I’ve not been a good girl when it comes to deadlines for the past 2 weeks.
Last week, we shared a super yummy Mother’s Day dinner at my mom’s (yes, she cooked. Insisted that we should not get ripped off by the restaurants, and we can always buy her expensive meals anytime :p). I whipped up some last minute small-ish gifts for her then. Well, I didn’t plan to make anything too elaborate because we celebrated my mom’s birthday at the end of April and I gifted the Star Quilt for the ocassion. The weather then was dreary for many days and I did not manage to take a decent before I gave it to her. But I did snap a quite picture at the restaurant that evening.
Week 5: 3 May – 9 May
In: 0 yds(so far!)
Out: 2 yds (more for string quilt, coin purse and zipper pouches for mom)
On Friday, I was just thinking that I have neither ‘IN’ nor ‘OUT’ to report this week since I have not been sewing much at the machine. Oh soooo boring. But over the weekend, sewing happened!
Fabric IN
Zilch (for now!)
Fabric OUT
3 yards (and more on the way out!)
I’ve seen many beautiful string quilts on Flickr and they look like really good scrap-busting projects to work on. There are essentially 2 methods of creating string quilts – piecing with fabric foundation or paper foundation. Piecing with fabrics sounds like a great way to bust some serious stash too. But I don’t think I like the extra weight, plus I can imagine the amount of seams in the quilt (by the way, I’m aiming for a Queen Sized quilt). So, it is paper piecing for me. For fabric foundation method, click here.
I have a ream of A3 sized, low GSM paper that we used for mapping out projects (day job) ideas and they are perfect for paper foundation piecing. So, I did a test block, following this tutorial from Film in the Fridge. I find it ‘slippery’ to sew with paper and because some of the scrap strips are cut on bias, it was a little challenging trying to set the 1st diagonal straight. This will create problems when I put the blocks together and I would expect the center strips of the blocks to match. So, I modified the instructions a little by marking two lines, 1/2″ from the center diagonal on the paper (my center strip is 1″ wide).
Mock-up block
Back to the drawing pad, I planned the colour way and layout of the quilt.
Afterwards, I pulled out the scrap buckets and started sorting them out by colours. So, most of the scraps are in 6 bags now (and why do I still have the same number of scrap buckets left under the table???). I also cut up some fabrics from yardage to make up for the colours and centre string.
Scrap bag
ooooouuuglies
This also gives me the opportunity to use up some Uglies in my charm packs and FQs that I probably will never use in a non-scrappy project.
I can’t get over Hope Valley. I love the dusty colours and I love its vintagey-not-too-girly feel. I just had to get my hands on them. No thanks to Fab****atic, I didn’t receive any of the half yard sets, which I paid for, from them. So, I bought the Fat Quarter set from an online store that I have shopped with before.
Fabric IN
Hope Valley FQ set 😀
Fabric OUT
Zilch (although I have prepped some more push pin boards to be covered!)
If I get $1 for saying: I’m not going to buy fabrics for the next <insert #> <weeks/month/year>, I’ll probably be able to get myself a new Bernina sewing machine.
It’s silly, but I feel GUILTY each time I checkout a bundle of fabrics at the store. BUT I try to justify the buys for making things for the Etsy shop, for Benji, for the home, etc. Truth is, I should NOT feel bad about fabric shopping since I hardly spend on clothes, fancy restaurants or expensive holidays. Last year, my ‘resolution’ was to start on a NEW project only after I have completed another. That worked pretty alright since I completed a number of old WIPs.
This year, I’m determined to shed the guilt trip, and buy whatever I like and to complete more projects than I ever had. I came across Jaybird’s bog and I’m pretty impressed with the simple way of keeping track of your stash. I’m not going to account for what is ALREADY in the stash, (or what I bought in Japan in Feb!). I will simply start my report in April.
