Piecing and some thoughts

 There's something about a clean cutting table that just makes me want to mess it up!

So, I felt like piecing another easy homeless quilt today, but ran into a problem.  I decided to make windmills:

I follow Mary Johnson's blog: https://blog.maryquilts.com and she also has a website, MaryQuilts.com where she posts easy instructions for a lot of the quilts she makes.  That's where I got the instructions for this quilt.  

I've been quilting since 1993, and usually fly by the seat of my pants!  (I get in a mood to piece, so I piece, etc.)  I don't plan ahead very well!  And at the beginning of the year I decided to cut up scraps into 5" squares and 2-1/2" strips, which I then cut into 6-1/2" lengths thinking that I'll make easy rail fence and plain square quilts for the homeless and use up all these random fabrics.  And over the years, I have tried various ways to use up scraps and various scrap saver systems (like Bonnie Hunter, etc.).  None of them work for me.  I cut the fabrics, but then don't use them. I've given away tons of cut up scraps!  Anyway, today I figured I had a bunch of 6-1/2" strips and I could use them to make the windmills. Problem is the windmills use 4 -4-1/2" strips, so I needed to recut those fabrics and then I didn't have enough of the same fabrics to make the blocks.  What I had was a mess.  And it occurred to me that although I had a bin full of 2-1/2" strips that were cut 6-1/2", not all the fabrics go together!  It's taken me 28 years to figure this out! That's why there are only 22 blocks on the wall and I need 80!  So now I have a real mess on my hands!

This is just one of the bins I have scraps thrown into -- of all sizes, no less.  

So, while I'm piecing the windmill blocks, I'm figuring out what will really work for me as a scrap saver system.   First, I need to sort my fabrics into types.  Most of my fabric is Kansas Troubles, Kim Diehl type fabrics.  I have only bought brights or 30's type fabrics in the past few years and only because our applique club met at a shop that only had those types of fabrics.  So, next I will be sorting the scraps and fat quarters and whatever yardage I have for homeless quilts.  Then, I will pull all the fat quarters I have laying around and sort them also.  Then I will cut into those fabrics that I can use for the windmill quilt, but only cut as I go - not cut the whole fq or piece of fabric up at once.  

And, as I buy fabric or go on a shop hop, I will keep in mind which type of fabric I need to add to and buy fq's of that type.

So, possibly, I will not be able to finish this windmill quilt right away, but I will finally have a system that I can work with -- and when I finally get it working, I can add my stash fabrics (which are sorted by color in my cabinets and are mostly KT or Kim Diehl type fabrics).  I can bet that there will be more of the dark quilts than the bright ones for the next year or two!

I also have Electric Quilt 7 (didn't buy 8 because I rarely use it anymore) - so I think it's time to start using it again to figure yardage and number of blocks, etc. for the homeless quilts instead of just jumping in!

So, that's pretty much my deep thinking at the end of this year!  And I am not unhappy to see 2020 leave!

Until next time.... blessings.