Cutting Bee

Hi Everyone,

At the beginning of the year, I, like most of you, looked over everything in my quilting room to decide what I want to work on this year.  For inspiration, I looked through my books.  I have so many books full of projects that I love, but don't seem to ever make!  Kim Diehl, Jo Morton, Edyta Sitar, and other various quilters have so many gorgeous quilts in my favorite style--scrappy.  I decided that this year, I would focus on making some of them.

I chose a few particular patterns that I love and jotted down the requirements.  I added all those requirements together into a list that read a bit like this:

2.5" dark/med squares:  268
2.5" light squares:  256
4" red squares:  16
4"  blue squares:  16
1.5" squares:  765

I began with the contents of my scrap drawer--cutting what I found into the necessary shapes.

Next I got out my containers of strips and cut them into 2.5, 2 and 1.5 inch squares.
Then I got out my fat quarters and began cutting a good quantity of each color.  I started by choosing the smaller bits of fabrics, but I did cut from some of the larger pieces, too.  It was while in the middle of this that I went to Ikea and got the new storage for them.

After what seemed like days of work--because the cutting was mixed up with the reorganization, I ended up with this:

A collection of 3, 3.5, and 4 inch squares.  Also a stack of 1.25 x 3.25 inch bricks.

A container full of 2 inch squares.

An overflowing container of 1.5" squares

 

And 2 containers full of 2.5" squares!

 

 

When I began this cutting bee, I thought I would run to the dollar store to get some containers.  Then I remembered that I have these "disposable" plastic containers that I use every holiday season when I bake cookies.  They sit around, unused, most of the year, so I decided to borrow them for my quilting.  We'll have to see if they make it back to the kitchen for baking next year....

 

This should be enough to make 4 or 5 of the projects that I've chosen.  I also did the cutting for an upcoming class that I'm taking in early April.  I don't think I've shared on my blog yet, but I'm signed up for a Bonnie Hunter class!!!!!   I'm so excited.  I was crossing my fingers that she would be teaching Jamestown Landing, which I really want to make, but instead, she will be teaching Turkey Tracks (my second choice quilt.)  She did it all in red and neutrals and I will be making mine the same.  So all the pieces I need for that are all cut and I've got a good supply of red "strings" going. 

 

I also put together a few kits to take with me later this week.  I'm going on a retreat from Thursday to Sunday.  I decided to go with some kits because I tend to make cutting errors if I'm distracted, so I'm trying to minimize that.  Plus, I wanted to limit the sheer quantity of stuff I need to take.  (As if--there is still going to be a huge pile of stuff!)

 

 

All in all, it is pretty boring stuff to blog about, but should result in more interesting posts down the road!

 

Have a great day!

JoAnne