Round and Round

Okay, so I didn't get rid of ALL of my scraps. I did hold on to the two big glass jars of strips and strings holding court in the studio. They were overflowing with leftovers from projects, binding, and backing. Augmented by a bag of scraps my students in Nova Scotia gave me last year and a shipment of Botanics strips from Carolyn Friedlander, they were in danger of taking over a certain corner of the studio.

Then I saw this quilt.

It hung out in the recesses of my brain for a few weeks, taunting me with its movement, tempting me to test its construction. I tried to make it go away, to convince it that I had other projects to finish. But it wouldn't listen. And a listless and stressful end to summer for me brought on a need to play. So I decided to make just one block, just to see what happened.

Well, like it is a physical impossibility for me to eat just one cookie or have just one piece of chocolate, I couldn't make just one block. The movement, the energy, the use of these scraps. They all add up to a heck of a lot of fun.

Each block measures 16.5'' square. I probably should have made them on a foundation, but I didn't. So I'm treating them carefully and only making more to add to the design wall. I've started with 4, 5, and 6 sides polygons. Maybe even 7 sides. It goes together, roughly, like a log cabin. Adding one side at a time. Sometimes I add a small bit, sometimes a long strip. Eventually they have to be squared up so I'm getting some odd bits at the end. I'm learning to keep at eye on the edges before I get up to size. Doing so saves me sewing things I will end up cutting off, as well as avoiding skinny bits along the edges.

Round and round I go, where I'll stop nobody knows.

Excuse the horrible photos. It is snowing today. No light in the studio.