This is Going to Take a While

Summer is a great time to work on a quilt. When it’s too hot outside to garden and friends are away on vacations I steal away in my sweat shop. Despite it’s moniker, the sweat shop is the coolest room in the house since it is on the lowest level in the shade of the pine forest. I have great lighting and a big TV so spending time there day or night is a pleasure.

I have been wanting to make a scrap quilt that doesn’t actually look like it is made from scraps. I have many tiny pieces of fabric from the many projects of the last few years. So I decided to make these small three inch squares with a star design. It is a slow process that involves lots of cutting and ironing.

Since I am making a king sized quilt I estimated how many of these little squares I will need at 180. 180 three inch squares would hardly make a crib quilt, but I am going to put them together with lots of larger white squares. On most days I make only about five squares. So far I have about forty. At this rate it will take over a month just to do the squares with color, given that I have some planned days away from home teaching Mah Jongg.

I guess I need to set a goal to get this top done before I go to Maine so I can have it quilted while I’m gone. I am going to have to up my daily output by fifty percent. Being such a task master I am going to order myself to spend more time in the sweat shop. Frugality in wanting to use my scraps is exhausting, but satisfying.