Saturday, May 14, 2016

A Dent in the Drawer

So apparently the cure for flagging enthusiasm is starting a new project. After I made my baskets for the liberated medallion QAL (yes, I decided to participate and I made two baskets!) guilt sent me to my Parts Department.  If I'm going to be making a new quilt I need to do something about the Parts drawer that I can hardly get open anymore.

First I counted up 71(!) six inch ship blocks.


I don't know how many I'll need but I'm not quite ready to set them sailing yet.

What about 12" blocks? Starting a new quilt with big blocks makes for rapid progress. ;- )


My go-to size for a personal or comfort quilt is 60" x 80." These blocks give me 48." All I need is some sashing. What's in the stash that's been there too long?


A wonderful, colorful Hoffman print from two decades ago. What next?

I have quite a few 9" blocks...


Ohio stars from the tail end of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge last year and some liberated stars from further back with almost the last of another old print.

Okay, that's a good start. Now what?

There are more 9" stars, mostly with white or light backgrounds. Let's see...


That could work. I rustled up enough for two more rows, alternating liberated and Ohio stars.


One of the prints my sister just sent me was ideal for the large borders on the top and bottom. I wanted to use another of the new prints for all of the horizontal sashing. My brain failed me at that point; I didn't realize there wasn't enough. Fortunately I found a print in my stash that worked for the wider strips that border the 12" blocks. Suddenly, I have a complete quit top! (And 28 fewer blocks in the Parts Department. Oh well, at least it's a start.)

Here's the lower right corner that my cutting table cuts off in the photo above:


Everything in this quilt was made from scraps or small pieces of yardage so I'm linking up with Kate and Gun for Scrap Happy Day and with the RSC quilters over at So Scrappy. You'll see lots of green in the RSC scraps this month. You never know what you might find on Scrap Happy Day! :- )

11 comments:

  1. 71 sailing ships so far is impressive! Good idea to make stars as the sashing, very effective and I love this quilt.

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  2. Good grief, I can't believe that quilt just arrived out of your Parts Department! It's quite beautiful, and I suppose shows the value of having a Parts Department at all, even if it does occasionally get slightly out of hand :-)
    Thanks for linking up!

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  3. A brilliant way to use up sample blocks. I must start making a collection.

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  4. Wow! I must start a parts department if this is the sort of thing that can come out of it. I would only have two things in it at the moment though - an experimental paper pieced block and a block from F2F that didn't quite go with the other colours. Still, you have to start somewhere.

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  5. Really good use of scraps - just great!

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  6. Looking great! Must be an interesting place your Parts department :)

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  7. Your quilt turned out so beautiful! Just GREEEEAAAT! Whenever I try to match some orphans, or made-too-many blocks together, it always ends up looking like something the cat dragged in. :^(
    You have a talent I envy. Congrats on this de-cluttering quilt that looks awesome. ;^)

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  8. Way to build a successful Parts Dept. Quilt!!!

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  9. I always love seeing stars, but that little set of sailboats is just adorable!

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  10. great use of orphan blocks, you made a beautiful quilt top. Great collection of sailboats. I had problems with the internet, from Saturday to Tuesday morning, almost lost the RSC link party

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