Bits and (master)pieces

I recently went through all my fabric and reorganized it. In the process I ended up with a couple of baskets and storage boxes that are 'scrap'... to cut up into different shapes and save for a rainy day of sewing or for when I feel the urge to start something new.

Of course, now that I've been looking at blogs, the urge to start something new is coming daily! I've done some scrap quilting, but it feels more stressful to me than a 'planned' out quilt as I agonize over whether fabrics clash too much or are placed just right. I've not yet been UNhappy with the results, but I'm always afraid that I'll get one together and to me it will look like a mish-mash of fabrics and I'll feel my time and precious fabric were wasted.

I got inspired, though, by Bren and her masterpiece and by a few other blogs that I've seen as I've been roaming around blogland these last few days.

One thing I've found that makes it easier for me to piece is triangle paper. I bought a program to print my own and found that if I print larger squares and draw some lines, I can use it like paper piecing.

So I printed off 7 inch finished squares, roughly trimmed the edges of paper off and marked on my lines for sewing. This enables me to cut fabric into strips, put them all into a basket or storage box and just pull...letting them fall randomly in the block, taking some of the angst out of choosing each piece. I have to admit, I will throw one back and pull again if I pull the same color or two fabrics just really don't bump up together well. The planner in me sometimes gets the best of me!



So there sit my supplies for the next project, my basket of fabrics to start with, my papers to cut and mark. They entice me away from the laundry, dishes and other mundane work of the day.

I try to handquilt each day. My goal today is to finish the border of another UFO and put on the binding. Yet I feel my eyes wandering toward the new project and I'm beginning to feel the excitement of cutting into those scraps, the weight of the rotary cutter in my hand. In my mind's eye I see my box filling with colorful strips, blocks taking shape and the fun of placing and turning and placing again for the combination that makes my eyes dance across the top.

And I'm thinking of Bren and her masterpiece...and the masterpiece that I've been thinking about for years. I had nearly abandoned it, as I couldn't figure out how to make parts of it work. The truth is, with all the quilting I've done, my personal masterpiece is yet unmade.

I think it's time to rectify that.