Hexie Works in Progress & Getting Organized

This year, I am committed to organizing my home and fabric stash, and more importantly, staying on top of it. I know there are people who diligently cut scraps into usable pieces and then put them away in color coded bins. I am not one of those people. I fill a waste bin behind my sewing table as I sew, and when it is full, I stuff the fabric into one of many closet drawers designated for scraps, and then I dig through the drawers when I have a project in mind.

Because I like working with little scraps, I have a tendency to save too many little odd bits. Every scrap has potential. I decided to take some of these irregular bits and cut them into 1/2" hexies. At some point I will cut some squares for tiny patchwork, and perhaps make some more 1/4" hexies. It feels pretty good to process the fabric, however, even though I fly through the actual cutting process with my less than scientific method of cutting, it is severely taking away from my actual sewing time.

Of course, I have to have a little hand sewing project going on to keep me motivated, so I started pulling rainbow colors. I wanted to make a little rainbow mini or pillow using fabrics similar to the rainbow sew together bag I made for a friend last year.

I didn't want to do the exact same layout, and I didn't want to spend as much time with gradation of color, but I wanted a similar feel. I did a lot of coloring and decided on this layout. My husband would rather I made a pillow than a mini, so I may add some rows to the side to make it more square, or I may just add a border; we will see. The pic at the top of the post is most likely my final layout - made with minimal fussing; I swapped out a few fabrics that seemed off, but they are most are right where I stuck them out the outset.

Once I am done with this project, I am back to working on a big hexie project that has been in my closet untouched for months - a lap size quilt with 2" hexies. It is probably 60-70% complete, and most of the hexies I need to finish it are already basted. I worked like a madwoman on this quilt for about five weeks and then had to take a break because my hands were screaming at me. I put it in the closet, and you know, out of sight, out of mind. 

Here is my first progress pic, taken on July 9th.

Here is my last progress pic, taken on August 7th.

Organization is going well. I have all of my strips, strings, selvages, and binding scraps nicely stacked/bagged. I discovered I have enough scrappy trip strips to make a second lap size quilt. I broke down and bought some matching storage shelves for fat quarters and yardage to replace the mishmash storage I had before. I am determined to sew as much of the stash as I need to in order to keep from overflowing these shelves, and to keep returning the fabric to the designated cube when I complete projects.

Finally, I leave you with a meme generated by my daughter to memorialize the night that my husband came home hours earlier than expected and found me sitting on the floor of my closet with all of these fabric in piles around me, folding and sorting my entire stash. Let me tell you, it looks like a lot more fabric when you are sitting in the middle of it on the floor.