When you were a kid, did you compain about being bored? “I’m bored” we’d say. But not often. Mom always had something ready for us girls to do: wash dishes, fold clothes, feed the chickens, dig ditches. Because we lived on a farm, a real farm where there were animals and a field of vegetables, there was always something to do. It didn’t take long for my sisters and me to realize that the best way to get out of work was to stop complaining about having nothing fun to do. Make your fun or pick up a broom and sweep. It was not difficult to figure out.
What brought me to those long-ago memories, is that I was thinking of the boredom of sewing those February strips. I enjoy the most boring parts of quilting, because that’s so much more fun than, say, cleaning the bathroom. Ah, well, as the universe would have it, there are things that you can do.
1. Let’s see… You can sew some more scraps together to make improv pieces like we did in January, or make more skinnies. You’ll need more. I promise you’ll use them all up. With improv, your quilt grows in size as you sew more. You just sew, put everything in, then see what you’ve got. (Really.)
2. You may get sick of the word “scraps,” but it should take a while, so before that happens, sort more scraps into color order.
3. Want to sew? Like to organize? Make storage containers for each color category you’re putting scraps in, then put the scraps away in neat little baskets. I used white to make my containers (see above) and added a strip of color to each one so I could easily find the one I needed. These days, I have everything in cubbies–in color order– and still use the bags to hold the smallest of the scraps.
4. Once your scraps are all stored in sweet little color-coded containers, you can sort those colors by size.
5. Some people even precut their scraps. I like that idea, except that I can’t cut scraps until I need them.
6. Grab some more of the strips and sew, sew, sew.
7. Work on more than one quilt at a time, so why not? I decided to make two quilts for the BoM–one in bright, happy colors, another in autumn colors, (so it’s easy to keep the pieces separated). Of course, I also have baskets. You can easily start another quilt using completely different colors. It will be interesting to see how colors change the quilt just by changing the colors. Added bonus: you’ll use up scraps from different baskets!
8. Hmm, what else can you do to work toward this BoM? You can make your own block! (I’m such a teacher nerd!) Design a block and make enough pieces for a row. Your block can be any size you’d like, and you can make as many as you want. Use the fabric you chose for your quilt, and your block will coordinate beautifully. I promise. And it won’t matter whether you’ve decided on a row quilt or a jumble quilt or a throw-it-all-in quilt. It will work. With your permission, I may even make a few of your blocks to add to one of my quilts. That would be fun, don’t you think?
