Popping In For a Quick Update!

 May has always been a busy month for us, but this year I made it worse. For reasons that totally made sense at the time, I scheduled a week long trip (leaving the end of April) to visit my oldest daughter in Oklahoma.

Loving the colors!

With everything that needed done before leaving, I had little to no time to post my latest quilt finish, AHIQ Hourglass. Plus it needed washed up so the crinkly goodness could shine!

I think this one is a winner

After I got back home, then there was all the laundry for me and of course, my husband who still needed work clothes etc. etc. Can you believe that he also managed to clean out his work truck and find about 10 sweatshirts that needed washing? 

Still liking the pieced sashing look

I took a couple hand work projects with me on my visit, but honestly, we were just too busy chatting for quilting to take priority. My daughter has a new house in a new town. Barely been married for less than a year. She's a Washingtonian transplant to the midwest. Trying to figure out how to budget in an exploding economy. Sooo much to talk about. And we loved every minute of it!

A tiny bit of a fabric bleed but not enough to ruin it

It's terribly hard to live so far away from our children. I mostly hate it. But... it's wonderful to see them living their best life in spite of the very real homesickness that comes along with the distance. One of the hardest thing to do as a parent is to teach our children how to get by without us.

Will probably have to keep this one!

Now I'm home, after a brutal midnight flight and then the additional 3 hours driving home. There's been non-stop busyness ever since 'cuz, ahem! my husband really doesn't love trying to get along without me! lol  Our big camping trip is coming up at the end of May so now I'm trying to organize and prepare for that. Will try to post more quilting stuff in the weeks ahead, but who knows? I don't seem to be nearly as good at multi-tasking as I used to be.

Having oodles of fun with my Mothers Day money

One of the highlights of my trip was 'The Quilting Studio and Fabric Mercantile' in Tulsa Oklahoma. Ahhh... I was like a kid in a candy store. It's been so long since I've bought any new fabric! Such a lucky pick when I was determined to only hit one store. The only thing I didn't like was the fact that they kept pushing quilt kits at me. Hmm... How to answer without sounding rude? My daughter and I settled with 'I kinda do my own thing'.*wink

Last night saw me finally getting in a few minutes at the sewing machine and of course I'm back with the hand quilting in the evenings. Who knew a quilting callous could disappear so quickly! 

Gonna Bore You With Too Many Pictures of a Baby Quilt

Time just keeps slipping away! It took me forever to get down to business with the baby quilt. Mostly because I just couldn't decide on a design/pattern/idea. Baby quilts can occasionally be so easy to throw together, we often wonder why we don't make more? Other times, it's like pulling teeth to simply bring anything into proper focus just to get started!

The baby Bear Paw quilt

I finally settled on a very easy-peasy block called the 'Bear Paw'. Sewn up in 6" blocks, it allows for a nice little chunk of fabric to shine through all the busyness of mixed fabric prints! So many times, {more and more as the years roll on}, I'm clear over in left field trying to use up the oldie moldy fabrics and I don't even think about what the new mama might like!

With this quilt, I was hoping to convey little boy vibes and also, a slightly urban, modern touch. If there would have been any large print text fabric, you can bet that I would have found a way to work that into the quilt too! But no, it wasn't to be. The great thing about this quilt was that I actually found a way to challenge myself with using up some older, slightly off-color blues, while somehow still avoiding the 'tired fabrics' demeanor that some quilts seem take on so easily! Yay! Definitely something to smile about!

Trimming

Life seems especially stressful lately, and as you all know, I've almost always got something that is worrying the corners of my mind. Chain piecing the little hsts for a low-pressure baby quilt was strangely soothing, though as usual, they didn't quite turn out exactly square! Oh well. This method is fast and easy, but it's never been super good to me as far as precision goes. After each block was sewn I kind of, sort of squared the completed blocks to an even size and called it good. 

Looking at it on the wall after lots of 
auditioning efforts!

Most of the time I don't end up making extra blocks on purpose, but this time I ended up cutting out several more of the lightest blue blocks and also, on impulse, cutting out two extra blocks with the red for background instead of having all the red in the 'paw' position {as per my initial quilt guidelines!}. That's because there was only a very little bit of that particular red available to use and it seemed so perfect for this quilt. Why leave it out? Plus... the brightest blue batik used in that same block was the very last of a small chunk of fabric from, ahem! twenty years ago! Crazy, huh? At first I thought it much too bright for the quilt, but in retrospect, can't imagine the quilt without it.

Inspiration for the baby quilt

Once again, this is a quilt inspired from, {but not exactly sewn up according to}, a quilt pattern saved in one of my Inspiration Binders. This pattern is from the October 2001 American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. Some patterns are just classics, aren't they? After whiffle waffling about and not coming up with anything better, I just decided to quit fighting and see what could happen, trying to make bear paws in these particular colors. There are just some things that my mind refuses to 'see' and no matter how I tried, could not imagine the outcome of these fabrics and colors in any design rendition whatsoever. Besides, what was there to lose?

The full quilt

Though I didn't originally intend to put the outside border on the quilt, one of my daughters basically told me that it did, in fact need one. After finding the dark blue solid fabric and seeing how it emphasized the bright, sparky bear paws, I had to concede. The quilt was probably too small at 36" x 42" before the border addition anyway!

A fun looking binding

One of the best things about making a baby quilt is the ability to repeat the same fabric used in different color ways and not even cringe. Normally, I'd never, ever in a million years, use the red with blue polka dots and the blue with red polka dots in the very same quilt! And then, look! I even used one of those fabrics again for the binding! In most of my quilting efforts, I'd think that was much too cheesy and lame looking and go earnestly hunting for something similar but very, very different! This time I sort of rolled my eyes and thought it mostly sweet...

Loving the red background in the block

Overall, it's just a simple little baby quilt. I know that! But the reality is, that I'm really, tremendously happy with it. It works. Even the scrounged-from-the-stash, 'birds at the coast' backing fabric doesn't make me lose a beat. I started with a small stack of fabric that intrigued me and then did my best to make them look interesting all together. Not a single fabric was bought brand new and in fact, I used up a couple very old {to me} fabrics and even part of an older, upcycled mens shirt {the yellow/black check}. That feels very good. Even the batting was pieced from off-cuts of other larger quilts!

All the Love Apple blocks done

I quilted between the blocks with my go-to, stitch-in-the-ditch thing and then moved on to, very reluctantly! to a bit of hand quilting. I had hoped to have it sandwiched and pinned, plus quilted all in the same day, but no... My conscious {and the very persnickety quilt} just would NOT let me be. Apparently, I must get out the perle cotton and make a stab at giving it a bit more character. Of course, it looks so much better now with the little bit of texture, but really? Will baby even care? lol

And yes, it's slow going, but I'm also making a little tiny bit of headway on some of my endless applique projects here of late. As of earlier in the week, all the Love Apple blocks are now completed and ready for input into a larger quilt plan. Love them so much! Crossing my fingers that I can do justice to them. 

Currently in the hand work bag, is the much neglected impulse project that was started back in August of this year. After that, it will probably be the Melon Patch blocks which have been languishing since about March? They are starting to get quite angry at me so best to think about giving them some attention!

A String Quilt Finish and Some Fabric Love

I can't believe it's already Halloween! What a year this has been. Tonight we've only had one family trick-or-treating. Between the Covid thing and the city trunk-or-treats, there's just not very many kids out doing the rounds.

String quilt

I wanted to show the latest quilt finish around here before getting buried in next weeks busyness. This was a string quilt started from Lori's December 2018 Stringalong. 

The full view

All the strings were pulled directly from the scrapbin and of course, I couldn't resist the charm of ensuring most were sewn in a slightly wonky fashion. It's such an old fashioned utility look, why not take advantage of the wonderful energy it creates?  I know you're going to be shocked when I admit to already wanting to make yet another one. If only foundation piecing wasn't so annoying at the tear-the-paper-off stage!

Love the off-grain, wonky strings

The quilt is hand quilted with Perle cotton thread across every string and then in a basic grid otherwise. I worried that there wasn't enough hand quilting to give good texture, but after it was washed up, decided there was plenty. I have a suspicion that this quilt would only look better with more hand stitching, but who has that kind of time?

So much fun to hand quilt these bits of fabric!

In fact, the latest {current} quilt in the hoop just cost me two or three extra days as I discovered a big 'oops' in thread color last night. At first I thought to ignore it, but then remembered that the wrong thread used was the very last ball in that particular color. Uggh. So yeah. Last night was spent unpicking the previous nights hand quilting. Normally I would just wing it and figure out something else when I got to the end of whatever ball of thread ran short. On this one, I really, really needed a specific color for emphasizing the applique. Or at least I thought it was needed. Whatever. The end result is wasted time and effort and now, starting over. Yippee skippee.

An unexpected addition to the stash

This week was a good one in that I finally, finally got all of the paperwork caught up in the home office! This is a huge deal for me. I hate being so far behind! It was kind of crazy, 'cuz I was feeling almost hysterical with giddiness and pure relief and then, the very next day, just sort of deflated down to feeling sort of numb. After poking around in the quilt room for a bit, I went ahead and started in on the baby quilt that I was contemplating last week. Didn't get very far at all when I received a phone call about picking up some fabric that someone close to me had recently asked about. They were getting rid of all of their quilting fabric, was I interested? Umm... How about a resounding YES!

There were four kitchen bags full {or mostly full} and surprisingly, I ended up keeping about three fourths of it! Honestly, though I love going through it, I don't think I've ever kept close to half of anything people have ever sent my way! The newest fabric was maybe 5 years old and most are about 8-12 years old with a few pieces slightly older. Since this was someone's entire stash, it was fascinating to see that there were only 4 pieces of purple, a very tiny stack of red and mostly light blues versus the deeper shades. Lots and lots of pink, greens, soft yellows and browns plus a bit of mellow oranges, muted blacks and creams, not white. One of the best parts is that I found enough yardage for backing for 6 of my quilt tops and most of what I need for a 7th top too! Maybe not perfect, but very, very nice for the price! Overall, there was a good lot of fabric that I knew would slip quite seamlessly into my stash. Most of you know that this is the sort of thing that I thrive on, getting the opportunity to use all these challenging, interesting bits that perhaps I never would have even thought to buy for myself!

As some of you know, after doing the Marie Kondo quilt room thing a year or two ago, I determined to keep my stash to the current amount of totes {maximum}. Basically it was a personal goal of trying to dig deep into the stash and get more creative. Plus, I was running out of room. Currently I have 9 large totes {18-20 gal ea.} and 6 med {10 gal.} totes. Not that all the totes are completely full, but that should be enough fabric, right? Riiiighhhttt.....  

So yeah. I've been doing really well--until a couple days ago! I've not been buying a lot of extra fabric with the result that, more and more, the lids are fitting on all the totes much, much better these days.*sigh After a couple days of sorting and washing all the new-to-me fabrics, I had zero choice but to sort through my own totes. Zero! There is simply no more room in the quilting areas for more totes! And no matter how much my husband tempted me with getting a couple new ones, I decided to just try and hold the line. Time to sort through my own fabric stash and see what and where the new stuff could be easily added in.

In the end, what made the most sense was to simply reorganize how I stash each and every color. And in order to do that, I basically had to dump the totes one by one and start over. For instance, there used to be a large tote for dark blue fabrics and a medium tote for med-light blue fabrics. Now I have the med-dark blue fabrics in the large tote and only the very light blue fabrics in the smaller tote, all because I seem to have a preponderance of light blue fabrics. Now, instead of one large tote of all my browns,  I now have a large tote for med-dark brown fabrics and then another large tote for light brown fabrics PLUS what used to be considered the darker cream fabrics and also, what I suppose would be called tan? Those used to be included in the yellow tote. It's all very confusing, except really, it's not. The whole purpose was to make room for all the newish fabric that I super, duper wanted to keep.

I did toss a few pieces here and there of my current stash, just to make proper room and ensure that the lids will still properly stay on and keep all the bright sunlight out. No cheating there, even though I almost let one medium tote of light pink fabrics spill completely over. It was so hard to figure out what to get rid of! And obviously, I made sure to remove all the larger backing fabrics first! No reason why they can't be stored with the specific quilt tops they are destined to be matched up with in the future.  

Now I just need to get rid of one fullish kitchen garbage bag of random discarded fabrics. Really great way to wrap up the roller-coaster week though. Couldn't have planned anything better! I will admit to sending a text and offering to hand quilt one of this gals quilt tops too. Just as a way of saying 'Thanks, this was so much fun'! Crossing my fingers next week will include plenty of time to get caught up on my blog reading. I've been having to stay off the computer a little bit more in order to not lose precious time everywhere else...

Making It Up As I Go Along

The hardest part of blogging lately is actually making the effort to write the post. I usually don't wanna these days! Then, deciding what to touch on, what to highlight and even more importantly, what to leave alone. Ughh. Does anyone even care about quilting these days? Such crazy, crazy days indeed. Oh well. Quilting is what makes me happy, so here goes!

Strippy Triangles

This is the quilt that was started impulsively back at the first of May. Mostly I just wanted to chain piece and not think about design. It's now a completed quilt top, so yeah. Really fast finish for me! I've had the fabric stacked up together and simmering though, for well over a year. That was during a time when I purposefully dove very deep into the red stash tote in response to the Red is a Neutral AHIQ challenge. The first two fabric pulls of red didn't end up quite making the grade {here's the challenge quilt with the fabrics that won out} but I couldn't just dump these straight back in. Oh no. There was just something about them that pulled on my heartstrings.

A completed quilt top!

Maybe it was because there was a small piece of a leftover plaid from my youngest sons baby years {do you know how little fabric is in a long sleeved toddler shirt?}. Regardless, it was the 'go-to' fabric stack when I recently wanted something simple and low-key to immerse myself in.

Loving the soft, mellow look to this one

I am so very satisfied how successfully the lighter areas of the quilt turned out! I consider this quilt a victory because... one of my worst default decisions is usually to pick a whole stack of fabric in a similar color with very little variation in tone or pattern. Something I'm working on changing, little by little! This time, I deliberately stretched and made sure to have better range of colors, albeit in the light to very light spectrum. There are creams, lighter pinks, light grays and in addition, very light blues. If you look closely, you will also see that on the rare occasion, medium-dark pink fabrics from the darker areas were purposefully used in place of a light triangle. But overall? The lighter area definitely reads 'light' {without being choppy}, even though up close there's more going on than perhaps is normal with my efforts.

Definitely got an old fashioned look and vibe!

I kind of love the energy and depth it adds to this sweet looking quilt! Those unexpectedly placed pink triangles really aren't dark enough to fully stop the eye from perusing the quilt. None of that, 'Hey! Those are in the wrong spot!' moments, it just adds an amusing utilitarian touch. I like to think of it as whimsical, unstudied, and kind of old fashioned looking! Basically, I just divvied the cut triangles up into 18 stacks of half light and half dark and started sewing, one light triangle to one dark triangle, one after another. And then once in a great while, threw a darker pink over into the 'light' pile just for the fun of it!

Don't what I'd do without the railing to hang my rows on
and keep them sorted! 

After I got the initial pairs sewn up and ironed, then I started joining those pairs together. Then four with four, until a whole row was able to be sewn together. The most important thing being that there was no repeat of fabric sewn closely together. Otherwise I just grabbed and sewed. Once I got larger sets together then I quickly laid them out of the floor to see if the row looked okay, then sewed it up and moved on to the next row!

The page you see pictured below has been in one of my inspiration binders for close to a decade. Though I didn't closely follow the pattern directions  {my triangles are larger for one}, it's from the 2009 July/Aug. issue of  'Fons and Porter' Love of Quilting magazine. For a rough idea of how to make a similar quilt to mine, cut out approx. 100-5" squares of dark fabrics and 100-5" squares of lighter fabrics. {I think I had to go back and cut just out just a few more when I decided to add extra rows!}. Cut them on the diagonal and then cut on the diagonal again. Sew light triangles to dark triangles in sets {iron with a light touch!}, until you have 16 rows measuring 85" plus. Sew 2 rows measuring approx. 65" for the top and bottom of quilt.

Cut 15 strips @ 2 1/2" x 82" in whatever alternate strip fabric/color you like. The fabric that worked best for me was a woven so I intentionally cut my strips on the lengthwise grain for better stability. Since I had slightly less than 2 1/4" yards available, this meant that I had to cut an extra strip and sew length to length, then later measuring and cutting each strip at the desired 82".

Lay out all the pieced rows in the configuration shown below {light triangles to the outside} or perhaps like I did, {dark triangles to the outside}. Though the quilt is very scrappy, I did try my best not to have identical fabrics lined up in rows exactly side by side. This meant of course, that I had to change out pieced rows here and there until the color flow to the quilt worked the best.

Seeds of inspiration

As most of you know, my piecing isn't ever strictly precise, and so I took the {deliberately} extra long pieced rows and fiddled with them a bit at this placement stage. Moved them a little up or down so as to further distract from the fact that they were never going to match up in straight lines at the point of the triangles all across the width of the quilt. That meant that I cut a little off the top of some and a little off the bottom of others, whatever it took to make them all 82", but still have a good 'mismatched' flow overall. The one thing that I did NOT want to see happen was for them all to start out with an intact triangle at the top of the row, and then end up cut off willy-nilly across the bottom of the quilt! Then it would be altogether too obvious that I was a failure!

The top and bottom pieced rows ended up being cut at 62 1/4", but really, it's best if you measure the width of your quilt in three places, and then take the average before cutting. One thing that you might like to know too, is that I did not trim all the pieced rows to an exact width of 2 1/2". What I did do is take a ruler and trim a straight edge alongside both sides, just eyeballing things as I went. After all, it is a utilitarian look quilt, so who really cares? The original quilt in the picture dates back to the late 1800's. What do you want to bet that it isn't perfectly square either!

Cutting up shirts from the closet

On a different note, the new AHIQ challenge has been issued! For the first time in a long time I haven't even finished up the last challenge, but that won't stop me from thinking about the new one. This one is called 'Positive Thinking' and one of the ideas is raiding our closets for the start of a new quilt. Making do is something I love so of course I promptly went looking to see which shirts of mine and my husbands could be spared. Shh... hopefully he won't notice the empty spot in his side of the closet...

Positive Thinking in the works

Then I looked sown at my choices and had to smile. Me thinks this latest quilt top has greatly influenced these particular choices! {Not that I had very much to choose from as we do need to have things to wear} Whatever, I went ahead and ditched the darkest fabric {for now} thinking to uplift the color mood {positive thinking?}, and went looking in the stash totes for another spark. I guess that's going to be orange. Instead of putting the cream stripe {used in the Strippy Triangles quilt} back into the totes, I added it into the stack too. Grabbed a white/clue/orange/pink vintage fabric that never seems to find a good home and just kept flitting around in the stash totes till I felt that little hum of satisfaction. Okay. That's a good start. Will leave it there to marinate until some more definite ideas for a design gels! Will probably end up calling this quilt 'My Happy Place', but only time will tell how it turns out....

Playing With Fabric

I seriously thought about not posting this week as nothing very interesting has been happening around here. Life has been very quiet and restrained and as Kyle noted, creative juices seem to be acting rather sluggish. But I still have my quilt in the hoop and it's almost time to move the current one along and replace it with the new.

I Am a Maker next up in the hoop!

'I am a maker' is the next up in the hoop apparently. It's not the one that seemed like the most logical or sequential choice, but nevertheless, here it is! This quilt was put together last year out of orphan blocks and random bits and pieces that I just cannot throw away. Love the happy, sunny vibe to it. Should be extremely therapeutic to have in the hoop as there will be absolutely no wrong way to attack the stitching.

Orphan blocks and leftover bits & pieces

Most of you know that I generally sandwich and pin two quilts in the same afternoon. It's such a hassle to move the dining room table and get everything out of the way, I always try to be efficient about it.  This time, sewing two quilt backings turned into a several day affair, and wowsers! I somehow ended up with seventeen quilt backs!

A whole stack of quilt backings. Will properly iron when it's time...

They are each made specific as to size for the quilt top {of course}, but I am very blase about the backings. It's a sad failing of mine. No fabulous quilt backing around here. Oh no. Except for the fact that the colors have to at least 'blend' with the wonderful quilt top, anything goes.

Took a little bit of extra time with this one, just because it felt good to do so....

Most of the time there is a larger chunk or two of fabric that starts off the whole venture and then it's a case of finding some complimentary fat quarters to add on until the needed size is attained. These are almost always older or more awkward fabrics that I have fallen a bit out of love with, or perhaps they have proven to be difficult and grouchy about playing nicely with other fabrics. Putting them into a backing absolutely helps get them out the door in the nicest way possible.

The quilt backing for 'I Am a Maker'

A good solid ironing and then some careful attention to stretching that backing out generally takes care of the worst of the warples--all from not measuring and pinning precisely while sewing. I know it's a bit casual for some of you, but I never seem to have trouble with puckering on the back of my quilts except for that rare occasion when machine quilting more densely. Which I abhor doing anyway. Ughh. So not good at it. Hand quilting is much, much more forgiving.  

Fabric that I don't need anymore....

Throughout the year I tend to check the clearance bin at the local quilt store and buy several yards of potential quilt backing as the frequently updated list in my purse indicates a need. If a quilt needs 5 yards and I only find 3 yards in an appropriate color, then I don't sweat it. Usually there is something in the stash totes that can make up the difference. I'm always glad for a reason to use up some of these picked-over fabrics, whether I actually spent money on them or perchance they were given to me. It's just one of life's sweet little pleasures, getting to sew a languishing piece of fabric into its lovely new home and know that it's finally going to be appreciated.

After slogging through a couple days of making quilt backings {more than I've ever made all at once}, something did finally occur to me. There are fabrics in those totes that I will never, ever, in a million years choose to incorporate into a single one of my quilts. Not even cut down into teeny tiny little strips. It just isn't going to happen!*wah!!  Hard as it is for me to get rid of any fabric, all the truly awful {to me} prints have been culled today. I actually did it! An entire white kitchen bag full of fabrics is now awaiting the day they can be handed off elsewhere.*whew  That felt good!

Still trying to use up these old tired greens....

And....  because I was digging through the stash totes for days, it's only logical to assume that some new sparkly fabric stacks have appeared.

Second go around for this color palette...

They are simmering on the countertops for now, right out in plain sight.

Just appeals to me right now & yep, more of those old greens....

If I like them well enough, they will end up being moved onto shelves here and there with potential ideas drawn up and slipped into the smaller totes {kept just for these purposes}.

Might be a baby quilt for my sister-in-law. Maybe not....

Some of them might end up with more fabrics included before they become a final fabric 'pull', more colors added or deeper value exploration needed.  Others might end up being dumped back into the stash totes when I find them ultimately uninspiring. You just never know. Every quilt around here doesn't have to start from a well gathered stack of fabric, but it's often the first place I go looking when an idea flashes into full-on illumination. Where are those fabric stacks? Will this one work? No, this one? Maybe, Ohh... This one... Yes. This one.... And then I'm off and running, all ready to cut out and get started on a moments notice!

A New Basket Project and The Fabric Stash

Perusing all of the previously made basket quilts made me think a lot about the obvious, making basket quilts.  And I started wondering. Why haven't I ever made the 'Patchwork Garden' quilt? It's a pattern that I absolutely drooled over and finally relented and bought the pattern many, many years ago. Jan Patek is that good. Her patterns can resonate for years!

A new project

I think there was too many cuts of fabric that needed 22" length or something? and I normally tend to buy fat quarters. Plus, making from pattern directions has not ever been my strong suit! Okay, fine! I give.The pattern will never quit haunting me otherwise! I decided it was now or never and went and dug through the stash totes for a quick fabric pull.

Looking at some possibilities

Of course, being me, I couldn't make it in the color range shown on the pattern. Oh no, have to be difficult! But you know how it is when certain colors are wistfully calling out to us. Hey sweetie, why don't you ever come play with me? The first fabric pull is shown above. Then you can see below where I started trying to match up colors with pattern directions. That's the point where I decided to throw in a little green to spark things up a bit. 

And yes, there was pattern re-writing involved too. Like mentioned earlier, I generally have smaller bits and pieces of fabric than suggested. Why? Because I love scrappy and so tend to buy in smaller yardage amounts or have a lot of cut into fabrics that aren't very long anymore! And more importantly, because I always, always try to shop from the stash first which good or bad, can create limitations.

Definitely looks better with the green!

'Tricia' has commented on my blog a number of times lately. Hi Tricia! If people don't have a link back to their email, I rarely ever comment directly back to them here on the blog. It probably feels like I'm ignoring you, but its not personal. That's just where I draw the line, responding personally by way of email or not at all. Otherwise it can be crazy town around here trying to track everyone down and responding here and there and unintentionally leaving people out regardless! 

Anyway.... one of Tricia's comments has been floating around in my brain and causing deep thoughts. 'I never cease to marvel at the depths of your stash totes. You always talk about pulling all of these (seemingly ugly) fabrics for dozens and dozens of quilts out of your stash totes. Seems like a biblical miracle along the line of the loaves and the fishes--only better!'

There are small totes and large totes

Oh my. Where to start? I started out quilting in the 'Build the Stash' era. Oh yeah, I've been at this for a very long time {20+ years}, though I started out very slowly. Only buying for a project and stashing the leftover. Buying a couple fat quarters extra in case the original choices didn't work out as well as planned, buying with gift cards, splurging on vacation, etc. You can read here, here and here where I talk about buying fabric that we love or using fabric that is personal to our tastes. I happen to believe that having a solid, personal stash is vital to generating the best kinds of creativity in regards to quilting!

Most are full or close to full

Never, ever do I suggest that this would be an excuse to use any money that simply isn't there for just those purposes! In fact, part of the reason my stash got to this size is simply this: I developed an open door policy with all family and friends in regards to accepting unwanted fabrics. You would not believe how many bags and boxes of fabrics that I've been gifted throughout the years! It's a joy {mostly} to sort through and make a little stack of fabrics to keep and then move the rest on down the road to another grateful quilter/crafter. The unexpected treasures make the entire experience totally worthwhile and slowly expands my fabric options. All without costing a penny!

15 in all just so you know...

As time has went by and my love for quilting hasn't diminished, I've had to come to grips with a few things. First, that here is very limited space in my quilting room and secondly, I have to deal with lots of direct sunlight. So yeah. This is about as big as the stash is ever going to get and boohoo! it's not ever going to be displayed beautifully! 

The best solution for storing the stash ended up being basic solid totes. So ugly. When I see the lovely open arrangement of fabrics that so many are able to have in their quilt rooms? I have such stash envy. There is serious amounts of quilt room envy too. {I'm human.} But that's not beneficial at all, so I tamp it down hard. Forget that garbage! What I want is to feel grateful and thankful. It's a blessing to have this kind of creative outlet in my life and I don't want to forget that for a minute.

And one on the counter which is a pain to lift up and down

Back to the acceptation of unwanted fabrics. I would say that policy is responsible for well over half of my stash. Seriously! I'd love to say all the fabric in the quilt room is stuff that I'm in LOVE with, but that's just not so. Sorry. It's not a magic kingdom of all the best fabrics! There's a lot of super usable blender types. Lots of fabrics I'll probably never.ever come to hate but aren't exactly fabulous. Plenty of lovely yardage that make my heart melt into a squishy little puddle. Handfuls of wonderfully challenging to me prints. Layers of oldy moldy fabrics {constantly trying to throw something new on top or beside in order to spark new love}. And yes, even those ugly bits and pieces that I'm slowly incorporating into all the improv. work as is color appropriate. Sometimes even cunningly cutting very small and disappearing them, one little fabric at a time! Larger 'less loved' fabrics get stuffed onto the backs of quilts on a very regular basis. There are creative ways to use most all fabrics! Anything truly offensive to me will end up being thrown away or given away. I won't willingly ruin a quilt, you know that!

Totes are sorted into Dark Green, Med.-Lt. Green, Oranges,
Lavenders & Purple, White/Cream with colors, Christmas fabrics

It's all mine though. MINE. And you know how personal that can be. Mary Fons has an article that I've read a few times through the years and thoroughly enjoyed, 'Consider The Stash' . In it she writes: 'If you have a stash, you made something. You’re still making it. If you have a stash, you have created, fabric by fabric (in the case of quilters) a physical manifestation of your style, your approach, your world. Stash as painting. Stash as symphony. Stash as quilt.' Later in the article she writes this, 'But I will make quilts. I always will. And just as a painter needs paint, so does a quilter need her fabric. And each fabric is a memory. And each fabric is an idea. And each fabric was brought into my home, by me, for a reason. I made my stash. And my stash is just the beginning.'

Black & Gray, Reds, Browns, Creams & Light Tans

Not to say that every single quilter will need or want to work in just this way. There are those who want to pare down for reasons of money, waste, space or even personal conviction. People who feel guilt and shame at the excess or hint of obsession? Quilters who are ready to get rid of a very old, unloved collection. Those who feel that for whatever the reason, having a stash is holding them back or causing stress in their life. Perhaps they want to upcycle and recycle more than they desire to incorporate newish fabrics into their quilting. Whatever works. Quilters can be in any number of different seasons of their quilting lives, so I try not to judge. There's definitely things to be learned from every method.

Pinks, Dark Blues, Yellow & Golds, White & Lt. Cream,
Lt.-Med. Blues

As for me? A hard and fast rule is to shop from the stash first.  Always. Have you heard this before? lol  The stash represents my old loves, my new loves and everything in between. It's my quilting voice. If something runs out or runs short? Make-do. If at all possible. And sometimes I'll try to make-do over and over before I cave and go buy something deemed essential. Have I totally quit buying new fabric? Absolutely not. Are you crazy? 

I am definitely choosier these days and don't tend to buy fabrics just because it's a good deal or I might feel sorry for it. I've learned to be much more specific in buying for the 'holes' in my stash or particular needs of a certain project. And again, I tend to buy small. Quilters have taught me to look at shirts and used clothing for possibilities too. It fits so well with the way I make and also, those stash totes? That's it. I'm all maxed out. There is literally no more space in the quilting room for any more totes. If new fabric comes in, old fabric has to go out. One way or another!*wink  Best get to quilting! There will be no hoarding and stashing in out of the way places from this quilter, 'cuz I'm not ashamed and I'm not hiding. So what about the rest of you? Stash or no stash? We'd love to see some pictures.....

What's Happening in the Quilt Room Today

It's been nice to spend some time in the quilting room and take stock. A couple days saw me sewing together quilt backings, something I don't generally enjoy. However, I have discovered that sewn together in batches, one after another, then it's not really quite as tedious as normal. I just use a couple big pieces of yardage and then scrap together the rest with something that blends from straight out of the stash totes. Saving myself time for that day when there's actually time to sandwich and pin means a lot in the long term.

Quilts tops next up for quilting

I won't bore you with pics of the backings as they aren't the prettiest things in the world {I tend to use fabrics that would never merit prime time on the front of the quilts}, but I try to make sure they won't embarrass or cost a boat load of money. All my quilting pennies go toward beautiful fabric for the quilt itself and the backings are leftovers, fabrics donated by others or clearance stuff that 'will do'. Basket Love {below} is the next quilt up for getting some attention in the hoop.

Basket Love moving into the hoop

For some reason, this particular quilt has been calling my name rather loudly. Maybe it's because I've been working with light, bright quilts lately and needed the moodiness this quilt presents.

A closer look

Whatever. I have been absolutely relishing getting started with the hand quilting on this one. Wowsa. Does it ever make me happy having it in my lap! The only thing I might would change is if I had a deeper variety of thread color to work with, but no matter. I'm not taking the time to order anything extra online.

Soaking up the stitches

Another thing I have done lately is very deliberately pull out every single, lurking, fabric stack and try to take a good picture of it. Check it out for positive feel goods. You know what I'm talking about, that glimmer of excitement that a particular blend of fabrics helps generate in our creative consciousness. These are fabrics that have somehow managed to pull together and sit marinating somewhere on the counters or in little totes throughout the quilt room, almost as if a magnetic force is keeping them anchored together!

Stack #1

To my surprise and yes, a little consternation, I seemed to have collected 12 such stacks. Oh my goodness gracious, it seems that I have become a hoarder! lol  Don't guilt me for my obvious fabric love. I'm confident that it is much, much cheaper than therapy...

Stack #2

This year in particular has been one for tamping down on the new starts. Just a little. Trying to narrow down the open-ended quilt projects has been challenging to say the least and honestly, I'm not sure it's a beneficial thing to keep doing that to my creativity.

Stack #3

There's something about getting started on a new project that signifies giving a measure of importance to a creative idea that might possibly disappear into the ether otherwise. Once started, it rarely gets completely lost or completely abandoned. Might take a while to see it through, but the idea that I have committed fabric and space makes it worthwhile.

Stack #4

Writing and doodling ideas on paper is a good way to ensure that the idea is not completely lost for eternity, but still, real enthusiasm and spark tend to wane and lose strength in time and the busyness of life. Might have to work on balance again in regards to this.

Stack #5

There are lots of ideas floating around for many of these stacks of fabrics. For example, the previous two stacks were compiled in direct response to the idea that I might make a quilt for a specific person. This lovely person adores dark, dark reds such as maroon and are quite adamant about it. Ughh. So difficult to work with! So I started with the brighter, happier reds and added green. Nahh... They would hate that for sure. But it's so, so  pretty! Can't get rid of it now when there is such potential. hehe  So I eventually started the Stack #5 and have piddled around with it for months trying to fine tune the look. Adding the lighter red stripe with the blue floral is finally, finally starting to make sense to me. No matter what anyone else might or might not like, if the fabrics/colors don't work for me? The quilt isn't going to sing and that's just fact.

Stack #6

Several of these stacks have a pretty concrete design idea that all I'm trying to nail down now is certain, specific details before I start cutting and sewing. Proportions of color usage in particular tend to get me bogged down prior to a quilt start. I hate the idea of making a lifeless looking quilt. What, pray tell, is the point of making a boring quilt?

Stack #7

You probably already know that I have ideas for a couple basket quilts {shock shock}, a medallion style quilt, a log cabin, a vertical, strippy sawtooth, a couple detailed applique quilts, maybe an alphabet quilt?, a traditional, repeated block layout and of course I'm being opened minded about something for improv. as well. These are things that might be as predictable as the sun coming up in the morning, but still manage to keep me very engaged, quilty-wise. And of course, I'm rarely adverse to hopping onto a new challenge if the right one happens along....

Stack #8

It was interesting to see how many of these fabric stacks look very familiar one to another. As Ann mentioned in her latest post, 'we all have different color combinations and values we prefer'. So, so true!

Stack #9

Oftentimes, we unintentionally find ourselves perfecting the use of a specific color palette. I used to shy away from this as it felt a slippery slope towards making quilts that seemed to copy-cat another. Now I just look at is as 'series' work. Sometimes we work on certain design elements over and over and other times we zero in on a specific color blend. We don't feel free to give up until we've learned about all that we can from it! Why are we so quick to brush off the direction into which our instincts are trying to guide us in?

Stack #10

One thing I've learned through the years, is that any of these fabric stacks will end up making a far better looking quilt than anything that can be dug out of the stash totes in a single setting. Or started up lickety split. Or bought altogether in a shopping trip. Take a closer look at the fabrics stacks that might look similar one to another with just a quick glance. The fabric print will probably read completely different which means the look/feel to a quilt will automatically read as unique. For instance, Stack #12 has a lot of reproduction look fabrics which hopefully will translate as a more antique/vintage look/feel quilt.

Stack #11

Although, in the interest of true transparency, that stack below is working on it's third year of quietly simmering on the back burner.*groan...  Might have to fish or cut bait there?

Stack #12

And because I was so taken aback at all the bright, happy tones in most of the fabric stacks, I just had to make up a slightly moodier selection of fabrics. My goodness, it's an interesting exercise to make these sorts of comparisons and really SEE the seeds of evolution and change! Which meant Fabric stack #13.... Yep. That happened. Funny how timely that was with this great idea that popped into my head though, just before falling asleep last night. Uh huh. That's what I'm talking about. The fun just never ends.

Stack #13

Will some of these fabric stacks be tossed back or possibly combined at some later date? You betcha. That's the way it works. And I don't know about you, but when I'm looking for a particular color or value, I have no problem with raiding one of these fabric stack for the much needed element in a current quilt. That always, always takes precedence and nothing, no fabric stack or design idea is sacrosanct around here. My projects are very fluid and as always, very adaptable to the whims and fancies of change.  

Sorry for the long post, but a reader or two had previously asked for inspiration pics in the form of my long-time simmering {by now, probably infamous} fabric stacks. Here there are, the whole glorious lineup! But yeah, it's just how things roll around here and I'm not gonna pretend otherwise. Also in the general tidying up/taking stock in the quilt room, I remade a couple lists. It was time. There are currently 23 quilt tops ready for quilting and 6 open ended quilt projects. Plus, 2 or 3 squirrelly sets of orphan blocks gleefully gravitating toward one another for those days where I'm bored, a little antsy and well, most probably procrastinating about having to make major design decisions....  You did come here to read about a quilters crazy life, right?