September 2022 Strips Cutting Report

I cut a LOT this month. As I cleaned out my sewing room I sorted and cut and ended up throwing a lot of things that were leftover from other projects - but hadn’t been filed away yet. They have never been counted anywhere as cut up strips, so there’s that.

Anyway, my totals for this month are this:

From left - 2.5”, 2” and then 1.5” strips

2.5” - 14.59 lbs.

 

2” - 6.15 lbs.

 

1.5” - 2.73 lbs.






 

This brings my total year to date cut up strips to this.

I keep finding things in my sewing room or elsewhere that still need to be cut up into strips - or used in quilts - but some of these are leftover from all those tops I added borders to a few weeks ago. That created a fair few scraps as well. As long as I’m doing all these charity quilts, I’ll be creating leftover pieces that I tend to throw into these things to cut up.

I’m eager to move these out of the “cutting up tub” because I actually want to use some of those 2.5” strips now - on a couple of tops I’ve got started where I’m making the blocks. My other bags of 2.5” strips are buried in one of the rooms - need to uncover a couple of them. The bags on top are all 2” as I’ve really done a lot more with 2” than 2.5” in the last few years.

I write these blog posts simply to remind myself and you that these scraps have value.

Using weight instead of trying to measure lengths is just a sanity saver. I can’t begin to try to roll them up by color or sort them that way or even place them sweetly in boxes - which looks amazing, but I’d not have enough boxes. I’d really spend a lot of time doing that.

If I sat and watched tv, I could sort and stack then. However, that is part of life that a lot of people have that I don’t. I watch baseball games and You Tube videos via the internet, but while I’m sewing or in the kitchen. We actually don’t have tv or any sort of tv subscription.

If you are curious, a traditional 2.5” strips fabric roll commonly called a Jelly Roll weighs about a pound. If you figure that this month I cut up 14+ lbs of 2.5” strips, think 14 Jelly Rolls - and that’s how much fabric I added to my 2.5” strips’ bags. I can do something with that much. Of course, it isn’t nicely coordinated like traditional rolls of fabric are, though, so it is harder to use. On the other hand, you don’t have the “matchy matchy look” that sometimes makes a quilt a tad bit boring - colorwise.

Anyway…that’s it for September. I cut quite a bit this month - and still have scraps to cut for probably October and November. I’d like to think I can catch up. I always say that - and it is something I strive for, but never really quite reach that goal. I only “think” I reach that goal and just when I do, inevitably I find another bag of scraps tucked away somewhere that needs to be dealt with. When you make a LOT of quilts in a year, that’s just what happens - whether they are charity quilts or not. Just think how much backing you have leftover after a single quilt is done - much less leftover from the making the tops themselves.

Anyway - that’s it for this month’s report.

Have a great day wherever you are reading this! Thanks for coming along!

Becky Petersen3 Comments