After much hemming and hawing, I decided to use four different purple fabrics I have and a dark gray background. I confess, the gray fabric came from a 100% cotton sheet I got for my daughter that she never used. It's darker and more masculine than I'm used to, but these four purple fabrics all work well with gray. I'm showing the first two month's worth of blocks plus an extra double nine-patch. One more block and I'll be moving on to a new purple...and feeling ready for that!
I belong to a couple of quilting forums on Delphi, and one of them, the Scrap Quilting Forum, is having a quilt-along hosted by the wonderfully encouraging and creative Char. Each month there are two blocks – a double nine-patch and another block, so we'll have 24 blocks at the end.
After much hemming and hawing, I decided to use four different purple fabrics I have and a dark gray background. I confess, the gray fabric came from a 100% cotton sheet I got for my daughter that she never used. It's darker and more masculine than I'm used to, but these four purple fabrics all work well with gray. I'm showing the first two month's worth of blocks plus an extra double nine-patch. One more block and I'll be moving on to a new purple...and feeling ready for that!
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I have long been pondering a way to combine my passion for fabric with my need for income. I'm sure I'm not the only one to do so. I have been trying to hone in on what skills I have that are best utilized in this particular kind of business venue...and I've reached a decision.
I'm opening an Etsy store called Quick Quilting Fabrics. I plan to sell precuts and kits. I have a few other ideas as well, but for now I'm going to make that Accquilt Studio smoke and cut up some of my scraps for sale. I love fabric and I love a deal, so I'll be offering great prices on precuts from fabrics I acquire. I have a lot of dies, most of which I've never used. I'm thinking there will be all kinds of shapes down the road, but for now I'm going with the basics – charms, 2.5" squares, jelly roll strips. If there is something you need or want or think people would like, just let me know! These are three recent finishes that make me happy. I used fabric from my stash, fabric I'd been plotting to use for ages and am happy to have move along to a new home, specifically, to Project Linus and to some child in need. For this quilt, I used some charm packs I got for a supergooddeal from Connecting Threads. Like so good, I had to buy them. I bought five packs in this color way, and five in another. The possibilities were endless, so much so that it's taken me YEARS to decide on a plan, which was most definitely not the plan. Anyway, the fabric in between was from a garage sale score. I made one other quilt with this fabric. It's beautiful, all purples and blues and greens. Interestingly enough, it came on rolls of 3". It went perfectly with the charms, which were made into four patches with a snowball corner. The last charm pack I used to make the quilt longer. Not exactly a work of art here, but a finished quilt nonetheless. Now this one is utilizing my Kaffe Fassett fabric. I used a solid piece of each, then cut little strips and made the scrappy bars. I ended up liking the scrappy bars best – they're so colorful up close! I used some blah fabric from Joann's that came in a three-yard package – called cream, it's actually pale yellow, which worked for this. The backing is turquoise blue fleece. I used the Elmer's washable glue method of basting to attach the top to the backing, and then I stitched in turquoise around the scrappy bars. Confession: this is the most ambitious quilting I've ever done. I then did the birthing method and tied the top/batting to the backing with turquoise embroidery thread. Again, not a work of art, but done. The sunrise baby quilt – isn't that so darn cute? I found the pattern here:
http://weallsew.com/2013/02/26/sunrise-baby-quilt-ready-set-go-get-your-fabric/ One thing I learned the hard way – trimming the sides and lining them up to reattach was a little more tricky than I expected. If I had noticed that *some* of the seams match up and used that fact as a guide, it would have gone much better. But I like it, I think it's very cheery. Kudos to the pattern designer on this! But I am working on one just like it. I was inspired, I truly was. I decided to make quilts for two teachers. Granted, I have till the end of the school year, which just started, mind you, so no stress, right? But then I threw on two more quilts on my list of things to make, one for my nephew and one for his new wife, and I think they should be delivered by Christmas since they are wedding gifts and the wedding was early September... Now, I have the fabric and the patterns in mind for their blankets, so that should be no problem. But I feel compelled to finish this one for the teacher, first. And I have all the blocks done, even. Took some time, I miscalculated greatly by not realizing a few things with this pattern. First, I decided to use a bunch of fabrics I had pulled together over time from my stash -- blacks, grays, creams, reds. What I didn't consider is how much of each fabric you need, and that you need more of the fabric as you work your way out on the block, because the strips are longer. So I had some fat quarters I wanted to use, and for one set I had *just enough* fabric, and for the others -- not enough. Quick change of fabric mid-way through piecing 36 blocks -- never a good thing. One important consideration with this block is that the inner most fabric in the square and the outer most fabric should have a lot of contrast, because they are going to be touching. Duh. Didn't see this coming, and I had two reds against each other and that did not work. I had to go fabric shopping (something I normally love) to find just the right fabric to make this work (can't you just feel the other three quilts on my list of things to do drifting further and further into the background?). It took four stores to find the right fabric, and I even went to the local (very expensive and not friendly) quilt shop. Finding the right fabric was tough because the other fabrics had some white, some cream/gold, some gray -- and it had to be predominantly black but not too dark. Impossible task or what? But I found it -- a sort of viney-with-little-leaves black fabric that's kind of mottled in the background with gray and hints of cream. Perfect. So the blocks are all done, and now? I'm afraid to sew them together. Matching the seams up is crucial in this pattern, and I -- I admit this with total honesty -- am not the most accurate quilter. I am afraid to think how these seams may NOT match up. I don't know how to even start. My instinct is to start with the middle square and make sure those four blocks go together evenly, but then what? My quilt will be six blocks wide by six deep (smaller than the picture). So do I work in quarters of the quilt, or in thirds? What has the least potential for disaster, I keep pondering. Which brings me back to the three quilts on the back burner. I find that thinking about patterns for those quilts helps me not think about how to tackle this quilt. But I feel too guilty to start one of the others with these 36 blocks staring me in the face. End result? No quilting getting done. But...I have been tackling some projects for our upcoming Project Linus craft fair. I've been embroidering for pillows, and I tackled baby booties using up fleece scraps. I've done this before -- I try every pattern I can find, most don't turn out, I settle on one pattern, make a few pair, then swear I'm done with baby booties forever. Till the next craft fair. The booties are so darn cute. Even if they don't stay on a baby's feet, they are still cute for decoration, don't you think? I got all ambitious and decided to make two PL quilts out of a set of eight fat quarters that I've been hanging onto for a couple of years now. One pattern is a Carpenter's Star (four blocks) and the other is a pattern whose name I don't know but that I puzzled out how to make. I figured out how to cut the fat quarters to make the best possible use of the fabric and to use it up if at all possible. Half way through this process, one of my kids interrupted me, and I had to put the whole project aside because all the information left my brain. Sigh.
I came back to it, though, got it all cut, and sewed a BUNCH of half-square triangles (and remembered why I don't like them, since each one will need trimming and there is a boatload of them). So there is a stack that needs trimming, and I am so not in the mood to trim. I also started the other blanket and got one fourth of it done only to find I made some mathematical error so the seams don't jive quite right. And I can't even figure out what I did wrong, so it's likely I will repeat that mistake in the other three blocks, which understandably has dimmed my enthusiasm for tackling those blocks. So instead I have decided to organize my sewing room. This consists of sitting on the spare bed and thinking of all the places where certain things could go (but not actually moving them) and going through boxes and folders of paper to throw away all the patterns that no longer interest me so I'll have room for all the new patterns I've printed out. I did finally move some things to make more room, but I'm afraid I will find other stuff to fill the gaps. I'm good like that. One thing I did that was proactive was to go through my stash AGAIN and pull out more fabric that I know I will probably never use. Some of it I love, but still...someone else will love it more, and I can't stand the weight of the unfinished dreams. This has all been prompted by a donation of fabric our chapter is receiving on Tuesday. I can't turn down fabric donations, I simply can't. The potential for discovering wonderful fabric is so great, and I love it. What I don't love is having too much fabric to love. So I've started selling it on the Quilting Board. It makes me feel good to get the fabric into the hands of people who really want it. I also donate anything I can to spread the wealth and encourage quilting, especially charity quilting. I made this for the friend of a friend who is about to undergo chemo. I was told she loves purple (as do I), so I used up an assortment of purple fat quarters I had as well as a darling little print that had wreaths of purple flowers. It has the softest minkee-like fabric on the back in deep plum. The quilt kind of reminds me of grape Kool-Aid!
I've been struggling with fabric paralysis for quite some time. You know, where you have so much fabric and so many ideas that you can't ever seem to get anything started – or finished. One one of the quilting forums I frequent, several of us posted a list of UFOs with a goal of finishing them. I listed five projects, of which I finished two, trashed one altogether, and still have two left. But then on another forum someone started a Project Linus kick-off where we each received a yard of fabric to make a PL blanket, which I did. So I've been productive, just not on my UFO list.
I really do want to finish the lap quilt on my UFO list. It's a four-patch posies pattern that I made from fabric I purchased on the anniversary of my mom's death. I spent the day doing things I knew she would enjoy, and me splurging on fabric is definitely something she would have enjoyed -- I generally feel too guilty to pay full price. I pride myself on my ability to get good fabric on sale, and I scour Craigslist for deals. We also get a lot of fabric donated to our local Project Linus, of which I am the assistant to the coordinator, so I get to scope out that fabric, too. Which leads me to my fabric paralysis... I'm currently kicking around ideas for utilizing some coordinated fat quarters I have. I like to come up with a pattern that will make the most of the fabric, because the last thing I need is more scraps in my stash. I recently made two French braid quilts with rainbow colors of coordinated shades, and I stuffed all the scraps into an envelope because I can't bear to look at them anymore. So whatever I do has to use up most if not all the fabric, to save my sanity. |
How did I come up with this name for my blog?I will never be recruited into the Quilting Police – I am not a perfectionist when it comes to quilting. I prefer my quilts done (not that I don't have plenty that are only partly done and many many more in the dream stages). I also like to get a deal on fabric, and I like to use up my fabric efficiently. I created this blog to show the method of my madness... Some of my favorite sites:
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