I finished that project!

I started out slowly. Remember, I was going to work an hour a day on cutting up those pieces of scrubs, leftover from a manufacturer of some kind. I had bought them when we bought the lady’s stash that started the whole thing - the whole Quilted Twins adventure back in 2015.

I subsequently sent them over to myself here in Poland in boxes. Once they landed in Poland Rachael and I organized them into plastic boxes in 2016 when she flew over to help me. I had sorted them by topic - whether children’s, or tropical or sea life, dogs/cats, etc.

I had started cutting up some last October. I made a little bit of progress back then but all I ended up doing was leaving the boxes that I had brought out of the bedroom and put them in the open area by the sofa in the dining room/living room. And there they sat. All during Thanksgiving, Christmas, January when I worked so hard on finishing up quilts and writing blog posts for when I was going to go to the states. I didn’t do any cutting at all.

Then, once I came from the states in March of this year, I just had a desire to get this job finished. It seemed like a huge one, but I knew if I didn’t start, I would never finish it.

I decided to cut each of the pieces into the largest pieces I could - so I used 5.5”, 4.5”, 3.5” squares and then leftovers into 2.5” strips (and some squares), 2” and then down to 1.5” strips.

I also threw pieces that seemed big enough to use for a collage or to sew together into crumbs into a bag.

I also cut off the selvages that had a name on it and saved them in a bag.

Once my husband left for Central Asia, I was very careful to keep track of my hours. I wanted to know how much more time I was going to take me. I had spent hours in October - but didn’t keep track. Anyway, I still had about 10 boxes to finish up. I took a photo early in the process.

After the first day I started increasing the amount of time I was doing it because I wanted to see more progress made. Plus, due to the thing I had - whether it was/is allergies or a virus, I didn’t feel totally energetic, but could do this.

So, not feeling like doing much of anything else, I decided that this project really was bothering me - and I wanted to done. So, I started putting more time into it. I would watch baseball games while doing it, which helped me keep going even when I was tired of working on it.

In the end, I finished it all up. In this latest push, I put 39 hours into this project.

But the good thing is, I now have perfectly usable squares - lots of them! They vary from dogs/cats to marine life, to fall/Christmas and children’s prints. It is so gorgeous and I am excited to have done it and made these very usable.

I also did move some of the Christmas prints into a different container and brought it up to the sewing room where I will make them into hearts. I don’t make a lot of Christmas quilts so while some of the prints were pretty, I thought I could actually get the most enjoyment out of making Christmas hearts out of some of the small pieces which were gorgeous. I cut up some of the Christmas as well. I don’t want to wait until Christmas to make them, however. I hope to make them this summer as I always find not enough time in the Christmas season to do this kind of thing. :)

Here are my finished boxes.

The 3.5” squares -

The 4.5” squares -

The 5.5” squares -

The strips - in 1.5”, 2” and 2.5” sizes from left to right.

I also created a lot of trash which is going to the fireplace to be used as kindling. Some of the longer pieces are in effect, like a string and can be used to tie up tomato plants if I want to use them that way. They also work to tie up cardboard logs.

So, now that this project is finished - I feel relieved! I do have some sweeping and cleaning up all the small pieces around these bins of strips but now I really just want to possibly resort the pieces and make sure like is with like. But that is fun. :) I can do that when I’m tired and just want to play with fabric.

I will be working on figuring out things to do with these squares - so you can be looking for that kind of pattern as well. I don’t usually work with these larger squares, so that will be stretching me out of my comfort zone a bit.

Just wanted to let you know that this project is finished! I’m glad I kept track of how long it took - at least this part of it. I know I put at least 10-20 hours into it last fall as well, but I didn’t keep track, sadly.

Thanks so much for coming along with me on this journey!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

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