Stitch Gathering Jelly Roll Quilt

I've picked up my eternal WIP, the Stitch Gathering Jelly Roll quilt again recently with a view to getting it DONE!

I'm going to gift it to a friend when she gets married later on this year.  

My normal approach is to cut a bit, sew a bit.  I don't think it's particularly efficient however, so decided to take a more assembly line approach to this quilt.  I thought it might help me to make progress quickly, even if there wasn't instant gratification.

I did my best, but I have to admit I did give up on the cutting after slicing up the width of fabric strips.  They were tricky customers and I was bored of just cutting - I wanted to see a finished row!

And progress has indeed been forthcoming.  In the last week, I've completed two and a half rows of the 8 needed for this quilt.  Compared to my August 2013 to September 2014 progress (1 row), I think that's pretty good!

I feel like the skills I've developed over the last year will make this a better quilt though so maybe I was right to wait.  I just can't wait to see it finished now!

Blogging Hiatus

Wow, it's been a while!  Hi everyone.

Since my last post in August 2014, everything has changed and there has been a lot of life administration taking up my free time.  In a good way though, so I shan't complain too much.

Without really having a plan to do so, we bought a new house in September, which meant putting ours on the market with no preparation time.  A week of dashing between storage units and lawyers' offices followed, and the next few months were all about selling our house.  All the sewing paraphernalia had to go into storage as I used to sew on the dining room table.

Boo!

I managed to get it back briefly before we had to move though, which gave me enough time to catch up on my Little Blog Quilt Bee commitments.

I made:

These posies for Nessa

This scrappy trip for Gina

This postage stamp block for Sheila

And this pineapple block for Celine.

We're in the new house, boxes are unpacked and the sewing machine is BACK! Normal service will hereby be resumed.

Ugly Bug Ball - DONE!

I've finished the Ugly Bug Ball quilt, just in time to gift to my friends this weekend.

The quilting is a square spiral over each of the blocks which I did with the walking foot and a lot of patience.

Can't wait to meet the little one and hand this critter over.

Linking up with TGIFF

Ugly Bug Ball - WIP

I've been making progress on the Ugly Bug Ball.  The quilting is done..

and I've moved on to the binding.

This binding looks like sweeties!

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for Work in Progress Wednesday

And Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday

Ugly Bug Ball

Months back I found a little bit of Hungry Caterpillar fabric in the John Lewis off cuts bin.  I don't think I've ever mentioned that bin before and now that's two posts in a row.  Anyway, I digress....

I found a bright fat quarter bundle in Hobbycraft, along with another Hungry Caterpillar print.

I've been saving them all to make a baby quilt and my dear pals have just created a new wee human.

I spent the weekend piecing the top

basting and starting on the quilting.

I don't want to jinx myself but I think I might be on a bit of a roll!  Bet now I have said that, the baby will be at university before I finish this....

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for Work in Progress Wednesday and Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday.

Brown Paper Packages - 9

Having resolved not to browse through fabric emporiums, on or offline, I accidentally purchased some fabric this week from the discard bin at John Lewis.

All bargains, including the solid yellow.  Finding that was a stroke of luck as I needed a piece to back a baby quilt I have started for some friends.

I've had a lovely Sunday of piecing, basting and quilting.

Linking up with Molli Sparkles and Sunday Stash

Scrappy Days - How I organise my leftovers

Recently, I have been working on reducing my pile-o-scraps.  The fabric fund has been a bit depleted after making my Sister's Choice quilt (for which I collected lots of love purple, pink and grey fabrics) and I have decided I need to use the fabric I have instead of buying more just because I like it.

I am a hoarder in all areas of my life and fabric is no exception.  I have kept all the itty bitty tiny bits from all of my projects.

Recently, I decided it was time to sort them out and put them to use.

At the Stitch Gathering last year, I attended a class on making scrap patchwork squares.

The class suggested hand sewing, which meant you could use really tiny pieces.  However, I thought at the time I would like to have a go using the sewing machine and approach this as a method of using up scraps.  So I had a go.





The pieces are all sewn together using a quarter inch seam, which means that scraps which are less than an inch across are pretty useless and just add bulk. These squares are cut to 5".



I have also recently had a go at EPP and have sorted through my pile of scraps for pieces which can be used for 1 inch hexagons.

Turns out they have to be roughly 2.5" square, which is handy as I have a lot of squares and strips in this size from other projects.

So, all of this has led me to devise a new system for organising my scraps (which I am now doing as I go).  I've started using sandwich bags labelled with a Sharpie to house my organised scraps.

1. Anything less than 1.5" square is pretty useless and can be disposed of without guilt.  
2. Anything more than 1.5" and less than 2.5" square (roughly, they don't have to be square, but do need to have a minimum width of 1.5") gets sorted into colour coordinated bags for making scrappy blocks.  Eventually, I hope to turn these into a rainbow quilt.  I am also saving white and low volume scraps to use as sashing on this quilt.  A very long term project I think.
3. Anything big enough to cover a 1 inch hexagon is being basted and added to the pile of hexagons I am saving to make a hand sewn scrappy EPP quilt.  Again, I will probably arrange these to make a rainbow.
4. Anything larger than this is being neatly folded and kept in my scraps box for use in other projects. For example, I recently raided this for some low volume scraps for my Little Blog Quilt Bee block for July. If I can, I'm cutting out 5" square pieces to add to my charm pile.
5. All strips of 2" or more are being kept in one bag together.
6. All strips of less than 1" are being kept for ribbon for wrapping gifts.  However, I see these being disposed of (either re-housed or chucked) as I am yet to wrap a single present using these.  Some of them are so lovely though, I don't want to throw them away.

So, that's how I am managing to find new fabrics, ideas and quilts in my leftovers and make the most of what I have.  Quilting is a rewarding but dear hobby, so it's nice to satisfy my need to reduce waste and add to my stash.  

Anyone have any other scrap busting/sorting tips?