UFOs and Scrap Redemption

Hello friends. I've been busy doing some quilting for customers, but also some piecing of my own this week. It's hard to believe it's November, and my poor Scrap Redemption list is not any more complete.  What have I been doing??

For starters, I've been cutting out the squares and rectangles for my scrappy Burgoyne Surrounded quilt.

This past weekend I pieced together some sample  blocks that measure 15" square. I put two up on my design wall to see how they will look. The small squares are all 1" finished. The long, narrow strips I have on the sides and bottom are for the sashings, and the ones in the photo aren't finished yet. I think this will look really great as a quilt but it's really a LOT of sewing. I'm piecing the little four- and nine-patches in between my other projects. As Bonnie Hunter would say, I'm doing them as leaders and enders. :)

 My other project, which is ongoing, is string piecing. This is really fun, and what you see spread out upon my floor are a random sampling of 5-1/2" blocks I've sewn to paper foundations. The narrow rectangular blocks on the right are the leftover paper pieces I had after cutting my 5-1/2" foundation squares - they measure 3" x 5-1/2". Many of these are not yet trimmed, but that's something I'll save for another time.

If you're interested, there are a lot of string-piecing tutorials out there on the internet, but really all you need is a foundation, and a short stitch length on your sewing machine...and STRIPS (otherwise knows as "strings") of varying widths. I save strips from trimming backings, and end of yardage, and from random projects, and put them in a box. They're usually pretty narrow or crooked, but it doesn't matter. You get a folksy look from them.

As you can see, I've been playing around with a layout. I think I'll piece these into 15" blocks with a solid center, and maybe with a strippy sashing. The fun part is, I can just let the design take me where it wants to go! Maybe I'll post something from EQ5 to show what it could turn out as.

Hope you are all having a good week. It's raining here in Washington (good sewing weather), I hope the sun finds you out there!

~Jennifer