Making fabric from scraps

I hope you all get a chance to read the comments. There are some great ones, and I need to respond to them! 

One person keeps a torque wrench in their vehicle! Oh my, and the number of people who use EXCEL!!! I am very far behind the times! I'm not sure I would track some of the things people track, but hey—we each need to do what works for us!!!!

I learn so much from coming to a retreat - well, any interaction with people! They are so much smarter than I am! Yesterday, we were talking about Zoom presentations and how some people can be a tad verbose! So we investigated the ability to add a timer to the Zoom screen. Good grief—what an ordeal. After much searching, I found the settings menu, but only after I had some help. Then, for the life of me, I couldn't see the actual settings until the same person looked over my shoulder and spotted it. 

Only to realize it was on and I just needed to find the app on the Zoom screen. All is good. So I can now turn that timer on. Hmmm -- do I use it, or just give them a warning that we have X number of people and we need to get through it all in the hour? 

I had to sit down and tackle that final puzzle. As mentioned, it was only 350 pieces, so it was pretty easy to do. 

The jigsaw puzzle is done! 

However, it was marked "Family" and contained three different-sized pieces, which I've never seen before. Here's a close-up so you can see the transition from the middle-sized to the small pieces. The shapes are totally random, which helps with the transition. I can't wait to get home and dig out a new puzzle, clear off the table, and get started! But maybe not this week! But I did THREE small puzzles this week, and it was glorious! 

Transition between medium and small pieces

Here was our observation of the morning. It seemed that every time we stopped at the creek, we spotted something new. The crust of water has frozen in a rippled pattern, mirroring the water as it flowed. How cool is that? 

The creek with a crust of ice

Here is the thread situation. I'm going to make it!!!! I still have this many partially filled bobbins with thread on them. Plus, there is one on the top and one in the bobbin. I'll make it with thread to spare! And I'll be down to a manageable number of empty bobbins for this-sized machine. Life is good! Yes - I could have gone to the quilt store to buy more, but I have tons at home, and I wanted to get these bobbins used up! Actually, I can put the empties on one side and the complete ones on the other, and I can give the bobbin holder to someone here! One more thing gone! 

I still have thread! 

A few more half-square triangles got completed, and depending on the situation today, I may just finish that bag off, and it will be done. It doesn't come back to the retreat! There aren't that many left, but when making fabric from scraps, I tend not to use many enders and leaders. 

More half-square triangles

But what's the main thing I worked on? How about this? 

My soccer quilt

This is a panel I bought years ago, with three coordinating fabrics, including a wide border print. Off to EQ8 to figure out how to make the quilt to MY regulation-sized quilt - approximately 60" by 72". That didn't take long, and soon I was cutting and sewing. I just can't say the regulation size is 152 cm by 182 cm. Of course, then I would likely say 150 by 180. 

But then it came to that border print. Hmmm -- does the black section go in or out? My initial thought was that it would frame the quilt's outer edge. So what does one do? Audition, of course. 

Dark edge of the border on the edge of the quilt

Green edge of the border print on the edge of the quilt

I asked for advice -- hey, that's one of the reasons, it's so fun to be here. And I even prefaced my question by - "I know what I want to do, what would you do?" And guess what? Hands down, except for one, they all said - black inside - green outside. After seeing it on the wall, I agreed, and the black border is in. I'll use a black binding, and all will be good. 

Someone asked me what I do with the leftovers from making a quilt, especially if it's all from a collection, like this one is. Well, you check to see if you have enough fabric to make the backing. Can you believe that I did? So the backing got made. OH shoot -- I bought that solid black fabric the other day and only used a small part of it. Well, it's packed in the car, but when I get home, I'll make the binding. And then it gets moved to the "to be quilted" pile. 

The backing for the soccer quilt

What will happen to this quilt? I've no idea. Someone suggested giving it to a kids' soccer team and letting them raise money. But that requires a license and is more hassle than it's worth. I'm sure I'll find someone. 

If you make mitered corners with border prints, you know you get those triangles after cutting the corners. Well, this border print is 10" wide. So I laid them out, and once I have some of the backing leftovers, I can put a strip in the middle of this and make a small quilt. It will be very small, so maybe a playmat or the center of a quilt. I'll see, but I'm keeping all this. 

The leftovers from the border print

Once that quilt was done, it was later in the evening, and it was time to select the next and last project for this retreat. I decided to dig out the scraps of dog fabric. Can you tell that making something from "nothing" is one of my favorite things to do? I could do it all day! And each project has a slightly different method. 

Sorting the dog fabric

You can see my apple snack. There are cookies, but I'm being good. I'm so tired of eating "away" food, although we have eaten like queens, so I can't complain. I just want fruit and veggies at this point! No cookies, no sweets, just plain food - that's all I want!

Back to the dog fabric. Step One was to sort the fabrics. By the way, this bag of dog fabrics is all the leftovers from making the eight dog quilts for the vet and his staff. There are the leftovers from cutting the fronts and trimming the backs. Plus, I have this brown colored dog panel that I bought when I was in BC. 

My new dog panel

I sorted into three piles. The bright colors, the browns, and others. That is a huge step. 

One, it is easier to "make" fabric when the fabric styles are sorted. I'm making blocks, so it's not a huge task to sew a couple of seams and trim a block down. 

The second reason this sorting is excellent is that it's a huge task with a massive pile of fabric. This way, I have all the bits for each print together as I try to put like fabrics together in one block. When I need to get creative, I try to match at least value, but I do what I can. 

The other reason is that I'm making blocks with a cohesive colorway, which makes it look less scrappy!!! 

Sorting fabric into styles

Then it was time to open EQ8 again and see how many blocks, along with the panel, are needed to make a quilt. I'm back to my original tricks with EQ8. I never put the panel in the program. Why? I just need to know the sizing. For the brown quilt, I need 98 six-inch blocks. They finish in the quilt at 5 1/2."  And I'll need to put a coping strip around the panel so the blocks fit. That's OK. I'm not making the quilt today, just prepping the blocks. 

"Making" fabric with the brown dog fabric

I already have 38 blocks!!!! But I cut what I can from the "yardage," which is often just strips of fabric. I keep the smaller pieces in view, and if I'm short, I can look at the scrap inventory and grab the appropriate piece. It's all super easy!!!! And logical!

I have a pile of pieces ready at the sewing machine to be sewn, which I'll get to right after I press PUBLISH this morning. 

Pieces of fabric ready to sew

I should have no trouble finishing the components for this quilt before we go. 

The next time I touch the pet fabric bag, there shouldn't be any brownish fabric in there, and I can choose to work on the bright colors or the others! I'm guessing there will be one quilt of each category. Amazing how those cast-offs can accumulate, and you can make something pretty impressive from them. That is the kind of thing I want to present in a Zoom meeting - hopefully in January, once I give myself some quiet planning time next week. 

My presentation for this afternoon is almost complete. All the photos are saved, and I just have to load the ones I received late last night. 

Sadly, today is the day we leave, but I think we're all ready to go home. It's been super fun. Loads of laughs, so much learning that my head is exploding, and I should have made a note (perhaps in EXCEL) of all the things I want to check out in the coming year. I'm not talking about becoming an Excel expert, but there is one thing I want to learn that shouldn't take too long, so I'm trying to be very specific so I can understand it and then move on to the next question!!!

OH --- here is a mystery. I am using my iPad as an expensive tool to stream music, whether that is the radio or music. I use my iPad because otherwise, when I leave the house with my phone, it disconnects from the speaker while I'm walking. However, when I leave the house, the connection to the speaker still drops, and Spotify starts playing on my phone. Why is that? There is some SYNC feature that is causing that to happen, but what? I hope that makes sense -- Spotify wants to play music for me whether I'm on the iPad or the phone, and follows me! 

Most of my stuff is packed, which is good because then while the rest of the others pack up, I have time to go through the house - take out the garbage, ensure beds are stripped, etc. We will be gone by 1 PM. 

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!