Sunday, July 19, 2020

Bright Ideas Come Home to Roost


Do you remember back a few decades....1980's or so? Someone had the bright idea that when you have a fabric out for some other project, all straightened and ready to go, that if you cut a few strips from that yardage…1.5”, 2”, 2.5", you would have this wonderful stash of ready-to-go strips for countless projects.
 "Cool! Great idea," I thought.
The idea was wide spread, apparently, because a lot of us fell for it. Decades later, we "ladies of a certain" age are saying, "How the heck can I use up all these strips?"
Today I finished this little doll quilt  - the result of restlessness over isolating, quarantining, a life where going to the grocery store is an exciting outing.

I needed to stitch and stitch and not think...so I pulled out the bin of 1.5" strips, squares, partial units and rows and put this together.







Just in time I remembered, I'm trying to use up  strips  - so I pieced the back using partial units and some 2.5" strips.

 (I'm heading toward diving into improv style so this is a warm-up)





I practiced free motion work with loops and an occasional heart. I had to cut binding from yardage.
I have lots of 'binding leftovers' but none were long enough or quite right. I needed a solid -the piece was busy enough already.









A look at my labelled containers on shelves





And here are just a few of the projects I’ve made with those handy dandy strips….all scrappy by necessity, right?  No matchy-matchy color coordinated ‘line’ of fabrics from Marcus Brothers or Judy Rothermel.
 








this is a top in progress...




I guess those strips were a pretty good idea after all!

Did you get into that - and are you still trying to use them up?


Adventure in Improv Coming up!

5 comments:

  1. Love your scrappy quilts! You’re inspiring me to get out all those strips and squares I cut so long ago! Keep up the good work!
    Tina W in Oregon

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  2. Very cute doll quilt. I love all of the ways you have used your strips--especially that last quilt (one I've always wanted to make).
    I'll admit that when I heard about the strip cutting I thought it was a great idea, but I could never bring myself to do it. Now I am glad I didn't. Sometimes I would rather have the fabric for setting squares, not strips. So I cut my fabrics when I need them, and not a moment before. LOL

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  3. Jean, your comments made me laugh! I cut all of my spare strips 1 1/2" wide, for reasons I can't remember. You've made some fun scrap quilts. Your last quilt top is especially beautiful!!! None of that matchy-matchy is right! And btw, going to the grocery store feels more like going to the front line of battle, to me!

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  4. I love the bottom quilt in progress you show, she's a beauty! I cut a lot my mother's stash into strips after she died and I inherited most of the fabrics. Last year I made a point of emptying the 1-1/2" strip box, I made a lot of quilts from that box. Now I need to do that with the 1-1/2", 2" and the 2-1/2" boxes. Happy stitching!

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