barbarakibler23

that is an awesome picture! Looking forward to seeing what is in the wall of color!

barbarakibler23

I sit in front of a good movie......and cut away.

I also cut my left over fabric from my current projects into 2.5" squares. So I always have a pile to pick from.

djmat

Finished half of the cutting, will pick it up again next weekend & hopefully finish it up. On the lookout for some cool birthday cards. Sewbisgirl, love the way you stack them in the card to save money on shipping, way to go!
Big work week here, may not be able to sign in again until Friday. Hope you all have a productive week!
hugs,
dj

n10sgrrl

So, I cut into that wall of 2.5 inch x WOF of fabric strips and learned a few things. . . What I did works but is not the fastest way to do it. So here is what I did (and then I'll explain what I'll do in the future instead).

What I did: Cut out 3 strips from 50 different fabrics. Then I stacked all the strips from one fabric together in a row. I then repeated that 6 more times. So I had 7 rows of fabric strips each with 3 strips of fabric. I carefully lined up the rows one under another and used my 6 x 22 inch ruler to cut them into squares. This went pretty fast. The problem was I ended up created 50 piles of the same kind of fabric, which then had to be sorted into 48 stacks of 50 unique fabrics. This took a loooong time.

What I'll do next time, or maybe a better way to do it when cutting from fabric that is WOF. Cut a strip that is 7.5 inches. Then cut that in half so it is 22 x 7.5. You will have 2 bricks of 22 x 7.5. Cut your remaining fabrics and organize them into 2 piles, each pile will have 50 unique fabrics each measuring 22 x 7.5. Then follow DJ's cutting instructions from post #38 - Stack 5 high, line up carefully, cut off salvages, etc. When you cut, cut the narrow end into 3 2.5 strips, then cut those strips into 2.5 inch squares. Then you can put the squares directly into pile/bags/envelopes for each person. (And skip the sorting step that I had to do.)

Hope this is makes sense. Let me know if it doesn't.

jaba

Finally done, I've never cut so many 2 1/2" squares in all my life!! Anyone have some photo's of what you do with these? Would love to see some examples[ATTACH=CONFIG]509504[/ATTACH]Ended up with 52 in each stack, now to go find some B-day cards

happylab

Oops, I forgot to check in prior to the 5th of this month, Sorry. I just found the new site for this year. Anyway, this is my second year for this swap. I really enjoyed this swap last year. Next week I will start making my candy packets, I've already getting my fabric together. This year I will cut out everything early.

Later on this year I plan on starting to make my 1st scrappy 2 1/2" quilt top. From my last Years's candy I recieved. I have a few patterns picked out to make. Until I start them I'm working on QB mystery train tops (7 & 8), 1st. FYI mystery train #9 starts Saturday February 21st, it's another scrappy. Yea!!!! I can use up more of my scrapes.
Well enjoy cutting everyone and sewing and quilting.

moonrise

Last night I made birthday cards to put the "candies" in.

I had to go to Michaels over the weekend and buy some new scrapbooking stuff to make the cards. Darn. Don'tcha just "hate" buying shiny new craft supplies?

sewbizgirl

Handmade cards... what a treat!

Looking good, Jaba! I'll try to post some patterns I have put aside for "candies".

sewbizgirl

This is my pinterest page where I have pinned the scrap quilts that inspire me. If you scroll down a bit you will see a bunch of quilts made with 2 or 2.5" squares. "Growing Up Odd" is pretty cool, as is "wonky stars".
https://www.pinterest.com/bonbonevans/scraps/

There is also a pattern online called "Crazy 8s" that works with our little candies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe_veu0T-a8

Janice McC

Thanks, sewbizgirl. I just went to your Pinterest page and Growing Up Odd is the one that caught my eye. I didn't realize until I came back to thank you that it was one you noted. Thanks!