October | 2011 | Pattern and Outrage : Dee Mallon

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Most quilters I know have a hard time letting even the smallest pieces of fabric go. I have seen entire quilts made of selvedges! I don’t keep the “dog-ear” scraps produced by clipping 1/4″ seams, but I do save miniscule pieces of felt (two large drawers full), pockets of old pants, and every shred of favored commercial prints.

While saving scraps is in keeping with the resourcefulness of early blanket-makers, it can get out of hand. Cleaning up this weekend, I put the scraps that were on the floor to use (above & below) … which was fun and productive. It got me thinking about Script Quilts again (and working on one of them, last picture, below) because to me the scattering of different-sized scraps, some of which repeat, is a lot like speech.

The problem is this – now that I am reminded of what graphic punch a teeny, weeny shred of fabric can have in the right project, I am Loathe to throw them out!

Since I am taking inventory of my studio and labeling everything, I figure as long as I label WHERE these itsy bitsy pieces are going, and limit the amount to the small-ish bin designated, I’ll be okay.

To be continued…

“Venice, Anyone?” is the smallest & bluest of the Global Warming series, to date. Finished it this weekend. Found some older, in-progress pictures from April of this year:

Unlike so many others, this little quilt’s basic composition remained the same from start to finish.

After a few quick seams, I decided to use a little stitch-witchery to adhere rough edges, since I didn’t know when I would have time to actually get around to assembling and quilting.

The red stripes marked where I was adhering fabric with the sticky tape, and even though there are so few, I managed to gunk up the iron by touching a piece. Boo hoo! I had to stop & clean the iron before calling it a day. Because quilting through anything with glue is not great, I kept the sticky tape pieces small and away from edges.

This is possibly a piece that I would have liked the outcome a little better had I decided to go toward gesso rather than thread. Hard to know, now, but the spontaneous feel of collage often is diminished by the finishing process. In this case, the original design stayed put, and I wouldn’t say the quilting took away from it, but it doesn’t really enhance it either, which it should.