Tumbler Crazy

With all of the TUMBLER Quilts I've been seeing around the blogosphere I felt the need to get in on the Tumbler Craze and make one or more of my own. I've especially loved Nanette's tumbler quilts and others I've seen here and here. I recently went on the hunt for a tumbler template and found an Omnigrid "Come Quilt With Me" tumbler template at JoAnne's while I was in California for the wedding I just got back from. It was $9.99 but if you use your 40% off coupon that would make it about $5.99 don't you just love coupons! I do!

This past week I've been busy rummaging through lots of fabric on my shelves and added them to my pile of civil war fabrics. While I was looking through my fabric stash I re-found lots of great fabric for lots of great projects, oh my, oh my, I wish I could stretch the days. It's hard to keep track of it all especially when I don't have a very functional sewing room as far as shelves and cupboards are concerned. I am lucky to have a pretty good size spare bedroom to sew in so I'm not complaining but I do have dreams of changing it someday in the future.

Here's just part of the mess I made.

Here's a stack of some of the fabric I cut.

My DD Natalie loved the tumbler template so much that she cut some of the fabric that she had planned to use to make a quilt for her DD Kora Belle. I think it's going to be awfully cute when she's done with it.

Here's a picture of some of the fabric I've been cutting. It's probably overkill to cut so much fabric but that's how I like to cut fabric. I love things really really scrappy. The more the better is my motto and since I'm cutting 3 1/2" strips anyway, I just may as well cut all of the strips into tumblers. Right? Right!!! I'm glad you agree.

Here's an aerial view of all of the blocks I've cut so far. Each tumbler stack has 12 different fabrics take that and times it by 9 stacks and that makes 108 fabrics up to this point. I think I've cut another 40 or so since taking this picture! Although it took forever to cut all of it, I know it will be worth it in the end and I'll definitely use it all up, eventually. I think I spent most of the day yesterday cutting fabric into tumblers. My feet really HURT today!

Above you will see a 3 1/2" strip of fabric folded twice toward the selvage edge. I trimmed off a slice and then cut 3 sets of tumblers with four individual tumblers in each set and then I took the folded piece (to the left of strip) and cut two more tumblers. In the majority of strips I cut I was able to get the two extra tumblers and that would make 216 extra tumblers from the 108 strips I had cut, not shabby!!! Just think, you could make a pretty nice little quilt with what you probably would've thrown away.

Did you notice Olfa's 12" Square Rotary Mat behind the tumblers? Well, it's SPECIAL! It's one of those rotating mats and it's definitely one of those gotta have-it's!! It sure makes it easier to cut the tumblers so you don't have to twist your hand or body in an awkward position just to cut them.

Here's a close-up of the fourteen tumblers I got out of one 3 1/2" strip of fabric.

Here's just a small pile of the scraps leftover from cutting the tumblers. I already threw away another pile just as big.

BTW if you've made a tumbler quilt in the past I'd love to come see it on your blog. Just leave a comment with your blog address and I'll come leave a comment! Thanks! Hope you enjoyed this post and I'll make sure to post more pictures as I start putting them together. The first project I'm making is a really long and narrow table runner for my dining room table. It's going to be really pretty on my table when I'm done with it.