Wingin' It

After making hundreds of masks, I was left with a plastic shoebox full of flannel scraps (the denim scraps fill another box, somewhere). I've been shuffling that shoebox back and forth, up and down for months now, every time I needed to get to whatever it was resting on (lately, the tin holding all my 1" binder clips I use when pin basting).

On a whim, this afternoon I pulled it down (not just to shove it aside) and started sorting the contents, wondering if I could start sewing pieces together willy-nilly, and what might result. Since the masks I made required 9"x6" rectangles, there were a lot of segments that measured 6" or 9" on a side. Lots of long strips in there too, as well as some "chunks" (smaller than 6", but still containing a respectable square inch area). So I paired up all the 9s and sewed, then paired up all the 6s and sewed:

Most of these fabrics were scraps donated by a chorus member who made little girl dresses from them,
as you can see from the left-most column.

As I mindlessly sewed, I decided I'd make (or trim down to) 8.5" squares, and frame each with a solid or solid-looking fabric, building them out to 10.5". In addition to the plastic shoebox, I had an actual cardboard shoebox holding the trimmings of all the flannel-backed quilts I've made. That holds a whole bunch of solid strips I can use to frame some blocks.

In practically no time, these happened. I threw a bunch of strips up to give me an idea of how they might look with framing.

That's 10 blocks from the 9" segments. I've got 14 more from the 6" segments, which I plan to extend, Courthouse-Steps-style, out to an 8.5" block. So I'm looking at a 24-block top, 4x6, 40"x60". That's a good toddler size, I believe.

Why is that germane? One of the chorus members is pregnant and a real and virtual baby shower is being planned for her for this month. I'd like to give her something that she knows is uniquely from me, but isn't so precious that she has to either fear using it or feel she must take special care with. No new mother needs that! I'll make sure she knows it can be spit up on, peed on, shat upon (just as she herself will be in the coming months), and it can be tossed into the wash with nary a care.

And here's what's still dumped on my cutting table, as yet untouched:

I've set aside the solid-ish strips I plan to use for framing the blocks:

From the looks of things, I could easily cobble together more blocks for another baby/toddler quilt, perhaps to have on hand for the next baby shower to come down the pike. I'd much rather have a growing pile of blocks set aside toward a future project, than a shoebox (or two) full of random scraps!