Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Clearing the design wall

I tend to put things up on my small design wall in my studio and they hang there for a long time before I do anything with them. They are usually just made of my scraps with no clear intention of what I will make them into. This week I decided everything needs to come down and I started with the postcards which I showed earlier this week.

The next group to come down were the 2 sets of strips shown here. This group of batik ones are about 15" long and would make a small strip quilt.
This group is all Kaffe Fassett fabrics and are about 18" long. I have been looking at both sets for almost a year now and haven't done anything with them. The wall needs to be bare for a few days.
I remember in one of Marsha McCloskey's early books that she had a box with a name like False starts and other rejects. I named a box with that name about 10 years ago and put things in it for about 5 years. I would consider most of them rejects at this point. I think I need to start a new box just called "Misc. pieces and parts" than I can dig into when I need inspiration.

I posted a quilt on my blog-shop site awhile back that was purple and peach and had 3-D pinwheels on it. Around that same time VickiW contacted me and wondered if I would like to donate some of my quilt tops to the Quilts of Valor foundation and that she would quilt them on her longarm machine and would send them off to the organization. I thought this sounded like a great idea, since a lot of my quilt tops were in the right size range. I didn't have the means to quilt them like they want them so this was a perfect opportunity for me. Vicki has finished quilting the purple and peach funky quilt and is ready to bind it. She has a partial picture on her blog now and will show the whole thing when she is done. Thanks VickiW!! I hope some soldier will love this one and the future ones I will send.

7 comments:

Vicki W said...

Thank you Wanda! It's such a pleasure to quilt your PERFECTLY peiced quilts! The flannel one is loaded now and ready to be quilted. I think the pinwheel one is going to be loved by one of our female soldiers and I can't think of a better home for it.

The Calico Cat said...

HMMMM I usually have an idea when I see "what would you do with this" but your strips have me stumped... The only thing that comes to mind is to use it as sashing around an applique... (You'd need a whole lot more for my idea...)

jovaliquilts said...

It's a great feeling to have your tops go to good use! And what spectacular tops they are.

Even your bits and unfinished pieces are interesting, but I hope you enjoy having new stuff on your design wall.

meggie said...

The pinwheels look wonderful now they are quilted by Vicki.
I love the colours in the little strips. No clues for what to do with them though.

TB said...

How wonderful, and it is beautiful!

Anonymous said...

I went to Vicki's blog to see the finished quilt. You two make a superior team. Vicki's quilting adds even more depth to it's beauty. Great job ladies. I know it will be dearly loved.

Scraps of pieces made into strips of memories... They are fun and I am not stumped as to what to do with them. And knowing you~ they will soon be stitched into another Wandaful piece.

J~MT

Lynda said...

Sometimes I think you just have to put some orphans, or works in progress away, out of sight. When they've been around for a long time, they get so familiar that you can't see them clearly any more. This worked for me with an ostrich quilt which needed a border. I put it away, and when I looked at it again, a year later, I put a great border on it traight away! Your strip sets will be the perfect addition for something another day.