Waste Not

While I’ve been reasonably productive on other aspects of my to-do list, there’s been very little sewing in my house this week. That said, I am very nearly done with my Old Red Barn Co Quilt-Along top. Wohoo! I have to say, sewing all of the strip sets together took quite a while (14 sets x 6 strips each x 44-inch strips). But huge 12-inch blocks? That was delightfully fast. And dang, this thing is big!

This is the first quilt I’ve made that is larger than lap/crib size. At the moment, it’s about 72″ x 84″ (maybe a little less, since my blocks weren’t quite the full 12.5″), and I’m actually adding on some borders to the top & bottom, making it even closer to 72″ x 92″. Insane! Truth be told, I am terrified to quilt this thing. We’ll see if my little machine can handle it, but I definitely think I’m going to have to get those nubby quilting gloves.

One thing I love about this quilt so far is that, of the original 12 half-yards I bought, I’m using all but the teeniest scraps. I got the full 42 blocks out of them, all of which are in the quilt (6 x 7). There was about 6″ left over of each strip set, so I cut two 2.5″ strips from each of them, which I am going to use for borders and on the back. The only leftover from the original 12 half-yards was about three little piles like this: nothing but selveges and scraps from straightening the edges.

Finally got the backing and border fabrics cut last night, maybe I’ll manage some sewing today. I still need to buy a big ol’ piece of batting, and then, *gulp*, it’s on to the quilting….