Strings From A Scrap Bag--post 1

Bag of scraps

Goal number six on my April list was to sort a bag of scraps. Chantal, At the Corner of Scraps and Quilts, often posts about scrap bags that have shown up on her doorstep. Cynthia, Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework, is the queen of turning scraps into amazing quilts. They inspire me with every post. My challenge is that I ALWAYS have way too many projects in process to stop and play. I tell my little inner squirrel, Gertie, to wait until I FINISH a project.

When I wrote the goal, I had envisioned tackling one of my large bags that came from my friend Martha. I thought I could get started on sorting the bits into what were strings, strips and bits as well as by color. This is not what happened.

Laying out the chances

Instead, I came across a bag that was left from a string project that I finished in 2022. The pros to the the bag was that it was a small and came from a project. A small bag wouldn't overwhelm my efforts to empty it. Because it was project leftovers, the pieces would go together.

I opened it. Of course, there were a few pieces that didn't belong so those were put where they can be used in another
project. There were also some string strips of various widths. I thought that these might work as a border and as blocks. There were a lot of HSTs of varying sizes so I started piecing those together.  

Auditioning background fabrics

Once I had a few pieces together, I started laying out the project. I kept going until the only remaining scraps were small triangles from the neutral fabric. My goal is to make a piece about 40 inches by 60 inches. Right away, I realized I needed a filler fabric or fabrics.

I went to my stash of solid fabrics and chose a purple. I liked it; but, knew that the yard of fabric wouldn't be enough. So I selected a blue fabric which is okay; but the value is a little too dark. I did have a little leftover piece of orange that I decided would work great as an accent. I decided that this might be my book project for "The Dressmaker of Khair Khana" by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon instead of the panel that I had identified last month.

In the book, Kamila is about to complete her studies to become a teacher. Unfortunately. she has to abandon that career option because the Taliban take over and women lose their freedom. Kamila ends up helping many other women and families in the process. The strings represent all the people she touched. The various patterns the leftovers became represent the girls she trained. It is interesting how projects present themselves and the journey they take!

It's been quite the week. I took Old Town to the quilter on Tuesday. Friday, I received word it was finished and I picked it up. I have it to bind as well as my 2021 Temperature quilt so I will be working on being able to report on a couple finishes soon! 

Tuesday, I wanted to sew the ruffle to the Santa Tree skirt. My Bernina 790plus acted like it was possessed. I had it on straight stitch; yet it was trying to vary the width of the stitch. The stitch length and width dials stopped working. It is back at the repair shop. I hope it will be repairable and that the repair is affordable.

Linking to Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts and Cynthia at Oh Scrap.