Let what I have dictate what I choose to do

     Moving had me stuff a lot of fabrics into a lot of places.  It's been frustrating looking for fabric I know I have, and being unable to find it as it's been stuffed somewhere.  I have attempted to reorganize my fabric collection back into the plastic shoe boxes.  It feels a bit better but not perfect.  So I spent a large portion of my holiday break cutting and prepping projects so they move beyond fabrics intended for specific projects to actual works in progress.

     While I have seen many stashes that are way more extensive than my own, I have more than I could possibly work on in a year unless I quit my job and sewed full time.  Even then, I doubt that I could finish using the stash and the scraps.  An extensive fabric stash sort of makes me happy, but it also just stresses me out a bunch with how much I have and the guilt of not using it.

    In 2009, I did not have a fabric stash and shortly after, plenty of bloggers wrote about cultivating a stash and choosing fabrics so I chose and cultivated.  Unfortunately, I did not know that really, that is not how my process works.  I seem to like to buy fabrics for the project when I have a project in mind.  I do enjoy buying fabrics just to buy fabrics as well and to have them, but I often don't use them as quickly as I'd like, which results in a ridiculous amount of fabric in my house.

  In 2015, I read a few books about the disposable fashion industry and decided that I needed to choose quality over quantity and get rid of the urge to purchase a good deal.  Flash sales and the creation of a shortage had already started to bother me.  The MQG challenges where we had to use only the manufacturer's fabric, bothered me.

    There are many people that want to shop their stash first before buying.  That sort of works for me, but I decided that I just need the stash and scraps to dictate the projects.  I'm ok with deviating from this a bit, but I'd like to work on this first.

My list of projects that I'd like to work on this year includes:

Anna Maria Horner value quilt using six inch squares:  I've been collecting AMH fabrics ever since I took the value class my guild offered from Katie Pederson.  I made a wonderful value quilt then, but decided that an AMH value quilt would be one I would like to keep.  A ridiculous amount of fabric hoarding and cutting later, and I have a six inch square of every AMH fabric I own as well as a 1.5-3 inch strip x WOF.  The stack in this picture might be over three inches tall.

AMH Candy Coated quilt:  Using the strips cut above, make a Candy Coated quilt from Sunday Morning Quilts.  The first one I made like that was so mindless and easy.

Flea Market Fancy Arkansas Crossroads:  I bought the reprint FQB and have meant to do something with it using white fabric as that is how I've liked seeing FMF quilts.  I finished cutting the 6.5" white squares this morning and the 3.5" squares last night.  It is now sitting in the box ready to go.

Meadow Mystery Quilt:  This is the quilt along for my guild this year.  I picked out scraps and stash to make it after I remembered that I had 4.5" light blue pearl bracelet squares cut already from a Bizzy Kid project fail.  I think we were only supposed to think about picking fabrics, but mine is cut and I've sewn and trimmed the HST and hourglasses.  Need to do the squares and flying geese, but I am way ahead of the guild schedule.

Starburst Brambleberry Christmas.  I like Violet Craft's fabric collections.  I like the color of her Christmas collection.  When it went to 50% off at my LQS, my mom and I bought some.  From what we bought, there was enough for three Starburst quilts.  She's making one, I'm making one and the other one needs a neutral and for one of us to make it.  So perhaps, by next Christmas, I will have at least one Starburst quilt finished.  This is the fourth Starburst quilt I've made.  Large blocks make it easy.  Thank you Melissa Corry for your quilt-a-long.

Brambleberry Ridge Christmas Candy Coated:  With the extra Christmas fabric, I'd like to make a Candy Coated quilt.

Tula Hexagon Quilt from the ORB quilt along way back when.  I bought a Modern Meadow jelly roll way back when this started.  I never started the quilt.  I still have the jelly roll.  I need to make a minky quilt for my oldest, so I cut up a bunch of blue, red and yellow Tula prints that I have to make a hexagon quilt similar to Jaybird Quilts' Neptune Hexagon quilt.  I might have a Neptune jelly roll waiting to make that quilt as well.

And Still I Rise:    This uses our Artswalk challenge fabric for the guild.  This year's requirement is that we use a template and the red fabric (or gray or blue depending upon which one you chose).  I chose to use the Drunkard's Path template and Angela Pingel's book, A Quilter's Mixology.  I made a variation on the butterfly quilt.  It is basted and waiting for me to decide how to quilt it and dedicate the time to do so.  It probably needs spiffy quilting.

I have spent quite a bit of time ironing my scrap bins and cutting them into squares.  The orange and yellow bins are done.  Two scrap quilts I am planning for are:
Scrap Plume quilt: From Fat Quarter Style
Scrap Star Value: 

I think I started this post more than two weeks ago.  If I do not finish it now, I will continue to be distracted and never post it.  So here goes and hopefully, someone's stomach has settled and does not see his food twice today.  That would make me happy.

   

2016

     Writing here was not a priority for 2016.  We bought a new house for ourselves and set about fixing it, fixed the other house, moved ourselves and my parents as we just exchanged houses.  By golly both households own a ridiculous number of books.  It is a good thing but books are heavy.

    The sewer line from our house to the city connection ruptured and there were multiple opportunities for all of us to live together in one or the other of the two houses while various things got fixed.  We eventually need to get some other floors fixed, but we're waiting a few years and dealing with it until we feel like upending things again.  Love the additional space and the large yard to send  kids out into for outdoor recess when they bicker or are rambunctious.  

     The first five quilts shown were donated to Seattle Children's Hospital through Katie's Comforters Guild.  The first two started as potential quilts for a co-worker, but we decided they were not the style of the parents and went another direction.  The other three are using fabrics that I had on hand.  

This quilt went to a co-worker and used the blue and green solids I already acquired.  I don't seem to have a finished quilt picture so I am not sure what I put on the back.

 The co-worker I gave the other Parson Gray plus quilt to for her retirement asked for the second quilt and paid me for it.  I am happy that she likes them both and hopefully is enjoying her retirement snuggled up in them.

The blue Starburst quilt went to my sister in law when she got her AA degree.  Another example of using what I had.  The navy burst points and the blue solid came from stash.  The batiks were from the PNW Meetup in Seattle courtesy of Clothworks.

Cascadia started as part of a guild challenge for our local Artswalk.  On a sunny day, one can see two mountain ranges from various parts of town, the Cascades and the Olympics.  We had to use improv (I think) and the flowered fabric from V and Co.  I used leftover strings from the black, white and gray HST quilt that went to my nephew.

This quilt got finished as well.  Somewhere I have a finished picture but it is not easy to find at this moment.  So now, with 11.5 months in between posts, here's to some of the quilts I finished in 2016.  

Just use it up

I decided to try to just use what I already have on hand for new projects.  I really have no need to go shopping for fabric except to help finish projects that are on the docket.  And I really don't need to add to my wish list of projects.  Binding fabric seems to be a sticking point in my mind.  During the inventory clearance sale at my LQS today, I just bought batting with the 40% off one item coupon.
 
A co-worker who is retiring this year likes blue.  I showed her a few pictures of fabric and made sure to include mostly what I already owned.  She seemed to like all of it so I decided to break into the Parson Gray stash that I accumulated in the past few years.

And then, since I did not want to put the fabric back away, I kept going and kept cutting.  4 quilt tops later, I have a quart size ziploc bag or less of the remaining Parson Gray fabric.  Here are the quilt tops.  2 are plus quilts, one is a group of random blocks to attempt to mimic the Road Trip Quilt by Cluck, Cluck, Sew but in a bigger size, and one Candy Coated from Sunday Morning Quilts.

The back of the co-worker quilt.  I only had about 2 yards of the navy flannel and managed to just use a strip from Candy Coated that would have pushed that quilt over 90".  I wish I would have kept it all solids on the stripes but I'm not changing it now.

Candy Coated which I think I am keeping.  The first picture has the stripe of 4.5" strips for the back across it.  

 The bigger Road Trip Quilt (6.5" squares, 9.5" or 12.5" blocks).  This will probably end up being a gift for my brother.  It was meant to be fairly mellow and it is.

And the second plus quilt.  I assembled this one in smaller components to not take up as much floor space as I did with the first one.  Oops, not enough value difference in the middle for far away pictures.  I did not look at the overall layout but was concerned with smaller parts so I didn't notice the values until taking the pictures.  I may donate this one to a local school auction if I get it done in time.

Since the majority of my coordinating fabric got used for the quilt tops, I do need to purchase some fabric for binding.  And yes, plus quilts are mighty easy and quick to put together.  There are at least two that are my intended quilts list and have been for multiple years now.  Soon, I will manage to quilt the first two and then progress to quilting the other two.  And probably I will purchase some navy quilter's linen to use as binding.

After the Epic Meet-up this summer, I did not put away the 6 free Clothworks batik fat quarters I received.  Today, I cut them up to make a Starburst quilt from Melissa at Happy Quilting.  No recipient, just a "let's use this up."

Using the leftovers

Sometimes, I make more units that I should because I either didn't bother to count, miscounted, chose to cut out enough for an intended project that has yet to be started or decided that I wanted to have some layout choices.  I've attempted this month to finish a few of those up.

Two of those were in my Giving Tuesday post.  I cut out additional squares to make a second plus quilt and then used up all the extra "layout choice" units from my in-laws quilts.  This time around, I used the second set of charm squares from the Animal Party Charm Square Baby quilt that I made.

This is actually the original one that I gifted to a co-worker.  Apparently, I did not take a finished picture of the second version before I sent it up to get donated at the hospital.  Instead of white sashing, I used the remaining solid from the in-laws quilts and bound it in all the extra blue bindings I could find.

Next up in the leftover pile were blocks from the two Birthday Cake quilts that I made using Acacia.  Had I known how much I could have sold the raccoon prints from this line....I probably still would have made these quilts and donated them anyway.  Kind of like how I saw that one Tula print I had over a yard of sold for $14/ fat quarter and I chose to cut into it.

 So, I had maybe 24 leftover units from these two quilts.  I combined them with units from my first attempt at the Bizzy Kid pattern.  The first attempt had just involved way too many dark fabrics and not enough value contrast.  But, the colors did manage to coordinate really well with Acacia.  The solids of the leftovers and the sashing are not a perfect match, but it is close enough and I was happy to turn the leftovers into another baby quilt to send up.

When these two baby quilts (like the one above) were made for co-workers, I stitched the second line before cutting off the extra triangles.  This left me with 118 HST to press and trim.  I combined those with leftover hourglass blocks (probably from this hourglass quilt below ) and backed the quilt with a little more than  a yard of the blue superhero fabric from Ann Kelle.

Here is the new quilt.

It is backed in the blue superhero fabric and bound with Kona Pacific.  I decided to randomly sew the HST together into four patches.  I was a little more deliberate when I put the hourglass blocks in, but I did not over-analyze and just went with where they ended up with little rearranging.  Much better to get it done than paralysis by analysis.

Giving Tuesday

Today is Giving Tuesday.  I wasn't really aware of that until reading somebody else's post.  Figured I should perhaps showcase the quilts that were dropped off at Seattle Children's Hospital that I haven't talked about yet.

 First up is a stacked coins quilt using a variety of fabrics donated to me by Katie's Comforters Guild or my sister.

The second quilt was made from the leftovers of the two Pacific Crest quilts.  I overbought fabrics because of the wide variety of colors in the pictures my mother in law sent for her two quilts.  I made approximately 80 extra units so I could get the layouts and colors balanced the way I wanted to.  Rather than let the extras sit unused, waiting to be assembled, I threw together this quilt.  My normal layout assistant was a little distracted and chose to have identical units by each other.  I went with it rather than argue.  

The backing was made of other extra pieces from the quilt.  The fabric is from Laura Gunn's Edges collection.  

There was a single block Swoon quilt that I did not snap an additional picture of.

I got to choose a block for my guild's charity quilt bee.  I chose the Birch Tree quilt pattern by Amanda Jean Nyberg.  I made a couple blocks, pieced the guild blocks, made the backing and quilted it.  Binding was hand attached by another guild member.  This quilt got dropped off for Children's as well.

And finally, since the spirit of today would be giving, here are two that I finished up this weekend but did not make it in time to travel to my sister's house so she could drop them off before their appointment yesterday.  Hopefully I will get these to the hospital before the end of the year.

Pacific Crest Edges Twins

While visiting the in-laws this year, my mother in law asked me to make her two twin quilts using the Pacific Crest pattern from Beyond Neutral.  She liked the pattern and didn't think it would be super difficult.  She then sent a series of pictures that spanned the color wheel.  It made selecting fabrics slightly difficult as the pictures didn't give me a clear, consistent picture of what she was after.

 So, I chose Laura Gunn's Edges Collection paired with Kona Eggshell.  I was unsure what combination of colors I really wanted so I made extra small blocks.  While at the Epic Meet-up, I put together the 12" blocks and found that I was short some 6.5" background squares and had not brought the solid with me.  Some of the blocks that should be only 3 small birds ended up being 4 because I was impatient and did not want to wait until I got home.

 They are two different quilts even if they look the same.  I'm hoping that they are not too rainbow like as I don't think that is the look they are after.  She said that she wasn't in a rush and these did not need to be completed any time soon.

 But then life happened and my father in law had his first detected stroke (his third one apparently).  Outlook on life has changed and the quality and freedom that they had is not there. Being 2500 miles away can have benefits and drawbacks.  They were pretty adamant that we shouldn't fly back, not even their son as they said he couldn't be helpful.  Feeling slightly without a way to be of assistance, these got pushed up the priority list.  They'll get sent back this week with 4 pillowcases.

 The quilts have loopy quilting done by me and the binding is attached by machine.  The power lines are making lovely shadows on the pictures, and my lawn has nearly recovered from letting it sleep during the summer.

I used Google Keep to make a checklist of all the things that needed to be done as I went through.  It was a little intimidating until I reminded myself that I was making two twin size quilts (72 x 84").  They seem a bit small for a twin, but they're close enough.  And checking off double the items as I finished them was pretty nice.

I'm hoping that these coordinate relatively well and sort of fit what she was looking for.  I'm pretty sure that she'll be grateful, as nothing seems to be turning out how she was planning of late.

Black to White PNWMQG Challenge

Sometimes I feel obligated to complete all the MQG challenges or opportunities that come up. I was excited about the Black to White Challenge for the PNW guilds for the Quilt! Knit! Stitch! Show and had a great plan.  I drew out a lovely diagram for stitch and flip HST and cut all the fabric.

Then, I picked up a bit of extra responsibility at work which reduced my desire to fill the spare time I did have with sewing a quilt that had no recipient yet.  I ditched the idea of adding the triangle to the other side of the HST and just went with the value based HST design.

This was not finished in time to submit it and I took it across the country on vacation to bind it.  The binding fairy finished the final side for me.  She also is going to give it to a step-nephew in June when he graduates from HS.  Yay that it is done nearly one year early.

I did a variety of quilting styles along the diamonds but primarily did the wishbone style.  The quilt is bound with a Valori Wells print.  It is about 60 x 70 ".  And best of all, it is another quilt crossed off the WIP list!