New Stash Busting project started on the Friday night sew-in!

Here is my little sewing room / spare bedroom – waiting for the off!
Things didn’t go quite as planned. I asked my husband what he was planning on doing last night and he said “Watch a film – depends on what we’ve got”. Hmm, that means he thinks WE are going to watch a film – but it’s my Friday Night Sew-In!!!!.

I take pity on him, I’ve not seen much of him all week.

“Ok” says I -“Do you mind if I machine whilst we watch it?. I can sew slowly – it’ll be fairly quiet”. He doesn’t look convinced.
Anyway tea is late – about 9pm, and then I still have to put the boys to bed- I’m afraid all it amounted to yesterday was supervise the 6 years olds tooth brushing then comment on the state of his bedroom.
I took all my fabrics downstairs to the living room, and started cutting. I had to stop to make cups of tea, and find the chocolate biscuits for DH but he still fell asleep lying on the sofa, before the film ended. Grrrrrrr.................

At this point I went back upstairs to the waiting sewing room ( and company).

I cut the fabrics into 3 sizes – 3 ½ ", 1 ¾", 1 ¼" by 5 ½". This will give me a 5" finished square.
I have a few design boards that work chucked out – they are cardboard coated polystyrene. There are 2 big ones ( 5 ft x 3 ft?) which live against the wall alongside the bed – once I get them out to use I can hardly moved around in the tiny little room, so I used the medium and small. The small has a piece of wadding (batting) wrapped around it and the other has an old flannel baby sheet.
I spent a while arranging the cut strips – cutting and arranging is all I did yesterday – I stopped at 1 am when DH emerged from the living room.
I plan to set the squares on point in rows, alternating the placement.
And I plan to stagger the rows to have a zigzag backing between them.
So now they have to live on the boards for a while whilst I check them over for balance – I can’t do random sewing together.

Over the 2 boards I have 74 blocks, not really enough for a Quilt.

5" sq will measure about 7" on point.

If I have 9 rows, alternating 8 and 9 blocks I will need 77 - 3 more.

I didn't use the Green leaf batik - and I do have a few strips left over so I need to see if I can get another 3 matched up.

9 x 7" will be 63" - once again not big enough for a 72" square Quilt. That would need a 9" border - OK I guess. 72" would be the minimum to sit on top of our 6' bed.

Or if I make a single bed size Quilt - 10 rows alternating 6 and 5 blocks (42" wide by 70 long) it uses 55 blocks. Possible. I don't like big single bed Quilts as I would trip up over the excess hang - particularly at the corners!

So, that was last night, enjoyed it and am dying to get sewing - it should go together quickly if I sit by the boards and just pick them off and chain piece. I have sewing group on Tuesday night so will have to take a pile to sew.

Off to get on with the day - I'll log on later to see other peoples work.