Here
it is the end of February already. I
haven’t really been able to keep up on my resolution of sewing every day, but it’s
for a good reason. After putting a
narrow white border around the batik stars quilt, I had to figure out what I
was going to do for a final wider border.
At first, I wanted to make a folded border of batiks on the narrow
border – it will finish about 1.5” – and then put a wider 3” border of white
around it. I was thinking of making the
binding out of the batiks. When I sat
and thought about that, I decided that no, I didn’t think I would like it. So then I decided I wanted a border of batik
squares all the way around, finished up with a white binding.
So
I needed batik charms – lots of them. I
only had 4 left of the original packages I made the stars from, and buying more
charm packs is not in the budget. So I
pulled out my tub of batiks and hand dyed fabrics and started ripping
away. First I decided which fabrics I
wanted to use – there were about 20 I didn’t.
Of the ones I did want, I ripped off 5” strips to cut 4.5” squares – I want
them to finish the same size (4”) as the squares in the stars. After ripping them, I had to iron them before
cutting. This doesn’t sound too hard,
does it? Well, it wouldn’t have been had
there not been 80 different fabrics I decided to cut!
Okay,
I did cut way more than I really needed, but I love these stars so much and I
have been trying to figure out what to do with my batiks for so long, I
figured, heck, get a whole bunch ahead for another scrappy batik project!
Some
of what I cut I only got maybe 2 or 3 charms out of, others I got as many as
9. A couple of scraps in the tub yielded
only 1 charm each. I kind of laid them
out by color –
I
have no idea how many there are in the tall pile, but it has to be about 5
times the short pile, which makes it close to 400. I’m sure I can find something fun to do with
them. If I run out of my short pile as I
make the borders, I will just take some at random to finish.
Anyway,
this is what I have been doing for at least 2 weeks! Some days I only had time to cut 1 strip into
charms and also, my cutting surface is on a folding buffet table so it’s short
and it kills my back to stand over it very long. I wanted to do a jig when I finished cutting
them last night - I’m so excited that I will get to start sewing again!
With
these 80 different fabrics, this quilt will be really scrappy – the charm packs
I used had 115 different fabrics in them.
Along with 2 whites – almost 200 different fabrics! Can’t say I have ever done that before. And my collection definitely had different
fabrics – the charms packs did not have many designs on them, maybe leaves or
flowers and that was about it. In this
batch from my stash there are all kinds of designs, including the ones I bought
in Alaska that have whales, moose, turtles, polar bears, and something else I
can’t think of. Not too worried about
none of the border perfectly matching the stars – and that is so progressive of
me! And I still have enough batiks and
hand-dyes to piece together the back.
On
the days my back wasn’t up to cutting, I still spent time in a quilt related
manner. I recently bought EQ7 and have
been learning how to use it. Previously
I had Design Wizard and while it was fun, I felt it was really limited. I found the EQ7 at the best price I have ever
seen it and had to snatch it up. Can’t
wait to make my own designs!
Other
news – I mailed a birthday card to a friend in Oregon on the 14th
and yesterday I got it back because they said it was insufficient postage! Argh!
I am so mad! This friend’s
birthday was the 16th! Thanks a lot, post office people! So,
dear friend, if you are reading this – please know I did not forget! Now I will have to find a new envelope and I
will go directly into the PO this time to make sure it arrives!
That’s it for me right now. Hope you are having a great day and, as
always – thanks for stopping by!
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