Thinking inside the box(es)

I have not posted in a while due to a busy schedule of home improvement projects, family get-togethers, travels to OBX, and spending time at our cabin fishing for the big bass and tasty trout.  However, I have been able to chisel out some time for some quilt related activities.  I have a few quilts nearing completion but most of what I could do needed to be mobile projects that did not require a sewing machine and could be done at our mountain cabin.  

Some of the things that I worked on included sorting and culling down my magazine collection, sorting my boxes and bags of scraps, cutting the aforementioned scraps into shapes and sizes for future projects and hand quilting the bindings onto sandwiched quilts.  I also managed to sort my quilting tips, tricks and patterns that I have printed and clipped over the last 25 years or so into plastic sleeves and file them by category into binders. 

One of my favorite sizes that I cut my scraps into is 2.5 inch squares.  I use my Accuquilt die to cut the larger scrap pieces and rotary cutter to cut the smaller scrap pieces as a way to make the best use of the fabric.  I can cut 54 squares in one pass on my Accuquilt cutter which makes the task go by very quickly.  I cut a variety of shapes from my scraps but I will leave that topic for a future post.  

Since I have accumulated a large number of 2.5" squares, I decided to make a lap quilt from them.  I have made this pattern once before when I was finishing UFO projects in 2016.  You can see that quilt in my May 2016 list of quilts.  

I didn't use a commercial pattern for the quilt but decided to just wing it with the squares I had on hand and fabrics from my stash for the sashing, cornerstones, backing and binding.  The quilting was done by me on my Bernina 350.  The one now in progress will follow the same process.  

This is a very versatile pattern since it can be made in a variety of sizes by changing the number of blocks and/or altering the number and width of borders. 

This leads into the reason for the title of this post.  

My quilt uses 12 blocks containing 36 squares each.  Doing the math, that equals 432 squares that need to be managed.  Each block measures 15" before sewing.  I lay out each block on my Big Board as the squares are selected. 

 I don't have the room for a design wall but I needed to find a way to store the squares for each block so they remained together and in some semblance of order.  I looked at baskets and trays and plastic bags but nothing met my needs.  I looked for boxes that had compartments but none of them had the right size for storing the squares.  Then I visited a Container Store near my home and found the perfect storage system.  It has stackable plastic boxes that have 3" compartments, perfect for 2.5" squares. I chose boxes with 6 compartments and purchased 4 of them along with a coordinating cover for the top of the stack.  They were also reasonably priced!  

Each compartment is the perfect size to hold the 36 squares for each block.  My quilt will need 12 compartments, or 2 boxes.  I use another box for the sashing cornerstones and extra squares just in case. The top box is covered which is allows me to take it when I travel to our cabin.  The 4th box is for future use.  

So, you may have heard of wine in a box, I now have a quilt in a box!  The cost was less than $35 dollars.  These boxes are available on line as well.

These are called "Pure Boxes" and come in a variety of sizes and number of compartments.  An answer to my prayers!

Do something happy today!  

2019 - Filling the Bucket

It's been a few months since I posted anything here.  Life intervened with both good and bad stuff.  Good stuff included wonderful trips to Cape Hatteras in May (with family) and October (with just the Hubs).  Weather was good and fishing was productive on both trips.  We did not bring our Kirby dog on either trip as we had in the past 15 years.  He was getting too weary to do the trip so we left him with our vet in May where he did great.  On this trip we also celebrated an engagement of  two of the youngsters in our family group in Hatteras.  He dropped a knee on the edge of the shore - she said yes!

We also did not take Kirby for our two weeks in October but this, sadly, was because one weekend in early September while we were away for a short trip to Delaware, he went to sleep and crossed the Rainbow Bridge.  We are still in the process of adapting to life without him.

In addition, we lost a dear family member from complications of diabetes.  I requested some of his shirts to make a quilt from them for my sister-in-law.  I have not been able to look at them yet, but soon I will. He was a sweetheart and will be sorely missed.

Happiness returned in early December when a nephew tied the knot to a lovely new member of the family.  It was a cold and rainy day in a beautiful, historic church in Valley Forge. We had such a grand time with all the family, food, dancing and music!

The last black cloud of the year - hopefully the last - was a horrific cold that hit both me and my husband.  No fever or chills but a continuous cough that just would not quit!  For six weeks it would not quit!  Both of us visited medical experts who had waiting rooms full of folks with the same cough!  I finally was given a medication that eased the cough at night and helped me get more than 90 minutes of sleep per night.  I am not a very nice person when I lose that much sleep.  Finally, after 6 weeks, that dratted cough is gone.

2019 has arrived!  And so has my quilting mojo! 

I have several quilts nearing completion, but these are gifts so I can't publish them here just yet.  I have also been busy sorting and cutting scraps and organizing my quilting fabrics, precuts and books.  I did not finish some the UFO projects from the APQ list I thought I could get through.  I will work on them this year but I did not join the APQ UFO project this year.  At this point it does not give me the flexibility I need to work on my projects as needed with all of the other projects on my plate.  

One of the things I try to do with each project is learn something new, try a new technique, try a different type of quilting, learn how to use all the things my sewing machines can do.  I think I found a wonderful way to do this while working on my projects - a bucket list!  While reading the latest issue of the American Patchwork and Quilting magazine, I read an article describing a quilting bucket list.  This list is a checklist of 50 items to try.  I have already done 14 of them.  Of the 50 things to do on the list, 3 are to make a quilt of my choice.  I can think of a log cabin quilt, a tumbler quilt and a storm at sea quilt which could check those three boxes at some time in the future.  

So the 14 boxes that are already checked are 3, 4, 9, 11, 14, 15, 19, 26, 27, 35, 36, 37, 39, and 46.  To see what these numbers mean, or to print out your own quilting bucket list, go to allpeoplequilt.com/bucketlist.  

I will now select one or two bucket list items to work on while I work on my current projects and will report my progress in my next blog post, pictures will be included.  Until then, happy quilting!