What to do? What to do?

There is no way this picture does these fabrics justice!  I love these.  I have been hoarding these and decided that 2013 was the year to get them out and just "do something" with them.

They are Cherrywoods and are incredibly unique.  They really do look like suede -- they are hand-dyed -- and each piece is unique.  These come from "Grab Bags for Crazies" that I've picked up in Houston and Chicago and they are end pieces.  So -- as you can see, there are various sizes and I want to maximize every little inch of them.  Yardage is not cheap and a grab bag is a great way to get a lot of scraps that are big enough to do something with.

I've sorted them by shade just to see what I had.  Not many greens.  Not many yellows.  Not many red/oranges.  Lots of brown/rust.  Lots of blue.  Lots of purple.  I'm okay with all that.  But -- what to do?  What to do?  With a goal of using almost every scrap from irregular size pieces, it's hard to decide on what pattern.  I knew I didn't want to do a lot of piecing since that puts way too much of this gorgeous fabric in the seam allowance.  That can work with some scraps -- but not with Cherrywoods!

I started with this -- which is okay but a little boring and only allowed one block per piece of fabric with some left over.  Block was about 7.5".

So, to help with the "boring" part, I did this.  At first I liked it -- then I didn't.  So this is not it.

I think I have decided what I'm going to do and have started cutting 5.5" squares for the first step. But, after cutting several squares 5" (instead of 5.5") -- I decided to keep them on the design wall and regroup!  Seriously!  I love these fabrics and then I keep making boo-boos that can't be fixed.  What on earth!  Time to step back and just enjoy them.

So -- while that was frustrating, I did do some string piecing to get a tote of bright strings emptied.  Aren't these fun?

I hope you are inspired. I hope you are doing something fun.  I hope you are cutting your precious fabric accurately!

Jan