Great progress was made on the sewing room clean-up project over the weekend. For months I have been avoiding trying to clear off my cutting table. I have a very bad habit of letting things accumulate all around my cutting mat until that mat is surrounded by piles of papers, scraps, sample blocks, fabric, etc. Here is a photo of a typical pile...
and here is the opposite corner after a similar pile was cleared away. I know it won't stay this neat and tidy for terribly long, but it sure is a treat right now!
There was lots of junk in the pile that got cleared away, but there were some treasures hiding in there too. I discovered some little 6" star blocks from my first attempt at a Bonnie Hunter mystery. These were made as part of her 2011 mystery Orca Bay. I got this far, then realized that I just didn't have my scrap fabrics organized enough to keep up with the mystery. The blocks were set aside and have been sitting around every since, getting shuffled from place to place. It's time to either sew them up into a little tabletopper or get rid of them!
Another treasure rediscovered was this fabric trivet that I bought many years ago. It measures 6" square.
Here is what was underneath the backing fabric. The black square is fusible interfacing.
I peeled off the interfacing, and this is what it covered up. It's rug hooking canvas with strips of fabric woven through. I believe the interfacing was fused onto this to keep the ends of the strips from pulling loose.
I got a scrap of similar canvas and started a sample piece of my own, but didn't get very far. One thing I discovered is that it would be much easier if I'd used solid, batik, or woven stripe fabrics instead of prints because it is difficult to prevent the wrong side of the fabric from showing. Yet another UFO that has been sitting around for years, along with the original trivet being in pieces.
Linking up with:
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Happy quilting everyone!
Julie in GA
I chuckled at the trivet dissection. Many years ago I saw a display of brooches/pins at a craft show made out of metal zippers. The metal teeth were coiled to create shapes. Neat idea, I thought, so I bought two: one to take apart and the other to serve as a model. The glue did not hold up in thw wash, I learned when I inadvertently left that second pin on a sweater that I put in the wash.....and, of course, I never did make any coiled-zipper pins.......As for your trivet: I think there are many easier ways to use scrap fabric than to weave it through rug canvas......Your orphan Ohio orcas will become a nice Christmas-themed proejct.
ReplyDeleteYou absolutely must do something with your star blocks, because I'm in love with them. Love that little trivet, too, and love your forensic sleuthing to figure out how to make one! I wonder whether wetting the fabric strips would make them easier to pull through the rug canvas, and whether that little rug hooking tool that you use with yarn could be used with fabric strips as well rather than pulling the safety pin through?
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your treasures! LOVE those leftover Star blocks!!!
ReplyDeleteYou did find some fun treasures. Looks like you got a lot done on the clean up even with the two or three new to dos that came out of piles.
ReplyDelete