Month: January 2024

I started a new quilt today. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a couple months… putting the fabrics and design together in my head.

I’m calling it my NewYear Fresh Start quilt. It’s the perfect project after my palate cleanser. It was inspired by some of the pin cushions I made a couple months ago.

I went on a bit of a tear today and got 16 blocks done. It’s enough to give you a really good idea of what this quilt will look like. True to my tendencies, it’s a little wild but I love it.

To get started I dug in after our early afternoon walk and started sorting and pressing a bunch of Kaffe Fassett Collective and Australian Aboriginal scrap strips.

The good news is that I love making scrap quilts. The bad news is that this isn’t going to use up much in the way of scraps.

I sewed a random collection of strips into strip sets…

Then pressed and cut those into 3.5 inch sections that would be the center of each block.

The strip on the far right was too narrow to cut to 3.5 inches, so I’ll be able to incorporate that into a bag some day.

I’m going to write up a quick tutorial later this week for making these blocks. So I’m not going into too much detail tonight. Suffice it to say that I’m really enjoying this. It’s just the kind of piecing that I love doing… very free form, not much in the way of rules, and no precision required!

I love building production lines when I’m doing projects like this… ways to do things that make it quicker and more efficient. So I’m making four or five blocks at a time — whatever number I can get from one strip set.

These center sections are all ready for a trim and then will have their black or white corners added.

Here’s a finished block before I squared it up.

I squared these up to 9.5 inches. So they’ll finish at 9 inches.

I just love this one!

I’m also liking the combination of KFC and Aboriginal prints. I’m not sure it changes the look of the quilt much, but I like being able to say that the blocks contain both.

A little eye candy…

And I love this close up of the point where four blocks come together.

So, you might be wondering what happened to the neck scarf I was thinking about. Well, I dug in yesterday and nearly finished it. I had thought that I might make it from Brandon Mably’s Octopus fabric in black rather than the jumble and I remembered that my long armer returned some scraps of that fabric that had been used as the quilt back for my Ice Storm quilt. And, amazingly, there was one piece in the scraps that was perfect for this scarf!

So I trimmed it, squared it up and cut off a little of the length. After looking at some of the scarfs in my collection, I decided that about 60 inches was a good length. Then I cut a piece of the jumble to be the other side of the scarf.

I cut the jumble about an inch narrower than the octopus fabric so that the octopus would make what looks like a binding on the jumble side of the scarf.

Then I sewed the two long edges, turned it right side out and gave it a press. Here’s how that self binding looks on the jumble side of the quilt.

Sort of magic!

I left the ends open and left enough Octopus fabric extending beyond the jumble to fold and sew into a binding on the ends of the scarf.

Then I stitched in the ditch all the way around the scarf to keep all those edges in place during wear and laundering.

Then I got busy making twisted cord for fringe.

I got the fringe applied to one end of the scarf. If I was doing this again I would make the cord finer. This is just a little too thick, but I’m guessing no one else would even notice it.

I’ll have to make more fringe and apply it to the other end of the scarf. That will be an evening’s task later this week.

I did try it on even though it’s not done and I really like it!

Something about fringe makes a scarf super sassy!

I like the way the jumble and octopus work together. If you remember, the very first bucket had I made a couple years ago was in this fabric combo.

I’m very excited that my dishwasher repair person is arriving some time tomorrow between 8 am and 5 pm! It’s a good thing I’m working from home and don’t have to leave work to wait for them to arrive… one of the good things about working from home. I’m really tired of hand washing dishes!

This is the face of a dog who does not appreciate New Year’s fireworks.

Poor guy. He really hates them. I could barely hear the fireworks, but he was completely aware of them. Luckily they weren’t as bad as they’ve been in the past.

Back to work tomorrow. I’m glad it’s another short work week.