A Block by Block

Our local quilt shop, Patches and Stitches, is celebrating their 40th Anniversary. One of their celebration activities is a Block by Block sew-along.  (Oh, yeah, and a 40% discount on a different item or category every week.  But we won't talk about that.)  The owner of the shop designed a quilt using forty different block designs.  Customers received block patterns two at a time as well as directions for the quilt layout.   The first forty customers to return to the shop with a completed quilt, having used all forty blocks in it, received a $40 gift certificate from Patches and Stitches.   (Spoiler Alert --- I got one!) 

This is the quilt made and displayed by Patches and Stitches, done mostly in pastels and finishing at 87" by 96". So. Not. Me.

I used scrappy batiks from my stash for all the blocks ..... 

..... and a really pretty taupe for the sashing.

My friend, Denise, and I had a weekly date to get our patterns and have lunch out.  We kept each other on track, we admired each other's blocks, and we had a lot of fun.  Twenty weeks went by fast, then it was time to take all those blocks I'd made and start to play.  My design wall came in handy!

Since all forty blocks had to be used I chose to make my quilt reversible.  And since I need a quilt to keep in my car "just in case" I decided to make it a car quilt.  

(Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I also added some appliquéd circles.) This is the front .....
  

..... and this is the back.

Denise did her own thing, too by using gray prints and putting her blocks together without any sashing.   It's gorgeous!   This is the photo taken at Patches and Stitches for their Facebook page. 

Because mine is reversible they had to take more than one of me!

To commemorate our experience I had a special label custom made by, who else, Denise!

This was the first time I've participated in a Local Quilt Shop Block of the Month, or Row by Row, or Block by Block, and I'm so glad I did.  I really like my quilt. 

 Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict

April Goal Met - Sort Of

My goal for April was to "make something with" the fat quarters my friend, Leigh, had recently given to me.   I didn't realize just how many there were in that deceivingly small gift bag until I set the goal and then counted them.  I knew I couldn't use all 47 in one month, but I knew I could make "something".  I chose the green batiks and started cutting squares for my first Disappearing Nine-Patch.  A search through my stash resulted in some purple that looked good with the print, and I found three different cream prints for a neutral. 

The fabrics played well together, I thought.

To make that nine-patch "disappear" you cut it into four pieces .....

..... and sew them back together in a different configuration.

I felt like a small inner border was needed and found the perfect eggplant that was a close match for the dark lines in the purple print.  Stash to the rescue again!  I hadn't planned to use the purple stripes in the border at all, but I had used every last bit of green so I ended up using it on the corners. 

This is all that was left of the purple!

I may not have used up all the fat quarters, but I did "make something with" a portion of them.  Eight to be precise.  That's something!

It's just a flimsie for now, not a finished quilt, but it will have a home.  How could it not, right?  It's too cute.  

This was my 6 & 6 in 2018 goal for April.  Linking up with pomegranate and chintz.

February Goal -- Done!

February is a short month, but it's really not THAT much shorter.  Why then, is it so difficult to get anything done?  I was starting to think I wouldn't accomplish my goal this month, but here it is two days early, and I'm done.  I told you in this post what my goal was for ALYoF -- 12 pillowcases.   

Having a snow day helped.  We got a record 8.1" of snow here in Huntsville, Alabama so it's a good day to sew. 

I made some last week .....

..... I made some yesterday .....

..... and I made some today.

That makes twelve. 
















Not only have I made my goal for February, but I used up a lot of stash, and I have something ready way ahead of time for retreat in June. That's a first for me!

I am linking up with the Finishes Party at Fiber of All Sorts.  

Purple Progress

If you've been following my blog you know that I'm determined to reduce my stash this year, and the first stash-buster is a purple project.   Starting out with 4.5" purple squares I made modified snowball blocks by stitching 1.5" ivory squares onto three of the corners and pressing them back.

I thought I had cut enough to make 120 squares for a total of 30 blocks, but I ended up with extra.  That happens to me quite often.  Either I don't know how to make hash marks while I'm cutting, or it's "the dreaded math" and I set out to cut the wrong number of pieces in the first place.  Either way, I just use the extra blocks on the back of the quilt and pretend that it's a design element.  

My original plan was to have bright yellow cornerstones.

Once I had the first row sewn together,  Hubby asked me if I didn't think green would look better, and guess what?  It did!  So, I ripped.

It still needs some yellow, though, so I think I will embroider centers into the flowers.  Or maybe find some cute yellow buttons to use there?  Hmmmmmm.

I had the quilt top finished last week so this week I focused on piecing the backing.  Ahhh, yes, time to use up some more of that stash!  I spent the past few days on it, but I wasn't really happy with the results.  

First of all, I completely forgot to put the extra two blocks in.  I most certainly did not want two leftover blocks.  That would make me feel like I have to use them, and by using them I mean turning them into another whole quilt!  So I ripped ..... again. 

I added the blocks, then ripped out that large ivory piece near the top and replaced it with a pieced strip.  NOW, I'm happy with it.  

Time for basting and quilting.  I should be able to get to that pretty quickly.  This is one project that will definitely not end up on the UFO list at the end of the year!

Purple Stash

http://www.projectleasa.com/sewmystash2015-kickoff/

Sewing my stash is going to take some serious work.  In addition to working on finishing some UFO's this year, I need to start (and complete!) some new projects in order to use some of my stash.  So this week I pulled a project -- a purple project!  I took my purples.....

.....and cut some squares.

Then I found some really pretty ivory pieces left over from a quilt I made in 2008 as a wedding gift. 

I cut the ivory pieces into strips.

Then I cut up a bunch of little ivory squares to make blocks like this --

Hmmmm, now that I look closer, I can see that I need to rip this one apart and restitch it so that center looks better. 

Anyway, with some sashing and cornerstones, I think this will make a cute quilt.  I'll have to add some borders because, so far, this quilt is only using up about 3 yards of that stash.  See what I mean about this taking some serious work?

Sew My Stash 2015

Not only is this going to be the year of finishing UFO's it is also going to be the year of using my stash.  I am joining the fun at Project: Leasa and planning to Sew My Stash this year.   (I think I need to start getting up earlier in the morning if I'm going to get all this sewing done.

First things first.  I have to show you my stash.  Gulp!  These are the cabinets in my sewing room in which I keep my stash.  Looks are deceiving, though, not every one of those cabinets has fabric in it.

I have quite a few batiks.

Actually, looks ARE deceiving.  There are two stacks on that shelf, the stack in the front and the stack in the back.

These are batiks too, just larger pieces.

The Black & Whites are normally in nice neat stacks but I have been digging through them lately, so they are just in a pile now.

I have an awful lot of novelty prints and brights.  Yes, stacks in front of stacks again.

Christmas prints and other holiday prints don't take up too much space.

Five shelves are organized by color and then there is a shelf for Asian prints, floral prints, and patriotic fabrics.

This shelf is just stacks and bundles I bought not knowing what I wanted to do with, so they just sit there ......... waiting.  I see a stack of backings I bought for baby quilts there, too.

This shelf is just ..... well ..... I'm not sure what.  Odds and ends, I guess.  There are some Loony Tunes fabrics, a few things I ordered from the Fat Quarter Shop and, Valentines fabric, super-hero stuff, and fabric from Uganda.  Yes, that's odds and ends, for sure.

These fabrics are sitting on my cutting table, pillowcase fabrics and solids.  I guess I ran out of space in the cabinets.

Now that I've taken all these photos, I realize I have a lot more stash than I thought.  Even if I pull a project once a month I won't make a dent in it. Maybe instead of getting up earlier I should figure out how to get by with no sleep at all.