Marsha as Mentor

Marsha is nothing, if not practical. That's not to say that she isn't a rampant stash-builder like so many of us. But she uses everything up. She'll set aside her scraps as she finishes a quilt and when she has time, she cuts them into standard sizes and puts them away. She's amazing. She accepts itsy-bitsy scraps from the rest of us with the greatest delight. "My limit is an inch and a half," she proclaims. I've never put that to the test. I hate to see a good woman fail and I know she'd feel too sorry for the miniscule tidbits to cast them off.
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She has a scrap quilt that she hand pieced. She's the only person I know who does hand piecing, as a regular activity. Em and and a couple of others do a little of it, but I was amazed at Marsha's full-size quilt, entirely hand pieced in odd moments here and there. Somehow it is a "free" quilt -- made from scraps in segments of time that would otherwise have gone to waste. She explained that she'd cut squares all the same size, put them in a baggie, and then hand-pieced 9-patch blocks in the dentist's waiting room, during the kids' play practices, in front of the television, probably even sitting at red lights, for all I know.
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I decided to give it a try. I have a lot of left-overs from a couple of Moda projects that I did in the past year or so, and I thought I'd cut them up and bag 'em.
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Later today we're leaving for a weekend trip to visit our sons; having something small to take along made sense since my current handwork is quilting the border on Joe's quilt. On my way to the Moda, however, I just about tripped over the tote that holds the Daiwabo scraps. And lots of them were already cut to 2.5 inch squares, left over from the two quilts I'd made. It was only a half-hour or so of work to press them and cut some more. I now have a little tote bag outfitted with a baggie of 2.5s, a baggie of what appear to be 2.5s but really should be checked, a 4.5 square ruler, a 6x1 straight ruler, a very small Olfa mat, pencil, and my old small rotary cutter. Am ready for the trip (once I get my clothes packed and find the directions to Andrew's!). Stay tuned.