Saturday, June 30, 2012

When life gives you scraps...

As you may remember, I have been trimming all my scraps into workable pieces, from 2" up to 6" (cut in half-inch increments).  I have over 10 gallons of scraps now (sounds odd to measure fabric by the gallon, but each bag is a one-gallon ziplock).  I used some of the 3" pieces for the Girl Scouts to make into 9-patches (sewn by hand) and took the 2" pieces in the car to work on as a Purse Project while waiting at doctor offices, dojo, or in the car waiting for the kids to get out of school.  Now it's summertime...

I found a pattern in a magazine to use these scraps in the Fons and Porter magazine from a couple months ago.  I took out the bags and set to work making some 4-patches this weekend.  These are all scrap pieces that I cut up into 2 1/2" squares and are sewing in light/dark pairs, then the pairs into fours.  My plan is to make it into a Milky Way quilt for our bed.  This is what the pattern looks like:

Milky Way Quilt Pattern


Of course, this is going to be very scrappy and it'll be a King size, so there are a lot of pieces to it.  After making the necessary 144 four-inch 4-patches, I will have to make 288 four-inch half-square triangles (made from 144 lights and 144 darks), and 144 solid squares (72 light, 72 dark).  Then the border with a whole bunch of 4-patches...77, if I calculated right.  This will make it 108" wide and 104" long...although I may trim a row off to make it another 16" shorter since I don't need a pillow tuck and it tends to just puddle on the floor at the end of the bed anyhow.  We need the width, not the length.

Also, we are fighting a mold & mildew issue in the kids' bathroom.  I suspect that the fan isn't pulling enough moisture (or anything) out of it, and we have to determine if it's a venting problem or a fan problem.  I can hear it running, but it isn't strong enough to hold a tissue against it.  I'm not sure if there's a blockage or if the fan is backwards or what.  I'll have to find a handyman...especially if I need to get someone on the roof.

Sounders game day today!  Got my green on!  Hope they actually pull off a win today--they're in a slump.

2 comments:

  1. You might take the fan apart and clean it. We did that last year with our fan upstairs and it was better for a while.

    You might also replace it with a stronger fan. It might be undersized for the number of people using the bathroom.

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  2. Can't wait to see the scrappy delight. We have bathrooms without outside windows too and it's really hard to keep the moisture out of them. Hopefully you can find a cheap and relatively easy fix to the problem.

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