In the last few weeks there's been a lot of digging through scrap fabrics out here in Podunk. All that digging stirred up the need to sew up something...... and it's all cut and ready to go! Remember these tiny Cake Stand blocks?
They have been hanging out on the cutting table since January, waiting patiently for me to come out and play. You can see them tucked away in the corner of the image below. There's another reason for showing them in THIS picture...the scrap drawer. I got a wild hair last week to once again "deal" with the itty bitty fabrics scrap bin.
I was doing pretty good about trimming up a few pieces when time permitted. I would grab a small handful at a time, trim them and sort them by color. It was working okay but I thought, if I only cut one color at a time it would make for less handling of the fabric and not so much organizing and searching for the right stack. All those years of working in a factory and always looking for quicker ways to get my job done is deeply engraved in my brain. Work smart not hard.
And so the sorting by color began. The process only took a little over an hour, leaving me with one big question... what is the best way to store these pretty little mounds of scraps?
The solution? Zip bags, of course! I had a collection of them from last year's "2 Bucks a Block". It turns out that being a bit of a hoarder really does come in handy sometimes.
I grabbed a Rubbermaid Brilliance container, which I previously used to store the quilt patterns I sold on Etsy. Sadly all but one baggie fit into the container. So the one baggie of scraps is officially next on the list for trimming ... but that will have to wait for another day because right now, I’m in the mood to sew!
I also need to decide what to do with the empty drawer? Its been almost a full week since it was emptied and it's still empty as of today, I’m pretty sure it won’t stay that way for long ...HAHA!
The one inch squares that I've been cutting and the ones I did years ago have been packed into a cute little tin. Looks like there's enough room for one more row of squares if I smoosh them in there a little tighter. That gives me plenty of time to figure out a better way to store them. I'd really like to start sewing some of them up into cute little blocks. But I'm NOT GOING TO START ANOTHER PROJECT. There's about 40 UFO's waiting ... I'M NOT GOING TO START ANOTHER PROJECT. Yes I was screaming so me, myself and I got the message loud and clear.
While sorting through the drawer, I discovered a few triangles that were too small to be cut into one inch squares. Rather than letting them go to waste, I decided to pair them up and sew them into HSTs. Finding those pieces really got me itching to get back to the machine. It's been a long time since I pieced anything. So I did just that, and you know, there's just something so satisfying about sewing up tiny scraps, and it was exactly the therapy I needed. The whole world just feels a little brighter after a few minutes of stitching.
Within no time I had a new batch of HST's sewn, trimmed and ready to add to my stash. I’m definitely not as organized as this blog makes it look. I have a bad habit of putting things in weird places ... like the first three large HSTs I found hiding in the drawer and tucked away by my sewing machine.
Then it was time to store them with the other HST's. Pulling out the HST stash made my quilty wheels start turning. I LOVE them and would love to play with them for weeks on end but I'm a woman on a mission and I have to stop being so squirrelly ... just stick to the plan Lea Anne!
After a few minutes of petting my HST stash, the ole fuddy duddy mean Lea Anne told me it was time to put away my little pretties and get back to work. Stick to the plan! she said. I'll tell you where to stick your idea you ole fuddy duddy! But I knew she was right. So back in the box they went, we'll get to play again someday. For now, I'm going to go play with your friends in the tiny Cake Stand blocks because even the ole fuddy duddy agrees that I need a little time out and more sewing therapy.
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