Thursday, January 07, 2010

Contemplating My Fabrics


This is the fabric that I have here.  The tote on the right is mostly 1 yard cuts of "spring/summer" colors.  The middle tote is mostly scraps, but also background fabric.  The left tote is quilts in progress.  Then I have a beautiful collection of some fabric line neatly folded on the top.  They are on my heater - I just put them there for a quick photo and then they got moved back into their tower formation in my closet - 3 on top of each other.  We only have 2 heaters in our entire apartment - they are very effective.  They are full of stone and at night after energy costs go down - they start heating up.  They store the heat all day and you can set the fan underneath to come on when the room gets cold.  But if you set the fan to come on too much - then you run out of heat because you have to wait until night time for it to re-charge or else your energy bill will be through the roof.  If the sun is out - we don't need any heat at all - so generally we look at the weather forcast for the next day before setting the units to charge at night.  Our water heaters only come on at night too.  But my heat and hot water really have nothing to do with fabric!
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Back to my fabrics - the tote of scraps annoys me.  I mean - how often do you purposely go to your scrap bin to look for fabric before cutting new fabric?  Really - it is so much easier to just cut new fabric.  That tote is just taking up space in my closet.  I got to thinking tonight that I should take a closer look in that scrap tote and see what I can put together in the way of quilt blocks using some scraps.  Because that tote - one way or another - I want it empty!  So that eventually I can put more "useful" fabric in there.  I only have so much space, so if I want something new, I need to clear the space I am already using.

First up - I have a whole bunch of these left-over segments - 2.5" strips all pieced together.  So, I just cut them 2.5" wide and started piecing them together in mis-matched 9 patch blocks.  It will be interesting to see how this project turns out.  But no matter - I am sure the end result will be much more pleasing than a tote of unused scraps in my closet.  I already know I don't have background fabric to set the blocks together with, but at least I will have a pile of blocks instead of a mis-mash of scraps.
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Look at my sad cutting mat - it is a Friskars and I cut right through it the very first week I had it.  At the last minute I packed it - fully thinking I had a beautiful, big, green cutting board over here.   But there is no green mat here.  So, I am happy to have the Friskars one - I am just being careful to try to avoid the cut through area to make the mat last through the winter.
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And that is a bowl of peanuts and apples.  I like to decorate with food.

5 comments:

Tamera said...

Sometimes I envy you with your LIMITED space for fabric, lol. I have so much, it sometimes paralyzes me.

But, I'm working to get it all sewn up.

I'll be anxious to see how your scrap quilt turns out.

Brenda said...

Good for you!! Using up your 'scraps'!! Scraps are the first place I go when I am going to do a quilt!! I do not want to start with 'new' - I want to use up the old when I can and I love the look of many fabrics in a project!!!

I do not like Fiscar mats - I went to a friends house for a day of sewing and put a new blade in my cutter. She had a mat, so I didn't take mine..... by the end of the day, my new blade was as dull as dull can be!!! so, no thanks to fiscar mats!!! I am sorry yours is cut, but I am glad you at least have a mat to use. And have fun with your scraps to treasure project!! I just know it's going to be great when you are done!!!

Hanne said...

I am looking forward to see what you will make from your scraps.
I also have limited room for fabrics, even if I have more room than you. I could expand in 2009, as my oldest daughter left home, but I don't want to have to much, as I also like to cut in to new fabrics.
Happy New Year to you and yours!

Lori in South Dakota said...

we had heaters like that when we lived on the farm. But, ours were shut off on a rotation with the power company. So we never ran out of heat. Scraps--I love scraps, that is my favorite type of quilt!

The Calico Cat said...

Back to my fabrics - the tote of scraps annoys me. I mean - how often do you purposely go to your scrap bin to look for fabric before cutting new fabric? Really - it is so much easier to just cut new fabric.

That is exactly why I don't keep scraps... & I have too much big stuff already.