{Post 1,629} This ‘N That

I cut apart (I call it “deboned” because it makes me think of deboning a turkey carcass...saving all the usable bits and discarding the waste) nine shirts today. Here is the finished pile. I ironed them as I deboned them, and also cut off strips of a few of them for more moth blocks. Honestly, they don’t look much once cut up, but it took over an hour to get to this point.

I just had a little free time today after my grandson went home. I wanted some time at the sewing machine, so I pieced a few more sections of the string light/dark quilt in process. I am leaning towards a baby quilt. I cut the panels 40” long. Here is what I’ve got so far. This is 9” wide x 40” long. I plan on going on with the light and dark rows. 

I am aiming for about 40” square, so on I piece!

{Post 1,628} Center Pieced and Ironed

I worked on this last night and this AM. Lots of pinning means lots of time, period. I pinned all the rows, both horizontally and vertically, so it’s perfect, but very time-consuming. Then I pressed the whole thing...a lotta seams!  I laid it on the twin bed and took into account that there would be an 8” drop with the borders on both sides. I think one more block wide would be better. I’ll have to think about it later, because life marches on. In the meantime, I’ll piece a bunch more paper foundation blocks to keep driving my shirt string scrap box down. I have 15 more shirts to “debone”, and that will generate lots of strings.

{Post 1,627} Second 2/26 Post

First of all, thank you to all of you who read my blog. I have had challenges responding to comments, editing content, etc. I hate change in the tech world. I am so bad at it, but I eventually muddle through, then things CHANGE!! I hope to be able to email those of you who comment back. Please bear with me.

In other news, I pieced more string blocks to add to my design wall. In order to put them up, I took down all my moth blocks to start piecing the center of that quilt. I got all but the last row pieced for a 4 x 6 block + sashing + cornerstone setting in one direction. In other words, all but the last block of the horizontal rows are pieced. That does not include the border.

For the Moth in the Window quilt, I think instead of 8 moth blocks across, I’ll start with six and see how large that will be with borders. If it indeed turns out wide enough, I will have already pieced blocks to make more rows. I might be closer to having this one finished that I thought!

{Post 1,626} Black and White Crossing

That is not the name of this “pattern”, just a description of its layout. I made some blocks with black center lines this AM. The nice thing about using these strings is that they are such fast blocks, they can be sewn semi-mindlessly, and one gets something beautiful while using up what seems like worthless pieces of shirts. Lots of cuffs and collar strips going into these. I set up my work area for the first time so that a TV tray with an ironing blanket is on it to my left, my string bin and trash can are to the right. The only reason I need to get up is to cut out more foundations. Here is a small peek at my progress from this AM. The repetitive fabrics will be spread out once I get more blocks made. That orange plaid!!

These are 6-1/2” foundations. If I pull out a piece from my scrap box that is too small to use, I iron it and put it aside in piles of similar-sized scraps. That way when I get to the edge of a block, I use up the smaller pieces. I am also piecing the strips of colors and creams. Now I’m starting to use up some of the crumbs for yet another scrappy shirt quilt down the road. Crumbs and strings are NOT the same thing. Think of crumbs as chunks. 

I make slow progress on them ALL, but progress is progress. This is just a break in the path of my Moth in the Window quilt. The overload of scraps distracts me from my goal. Once my scrap box is down a bit, I will cut out the 15 shirts I have that are as-yet washed but uncut.  Then I will have more strings and crumbs. 

{Post 1,625} New Project(s)

I started to cut out some more Moth blocks tonight, but was struck with the large amount of shirt strings I have amassed. I have separated them into colors and lights as I have cut a few projects.

I decided to start not one, but TWO new projects from the strings to reduce my stash of them before they take over the sewing room. Both original designs, sort of...

The first one is a 1-1/2” strip of muslin through the center of a 6-1/2” foundation. That makes a design like this if set into 4-block “squares on point”. I am toying with the idea of setting all the muslin strips one direction, and another color or colors the other (I have a number of solid pastel shirts that I bought for another shirt project, and this would be a good way to use up some of them—solid black is also an idea I’m playing with).

This is the waste after trimming down one block:

The second design is also foundation-pieced strings (these do not always go straight...sometimes an angle adds interest and uses up those back yoke pieces). The dark strip finishes at 3” wide, and the light ones at 4-1/4”. I am thinking this would be an excellent baby quilt...even gender neutral. We have a friend expecting in a few months. The adding machine paper pictured is the foundation for the dark strings, and old telephone books cut down were the source of the squares and the 4-1/4” blocks as well. No wasted chunks of paper either!

I removed all the papers from all the backs tonight, so I am completely caught up.

Today has been a dentist visit (hi, Debbie) and much cleaning. Also thrown in was spending the afternoon with my grandson, of course.