Prepping for Fall Sewing

I attacked a mountain of scraps and leftovers on Saturday afternoon. I keep a bin under my cutting table and everything gets chucked in there. That bin was overflowing.

My scrap management system is fairly simple. Anything less than a fat quarter or quarter yard goes into the bin. I cut 5" squares out of the larger pieces using my Accuquilt cutter. The squares will be pieced into comforter tops to be tied and donated to Mennonite Central Committee. Sometimes, depending on the size of the leftovers, I might cut them into tumbler blocks. Strips get sorted into bags by color. Right now, I have overflowing bags of white/gray/cream and red/pink/orange/purple. I will package those into smaller zip bags to take to the Mennonite relief sale on the first weekend in October. They have a “yard sale” of craft items and those can be donated there. The trick is to take things and not come home with other things . . .

I’ve been going through my fabric stash, too, and dealing with the pile of fabric I bought when Joanns was going out of business—mostly bottom-weight fabrics for pants and skirts.

Although I miss the convenience of having a Joanns, I am grateful for the fact that temptation has been removed from my life. I have to work a lot harder now to find good garment fabric, so I am more selective about what I get. I could sew entirely from my stash for the rest of my life and be happy. I did find out, though, that Mood Fabrics is going to have a booth at Sew Expo in February! I fairly swooned when I heard that. I doubt that I would ever get to New York City to shop at their store in person, so this is the next best thing.

This also makes me optimistic that garment sewing is going to get more emphasis at Sew Expo in the coming years. It’s not that I dislike quilting—I don’t! Quilting has been a bit of a juggernaut, though, and has rolled over all other kinds of sewing for many years.

Scrap sorting was about the only thing I accomplished this weekend because I had friends, Mike and Kathy, visiting from Tacoma. Mike gave the sermon at church yesterday morning and we had about a dozen people come over for dinner and visiting last night.

I still haven’t settled on a sewing project. The contenders include bags and dresses. I am not much of a backpack person—although I love my Slabtown Backpack—but I am intrigued by the Chickadee Backpack by Sew Sweetness:

I’m wondering if this might make a good alternative to my travel tote. I like that it has an internal frame at the top so that it opens and stays open.

A friend of mine stopped over last evening and asked if I would look at her Pfaff serger. I’ll get it cleaned up and threaded for her this week. Hopefully, whatever is wrong with it is minor.

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A line of thunderstorms came through while we were having dinner. I think we’re supposed to have lingering showers this morning. I am surprised that we haven’t yet had a frost. The husband had to repair part of the garden fence yesterday because a couple of deer got over it and snacked on some little apple trees I planted in the back. The forest animals all seem to believe the garden exists for their benefit.