Well, the Christmas decorations are out of the house and stored in the attic again and we are now decorated for the winter months. The only problem with this time of year is that tax season is just around the corner (I am a CPA) and I know that my crafting time will be limited. So, I am going to spend as much time as possible over the next week and see what I can accomplish!!
One of my Christmas presents was the book “Loose Change” by Claudia Plett and LeAnn Weaver. It is a wonderful book about using 5 inch squares, 10 inch squares and fat quarters of fabric. One of the quilts uses miscellaneous rectangles of fabric that are 5 inches by 3 inches and are bordered on two sides by 1-1/2 inch strips of black fabric. These squares are then put together in alternating directions.
I am hoping to make this quilt using only scraps from my stash, except I know that I may have to buy the black….will have to see what is in the stash. AND, I may switch it to dark blue…..I know that I have a lot of it in the stash.
One of the reasons that I want to make this quilt is because of a tip that I recently read…… Most of you already know this, but when you are string piecing a series of patches, you can sew thru an un-needed scrap of fabric at the end of the piecing line rather than pulling your fabric out and having all of those strings to deal with. This also helps make it easier to start out sewing on the next set of patches.
However, I read that, if you have another quilt ready to sew, you can sew a patch from the new quilt instead of using a scrap bit of fabric. SO, my idea is to cut out all of the pieces for this new quilt and keep them by the machine. Hopefully I will be able to finish the piecing for the second quilt before I even know it.