Still sewing 08-21-12

It doesn't seem like much, does it?  Unfortunately, I don't have a designated cutter person, so I have to cut my own fabric strips, after I have dug through my "fabric room" to find appropriate red/white/blue fabric.  One of the golds came in the Baggie I picked up at the meeting, but there wasn't nearly enough, so I had to find a gold of my own.  And the plain white in the Baggie didn't seem to work very well, so I had to find the white with gold stars and the white Statue of Liberty fabric (1986) and I need to find another print w/white background that will work.  I seem to have lots of stripes, but there can be too many, I think.  Actually, I'm not very good at doing random.  I suppose that is the influence of sixty-five, or so years, of quiltmaking and most of it traditional.  But also the exacting piecing techniques of Ruth McDowell which makes so much sense to me - it is anything but random.   I would be happier with figuring out how much yardage I need, selecting enough fabrics, do all the cutting, pin the pieces up on the wall and move them around until it looks okay and then start sewing. I'm signed up for Rayna Gillman's class at Empty Spools/Asilomar next March and expect to learn something about this way of working.  Meanwhile I'm just feeling my way - one hour at a time.

 
These vertical strips are just pinned up side by side.  They are only 50" long when they need to be 78" to 80".  Hence the need to find, press, cut more red/white/blue fabric.  AND I need to make 24 more strips.  At the rate I am going I may not have this ready to turn in at the next SQG meeting on September 11th.