2021 Strips Report - September summary

I decided to get back into this and deal with those strips I’ve been cutting off from those charity quilts instead of waiting til early next year. Why not? If I can get myself to do at least 15 or 30 minutes or even an hour a day until I get done, I’ll have more time in January when I normally might do it.

Here’s the empty chair - all quilts are quilted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah!!! (not all are bound, though) Aren’t those fabrics cute, though? I mean…that puppy fabric is so adorable!

Here’s the current pile of pieces that I’ve separated from batting pieces. This is a pile in a laundry basket.

So here goes. I just barely got started, because I just now finished my charity quilts - the quilting part, anyway - and the trimming part - so that my pile of cut offs is pretty big. I will be glad to see this big laundry basket emptied! Hopefully by the end of the month of October!

I really like like these pieces, however, so I am eager to get them trimmed! These may be the prettiest cut-offs I’ve done so far! The florals are simply beautiful! I’m going to enjoy making something with these strips!

 
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Here’s what I did:

2.5” strips - 0.95kg or 2.09 lbs.

 
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2” strips - 0.65 kg or 1.43 lbs.

 
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1.5” strips - 0.35 kg or 0.77 lbs.

 
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So while this is a very small month of cutting - remember, I just got started again - this much fabric in weight equals about 4 “Jelly Rolls” - which is nothing to sneeze at since 4 “Jelly Rolls” cost about $130+.

Do NOT underestimate your scraps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do NOT underestimate your scraps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is what my scraps look like “after” I process those pieces shown above. These small pieces will either be given to Ewa for her creations, or go to my husband for kindling. The bigger ones go to her - but the really tiny ones and bits and pieces - we use.

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For now I’m not working on crumb quilts though I may do some more sewing on adding machine tape this winter. However, I seem to constantly create more scraps of this size, so I’m not saving these. I can collect them too quickly and then I find myself with a bunch of things I really don’t want cluttering up my space.

So - don’t forget about those scraps.

They are worth something. Just make them usable for you!

That’s really the purpose of these posts as I want to consistently remind you that you can make your scraps usable for you - but also as accountability for myself (it’s actually mainly for myself)! I do these to more or less “force myself” to cut these things up.

With these, this makes the total for this year:

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Since I started keeping track of my cut up strips, these are my totals!

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In case you are wondering what in the world I’ve done with these, I’ll show you a sampling of what I’ve made.

I’ve made only a couple of 1.5” strips quilts. They are very slow. More often than not, I’ve used them as parts of other quilts. (I did make a few quilts using only 1.5” strips n the UPcycled Blues series - but obviously, they were from the UP blues - not these scraps.)

I’ve made dozens out of the 2” strips. In fact, I have a whole series of quilts made out of 2” strips. Here are just a few of what I’ve done.

I’ve made a few from my 2.5” strips - along with using some of these strips as binding.

Does all this help? I cut these up - not just to look at them - but to make them into usable sizes for me. Do what works for you - but I’d like to encourage you to use your scraps! Make something beautiful from them!

You bought ‘em - go ahead and use them up!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this! Thanks for coming along with me on my quilting/sewing journey!




Becky Petersen7 Comments