Scrapbuster Saturday

It has been a really long time since I've done a Scrapbuster Saturday, and believe me, it was time.  My scrapbasket(s) are overflowing!  I'm participating in the MSBBS - or for those of us who require vowels, the Mini Scrap Basket Block Swap.  The goal is to make 6-1/2 inch string blocks and swap them.  I missed the deadline for the last swap.  I think it was April 15, and things were just crazy, with 2 trips to Utah in 3 weeks and a new baby grandson.  I just never got the blocks made.  This round the deadline is June 10. 

I'm even a little early this time!

I love the look of string quilts, but I've only made a couple of string blocks before today - once for a swap and once to contribute to Val's Heroes quilt.  The above blocks were the ones contributed to the Heroes quilt last November.

But today, I was determined to make a whole bunch of blocks and at least make a dent in the scrap basket.  I cut the paper backs from a mini phone book that showed up at the house a few weeks ago.  Don't bother looking for the A's or B's.  They're not there any more. 

Then I dug through the scrap basket and pulled out all the strips left over from other projects. There were a passel of them.

I made 48 string blocks and didn't have to cut a single strip of fabric, although I trimmed a few.  About half way through I decided that the blocks looked better with narrower strips.  The jelly roll strips were a bit too wide for this project.

When the blocks were done and pressed, I trimmed them just outside the paper foundation.  This is the bag of scraps from trimming.   Pretty, no?  And pretty huge.

You would think that with all this activity, I would have made a real dent in the scrap basket, wouldn't you?  Well, not so much.  It barely looks different than before I started this morning.  Maybe a bit tidier, but not a lot of additional room in there.  I obviously need another scrapbuster project very soon.

Once I finished all the blocks, I sat down and watched Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail on the tube.  It's a good thing I had something else to do, because pulling the paper off the block is truly a mindless task and a pain in the neck.  Is the paper really necessary?  After about 30 blocks though (ok, maybe not quite that many) I figured out that if you "pop" the block before you try to remove the paper it tears the paper at the perforations and the paper then comes off a lot easier.  Live and learn.

Here's the other pile of scraps - paper scraps.  You would think I would have used at least that much fabric, wouldn't you?

So, one more project done.  I'm not sure I'm going to swap all 48 of them - some of them will be hard to part with.  Nothing wrong with keeping some of them, right?

Block Party

The other day, I was prowling around blogland, when I ran across a post on Val's blog, Pink Please, about her desire to make a quilt to auction to raise money for cancer treatment.  Her post touched me in several ways.  First, both of my parents died of cancer - my mom more than 25 years ago now.   Then in 2004, my best friend (whom I still miss every day) lost her long battle with the ugly disease.  Then, this year, two of my co-workers, both quite young, are valiantly fighting this menace.  One of them, only 46, has pancreatic cancer.  Another, barely 30, has breast cancer.

It seemed like the least I could do was make a couple of quilt blocks.  Hardly a sacrifice at all, really.  Certainly nothing like battling cancer.

And check out the blocks she has received so far!  I am blown away!  This quilt is going to be AWESOME!

On a happier note, I am a member of the Fall Bee, and this is Anna's month.  She chose spider web blocks in batik fabrics.  Here's mine.

 It is a fun pattern, made from the tutorial at alamodefabrics, but I really felt like there wasn't as much contrast as I would have liked.  However, these are the fabrics I was sent, so this is the block I made.  I haven't sewn much with batiks, so this was kind of fun.  This block looks so complicated, but is really very easy if you follow the tutorial. 

Since this was a long weekend (thank you WH and all you Veterans and Veteran's families!) I had plenty of time to play and get caught up.  I read a little, sewed a lot, and maybe, just maybe, I can go back to work rested enough to last until Thanksgiving - only 10 days away!