13 January

Today's block is similar to what you would do if you made a Bargello quilt, only on a much smaller scale.  After 12 days, I am finding myself looking forward to doing a bit of fabric picking and sewing every morning before I actually "get started" for the day.  While my scraps aren't OCD organized, they are at least a little organized, and I can go to the bag or drawer, that has the size strip I need, and look for something in the value that I need for each block.   While I don't have a whole bunch of strips cut, and some times I think I don't have enough scraps, it is nice to know that I can go from the size I need and work my way up in sizes to find what I want, instead of just going to my larger pieces and cutting a small strip. 

13 Jan

Today, I will be starting on another project of sorts, that I want to turn into a habit.  I borrowed the book 15 Minutes of Play by Victoria Findley Wolf, from my local library, where she suggest you take at least 15 minutes every day, and just sew scraps together in an improvisational manner.  Don't worry about color, or even value so much, just sew blocks of fabric.   Do it daily. The only thing you need to think about, is making sure your blocks will lay flat. So you want straight seams, and if you don't like something, cut it off.  Save that cut off fabric for another piece of Made Fabric for another day.  After you get a few blocks of what she calls Made Fabric, you can then decide what you want to use them for.  Is there something in all the blocks that jumps out at you?  Use that to create a quilt with that as a focus.  She showed an example where her blocks all had some polka dot fabric, so she went with that theme for her blocks and quilt.  Yours will likely be different, but just PLAY!!  

I was watching one of the"The Quilt Show" shows, with Victoria as the guest, and to get her scraps, she took some of her FQs or larger pieces of scraps and just laid them on the table and started cutting them into different sizes and shapes.  She didn't use a ruler or figure out what shape or size, she just laid them out and took her rotary cutter to the pile to cut.  Like she says, you have MORE fabric, and probably more than you know what to do with.  I don't have any odd size scraps, as I have been cutting all my left over fabric into certain sizes and shapes.  So the idea of taking fabric and just cutting it up is a bit scary.  But I think once I get into the "habit" of doing these improvisational block, it will get a lot easier to cut up my fabric to use for this.

This idea of sewing small bits of fabric together isn't new, and her way of doing it isn't new either.  But reading her book just may have given me the push to do a little improvisational sewing daily.  I typically am a precise quilter.  I want all my corners to meet exactly, I want my seams to be perfect. No chopped off points on my stars!!!  And honestly, there is nothing wrong with wanting that precision.  But sometimes you just need to play and not worry about being precise.   You may want to decide on a size of Made Fabric you want to make, so you have "blocks" that are large enough to do something with.  You don't want 4" blocks and you decide you need 8" to cut out another shape from your made fabric.  But when you are just starting out, just decide on a size, and make blocks to that size.  The good thing about made fabric, you can always add more fabric to the block to make them bigger if that is what you need.  The point is to not have something specific in mind as you are just starting out, and get into the habit of  playing.  Your first quilt using made fabric, may be nothing more than square blocks put together for a quilt top, or  it might be something more complicated, like a star.   What ever it turns into, just start playing and make that a habit, sew for 15 minutes where you don't think about what it is going to turn into, or if your corners are perfect.

I don't know if I'm ready to cut into my FQs or yardage just yet, but I do have some really small pieces that are left over after making my Wild and Goosey blocks, that I can start this process with.  And since I'm into miniatures right now, those smaller pieces used to make Made Fabric in smaller sizes might just work out well, to use in some smaller quilts.

It's time for me to go PLAY!! I hope you will join me on this journey... and until next time... Happy Crafting!!!