String & Crumb Quilt Blocks

I am a firm believer that scraps do somehow multiply when placed in bins or boxes. I have been trying to get my sewing room cleaned up and organized, so I have been working on getting scraps cut up into useable sizes such as 2 and 2.5 inch squares and strips. Anything less than 1.5 inches gets put into my string and crumb blocks. I have been working on both my string and crumb blocks and feel  like it's taking forever to make any progress. The laundry basket doesn't seem to be getting any emptier!

I have continued to stick with making 4.5 inch crumb blocks. I have sewed four of them together to make an 8.5 inch block in the past. I think anything bigger with the pieces I use would be a challenge. 

Many of the strings I am using is from trimming the backs of my quilts. I didn't realize I had so much of it in my scrap bin until I started pulling all of the pieces out. From now on, after I trim off the backing and batting on a quilt, I will be taking care of the scraps right away. I will take the time and trim everything up into useable pieces. I think part of the problem was I that I quilted a whole bunch of quilts and was getting ready for a quilt show and was in a hurry.  

So many crumbs! 

This design wall is next to my sewing machine. It is really handy because I can grab a block that I am working on and add a piece. I normally use it as a leader/ender project.

A nice stack of string blocks!

I have been making 6.5 inch string blocks since the phone books that I am using work for that size. I really prefer 8.5 inch string blocks but that's ok. It's nice to use stuff up!

Time to get back at it! More crumb and string block to make! 

Happy Quilting!

New Year, New Attitude

Happy New Year! As I write this post, I had to reflect back on 2019 and think about all of the quilting goals I had made for the year. Needless to say, I fell way short on most of them. Am I upset that I didn't make one quilt per week? No, a person has to do more than quilt day and night. There are things like spending time with friends and family that matter more than cranking out a bunch of quilts. It is all about perspective. Do what you can with what you have and where you are in life at that moment. For 2020, I am not setting any quilting goals. Looking at the year already, I realize that I will have a lot going on so why put unrealistic goals out there only to stress myself out?

This past week I have been cutting projects along with sewing some blocks together. I managed to get all of the blocks made for my White House Squares Quilt and cut everything up except for the sashing for my second Bear Paw Quilt.

On another project that I have been working on, I had a ton of four patches to make. I finally decided to see if I could learn to spin my seams. Needless to say, it is fairly easy once I got going. I used the power of google and found a ton of videos on how to do it. A fellow quilter once told me to challenge myself. I had just joined my quilt guild and I thought that was an excellent piece of advice. I hope that I will never stop learning new techniques or trying new patterns. I know it is easy to get stuck in a rut and never do anything different. That was how I was for my first twenty years in quilting.

I hope that this year will be a good one! Happy Quilting!