Waste not, want not, I’ve heard it all of my life. Mom reused things folks today would never think about reusing in today’s world. Aluminum foil was cleaned, folded neatly, and stored away to be reused when needed. Mom washed the plastic bags she had frozen food in and used them again. Bacon drippings were saved and used for seasoning vegetables, bread was saved even though it was beginning to dry out because it made the best dressing (cornbread) or bread pudding (white bread). So I’m guessing that is why I save and reuse too. I especially like to save all the fabric I can.
When I bring fabric home from the store and it has an uneven edge, I have to trim it up to make it even before I start cutting a pattern from it. Sometimes what I cut off will have enough at the widest end to let me cut two or four small blocks of 1 ½ inches or maybe two inch blocks. When I do this I toss the blocks into a box to be used in a project someday. My golden rule is to use the blocks, not just save them, so when the box is full I start using them because I’m determined not to create another box of pieces.
Here is my box of 1 ½ inch squares (I had already used a huge number of them before taking the picture) and I began sewing them together as leader and enders while making another quilt.
I made two quilts while using the 1 ½ inch squares as leaders and enders and then it became my primary project as I sewed the five and one-half inch blocks together. I had made 400 of these blocks so I had enough for a king sized quilt top.
My intention was to try to put the blocks together to look like a tile floor I had seen in a picture but I simply could not make it work so I fell back on my old stand-by – – – Bonnie Hunter. In one of her books she had shown how to arrange blocks like this in a pattern called Perkiomen Daydreams and I used her layout to arrange my blocks.
When I saw a dime on one of the little squares that made up my blocks, I realized just how small those squares really are. It was then I thought, “I must be losing my mind!”
The blocks were made so I put them together, and let me just say, “That is a LOT of corners to have to match.” And when I saw it finished and spread on my bed it simply took my breath away to think that I had made that.
Am I pleased with it? Absolutely!
Am I proud of what I did? You bet!
Will I make another one? I don’t think so!
Here is what it looks like finished.
Here is a close-up of some of the blocks.
Most often asked questions:
How many squares are in the quilt? 10,000
How long did it take you to make it? 3 months
Did you make this using strips or one block at a time? One little square at a time!
Could you make one in ———–(fill in a color here) for me? I could but I’m not going to do it.
Thanks for reading my blog!
Oh-h-h-h, my GOODNESS! You have talent and patience that I don’t have. “Beautiful” isn’t always a sufficient description, – I am awed by the quilts you create.
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Love the quilt Dale and you writings.
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Not only do I admire your beautiful quilts, Dale, as I have told you many times before, but I admire you for the patience it has taken. One and a half inch squares – oh my!
Glad Matthew has passed you by.
Jo-Anna
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WOW! What a work of art!
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I have saved sooo much material since I started sewing 5 yrs ago..and many of those r pieces as small as what u mention. The things u describe about your mom are identical to mine; from foil to sandwich baggies. TY for sharing the photo of your 1″ quilt. I think I’ll go back to my hobby room & clean it out to reattempt this. I want to finish the recycled clothes quilts I’ve planned on but how sweet to see what beauty can come from the tiniest of scraps!
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Thank you for the kind words! I hate to see fabric wasted and I currently have a huge bin of neutral scraps and another of colored scraps so I see a winter’s worth of string piecing ahead of me to try to get it to a manageable amount.
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