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Monday, May 22, 2017

Making Fabric

Yep, with few moments here and there this weekend, I made fabric. From scraps that is. Then cut it up again.


scrap fabric squares

Now I should have been finishing up the strip quilt, but this weekend, I just wanted to sew. The doesn't-take-much-thought kind of sewing. Plus, the scraps were calling.


aqua scraps as of 5192017

Helping my mission, I realized I didn't have an aqua RSC17 circle, or pieces for small pinwheels, both to be set aside for future quilts. Not seen in the picture above were these sort of circle-y things I made a few years ago, from long, narrow right triangle pieces. I think I wanted them to be flowers. 



That idea didn't go anywhere, and they got thrown in with the rest of the scraps. Well, with a few more pieces, they are now full on circles.


aqua fabric circles

Done! Check circles off the list, with a found purpose for these cast offs!

The rest of the scraps got sorted into light, medium, and dark. Then each value was stitched to a 4" x 8" rectangle drawn on phone book paper. 


fabric scraps stitched to phone book paper
Then trimmed up, and cut into 2 4" squares, to later be made into pinwheels.


4 inch scrap squares
Notice more of those long, narrow right triangle pieces. Boy, I sure had a lot of them! But now there are usable squares: 8 pairs of lights, 5 pairs medium, and 6 pairs dark. That may be enough to make a baby quilt! Now that scrap pile is down to this:



My mission of using up the odd shaped scraps has almost been accomplished! So if you are wondering what to do with your scraps, try making your own fabric for use in a future project. Have fun with it!

Happy Quilting!



18 comments:

  1. I love those circles! I think I need to start to piece a lot of my strips together and then cut them out to use as blocks.

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    1. Thanks Karen! It's a very satisfying process - I highly recommend it!

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  2. Great idea and those circles sure look like flowers.

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  3. There's something therapeutic about just grabbing scraps and sewing, sewing, sewing. One of these days, I'll do that myself!

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    1. Thanks Barb! The 'just keep swimming' tune from Finding Nemo got changed to 'just keep sewing' in my head!

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  4. Mindless sewing turned into very useful fabric. Thanks for sharing. Love the flowers.

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    1. Thanks Ioleen! It feels so good to use the scraps!

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  5. You have made some nice fabric there! I know you will make something cool with it.

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  6. That sounds like fun and mindless stitching.

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  7. I have a bunch of those odd shaped triangles and wonky pieced blocks and now I'm going to start sewing them together as leader and enders and see where it goes. I started a scrap vortex project which is squares and rectangles and strips and always thought there had there had to be a place for those odd shaped pieces too.
    Pat

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  8. you have certainly made some lovely scrap blocks here liking the triangles used thinking I must do some of these too. In the past have I just used strips etc

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  9. Hi Susan,
    GREAT idea. I love the idea of making your own fabric, and those circles are really unique and lovely. I am wondering what you are going to do with those . . . so I'll stay tuned. ~smile~
    Roseanne

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  10. Susan, I love your blog posts! You are so efficient and fun - all at the same time! Thank you for such a great post! I am saving my odd shaped scraps for a crazy quilt for my son. I like your idea of using the same colored scraps to make fabric! Thank you so much for sharing!

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  11. Susan, those circles are so impressive. I love what you did with those odd, pointy triangles. Wish you were closer. I'd totally stalk you :-)

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  12. Fantastic idea! Love the circles! It makes me want to dive into another project!

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Thank you so much for commenting...you just made my day!