As you know if you've been reading here long, I've been trying to use up my crumbs and/or strings only on the weekends.

This weekend, I worked specifically on my Blue Crumby Star quilt top. It is number 16 in my upcycled blues top series. I'm getting very close to getting done with it!

This is what I did in total:

1. I added more scraps to some adding machine tape and managed to find one more roll of unused/unsewn regular sized tape. I still have several more of the wider tape that I purchased in Newton, KS a few years ago. The one roll is now finished up. I have no specific plans for it, but I just felt like doing something that required hardly any thinking for a while one evening, so I finished the roll of tape off.

2. Made my other 6 - 9" crumb blocks. It was easy as I simply sewed the cut off parts of the previous blocks together. I trimmed them to 9". I then had a total of 18 9" crumb blocks.

3. Made 36 8.5" half square triangles using a gray and crumb 9" block. I pressed a line down the middle of the gray and sewed 1/4" on each side of the press line. Then I trimmed to as exact 8.5" square as I could.

I forgot to take a picture of these trimmed HST! Sorry!

4. I added my border using the HST I just finished to the top.

5. I added a gray 2.5" border around that. I am now out of gray, so I am changing my last border.

I will add some more crumbs/small pieces to that almost 4" wide adding machine tape that I have and use it instead of the gray as my final border that is pictured here.

I still need to add the royal blue border first and then that. The royal blue border will help the whole thing look nice as it is a repeat of the blue that is in the center of the quilt top. Those last two borders will be my goal for next weekend. Maybe I will work on sewing the crumbs/small pieces to the tape during the week if I get in the mood just so I can finally finish this top. It feels like it's taking forever. This is my 7th weekend that I've worked on this particular top. Next weekend makes 8.

Note:

Recently I've been "reading" - actually it's an audio book - while sewing- about combating procrastination. While I don't admit to a really bad problem with procrastination in general, there are areas of my life where I need improvement. The author pointed out that as long as we "keep starting" our project, we will finish it. If each day we focus on "starting" and then working on it for 30 min (that is the amount of time he was proposing), the "finish" will take care of itself. He pointed out that a "finish" is simply the result of "multiple starts". So, he encouraged us to focus each day on "starting" - and letting the finish happen when it does. I didn't realize that I was following his advice with these crumbs tops but that is exactly what I've been doing.

From the beginning, I've figured the "finish" is less important to me than actually doing it and using up some of these crumbs and making something nice.

End of Note

This weekend I didn't do any of those bright woven star blocks. I just ran out of time. I opted for putting the HST onto the center of the quilt top instead of making those paper pieced blocks. I kind of get that way when I get close to finishing something - it's as if I get a single minded focus and just want to do that until I finish.

And that's all I did. Actually I'm OK with what I got done. Well, except for the woven star blocks I didn't do. I will wish I had. But maybe next weekend I will make up. Or not. Whatever I do, I'll just try to pick up and keep going on those as well.

And don't forget - if you need something for your current project - be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store! Surely there is something beautiful you NEED!

Crumbs/Strings project update - "Crumby Star" top progress report