AMH feathers à la #opgivewarmth

After working basically every day the past month, I decided it was time for some time to myself.

Well, me, some fabric and the sewing machine, that is. ;o)  So yesterday morning started off with an assortment of strips leftover from previous projects, my new AMH feather templates (courtesy of Customplastic), and my zippy Janome 1600P-QC ("Bertha," i.e., the great-grandmother for whom I was not named).

By midmorning I had strip-pieced and cut all the feather sections...

By midday I had pieced all the feather blocks...

And by midnight I had a quilt top.  (...Not entirely unrelated to the two Diet Cokes I'd downed with dinner.)

In retrospect, I don't believe my indecisive self has ever churned out a top quite as quickly as this one.  Especially considering that as of yesterday morning I was set out to use those same strips to make fabric braids (à la Purl Bee) as Rachel of Stitched in Color did for a post in her "Purge" series earlier this month.

But I think I just needed another finish.

That, and I was relatively caffeinated for someone who's gone largely without this summer. :o)

Either way, it's a step in the right direction!

...Though I still might have to add a gradient border fading from blue to pink to tie it all together.  Maybe.  We'll see.  In the meantime, I'm linking up with "the Purge" over at Stitched in Color.  Are you purging along?

string {scrap}tacular

Okay, so this one is a little less scrappy...  It's a three-tone grayscale tartan (not unlike the sketch that started it all):

Fortunately the wind stopped for a split second, so I was able to get a semi-decent full shot ;)

The final quilt will measure ~42" (x = 1.5" for those of you who've seen the pattern).  Sadly I wasn't able to make much progress on my selvage 16 patch this month, though I did manage to finish cutting all my strips last night:

These might be teeny 6.5" finished blocks, but it looks like I'll have plenty of strings to keep the first fifteen blocks company ;)

The only question is whether I should continue with the super-scrappy, pseudo-unplanned match-ups, or if I should switch to pairing like-colors together (e.g. the two on the left in the bottom row above) to preserve the option of doing a final layout where the colors shift from one side of the quilt to the other (like this).  Thoughts?!

If you haven't yet, be sure to check out all the other string festival entries here.  And in case you didn't know, my plaid pattern* is on the {house} (i.e. fo' free!) through tomorrow.

* Note:  I did find a mistake (AH! SORRY!) and will be posting an updated version by the weekend, but if you download it via craftsy beforehand you should get a notice when the corrected pattern is available ;)

scrappy {selvage} st. louis 16 patch

I've been dutifully saving selvages ever since setting eyes on this lovely (you can see Jacquie's finished quilt here).  And by "saving," I mean {generously} trimming selvages before tossing the fabric into the wash (yep, I'm in that camp).

Let's just say that after four years of conscious collection, that s* adds up!  As in, almost seven pounds! {Not including the crate ;)}  To be honest, I always figured I would make that spiderweb quilt (still might!), but these slivers just weren't screaming spiderweb to me anymore.  Enter the st. louis 16 patch (aka BB #1102a, "Mosaic #20").  "Quick and oh so easy"?  Yes please!  Scrappily strip-pieced?  Sold.  And whadda ya know... just in time for string fever ;)

So my selvage elf diligently dove in, meticulously sorting through scraps...

That is, until she started nodding off on the job.

While she snoozed, I managed to pick up her slack in the sorting department...  {Imagine that!}

Get a little bit organized...

And even start sewing ;)

Okay, so I didn't get too far on the sewing front.  But I did manage to cut enough strips for at least 12 more blocks, so keep an eye out for those because this addictive endeavor is officially underway!

Of course, I hadn't been crazy enough didn't have the forethought to trim a full 4" strip along the selvage of each and every (or any) fabric, so I had to scale down the finished square size from 3 1/2" to 1 5/8".  Admittedly, doing so sort of negates the "quick" factor that originally lured me in as I'll need four times as many blocks for every one of Steffani's, but I think it'll be worth it to finally get some use out of these trimmings ;)

If this simple goodness sparks your fancy, be sure to check out Steffani's tutorial* for the "how to" and join Katy's flickr group for the "let's do this!"

*As I'm using selvage pieces, I did make a few modifications to her instructions.  I'll post a {modified} tutorial once I finish the quilt (I'm using very, shall we say, modest seam allowances along the selvage edges and want to make sure they hold up in the wash before I go on blabbing about how to do what I'm doing).

 ;)

Happy Wednesday!  So tell me, any other selvage hoarders out there or am I by my lonesome?  {And if you don't want 'em, I'll gladly take them off your hands!}