March Is Mine

I need a month.

I hardly ever take the time to sew for myself. After remembering that good feeling of making stuff for me (refashioned pants into skirt), I decided that March is my month! I will make two small exceptions for Easter dresses....but March Is Mine!!! I feel like I've conquered something....

I started today by trimming the ends off of some scrap strips. I took them to the ironing board so I could more clearly see them. They look much better pressed.

I transferred the pieces to my design table and began eliminating colours - starting with pink. I need this to be bigger than a mug rug, but not as big as a placemat.

My plan is loosely based on the "Confetti" blocks that are floating around cyberspace. I debated between two greys for sashing before choosing the light grey.

Finalize the layout and then briefly flirt with making this in ticker tape style. Do I or don't I? It would look good....

Naw! I cut tiny 1" strips from the grey. I wanted to use traditional piecing methods, but still maintain the size. I eyeballed the layout and mentally divided into easily sewn units. Then I started sewing sashing on.

Here's a shot of the magic....a very simple 1/4" seam, followed by a little trimming.

Have units: Add sashing.

Sew all of the units together. Trim where necessary. The chartreuse was waaay too big. Some of the sashing had to be pieced. This'll happen when you're using scraps of scraps.

Last step for today: square up. Incidently, it ended up being 12"x10" - exactly the size I had planned, even throughout all of my eyeballing, random trimming, and non-measuring. Sweet!

Tomorrow I plan to add outer borders....sandwich, baste, quilt, bind. All the things that steer my soul into happy waters.

Makes Me Want To Grrrr.

I am not a numbers person. I barely passed high school algebra. It's safe to say that mathematics and I should not mingle at the same party. We just don't get along.

It's a love/hate relationship because Quilters need Math.

Emotional break: here's a random shot of my breakfast. Green juice and a bowlful of mango, strawberries, and bananas.

Back to math. See these strips? The sashing between them was easy to calculate. It is the same length as the blocks.

Here's a Pixie for size comparison. The blocks finish at a foot square.

I decided that the sashing should be 1/3 of the width of the blocks. Putting 4" strips between the blocks should mean that the rows are five feet long. You experienced quilters reading this instantly know that the sashing between the rows has to be either pieced or cut on the lengthwise grain.

I chose to piece. It is a scrap quilt, after all.

What a mess! I miscalculated the length and had to add pieces to both ends of my w.o.f. cuts. The only saving grace was the last piece added was exactly the length of a block and I had a seam to match for reference.

This pile of strips and sashing covered my chair for a while.

I discovered that hiding seams in sashing strips is as easy as pressing them open and not to the side.

At this moment, I have a section that looks like this:

And one that looks like this:

Plus the strip of violet for the bottom row.

After that I'll only have to add borders. Cross your fingers that those calculations work out well. I wanna finish this and get it to it's family!