Sunday, July 21, 2013

DWM: leftover batting, finish #22, the beach, and boats

 The quilt batting that I buy by the yard is 90" wide. I have pieces left over after I have trimmed a quilt "sandwich." I toss the trimmings into a box.   When the box is full overflowing, as in this photo, I pull out the large trimmings and put them together, usually with strips of fusible interfacing, and thus create new quilt-sized batts. When trimmings are smaller that fusing is just tedious. 

It happened that I was out of Swiffer cloths -- the kind that attach to a long-handled duster. (I use them for the bathroom floor.)  I cut 8 x 11 pieces of batting leftovers -- the pile in the front in this photo -- and will try those instead of stocking up on Swiffer packages.  On the right, in the box, are large pieces to be repieced. In the bag in the back are smaller pieces that I put in the box I took to Salvation Army box. (See the post preceding this.)  
(Please do not tell me I can chop up batting scraps into littler pieces and use them to make pet beds.  I know that I can do that.  I do not want to make pet beds. I do not want to save little pieces to give to other people to make pet beds.  Whoever buys the bag from Salvation Army is welcome to chop up the scraps for her own darned pet beds.)

I had three free evenings this week and an audiobook to review, so I quilted and listened.  Here is finish #22 for 2013.  It's Four Patch X, one of Bonnie Hunter's Quiltmaker patterns. I made the flimsy in 2011.  The yellow-and-light blue is such a cheerful combination!



After a couple of days of temps in the mid 90's -- when being at the beach would only be comfortable in the water -- Sunday afternoon was beautifully temperate.   Stevens sat on driftwood while I waded in the surf.    Mid-summer wildflowers are plentiful this year because we've had so much rain. 



Not sure what this is....
Rudbeckia (black-eyed Susan)









And finally, the design wall.  This uses 25 of the 39 blocks I won in the Block Lotto. I may change my mind about the sashing.  I tried red, but that's rather predictable for a nautical quilt. The green adds sparkle, don't you think?

See what other quiltmakers have been doing to beat the heat this week at Judy's Patchwork Times.

5 comments:

  1. I like the green!

    I also piece larger strips of batting together. The smaller pieces are used for testing tension and for protecting things when I ship packages to the kids or Mom.

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  2. The Bonnie Hunter quilt looks great! I'm with you, those tiny things I'm getting rid of, not making any pet beds. Some times I use the small pieces as fire starters for bon fires. Shhh don't tell anyone ;) That purple flower is very interesting. The leaves almost look like the leaves of a sensitive plant.

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  3. what a lovely quilt #22 finish turned out! You do beautiful quilts. I like how you reuse your batting, I do something very similar - although I seem able to put small pieces of batting to various uses - wrapping up fragile knic-knacks for one thing.

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  4. No pet beds?!? Teasing. Yes, I'm like you. I use what I reasonably can. Sometimes scraps get used for padding when mailing packages. Big pieces get repieced to use for quilts. Swiffer pads? Great idea! Pet beds? Nope, I'm not gonna, either!

    Thanks for the post.

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