making new from the old

the neater part of my stash, before cutting.

I finally cut into my growing stash of thrifted vintage bed sheets.  I was definitely hesitant to cut without a real project in mind, because I know the value of a large piece of fabric.  But, I finally made myself trim the large pieces (not dissembling the entire sheet into fat quarters, as some bloggers do) so that I could start to work with them.

It's been less than a week, and I've already fallen in love with some of the things I've put together!  Just seeing smaller pieces of these sheets cut up is inspiring!  I have several projects in mind for them, but here's what I've done so far.

First, I cut some squares for a larger quilting project.

I kept cutting and didn't take time to fold the sheets... which made quite a mess.

But Moses appreciated it, even if Mark didn't!

last night, I tried my hand at piecing together string blocks.  It was pretty awesome once I got the hang of it, and I love that it used up all the skinny scraps from cutting the squares!

once I really got the hang of it, I made this mini-quilt, which I think I will turn into a cushion cover.  unsurprisingly, Film in the Fridge has a great tutorial on string blocks.

This will be a long project for me, but here's where I am with the squares!  Can't wait 'til this one (two?) comes together. It will be a major accomplishment for me!

I'm excited about what I've done this week, and so happy getting back into sewing (and this time with my favorite- thrifted vintage sheets!), but I am feeling the tug of guilt over starting new projects while unfinished projects linger.  Especially when many of those unfinished projects were intended as gifts and these new ones are just for me.  I am hopeful that my enthusiasm over new things will carry over into old projects and that I can finish them up in the weeks ahead!