I seem to end up with collections of scraps that I don't know what to do with. There was quite a large box full of strips of large florals, toiles, bits leftover from backings that featured large patterns, strips from jellyrolls that varied so much acrosss the width of fabric that they were unusable in any normal way.

One of the first ways of taming these weird pieces is to group them together so you know what you are dealing with and I'd been putting stuff in this container for years. I kept puzzling over what to do and trying to think of some pattern that would bring cohesiveness to such a random assortment of fabric. 

At the start of this year Keryn and I were discussing what we'd like to achieve in our sewing this year, and one resolve was to try different things, in particular something we weren't comfortable with. For me that was string piecing, a style of patchwork I adore but haven't had much luck sticking with.

I loathe the mess it makes! It seems to overwhelm my sewing space and every single seam is a choice and the more you sew, the more mess it makes. I must admit I lose patience with this way of working, but I love the results. I've often joked to Keryn that if I had a separate table and machine and enough space to devote to a "messy corner" I could probably stand it. I like my sewing to be more ordered and in control, I'm afraid.

I saved this picture many years ago and while going through my 'strings' folder in search of inspiration I thought this might be what I was looking for. Varied sizes of strips, so I could use up all of the length of fabric and enough of a pattern to give some structure to the design. Those big florals and strange large patterns and toiles could be used in between more solid strips to calm everything down.

Now I had a plan and drafted a large diamond and cut papers that I could use as a foundation. This much I could handle, and I thought I'd be able to cope with the mess in the heat of inspiration! Wrong! One block was made and then hours of scrabbling and searching and trying out this bit and that resulted in four more diamonds but I'd regressed to hating the whole process. I was left wondering whether to abandon the whole thing.

After more thought (and packing the offending project away out of sight) I may have come up with a plan on how to proceed with this and not drive myself mad. I'll give it another try.....and let you know how it works out!