So what do you do with all those cane ends? Part three

At the end of part two, there were leftovers from the leftovers.  We can use those, too!

Take the uneven piece that was cut off the smashed cane end and roll it up as below:

Roll this piece into a snake and cut in half...

Push the snakes together and cut in half again...

Push those two halves together, and you have a square cane...

Reduce a bit and cut into four pieces...

Put the pieces together for the final cane.  It's on the small side...maybe 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch square, depending on how big your pieces are.

You can make some nice small beads with it, though.

So here's the initial canes I made...all with the rainbow cane for the snail's trail pattern:

I'm guessing the same principles hold for other quilt patterns, but since I'm still obsessing over the snail's trail pattern, I can't say for sure...stay tuned, I'll probably get to more patterns before too long....

So what do you do with all those cane ends? Part two

I tend to go two ways with ikat canes...squares and petals.  It can be a difficult decision, sometimes.

And that's not the only choice.  Do I stack them up with the colors going all one way like I did below, or flip them and alternate the layers as I did above.

Eh...I went with all one way:

Don't compress together too quickly...try it a couple of different ways and see how you like it.  Different color combinations and layers can look great one way, not so much another.  Once you've decided on how you want it, compress them into squares (to start with, anyway):

Do you  mind if I blather on about some observations here?  The canes with the white on the ends look a little muddy to me.  I think if you're using snail's trail cane ends, it turns out better to have the colors on the outside.  The white gives definition to the layers on the inside and they look better.  Of course, it depends on what YOU like, so experiment away!

I'm going to make one of the muddy ones into a square cane.  Cut the cane on the diagonal; flip one piece around to make a triangle; stand the triangle on it's longest side and cut through it lengthwise; flip one piece over and push them together to make a square; TA-DA!

Okay, for the next one, I took the initial cane and just started pressing in the sides; take it slow and work your way up and down the cane; you can work it with your fingers until it's the petal shape you want; TA-DA!:

Here's the canes I made:

But wait--there's more!  Remember those little tips you cut off (well, you should have cut off), after passing the smashed cane ends through the pasta machine?  I even do something with those...in part three!

So what do you do with all those cane ends? Part One

I'm so glad you asked!  Now I'm sure there are a LOT of people out there who are very patient and careful with their canes and have almost no waste.  Um...not me.  I'm far too impatient, so I tend to have a lot of waste at the ends (see above).  Never fear, though, I've come up with a few things to do with them.  Buckle up, kiddies...this will take a while.

So let's take a closer look...here are the cane ends from the rainbow cane I did a bit ago:

I'm going to flatten these things and run them through the pasta machine.  I'm going for the crushed ikat, but like almost everything else, there are choices.  I'm going to compress one so the colors are on the outside ends and one so that the white is on the outside ends.  Here, let me show you:

Heh.  How fortunate that I have two pieces each, so I don't need to make a choice.  Anyway, flatten them good and then run them through the pasta machine:

Fold them over:

and over again:

then once more through the pasta machine:

Hmmm...let's see what that looks like, shall we?

If you like the look, go ahead and cut and stack them up; otherwise fold and run through the machine again.  I wound up running them through one more time and then started cutting and stacking:

Ack!  Choices again!  I think this post is getting pretty long...I'll get into the options in part two....

Little Wolfie...

Remember last year (for the Emerald City Comic Con) when I made a "Little Vampire" necklace for Rebecca at Lunasea Studios?  Well this year I made a little wolfman:

...Getting it right!

After shading from light to dark in the orange and purple snail's trail cane, I thought...hmmm, what if I used a rainbow of colors:

I put the cool colors on one side and the warm colors on the other.  I made two different canes, green/blue/purple and yellow/orange/red and then red/orange/yellow and green/blue/purple.

Here's how it turned out; (I had enough cane left to make a third cane combining the two...it's on the bottom):

And after one more reduction:

I put the combo cane together a slightly different way:

And reduced it one more time:

I've gotta say...I totally love these rainbow color combinations.  I'm not sure I could pick a favorite....