide range as well, starting from lightest of light all the way to almost black and I skipped most of the aqua tones I stumbled across. This kind of 'control' really helps to establish cohesion in the new color family as the quilt strips started being joined together. I tend to leave the different colorways in separate totes while I sew, randomly grabbing the strips as I choose to.

Love seeing the bits and pieces...

When I was working through making the scrap blocks, the only extra fabrics I added were yellow, gold and a reddish purple. They were pieces that I thought might help carry important colors throughout the entire quilt as this is a largish quilt and I was running out pieces from the scrap bin. It helped that a couple of the fabric pieces were very sentimental for me, being pieces from my late grandmothers stash and a shirt from my deceased brother.

All that lovely texture...

Before, I would have said this one was a somber, moody sort. But after quilting her, I've discovered she's a soft, rich, comfort giving quilt and I sincerely doubt she will ever be given away. Honestly, I am feeling as good about making this quilt as any I have ever made. And what does that say about me and my quilting?

Want to curl up with me?

It's a timely reminder to make time for sewing from my scrap bin. There's a lot of joy to be had from taking the bits and pieces and trying to make something beautiful. After the initial fabric sorting, there's also a lot of freedom in grabbing and sewing strips together without worrying about what they'll look like snuggled up next to each other. In this method of quilt making, we'll often find ourselves wincing at the pairing of fabrics we're sewing together. And over and over we'll find ourselves delighting in yet another pairing! It's a different sort of process, but it can be very revealing to those of us who get caught up in controlling the color in our quilts. We have to learn how to let go and just allow the fabric to tell the story it really wants to tell.

It looks like it belongs in my home...

I wish this sort of quilt could have happened around here even ten years ago, but I was too unsure--too insecure about the outcome. I didn't know how to tame the scraps without losing their innate goodness. And I tend to forget now how working with scraps helps me out in the rest of my quilting.

Looking at the pieced backing....

Did you notice the entire quilt was stitched on my machine? I did it. I actually stitched the entire quilt on my recently serviced Bernina! About halfway through the tension started giving me problems again. It was stop and go, fixing and adjusting clear to the end and yes, the machine is going back in the shop once again--for the third time this year.*sigh  I won't bore you with the details. Just hoping this time will be a true-blue fix....

Always a 'Next Up' In the Hoop

It's time. These hand pieced bow-tie's are saying they want to be quilted. So what's a girl to do?

Hand Pieced Bow-Ties

These are the only hand pieced blocks that I have made an entire quilt out of so far. I mostly hand piece when {and where} the block seems to be better off for the effort. Like these bow-ties. I just really, really had to have a bow-tie quilt with the original, square looking center. Looking at my work as I pinned the quilt made me realize how desperately lacking my piecing skills are though. Galloping horses, people. Just pretend you're on a galloping horse while you're viewing my quilt!

Looking a little closer

And then because I have gotten into the habit of pinning two quilts in one session, here is String Play, a mostly out of the scrap bin effort. I am aiming to machine quilt this big monster of a quilt and ooooh, I am nervous about that.

String Play

I totally forgot to take a picture of the quilt top before the pins were added, so you can see where I intend to stitch long vertical lines. The goal is to completely stitch the top with organically {ha, ha, all my lines are organic} straight lines. Not sure how closely I'll end up stitching the rows, but these will be my first 'reference' lines.

Almost ready to get started!

Hope my machine is up for this like the repairman said it would be! Crossing my fingers on that. I'm determined to get in the mode of at least trying to machine quilt the occasional quilt top instead of sitting on my chicken-hearted fears and letting the quilt room practically explode with unfinished quilt tops. If you only knew how long I sat and stared at this quilt top imagining how wonderful it would look with hand quilting....

Linking up with Nicky and Leanne for Scraptastic Tuesday! I haven't been sewing anything from the scrap bin lately {except my circles}, but this quilt was an 'all-in' effort from the scrap bin back when I made it. Definitely makes me think it's time and past to dig in and try another. There's nothing quite like seeing an entire quilt top made from scraps! Everything inside me just sort of melts and I'm like a proud momma. See here? Look! This is good stuff!*wink

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!