Thursday, January 23, 2014

All this from scraps?

I'm spending the day banking back and forth between sorting/cleaning the studio and sewing. When you sort, it brings lots of projects to mind, and it takes great strength not to drop everything and sew on them! Wips, UFOs, bits and pieces, leftovers, scraps too small to keep that need sewing.

Yesterday, I sorted the washed scraps given me by friends. Yep, I even wash scraps. I am pretty sensitive to chemicals, so even little pieces must be washed before the iron hits them. This is not hard. A mesh wash bag holds lots of little pieces safely in the washing machine. I even have one with four little compartments.  Once washed and out of the dryer, I sort by color and press them and put them in the color bins. This is part of my process, the calming part where I get to play with color, see shape and pattern and plan the next thing.
Here is a picture of the stacks before putting them away.
 I love to sew little odd shapes to other odd shapes and see what comes of it. Usually it's gorgeous and turns itself magically into something beautiful.

I do run a workshop in this technique, check the page Workshops and lectures

Before the green stack was put away I pulled out these tiny little pieces and played.

 I started sewing them, until I saw a leaf, to go with two other leaves that have been hanging around the design wall for weeks.
I might have to stop cleaning again and sew these into something!


During the sorting I ran across some painted flower petals.
Now, I had already put away my painted bits and pieces and didn't want to drag that bag back out, so I sat down and started playing with these!

Ah the road to order is never straight! Why, just around a bend there were flowers to be arranged and sewn. I glued the overlaps of two of them, and gathered some others up under the machine needle and stitched them into a cool textured lumpy organic piece that will no doubt go on something later.
 For now, I must get back to the excitement of sewing on my scraps. Maybe I'll sacrifice one of my hand dyed half yards to the two lovely flowers at the left. Oh, joy! Think of all the threadwork to come! Whee!!

I absolutely must show you the cow coasters that my new blog friend Linda Cline sent! They are waaaaay too cool to mess up with possible spills, heh, heh.
Or maybe I'll just let myself use them, and ENJOY (my word of the year) them freely. She was so kind as to include some yardage with the images printed on it so I am all kind of jazzed to make that into something cool. Wonder what I'll make...
My gratitude to Linda (lindas blog) and lookie there folks, I have another cool connection story. It's these connections between us that make life sweet.

LeeAnna

22 comments:

Sara said...

Wow you are a better quilter than me! I never wash any fabric besides flannel. I love your leaf creations out of the freshly laundered pieces! Enjoy!

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

I love your leaves! so scrappy and pretty looking. This must be the month to clean up our stashes!

Jessica Hadden said...

Falling for your leaves and I am not just being punny!

Joanne said...

Hi LeeAnna!
"The road to order is never straight!" I like that! Here, I make more of a mess before seeing the end result! How else can one get it all sorted? LOL!
Enjoy the coasters! Looks like a great wall art project!
Thanks for all the great pie ideas!
Joanne

Kathy said...

Washing, pressing, contemplating...I always wash everything also and that process is so very good for thinking, planning and just loving the fabric...and distractions!

Sharon Rotz said...

I love working with scraps also. It is so fun to see what you are doing with them. Much more interesting than any solid leaf could be.

Elise Lea said...

Wow! Love what you are doing with your scraps! They are just so perfect!

Karens Quilts, Crows and Cardinals said...

Beautiful creative work Leeanna... loving the way your brain works -- and that you share it here! Cheers... Karen

quiltedfabricart said...

As a fabric addicted person - it takes one to know one. I do exactly what you are doing and the mind races with all the things that you can do with all those wonderful scraps. You are smart to iron them all. I usually just put them in willy nelly but your way they are ready to use and you can see what you have. Oh, one day I will retire and be oh so organized :-) use those coasters, girl!

Angie in SoCal said...

Those leaves and flowers are awesome - and all from scraps! Wonderful!!

Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation said...

wow! the colors in these fabrics look amazing!

Thanks so much for sharing at Needle and Thread Thursday!

:) Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation

Marit Johanne said...

How nice flowers you are making from scraps! You are welcome to come over for the potato dumplings ;)

Regina B Dunn said...

I absolutely love the leaves you made with the scraps. I don't think I have ADD, but I could display the signs when I handle fabric scraps. I, too, get lost in thoughts of what to do with them. When I'm finished with the two largish quilts in progress, I think I'll play with scraps and make some mini quilts.

Sue Daurio said...

Those leaves and flowers from your scraps are incredible! Love them.

janice pd said...

Love the leaves! I understand how easy it is to be side tracked. I culled fabric off my shelves to make room for some of my eco dyed pieces and I HAD to put some on the design wall to lust after time to play.

Marilyn Wall said...

LeeAnna isn't the internet wonderful. I call my connections to people on the internet " friends I have never met"

Linda M said...

The leaves are giving me some ides! Something similar may show up this year in the weekly leaf.

Kay said...

I love the idea of a wash bag with 4 sections so useful. I have a thing about being organized so even the wash bag sounds fun to me!

suemac said...

Love your hand dyed flowers.

Anonymous said...

Love the flowers. I have a ton of scraps and desperately need to play with them to see what I can come up with.

MulticoloredPieces said...

Hi, LeeAnna. Those flowers are sumptuous. And I really like the patched leaves.
best, nadia

Cheryl Rezendes said...

I love the vision of you sorting, then sewing, then sorting. When I sort and organize I am all business. I love how the act itself becomes so inspiring for you.
Lovely flowers as well!