I have become the absolute model of organization while quilting. (I know, it shocked me too!) After finishing the jewel box quilt that required me to concentrate to keep the colors going the right direction I wanted to do something mindless. While surfing around I found this site about organization of scraps into bins of same sized strips so you can make scrap quilts quickly. That is a good idea but a bit too organized for me to do the full system. Besides I get distracted easily and as soon as I cut up stuff into strips I’d decide to make a pattern that needed 6 inch squares instead.
But I liked the Scrappy Bargello pattern they had and it seemed pretty mindless so I started making that. It using a strip piecing technique that I used to make my Trip Around The World quilt that was really fun. It requires 128 different 2.5 by 16 inch strips. Here’s where the organization under the influence of the Scrap Saver system comes in. Since it takes the most time to pickout the fabric, iron it, and line it up to cut the strip, I decided to cut two strips from each. That way I am on my way to making a second quilt from this technique.
But wait, there’s more! I was watching Simply Quilts the other day and got distracted by a new mindless quilt I want to make. It needs four 2.5 inch squares as part of each block. So now I cut 2.5 inch strips of fabric. I trim it to 16 inches long. I use one strip on this quilt and save one for the next. Then I cut the extra pieces of the strips that I trimmed off into squares for the third quilt. I have a bag of strips for quilt 2 and a bag of squares for quilt three. I am scaring myself.
Here is what I have done so far on quilt #1. This is half of the top. It will be tied and sent to a charity. I like having a quilt around to tie while I watch TV because then I can’t eat while I watch TV. Charity and dieting all rolled up in one.
