The Therapist

I finished my scrap quilt this weekend, and I feel better.  I really did enjoy every step of sewing it.  I started sewing these blocks last fall.  They have been a really satisfying and enjoyable long term scrap project.  As I wrote earlier this year and more recently, I began sewing these monochromatic strip sets as a sort of therapy, without a definite plan in mind.  I totally recommend mindless, colorful scrap sewing.  It's happy stuff.

If you enjoy that sort of thing, I can also recommend Scrap Republic by Emily Cier which is full of inspiration.  Her Volume quilt was the starting point for this quilt.  My version is larger, at 60 x 80.

I also incorporated neutral blocks.  I always seem to have lots of these low volume strips, which can be hard to use up.  I think they provide restful bookends to the quilt.

I used a simple figure eight, free motion quilting design in each column, moving from side to side, starting at the top of the quilt and going down each column to the bottom of the quilt.  The side to side movement was hard to achieve fluidly with my tiny machine's throat space because the columns are 5 inches wide, but it was doable.  I think it would be far easier with narrower columns, and I will certainly try it again.  It went so quickly.

The black and white striped binding is a great choice for any rainbow quilt.

Amazingly, I still have plenty of scraps.  I'm contemplating some more therapeutic sewing: maybe a baby quilt with a more limited palette.

More Therapy from Scraps

I have been working on one of my long term scrap projects (I posted about it earlier here).  I call this kind of project "scrap therapy" because it is what I sew when I need something mindless, cheerful, and soothing.  I love playing with scraps anyway, but there is something so therapeutic about chain piecing scrap strips into monochromatic strip sets.  Maybe it's just me.  Anyhow, I trimmed them to 5 1/2" x 10 1/2" and kept a running total of how many I had of each color.  Initially I had no plan in mind.  The enjoyment was mostly in the making, rather than in an end product.

As they stacked up, I started to think about various arrangements.  There are so many possibilities for rectangles of this size and of course a rainbow of colors to work with.  I think I have settled on a plan now, so I've rounded out my stack to just the number I'll need, including a bunch on neutral, low volume rectangles.

I hope to get these 96 blocks sewn into a top soon.
Now can someone tell me how it is possible my scrap bin is still full of strips?