Rabbit hole
I disappeared down a huge rabbit hole when I decided to tackle that bin of flannel fabric. I wish I'd thought to take a picture of it to show how much I've actually dealt with, but in my enthusiasm I forgot.
I cut and sewed enough of my 'staircase blocks' for at least two large quilts, around 150 blocks in all. I cut some 3 1/2" squares for a simple top, and 2 1/2" squares for a nine patch set with 6" blocks. The fabric leftover was transferred to a much smaller tub and and I continued to whittle it down in a most satisfactory way.
And then I was faced with this....
I hate the string piecing technique, even if I love the effect.
I didn't even want to piece with flannel when it came down to it.
I was just trying to get rid of the whole stash of this.
So why did I care about some strips at all? THROW ....THEM.....OUT!
Sigh, you know where this is going right? I started making half log cabins... not really string piecing, is it? Most of the strings were fairly even so the wonkiness wasn't exaggerated, and I could square up the final round.
OK, I could handle this, and I was sorta interested in seeing how far this pile of strips would take me. That was further than I imagined because I kept cutting for the other projects and added to the pile every day.
By then obsession had set in and I was more involved with the strings than the kits and blocks I was making. I had to forcibly restrain myself from cutting strips for what was turning out to be a rather ugly top. I don't quite know how that happens, but here I was.
I had the idea of setting them with some very dark green strips into sets of four, which took way more brain power than it was worth because they were all different sizes. Then I was faced with a pile of much smaller scraps and squares which I pieced into sashing strips.
I put it on the design wall to photograph it and thought "Why did I bother?" It can only be a wall hanging because of it's size and it's rather overpowering in real life. I suppose I've learnt some things from the experience, namely that I can actually use strings if I stick at it, that it's hard to use up ALL the offcuts from such a limited stash source and I can be sidetracked by projects I'm not even that interested in.
