January 2024 Strips Cutting Report

This month I spent a LOT of time sorting strips that have already been cut. A lot of time. I’m kind of sick of it.

What brought it about was the top I showed you the other day plus another one that I’ve made the blocks (but haven’t put the blocks together yet) when I had to search through bags for blues. I found that it was taking too long to find the number of 2.5” blue strips that I wanted. So, I decided that maybe sorting all those strips into colors would not be a bad idea. Yes, it involves a lot of time right now, but in the end, it is not a bad thing to do…as much as I’ve been dreading it.

But I have been finishing up some quilts, and as such, I’ve been trimming backings. So, I decided at the end of the month I’d best get busy and CUT, cut, cut!

So I did. Here is my small report from that cutting.

2.5” - 2.98 lbs.

 

2” - 1.1 lbs.

 

1.5” - 0.66 lb.

 

This makes my totals from this year to look like this: :)

I know - this is silly, but that’s the summary for this year to date. :)

And here is the table showing what I’ve cut from the time I started keeping track.

I am really glad I am making myself give these reports every month. They are effective in my keeping up with my cutting.

My husband is at the point where he laughs at me when he sees me pull out the fabric that I’ve thrown into a certain bin and start trimming towards the end of the month. I told him, “But it works - it is helping me keep up with my scraps.”

So he can laugh. I don’t mind.

To the best of my ability, I will continue this.

This month, I cut almost 3 lbs. of 2.5” strips. While that’s not a lot—not really—it is the equivalent weight of about 3 “Jelly Rolls”. That’s significant if you think of it that way.

I’ve been sorting those 11 bags of 2.5” strips that I had. I’m down to under 2 full bags now…and it is starting to be very exciting to me. I think doing this sorting is going to be a great thing for my own creative juices. I was able to add these recently cut 3 lbs. to my bags that I’m sorting.

I’m sorting into bags which are these colors:

Blues, purples, greens, reds, pinks, oranges, yellows, browns, black/grays, whites/offwhites solids, white or cream background with a print scattered around on it - could be stripes or print - low volume or not so low volume. As you can imagine, every single strip I pull out of the bag is a decision. So, I deal with a bit of “decision fatigue” when doing these, so I have to keep reminding myself that it’s not all that important whether that print that has multiple colors actually goes into the pinks or blues! :)

I also have been taking out things that aren’t the right size, squares that are cut and just thrown in the bag, or sewn together squares - whether just 2x or 3x or more. I’ll show you. I can’t wait to finish up now! I have such a mess at my table but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel of this project, so there’s that!

Thanks again for coming along with me!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

Becky Petersen3 Comments