Under the Needle: July

 I was in my sewing room quite a bit this month, but I wasn't always sewing. 

But this month I managed to get my Land of Enchantment top together. I had made all the blocks earlier, but it had a pieced border so I completed that this month. I've been trying to use what I have, but I didn't have anything even close for a backing and I caved when I saw this fabric online and had to have it.

I didn't get a lot of sewing done this month because I started cutting into my scraps. Tackling a 32 qt tote of scraps was a daunting task, but I stayed focused and emptied the bin! Some of it has been used, but all of it has been pressed, cut down into usable sizes, and I've made notes for how I intend to use much of it. Hopefully I can stay on top of things and not let it pile up like that again. It was a lot.

I am currently binding this Farmhouse Summer quilt in the evenings.

And I went ahead and cut the leftovers into 5" squares that I'll stitch into HSTs for a bonus quilt.

I've been making Bonnie Hunter's 4-Patch Fun blocks as leader-enders. I've just made 10, but as I was working through my scraps, I cut and clipped 50+ together so they are ready to stitch

I picked up 2 quilts from Jackie and stitched the binding to the fronts.

I dropped off 2 and finished 2 this month - Blustery Day

And Gingham Farmhouse

I feel like most of the month was spent processing my mountain of scraps, but I'm so glad to have those cut down and ready for some fun scrap quilts. I didn't have any low volume fabrics in my scraps tote, although I do have some in my 2.5" strip bin, so the stacks of low volume prints were all cut from fat quarters or yardage

I started with this quilt

From this book

There are 2 different blocks and I made one of each to see if I wanted to commit to making an entire quilt. It uses 2" strips and squares which isn't going to whittle those scraps down very quickly, but it's fun to revisit these fabrics and get them out of the tote and into these cheerful blocks.

I also cut scraps down for this quilt that uses 1.5" strips. 

Again, I made one block before I cut pieces for the entire quilt. It was a slow process, but I will stitch the rest of the blocks in an assembly line fashion and that will make them come together much faster.

I also cut a variety of strips, including 5" strips (not pictured because I already put them away).

Sewing continues, but I am stepping away from the rotary cutter for a while. Making scrappy quilts creates a huge mess, but it's all part of the process and despite the piles, it's an organized chaos and I'm looking forward to moving these projects forward.