Unexpected Quilt, Unexpected Finish

Kind of embarrassing

I have been working really hard on cleaning up the sewing/project room.  For the past months life has been in upheaval and little bits of sewing saved my sanity, but is now calming down, so there is no really good excuse for not getting things in order.

But I can either sew or clean

One of the big things - after clearing the flat surfaces - was to get my mother's stash organized in a way that would make it more useable.  She kept it color sorted in under-the-bed plastic boxes, so that is how I received it.  When I needed to get into it I had to unstack each of the boxes from under the table and stir til I hopefully found something useful.  After 18 months of that I was ready to move on.

Ready for business

I slowly worked through 3 of the 4 boxes and folded it like I fold my fabric, stacked it by color and was even able to get it on the shelf that holds her sewing stuff since I had already worked at sorting and dealing with that stuff and had some empty spaces.  It fit perfectly across the bottom shelf.  Now I can see all the colors and I am using more of it already.  (The 4th box is flannels and odd stuff that needs to be dealt with separately.)

Mommy's shelf

Since I was in the mood to clean and sort I started in on the numerous bags and boxes - mostly hers, some of mine!  What a surprise when I found the pieces for a Trip Around the World quilt in one of her bags.  I had just finished one and had said that even though I enjoyed the process I did not need another.  You can see that quilt  here.  That one used 2.5" strips/squares.  This one had 4" squares.  These fabrics did not seem like something my mother would have chosen and she never left works unfinished, so I do not know why or what or how or anything about this quilt except that it was in her possession.  Good enough for me.

The strips were cut.  Some tubes were sewn.  Some tubes were unsewn at alternating blocks.  Extra fabric was included.   I surely did not need another project, but this was just too tempting.  I laid out what there was and worked at it while the house was empty which is very unusual.  (College R was home and so the girls were out on a sisters outing.)  In about 3 hours I was able to have it all done ready for a border.  I used up as much of the existing fabric as possible to make it as large as possible.  I had to add some of the red color.  I did not have the exact same, but it was close enough and I worked it in so it looked planned.  When I ran out of the dark blue that was it.  I estimate that with borders it will be a good twin size.

Around the World 2

It's not very often that cleaning gets me a finished quilt, but I'm glad it did this time.
Subconsciously I think my motivation for cleaning the room was to work on THIS  this guilt-free!

Bonnie Hunter's Mystery - Grand Illusion!

 Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts  and Confessions of a Fabric Addict  to show off finishes.