cutting, cutting, more cutting - all in a day's work.

I never know for sure what I'll be doing in the sewing room when I wake up each morning.  One morning I decided to reorganize my batting, because the cat had figured out how to get in the closet and she likes to sleep among the batting.  Nice and toasty for her, but not so good for batting.  Now my loose batting lives in this case in the closet and the cat gets a pillow on the shelf.  So far, so good.

 Back in 2000 I made this quilt.

It is reversible with the exact same fabric on the back as on the front.  It was made using these instructions from Quilter's Newsletter Magazine, July/August 1998.

Each block is essentially a four-patch folded on the diagonal of each square. A square of batting is inserted before the last seam is sewn. Then the each block can be quilted and then whip-stitched together to make the quilt.

I revisited the quilt and the process described above in preparation for a demo.  While I made the demo block I decided it would become a small mug rug or coaster. (I 'm not too keen on whip stitching a bunch of blocks right now, though it would make a cute quilt.)

That thought led to the idea of making sets of 4 blocks which I could then give as gifts. Consequently, I cut 360 - 4.5 inch squares from dark blues and shirtings which have occupied my stash a bit too long.    And for the same project I cut from batch of odd sized batting, which had been put aside way back when,  80 - 5.5 inch squares.

Not done yet. I've learned that once I get going with a boring task like endless cutting, I do better when I get as much of it out of the way for multiple projects, rather than complete one project and then go on to the next.  So almost as soon as I finished the above cutting, I decided that I needed new hot pads in the kitchen.  I had a stash of "food" fabric that was "getting old".  So I've cut that up along with some more batting and insul-brite.  I am glad to have that cut and ready for action!  The extra hot pads will go into my gift drawer, too.   It feels good to have found a way to use fabric and batting that has been lying around too long.