Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Cutting, Committing, and Cuffs

Sometimes what I do in the sewing room seems hardly worth mentioning.  Cleaning up, refolding fabric, making frankenbatting...those are the kinds of things I've been up to.  Necessary, but mostly background stuff.  Eventually, it leads somewhere.  

I picked up a few shirts at the thrift stores last week.  It used to be (and not long ago) that I could buy a decent shirt for $3.99, but now they're almost double that in price and then some if it's a name they associate with a premium brand, which seems weird to me because brand name doesn't always correlate to quality.  Wow, I sound like such an old person.  

Anyway, when I shop for shirts now, I take note of the tag colors that are 50% off and hone in on those.  I came home with a good armful of them, and a few other items.

(Thrifted zippers for bag making and some thread.)

(I think this thrifted shirt and striped fabric will become a bag.)

Over the next few days, I cut up shirts.  There ended up being a nice pile to add to the stash.


I usually toss the cuffs and collars, but I played around with them first.  The thought occurred to me that perhaps I could join the cuffs together for a table runner.  


After removing the buttons and giving them a good pressing, I butted together the cut ends and zigzagged them, then joined them all in a row.  At that point, I couldn't tell if the idea was "cool" or "crap."


Should I trim them off evenly and use the button plackets as an edging and finish it that way?  I mulled it over for a few hours and then decided to toss it in the orphan box to marinate and move on.  But as I started to do that, I passed the bookshelf in the sewing room and decided to try the piece out on top of it in place of the vintage fruit-themed dresser scarf that was there.


Well, well, well...  I liked it there!  A humble little runner under the old toy tractor my dad used to have for his grandkids to play with.  It'll do just fine, as is.

Now what's next? I pondered.  A few ideas were floating around in my head, but I needed to focus.  One way to help me do that is to make a commitment, so I went and signed up for the Hands2Help Comfort Quilt Challenge.  

With that in mind, I started cutting out a sampler-type quilt from a free pattern I downloaded from JOANN and bought fabric for a few months back.  I really like those big wavy curves.  It's something a little different for a sampler.


I originally thought it would be a baby quilt, but it's more like lap quilt size. So I'm going to make it up for H2H.  At least, that's my thought at the moment.

Here's the first block on the design wall.  Turns out the fabric wasn't as bright blue as the pattern seemed to indicate, but that's okay.  It is a little brighter looking than the photo in real life, but more a muted navy than medium blue in any case.


What are you working on?

~Paulette

5 comments:

The Joyful Quilter said...

What a fun shelf topper, Paulette! Kudos for signing up for H2H (and getting started on your quilt right away.) The was I see it, patterns are simply a suggestion. As long as the value contrast is approximately the same, the resulting quilt would be successful in nearly ANY color combination you like!

Nancy @ Grace and Peace Quilting said...

Love the cuffs runner!!! Goes so good with your vintage tractor--memories of grandpa/dad ❤️

Quiltdivajulie said...

That cuffs runner is awesome!!! And I like the more muted blue for the baby quilt. What an interesting sampler design!

Nann said...

I like the cuff runner....call it "Off the Cuff"? Our local thrift shop prices are higher, too. Wednesday is senior discount day (at Salvation Army) and then there's the tag-color-of-the-week. The best shirt bargains are at church rummage sales, though.

Alycia~Quiltygirl said...

Oh wow - what a great idea - that cuffs runner is just perfect for your table - and so cool!!!