Some Assembly Required

 I now have 48 Spider Web blocks! 

An empty shoe box of 1.5 inch strips or 26 more Webs for my target of 48 was my OMG (One Monthly Goal) for May.   I made all my Webs and almost emptied the shoe box too. The remaining strips went into the bright strings box to be used in a couple of other UFOs. 

 This week's 16 blocks are on the left. The pile of previously made blocks are on the right. 

A total of 48 blocks...192 wedges...2112 pieces (if my pencil and paper math is correct).

It's about time!!! I started these webs back in October 2015 but ran out of 1.5 inch scraps a couple of times along the way.  When I decided to move this UFO forward this month I had 22 blocks and a shoe box full of 1.5 inch scraps accumulated over a few years to work with. 

Now there's some assembly required. 

Maybe I'll have a top completed for the next Wednesday Web report. Or this might be the last Wednesday Web report. Time will tell. 

One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts

Wednesday Webs

 Only two more Spider Web blocks to show for this week. Now I have 24 blocks which is exactly half of my goal. 

 No worries, though. I have lots of block quarters that need trimming and papers removed.  I trim a few up each day if I feel like it (I don't like trimming) and then remove papers while watching TV after dinner.  Then I sew them into blocks the following day. Well, in theory that's how it's all supposed to work. Some parts of the process get clogged up sometimes but things are still moving forward somehow or other. 

 I also prepare pieces for sewing the next day in front of the TV.  I think that spider and webs glow in the dark.  I'm not normally awake when it's dark so I'm not sure if that's true. 

 I usually work on 8 quarters at a time and cut pieces for each round as I sew. So I sew a strip each side, get up and iron, cut pieces for next round, sew a strip and so on.  I use a tiny stitch setting so papers practically remove themselves when I sew. That means these blocks are thread eaters. I sew with old thread from the thrift store, ends of spools, bobbins that aren't empty in any color. And then when those run out I sew with cheap polyester thread from Dollar General. 

 As I cut strips I keep two piles of short strips going. If after I cut a piece it looks too small for the first round I put it in a pile. I will sort through it for pieces to cut for each successive found before I cut additional pieces from strips in the shoe box.   If a strip seems too small for the end piece it goes into a baggie. At some other time I will sort through that baggie and cut postage stamp squares of 1.5 inch or sew them all together into one long strip. 

To make this quilt I've been using Bonnie Hunters tutorial for a 10 3/4 inch block.  I'm using 1.5 inch scraps that have been accumulating for quite some time. 

In 2012 I made a Spider Web quilt using a tutorial from Quilt It and a varied widths of scraps.  That tutorial uses a fabric foundation that is cut away so I felt there was a lot of waste. 

But I've saved that "waste" all these years and I've been sewing some of those scraps together into larger pieces of made fabric to cut and use for some of the center kite pieces for this string quilt. 

Strips and Strings; Spider Webs and Hearts

 I've been using 1.5 inch strips to continue work on an old Spider Web UFO. 

I've been using low volume (well, mostly low volume) strings to make Hearts. 

Strips, Strings, Scraps! Oh, my! 

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

WIPs to UFOs to WIPs Again

 I have several boxes and bins of UFOs. They are UFOs for a variety of reasons.  Periodically I dig through to see if there's anything I feel like actually finishing.  I feel like finishing Wagon Wheels so made four this week and moved them out of the UFO box and into their own project box.  That makes 16 blocks total now out of 63 required. 

I started these nine inch Wagon Wheel blocks in July 2013 and worked on them a little in 2015.  The pattern is from a McCall's DVD I think I've misplaced now so good thing the instructions and templates were with the blocks.  I found these difficult to make when I started them. But since then I've made a lot of quilts with curves so they seem pretty easy to make now as long as I remember to cut the pieces correctly. 

Actually this is a smaller block version of an Anna Maria Horner pattern called Spinning Stars that I made in 2015 and called Petunias and the quilt I have in flimsy stage called Salsa Dancing. 

Now that it is in it's own project box and out where I can see it I hope to make a few blocks each week out of 30s reproduction fabrics and solids although I don't have many solids to choose from. 

 And speaking of 30s reproductions...this is another UFO that recently got it's own project box - little five inch string blocks.  It looks like I started these in 2014 to use my 1.5 inch 30s reproduction scraps.  The reason this became a UFO is because I ran low on scraps and didn't want to cut any fabric specifically for these String Stars.  The stars are Kona Spring and I had a piece of it folded around the blocks I had made. The Kona Spring reminds me of the green Grandma used in her quilts in the 30s so that's why I picked that color.  I used a tutorial at the Molly Flanders blog. 

 Over the years I've been accumulating 1.5 inch 30s scraps for this project. 

I've been working on about ten blocks a day. I have all the foundation squares cut and I'll be darned if that piece of Kona was exactly enough fabric to give me the size quilt I want. Weird since I didn't really know what size quilt I was making until I recently dug out this UFO. 

 Now this UFO turned WIP has a project box all to itself too. 

After I'm finished with those 1.5 inch 30s scraps they will go into the project box with the general population of 1.5 inch scraps I've been accumulating to move forward on my Spider Web quilt using the tutorial at Quiltville.  I previously used the Quiltville tutorial to make a Spider Web quilt in 2012. That one used different sized strings.