Cutting Kits & Some Washing and Folding

If you like pictures, today is your lucky day!  There are lots!

Not a lot of sewing was accomplished this week, and last week I was in Grand Rapids for the AQS Show.  When I got back, I had some things to unpack, including putting my new Martelli Cutting mat to work on my cutting table.

Mostly I concentrated on organizing a bit this week and was reminded how fun it is to pet our fabric.  Touching, folding, looking at the colors and prints again is always fun.  One of the nice things of having it!!

I cut up two kits for future quilts this week.  One is to make another Greek Plus Puss Quilt, which I really liked.  This second one will be 20 blocks, 4 X 5, and end up approximately 48 X 60.  I plan to hang it on the wall in the living room, where I finally put up my Magnet-ficent Quilt Hangers.  The system uses easily removeable Command Strips by 3M and magnets.  I still used a rod pocket on the quilt, and the rods are 48" flat metal strips my husband & I found at Home Depot.  It will now be quick & easy to change out wall quilts!

Here's the quilt I hung:

The Greek Plus Puss kit, will be made from turquoise, bluesy-greens, greens and a bunch of those WONDERFUL text fabrics I have been accumulating.  Very very scrappy, which takes awhile to cut.  This quilt is going to be SOOO cute!  I really look forward to starting it, but not sure when that will be.  With it all cut & organized, in a bag, with the pattern, I can grab it for a sewing day out, or just a day at home, when I have the itch to PIECE, not machine quilt or make a backing or any of that kind of thing.  Sometimes a girl just HAS to piece & nothing else will do.  And I will be READY.  With my bag.  READY TO GO.

Next, after our floodwaters, we've been organizing things a little more in the basement.  Looking at some older civil war reproduction fabrics (relegated to the basement to make room for more colorful new fabric) from my darker times, I felt sorry for them.  They needed to be re-folded to fit nicely on the shelf.  Which is important to me.  First, I WASHED all the reds.  They will NOT run in future projects.  If they do, my color catcher will be ready for any last bit of dye to come out. 

As I was refolding, I pulled out the pieces that were less than a quarter yard, and put them in their own pile.  Destined to be cut up for the scrap box.  But as I touched them, reds and blues, I thought---I know!!  I'll make a patriotic quilt for Great Lakes Heritage Quilter's donated quilts pile.  We are making 3' X 4' this year, a great size, and they will go to people of all ages, some wheelchair bound.  I actually haven't made a "Patriot" or "Quilts of Valor" before.  It's high time!  So I decided to make hour-glass blocks that would finish at 6" using shirting and that pile of smaller cuts of blue traditional or civil war repros, and there will be ONE row of 6" wonky stars, in red & white.  Got those cut up, and they are also ready in a "to go" bag, my scribbled measures and block requirements included.  I wanted to see how the wonky stars would work out, and THERE---got in a little bit of machine time!

So now these cute stars and a few of the hour-glass blocks, are done, but everything else cut and ready to go.  I was reminded that although the civil war repros are beautiful, and you can make cute things from them, I am SO OVER IT.  But these stacks won't go to waste, and I will make some very cute quilts to give away.

After cutting out the quilt top, any left-over pieces that were less than 1/4 yard got cut into strips, 2 1/2" and 1 1/2".  Then, using a selvage or just cutting a skinny strip, they are tied together.  That way, when I want some 'patriotic' fabrics, I can go right to these little bundles.  They won't be falling all over in a mess, wrinkly, tangled pile in my box.

I've been teased sometimes for my 'organized ways' and 'neat stacks', but hey---that's me!  That's how I function best!  And most of the time, I can find what I want, when I want to.  Unless I put it into the dreaded 'safe place'..........