My sister Abby and I chat daily via email, mostly about quilting. She’s been playing with fabric for more years than me, and has generated an entire galaxy of UFOs. Any time I feel overwhelmed by the state of my stash, WIP pile-up, UFO count, “orphans and extras” hoard, and/or scrap bins, I remind myself that Abby’s are far more impressive.
The other day I recommend she adopt Victoria‘s strategy of making a Kitchen Sink quilt each year from all the leftovers, abandoned experiments, and odds and ends of whatever. And I started wondering if I had enough sink fodder of my own to create a quilt. First thought was “probably not,” but that was mistaken.
Dumping out the orphans and extras bin onto the kitchen counter (see pic, above) revealed that I’ve got plenty! At least enough for a decent twin, and maybe there’s a queen top in there. A very small proportion are lights/aquas, which will likely be set aside to await others on that end of the intensity scale.
The temptation to start in on this right away is strong, but I’m going to use it as an incentive for finishing up a few other things higher in the queue.
Among those, my Pixelated Petri Dish, aka “World Traveler,” which is now pieced in large sections for quilting with this method. Here’s one panel ready for quilting:
A nice side benefit of working in sections like this is that I can baste on my kitchen counter, instead of on the floor. Yay!
My goal for today is to finish the basting. This task includes a brief (I hope) intermission during which I will get out the seam ripper and fix one block on the lower right panel that somehow got sewn in at a 90-rotation to intended placement. So annoying. And sooooo much better to have discovered at this stage, rather than after that panel has been basted or, worse yet, quilted!
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I tend to use all that kitchen sink stuff on my quilt backs – which I guess makes all my quilts kitchen sink quilts.
I can’t quite picture what’s wrong with your mis-sewn trip-around-the-world block, but I’ll have to take your word for it!
The panel in the pic is fine… one of the others still on the design wall awaits fixing.
Love what you do with your quilt backs, Dan. For me, by the time I’m putting a back together quick/easy trumps any intentions to be clever/creative with the leftovers.
Like the FULL sink.. haha! the COLROS you use are going to make this a beautiful eye candy quilt!!! Love your palette and eye for color!
Thanks for the inspiration, Victoria!