October Overhauling: More stuff made from the stash

First, don't forget about the giveaway I'm running.  It closes tomorrow so enter today.  HERE.

(the giveaway is a penalty for my having bought some fabric during the October buying ban--shame on me but good for you!)

Anyway, I whipped up a few more things using only my stash.

(yeah, yeah, I did kind of just skip over the whole "organize your mess" part of this challenge--but. . .I still have two days left of October, maybe I'll get to it. . .maybe)

So, here's what I made.

Three fabric bags using some deco weight fabric.  The blue one came from the traveling stash box I had months ago.  The green/brown stripe was a remnant I picked up at Joanne's.  Three different sizes from the same tutorial (at Green Bag Lady).

The smallest one became my new Scrap Bag.  Mostly because I messed it up when I attached the handles (so they ended up pretty short).  Also, it's so small it's not really that useful for grocery shopping and such.  But it's FABULOUS for scraps (and is about 1/4th full already--why?  well keep reading I'm getting to that).

The other two bags?  I'm not sure what I'll do with them.  I was going to just add them to my grocery bag collection but I think the better idea is to donate them.  The next time I go to the food co-op I'll drop them in the donation box.  Share the love, folks!

Ok, so why do I have so many scraps I needed a new bag for them?  Weren't my two quart freezer bags enough?  No, the bags are full and my newest (long term) project has me making bits and pieces like a mad woman.

Wanna see?

This is the start of my Postage Stamp Quilt (or Scrap Quilt or I Spy Quilt--I guess it could be any or all of those names but I'm tagging it as a Postage Stamp Quilt).

I've been cutting 2.5 inch squares from all my fabric scraps and the big ass box of leftovers I won in a recent giveaway.  That picture there represents 200 squares, stitched into 4x4 squares.

I decided that after I have a stack of 100  2.5 inch squares, I'll sew them together in random pairs.  Then when I have two sets (of 50) pairs, I randomly pair them into 4x4 squares.  Then once I have two sets of 4x4's, I'll pair THEM up and so on and so forth until it becomes a quilt top.

This involves a butt load (that's the official term) of cutting.  Which is good since it gives me a lot of practice and has me going through ALL of my fabric hunting for variety.  I've already been through my scraps and smaller remnants then I moved on to the box of leftovers I won.  I just moved on to cutting into some actual fat quarters (the ones I bought during October which caused me to have the penalty giveaway!).  I'm also using the charm pack of solids I have to add some solid colors (since I don't have a lot of fat quarter solids).  And let me just say, I HATE that manufacturer cut charms are cut with pinking shears.  I can only get ONE 2.5 out of a charm when it's pinked.  Cut straight, I'm scoring 4.  I know that's why they cut them like that which makes me scowl (but the charm pack I'm using was free, so I don't mind making scraps--hey, I could use them later).

It's mostly cottons of varying weights (mostly quilting weight but a few are thinner--but nothing TOO thin, I did reject one solid Joanne's remnant because it was just too gauzy).  There are also a few blends (I think linen/cotton) because super cute Japanese prints always seem to come on blends and WHY NOT add them?

Double bonus time!  I'm also amassing quite a collection of 5 inch charms in the process.  I usually square off the end of the fabric (making a little waste as possible) then I cut a five inch strip.  I try to get as many 5 inch charms and 2.5's as possible from that strip.  If the original fabric remnant is already hacked up pretty good (a few in the leftovers box were) then I just fussy cut whatever images I like the best and try to either use up the whole bit of fabric OR use just the hacked up area (in an attempt to square up the piece to keep it neat). 

So far I've only turned down two fabrics.  One was the aforementioned "too thin" one and the other was this great hamburger print which was just TOO big for 2.5 inchers.  I was tempted to hack it up into 5 inchers but it's so cool I want to keep it whole for now and see if a project comes along where it can be better used.  No fabric has been turned away for being too ugly or dumb.  Not even the baby themed fabrics (which I find super boring).

Want to see a few of my favorite 4x4s?

Love the random colors on this one (and that stoned looking dog!).  The pic doesn't do the green justice, it's a bright chartreuse shade which plays nicely with the purples (which are brighter in person).  This quare was completely random.

Stipes and dots DO go together.  There are a lot of animal prints in this round of quares which I like.  The next round should have less novelties like this.

(and LOVE the sushi fabric, that's from Biggie Smalls!)

AHH, that bug is going to eat the chickies!!

I think that's what I like the most about this project.  I can make stories from the patches.  This one was totally random, too.

I LOVE that Red Riding Hood fabric.  It was in the leftovers box and it's awesome.  That one square right there is one of my very favorites.  And it's next to another of my favorites (the noodle bowl!).  It wasn't until I was taking this picture that I noticed Red is hading her wolfy granny a bowl.  Maybe it's filled with smiling noodles?

This block has a bit of interference on my part.  I made sure that frog was next to that musical instrument.  The rest was random.  I love those frogs.

I do interefere here and there with square placement which has lead to a few "rules". 

Rules:

1.  No two solids touching.  So no pairs of solids or two solids on a 4x4.  There just aren't a lot of solids in the mix so they need to be spread out as best as possible.  This is only for TRUE solids. 

2.  No two "like" fabrics touching.  "Like" applies to images cut from the same fabric (in the cases of novelties where fussy cutting netted different images from the same fabric) AND similar images.  Like no two cats touching or two birds touching.

These rules will probably fall by the way side as the quilt top gets larger, but for now they're helping keep things more random.

I'm not sure how large a finished top I want.  I know I want it "usable" size (so no doll quilts or wall hangings or cup cozies or what have you).  Ultimately I'd like to make it so it can be used on one of my spare beds (I have two).  We'll see.

So far, I'm loving this project.