Monday, November 21, 2011

Stack ,Slash, Switch & Stitch~Crazy TOO!

Chapter II ~ Carpetbags

Has this ever happened to you?  Someone learns that you are a quilter/seamstress etc. and BRINGS you fabric from a relative, or something?  A friend of a friend learned that I had a sewing room, and began bringing me upholstery samples that the interior design store where she worked had held on to for 20 years or so, and they were cleaning them out.  Would I like them??  (Oh, sure, I can figure out something to do...) 
 
 
Well, she brought me about 40 giant black garbage bags full of these little bits and pieces of fancy fabrics (filled my garage), most of which are NOT cotton, and NOT much bigger than 10" to 15", and not really usable in quilts because of odd fabric content.  What do you do with them?  Can't throw away free fabric, no matter the content!!  (There were several samples of leather also, which I had my local fabric store cut into adorable flower embellishments with their AccuQuilt fabric die-cut machine.)

So I came up with the idea to make Crazy 4-Patch blocks (← see "Part I" for the TUTORIAL) and use those to create large panels that could be used to make "Carpetbags" ~ the perfect, glamourous, chic, upcycled bag~ great for toting any sewing or quilting project (I've been known to tote a queen size quilt in my carpetbag so that I can bind on the go). 

And now, after hours and hours (and days and weeks and about 5 years) of petting, sorting, 



cutting,
 
packaging,


 sharing, teaching classes...



 
 

...now I am down to one bin of samples, a handful of kits, all the colorful stuff is gone, and I'm left with only 8 bags of BEIGE. 

So I've sorted through those neutrals, and I have thought of a couple more projects I want to make: 

1) I'll put together enough crazy 4-patch blocks to create a large piece of fabric for a jacket, and

2) A crazy 4-patch Throw using as many 100% cotton samples as I can find, then I'll add some pretty embroidery stitches along the seams.  Those have gone from a WHIMM (Work Hidden In My Mind) to a PIG (Project In a Garbage bag).  Haven't started them yet, so they're not UFOs (UnFinished Objects, or UnFulfilled Opportunities).  Then I'll probably throw the rest away to make room so I can finally park my car in the garage, haha! 

Now, for your entertainment, here's a little → Slideshow ← just for you!  Just look at those happy quilters!
 


As usual, you're always welcome to stop by for a visit, online or otherwise, at Quiltscapes.
Happy Sewing!

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5 comments:

  1. Doh! I just left a comment on Part I that I answered myself by reading the rest of this post. My reading comprehension skills have taken a dive since I've been in blogland.

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  2. Miss Deon, you definitely know how to make lemons out of lemonade! Well done...the bags are beautiful!

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  3. Sounds like a dream. I was thinking with the leather bits you could make dots for hand stitching. If you can find some glue like Aleenes re-tack it or something like that and put that on the back of it.. you could put them on your finger as finger dot protection to do applique. That is what I would do with the leather bits. :)

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  4. what a lovely way to turn the scraps into something lovely!

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