Time for some medicinal sewing

Time for a bit of Medicinal Sewing which is my term for not overthinking scrap sewing. 

In my studio time this week, I took down the overstuffed purple scrap bin and sorted out the ones too small to keep. 

Of course I had kept them!  And lookie what I made with them. 

First step, put back all the long strips and big squares and well, usable pieces, then sort the others into about the same size for strips. 

Don't forget to please yourself with colors !

Sew them with not too much thought.
 Enjoy the process.  
Stop when it feels done. 

 It looks cool to me! This is how it looks on the back, messy

who cares??! No one!
spritz it with water then press it flat and orderly

repeat with more weird angled scraps, keep going, don't think too much, listen to a good book on disc.

consider what to do with the strips when you're done. How about adding in a free form curve? Okay! My favorite thing to do!

 Make a few aqua/turquoise strips too. no worries!

No real plan needed for the moment.  
We're soothing our spirits here folks! 
Add in some curvy strips and maybe try a black and white strip set too. 
Interesting... 
Oh and a few more diamonds... black and white and Mama feels a bit better

check out other aqua scrap projects at the rainbow scrap challenge 
also linking to sewcanshe Saturdays  

Beige and white are colors too, right?

remember my diamonds? 9 of these size diamonds sewn together into a clock of color?
All from tiny scraps a la improv?  if not, the link with pictures is CLICK HERE ! diamonds

I've done them all year for the rainbow scrap challenge. I need some setting diamonds to set the great big diamond of colored diamonds made of small diamonds made of tiny scraps...

So, here's the story...

One day I hear my husband very frustrated with the junk drawer.

(You know the junk drawer, the one in the kitchen that holds all the stuff that defies organization and has no "place" to live? it finds it's way into the junk drawer)

 When someone says where is a twist tie? or matches? or a skewer? it's likely in the junk drawer with a hammer, some nails, the plastic sliders you put under heavy furniture to move it, various old key chains, pens that are dry, old keys you have no idea to what, and lots of other stuff. What's in your junk drawer?

One day he pulled it open and Ka-boom! So he piled it in a laundry basket for me to sort thru.

I began putting "like with like" making lots of little piles on the counter. This went on for a while until suddenly I got a grip. I noticed I was looking for another rubber band to hold all the little flower powder packets that came with cut flowers and I didn't use.

Blink, blink.. wha??? I mean, I am a keeper but suddenly it occurred to me, I only needed maybe one or two packets not 20.

Insight! It takes space to store all the stuff you might need one day. It's easy to toss it in a drawer but not so easy to find anything. I began looking with new eyes, and got rid of about half the stuff which then left the drawer MERELY FULL. Not stuffed, but still full.

What if I looked at my craft supplies with these new eyes and insight?Might I be able to let things go???

Ha! Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Well at least I did the junk drawer. So I took my two scrap bins worth of beige and white scraps to bee where I could look through it and organize sizes and see if there was anything I could throw out.

One by one my bee mates came over, attracted by the enormous spilling out everywhere pile of scraps

I carefully laid strips the same length together, squares over here, triangles over there. People began helping. Then they said how pretty some were. I said "Oh yes, I love that one. I used it in "xyz quilt"

Keep!
They started their own piles that they thought I should throw away which I had to go through too.
Then they started discussing me as if I weren't there... "this has to be too small, let's throw it out! I will put it in the garbage so she can't pull it back out and keep it!" Huh?  Heyyyyyy

They just couldn't see the value in keeping small pieces. They use patterns and carefully cut  squares from yardage, all alike so it matches. They think 8th of a yard is scrap.

But I know... I know how valuable the small mix of tone and texture is to my quilts. You can't buy that. You CREATE that! I'm a happy piecer. I like to sew even really small pieces.

Anyway I went home that day with the bin MERELY FULL not overflowing. I felt very competent.

 Then I used those strips and small pieces to make 35 diamonds.
Happy happy me! I once made a winter quilt, one of my seasonal four, just this way with some brown thrown in for the scene.

I wanted to make one big quilt with these instead of using them to set my others.

And I still might.
Aren't they pretty? Even if they are just white and beige scraps? some with colors mixed in.

And the bin after it was all said and done? A very tidy one, too tidy, I'm a bit uncomfortable now...

Rubies... or red diamonds?

Catching up a bit with rainbow scrap challenge
I pulled out the red scrap bin, with all those little pieces, and made 9 diamonds, which made this diamond,er, Ruby!
This ruby with all the other faceted gem stones make this

Really Big Diamond of many colors.

Now the panic sets in.

How to set it. It's big enough to turn into a twin with little trouble.

I have a lot of smaller diamonds made and left over, do I somehow just fill in with random color?

Piece this into one back ground fabric, which would be big. Bigger than I usually work with. And really boring to quilt, for me.

I know, I know you modern people love an empty background and quilt the heck out of it. I have a bad back people, pushing and pulling a quilt this size around my domestic machine isn't going to thrill me.

I've never sent a quilt out for quilting. First off I have money separation disorder. Second, I'm a quilter for Pete's sake! It's what I do. Third, I admit to being a control freak with my artwork.


So how should I set this thing? The colored diamonds are not sewn to each other yet... lots of choices here.
Plus I'm not opposed to making some in black and white. Help a sew-er out y'all!

Pink Diamonds

Pink Diamonds??  Yes, please!!!  9 of them arranged into one large solitaire.  What a surprise this would be for a person's anniversary! 

Now you can see the individual blocks are made of the smallest scraps. I think I had a moment midway into this... While I do enjoy a small scrap like the teeny little free form geese there, It's a little crazy to sew such tiny pieces together. 

Then again, who cares what a crazy sewing woman does to keep sane? Keeps me busy. It's kind of meditative. To drop everything, and just sew these small puzzle pieces together with no worries. Just down to color. 

It occurred to me that I am happy I'll be machine quilting these, as hand quilting through these seams wouldn't be fun...

I now have 7 of these larger colorful diamonds but didn't get them all out for a picture. Check out the other blocks being made at the  RSC 2016

Turquoise Diamonds

Turquoise with lime diamonds for this month's color at RSC. She is calling the color aquamarine but I just did turquoise since it's one of my faves at the moment.

I have been so sick, just some kind of cold but it sapped all my energy.
I could barely sit and read on the porch in the lovely weather much less sew.
Today I pulled myself together and mindfully sewed tiny pieces that should probably have been thrown away!

I haven't sewn the little diamonds together yet... that will have to wait until the brain is functional again. When the 9 small diamonds are sewn together it makes a diamond about 25" tall by 15" wide.

Don't know how I'll place them yet since there will be 12 colors

And I might just add in some black and white ones.
Linking to some mighty parties on  my links page, including these:
http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

The rare orange diamond

So, what do you do with tiny scraps? Throw them away? 
Not me. I sit at my beloved machine and mindlfully sew them together while listening to a book on disc.

I almost love this kind of piecing best... no big decisions yet I enjoy seeing how prints and shades look next to each other. Seeing the lines develop and look when trimmed into diamonds is very satisfying.

Finally the orange scrap bin is getting down to the ones hard to use. They might need to become squares for watercolor quilts.Look at the scale/size next to my hand....

Look at the prints....

cats staring right at you...

The four colors so far from the RSC 2016
If it weren't for this year-long challenge to use scraps, one color at a time, I might not be making these fun quilts.

I have friends who think I am cuckoo to work with such small pieces.

My answer is look at what comes from them!
I feel free to mix pattern and color with them.

Since they are so small there is no worry of waste.
When you cut into a yard of beautiful fabric you might feel anxiety that you should use it in the "right" way.

One of my favorite artists is Klimt.
These remind me of his use of pattern, line and color.



These are not sewn together yet. All the possibilities are still open.
   What if...
They became a star?? 

That's a 6" ruler for scale

Linking to some pretty fun parties... check out my links page for parties of the day
Happy Scrappy LeeAnna, signing off to go sew strips together!

linking to several parties including:  Whoomp there it is!