More scrapping in blue

Tuesday 6/13/17
You'd think that after making two quilt tops (one to be posted later since it's not complete) that I'd have caught up with some of those blue scraps. Well, guess what! I decided that I need more variety in the blue strips that are already cut. Yeah. Variety. That's the ticket.

So I was down to about half a bucket of scraps when I decided to use some 2.5" strips from an abandoned project. And since I was making one project, I may as well make two. All the same I figured. 

Check it out--organized! Skinny strips for
the QAL, 2.5 strips sort of arranged by lengths.

What I didn't figure was that I'd really get into this blue phase. After finishing the first quilt and taking pictures, I thought it would be a good idea to cut a few more strips in preparation for the June Quilt Along with AmandaJean of Crazy Mom Quilts. 

Why not use blue? I like blue. I have tons of blue fabric. I want to use up some of that blue. 








Wednesday 6/14/17
I got an early start and decided that I'd continue working on the Crazy Mom QAL. AmandaJean writes really well so her directions made the project seem relatively effortless. I already had gobs of skinny strips ready to go, and I felt that I could really make some headway today. 

Everything goes to the ironing 

board to get pressed.

And I did.

I thought I'd share my process. Bear with me if you will.

First I pulled fabric, which is relatively easy since I am not very discriminating: I took out everything I don't like or was especially small and all bits I know I'll never use. Maybe I am discriminating after all. 

Isn't this a pretty picture?

The next step is to cut. I tried to cut mostly 2.5" widths and learned (the hard way) that it's a good idea to divide the strips into three piles. No numbers used here. Just put the strips into any pile it fits. Sort of. Get close. Don't stress.

As I cut 2.5" widths, I also cut a few smaller widths for the Crazy Mom QAL. Anything between one and two inches is AmandaJean's recommendation. 

I dropped some 2.5s in anyway. Can I claim it's for the sake of variety or do I have to admit to lazyiness? Ha! Believe what ever you want.

The QAL strips I also chopped into 5" lengths so that I could easily sew them, press and then cut the whole blocks into 4½" X 8½".

At first I tried to be very methodical about sewing the pieces together. Then I tried to mixed the pieces up and pick up two without looking. That drove me to the brink of insanity. 

And I realized that I didn't have enough pieces anyway. So back to the stash and the pressing and the cutting. And about that time I said, "Screw the whole thing and make a mess and get it over with." I sewed like a mad woman, which I may have been. And sewed. And sewed. 

And you know what I got for my money and time? Pairs. Not blocks, mind you. Pairs. Those have to be sewn into quads. And the quads have to be sewn in whatever makes 8½ inches. Basically it's a crap shoot because I clearly have not thought that far ahead.

I do have something else to show you, however. 

I mostly aim for the trash can. And I mostly make three pointers. I'm not so good on the foul shots, but then I never was.