Stash

As I looking over my last post, I started thinking about how excessive it seems to purchase 37 yards of fabric, even if it will all be used very soon. There is a line of discussion on Stashbusters about not spending money on fabric and it has made me think about my fabric spending habits.

The picture here is of my stash. Except for a few pieces of yardage in a drawer and my mostly empty boxes of strips (except for those pesky 2" strips...have a ton of those!), this is the whole thing. I have to admit, I'm a fabric snob. I will only buy quilt store quality fabrics. When I first started quilting I made 2 quilts, one for my son and one for my daughter, with fabrics from Joann's. Those quilts have not held up well...especially my son's quilt which has literally fallen apart at the seams. They were not heavily used, just slept under at night. I figure if I'm going to do the work, I should use the best supplies I have available to me. That includes quilt shop fabric. I'd rather buy smaller quantities (except when it's half price, of course!) of better fabrics and combine them with those already in my stash, if that's possible.

I joined Stashbusters and Stash Quilts because I want to use up what I have and needed inspiration to do so. I've found that inspiration in both places...even though I just lurk at Stashbusters! I've used quite a bit of my older fabric...which has made way for some newer ones. I don't think I could ever have a stash that is huge...I'd feel the weight of it hanging over me and would have a hard time going into my sewing room. I think my stash is just right for me. I guess we all need to find that place where we're comfortable with what we have in our stash, and can add to it if we find a great deal or a fabric too beautiful to pass by. I've come to that point with my stash...made my peace with it.

That being said, I'd still like to use up quite a bit of it so that I can purchase new fabrics to add to it! I'm doing that with the inspiration that comes from all these sources available to me online. I love looking at pictures of everyone's projects and imagining how I can create that quilt with what I have on hand. What would make it mine? The colors? Adding a different border? Setting the blocks on point? I find that with a small stash of small cuts, I have to try to be more creative in getting things done. I guess that's what makes us mavericks, the ability to change a design to make it distinctly our own.

As for my spending habits, which is where I started this post, I guess mine aren't too bad. I subscribe to Sweet Treats and receive a package of FQs monthly. I used to leave them all tied up with their pretty ribbons, but now I immediately take them apart, and add them to my stash or use them in current projects, if it's appropriate. Other than that, I make it to a quilt shop about 2 or 3 times a year. Funny, when I worked in a quilt shop, I rarely bought anything! I guess it was too much of a good thing!

Sometimes....

You just need a fabric fix! How about 37 yards worth? I NEVER shop like that...but today I made an exception! I went to the Pennington Quilt Works which has just moved into a brand new store and it's bright, large and wonderful. :o) The first group of fabrics here is just for me because I liked them. The second group actually has plans. The top yellow is a flannel for a rag quilt my 11 year old has started. The other 2 yellows are for a Sister's Choice quilt I'm making and didn't have enough yellow for. The pink is for the borders of my daughter's friend's graduation quilt. She doesn't graduate for 2 years so I'm ahead of the game!


The last pile is for a Christmas quilt that I've already picked out the pattern for and will get done...I swear! AND...all of the fabric in this pile was 50% off, so I didn't feel so bad buying so much of it! I may be able to do some of the quilt as a leader/ender project since the pattern has some flying geese in it. I guess I'll just add this one to the list...the list just keeps growing!

I have to smile when I read all the notes about hiding your stash from your husband. I'm so fortunate when it comes to that. You see, my husband has always supported my quilting habit and tends to push me to buy more than I would if I were alone. Not only that, he travels all over the country as the national sales manager for a boiler company from Philadelphia. When he has the opportunity, he stops in quilt shops and buys fabric for me. Sometimes he'll call and ask if I need a color or a style of fabric, but usually he just surprises me with something. Today, he was wonderful enough to drive me an hour back and forth to the shop, encourage me to pick more fabric that I would have, carry all the bolts for me, tell them what to cut so I could keep shopping, then he paid for it all! So, I treated him to a cup of Starbucks tea on the way home. :o)

All in all, I think I have it pretty good!

A New House

No, not really, it just feels that way! We've lived in our house for about 6 years and one of the things I've always hated has been the front yard. We can't grow grass very well, too many trees, pine needles, a high water table and very sandy soil. (That's what happens when you live in the Pine Barrens!) Our house was also built on reclaimed swamp land, which means if we get the teeny-tiniest amount of rain, it floods. Since we're now staying in the house, we decided it was time to do something about it. We called on the experts at a little bird store near us called "A Wild Bird Oasis". We love this place and were so happy that they reopened after our floods 2 years ago...they were completely flooded out after having only been open a few months.

We decided we wanted to go with lots of perennials, virtually no grass (we have lots of moss though!) and a very natural landscape, that would hopefully reduce the flooding during rainstorms. We had the paved driveway ripped up and replaced with stone. Then Dan came with his crew and did his magic. I'm thrilled with how it looks (especially my new walkway and dry creek bed!) I can't wait until the perennials can go in and to see how it will look come summer.
So, the top picture is the "before" and the two below are "afters". Enjoy!

Stash Rescue

A few years ago, I worked in a quilt store. It was great fun. While there, I made a flannel rag quilt as a store sample. Once finished, the extra blocks were thrown into a bin in the closet of my sewing room. Just before I had to rip the quilting out of that quilt, I rescued them from the bin and decided to make a little quilt from them.

I just set them into diagonals and put them together...doing most of the sewing last night and today. I put a narrow border on, then finished it pillowcase style, since I didn't have any more fabric to bind it. I turned it, slip stitched it closed and did a little quilting on my sewing machine...SID around the border and tacks at each corner. Everything from stash...even the back. Now there's no more of this fabric left in my bin....hooray!

This little quilt will be donated to Rosie's Calico Cupboard for the kids at Camp Reach for the Sky. I quilt about 12 quilts a year for the children. Rosie is always looking for people to help quilt...if you have a longarm and time to quilt for charity, get it touch with her...and let her know I sent you!

Family Treasures

Several years ago, my mother visited my grandmother who lived in Racine, WI. She brought home a beautiful machine appliqued, tied basket quilt. She gave it to me. As we were looking at it, she turned it over and said, "Look at all the beautiful hand quilting on the back!" Lights started flashing, bells started ringing and I said, "WAIT!!! There's no hand quilting on the front, it's tied! I think we have two quilts here!" Sure enough, I clipped the threads around the back edge of the quilt and we found this buttonhole appliqued beauty underneath! My mother looked at it and remembered the quilt from her childhood...her grandmother made it. Apparently, my good, German grandmother made a second quilt when the first one got worn and put it right over top of the first quilt! No need to waste that quilt...it was perfectly good! I'm so glad she did because although they are worn, they are wonderful! In the second basket quilt picture, you can see that she added a last row of baskets upside down and off centered. This part was folded over and stitched down on the back of the quilt...maybe to be folded down when the bed was made and the baskets would be right side up? I plan to fix what I can on the baskets and quilt it with Baptist Fans on my machine. The other quilt is in very delicate condition and I have it hanging on a quilt rack. I feel so blessed by these treasures...and now I have quilts from 5 generations of quilters in my family...from my great grandmother, grandmother, mother, myself and my daughter. On another note...I finished unquilting the quilt and it is back on the machine to be quilted again. It's going much better this time! Thanks for all of your encouragement...I certainly needed it!
And now I'll post this again...blogger hasn't let me do anything since yesterday!

Sunday Musings...

A gentle rain is falling and it's warm enough to have the windows open...seems like a perfect day to sew! Unfortunately, I'll be "unstitching" a quilt that I was unhappy with the back of when I took it off the machine...LAST Sunday! I've spent about 30 hours frog stitching...it only took 2 hours to put all those stitches in! I hope to have it undone and back on the machine by tomorrow morning.

Of course, since I've been unstitching, no stitching has happened in my house! I'm so ready to sew...but it will have to wait. The quilt in the photos is one that I purchased from eBay a few years ago. I love the blues against the pinks and especially how the maker threw in a few reds and navies among the pastels. She was a maverick! It's actually just part of a quilt...3 sides are bound and one is just folded back and sewn. It was sold as a "cutter quilt", but I couldn't bear to cut it up. It's hand quilted in a hanging diamonds pattern. If I get a chance, later this week I'll post some pictures of my great "find" from my grandmother!

Philadelphia Flower Show

Just thought I'd share a few pictures of spring...taken at the Philadelphia Flower Show this morning! It really is coming....LOL

So much excitement!

It's just been so exciting around here lately! On Saturday we got our new grill/smoker. Do any of you have one of the Big Green Eggs? It takes real charcoal, not briquettes and fires up faster than my gas grill did. Saturday we had steaks, Sunday was chicken and last night I made a pizza on it. All the meals were the best I'd ever eaten that I made on a grill. I love this thing! Apparently these grills have a cult-like following...I can understand why!

This week is Reading in Education week and on Thursday we celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday. The students in our class wrote to different celebrities/important people and invited them into our classroom to read. Some responded and are coming in...the Sr. VP of the Philadelphia Zoo, someone from the US Coast Guard and the head coach of Drexel's women's basketball team. For me, our most exciting guest came today...the Phillie Phanatic! He was wonderful with the kids and since he doesn't speak, he acted out the poem, "Casey at the Bat". It was wonderful. Then he got out of costume and came back to talk to the kids. What a great guy he was...we all had so much fun!

Nothing quilty has been going on here. I did finish a few customer quilts, but haven't done much of my own work. Hopefully I'll have time later in the week and then I'll have something to share!

February Finish #3

Here is number 3...don't know if you can see the Baptist Fans on this quilt. I love how this one turned out, both front and back. Everything on this quilt was a leftover from another quilt, except for the piano key border. The back is an assortment of fabrics that were leftover or just never made it into quilts of their own. I love making backs this way, it gives the quilt such personality!

I brought the class quilt in on Tuesday and the kids loved it. One girl gave me a big hug...just because I told her I brought it in! When we unfolded it she yelled, "I am SO going to win this quilt!" We now have it hanging in the classroom as a little incentive for the kids. This new quilt, I'm not quite sure where it will live. I had originally made it for Katrina, but didn't get it done in time to participate in most of the quilt collecting projects. My guild is collecting quilts for children, so it may go there. Or it can go to the American Cancer Society Kids Camp that I quilt for. I'm just going to enjoy it for awhile before deciding.

Thank you all so much for your comments on the class quilt and my daughter's quilt. It is so nice being able to share quilts in this forum...it certainly has spurred me on to get more quilting done!

February Finish #2

I feel like I'm on a roll this month! Last night I finished the quilt that I made with the 5th grade class I work with. I brought my sewing machine into school and each child made a block for the quilt. Once the sewing was done, they traced their hands onto the blocks and colored them in. I put the quilt together and was going to have them tie it. However...thanks to Bonnie and Judy I got the Baptist Fans template from Circle Lord and decided to use that. I quilted it yesterday, put on the binding and hand sewed it down last night and now I can't wait to bring it to school and see the kids' faces when I show it to them!

This was the second quilt I did with the Baptist Fans...hopefully I'll finish hand sewing the binding on that one tonight so I can share it tomorrow!

February Finish

Last night I finished stitching down the binding on the 25 patch quilt and this morning I put it on the bed. Yay...I've accomplished something this month! So, here are pictures...the finished quilt, the stash busting back and the quilts on the bed. I discovered when I put it on the bed it's a little smaller than the log cabin. Oh well, it still fits! And it's FINISHED! On to the next project...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Snow Day!

Winter finally arrived and left quickly! The snow started on Saturday afternoon and by bedtime we only had a few inches. But by Sunday morning when we got up, the wind was blowing, we had thunder and when all was said and done, about a foot of snow. It was wonderful!
The first picture is of our backyard, looking across the empty lot behind us, during the storm. The second picture is my poor birch tree, bending under the weight of the snow. That was taken this morning...then I knocked some of the snow off. It looks a little taller now!

I took full advantage of this "bonus day". We had lots of "supposed tos" scheduled for Sunday, but with the snow, everything was cancelled. Since I had just taken a quilt off the machine, I decided to put my 25-patch on and give it a quick meander. Then I took it off, trimmed it, made and stitched on the binding and started hand sewing it. Once it's done I'll post pictures. This one was entirely from stash and I used a lot of big pieces for the back...stashbusting at its best!

Today I broke down and ordered the Baptist Fan template from Circle Lord. I can't wait until it gets here on Thursday! I have a customer who wants them on her quilt...I suggested it just so I could order the template! I have an antique quilt that was machine appliqued by my grandmother that I will use it on also, once I've practiced a little. I may try to make a quick scrap quilt to use it on first.

That's about it from here...time to work on the next customer quilt!

Snail Trail

A few years ago, my youngest decided she needed a new quilt because the Drunkard's Path quilt I'd made her when she was little wasn't quite big enough for her bed. I enlisted the help of my friend Mary to make her a quilt. She decided on a snail's trail pattern and I envisioned a beautiful rainbow of color across a white or pale blue background. However, I told Mary to have fun with it and do whatever she wanted...after all, she was making it out of her own stash! I love how the quilt turned out...it's bright, crazy and wild...just perfect for Grace's personality!

Grace chose the borders for it, then couldn't decide on a backing. She asked if I could make the back out of all the fabrics she had been collecting all her life...so of course I did! Sometimes the quilt is on her bed with the pieced blocks up, other times the backing is up. About 6 months ago, Grace was moved out of her purple room into her brother's room, since he is at college. She chose a beautiful sage green for the walls, very calming. We went to Target and bought the Shabby Chic line of bedding and curtains in blue, white and green to complement the room. The expensive comforter was on the bed for all of about 2 weeks...until she missed her quilt and decided that the comforter could live in the closet...she needed her quilt!

I'll have to take some pictures of the Drunkard's Path...it's one of my favorite quilts that I've made!

Dresden Plate

I was just visiting Bonnie's blog and saw her Dresden Plate quilt that she just finished. I have a very similar customer quilt on the machine right now! Mine is newly made, with 30s repros. My customer also wants very traditional, 30s style quilting on it. Here is what I've done so far. I'd hoped to have it done by now, but today was the first day I've been able to stand at the machine all week!

January Progress...

Well, since Judy asked so nicely, I decided to see what I had actually accomplished in January. Boy, was I disappointed! I did finish the Convergence Quilt and the flannel quilt for the dogs, which got rid of some stash, but were the only finishes I had. I cut and helped the kids sew the blocks for the school quilt, which used stash, I hand pieced my carpenter's wheel and I used a lot of stash making the 25 patch quilt top. I ran into a dilemma with that over how to make it larger without making more blocks, but I've finally worked that out in my mind - now to do it in fabric! Over the past few days I've been doing some handquilting on a fall quilt that I received after a friend passed away a few years ago. Being sick seemed like a good opportunity for some quiet work. Other than that, not much happened! :o( I guess I need to start February with a list of things to do...otherwise I may get nothing done at all!

Tonya's Houses

Yesterday, before I knew I had the flu, I decided I HAD to make one of Tonya's houses. So, I fired up my laptop which is next to my sewing table and I followed her directions. I think it turned out cute, although I'm not overwhelmed with the way the roof turned out. The fabrics are all hand dyes and batiks. I think when I'm feeling better I'll have to make a few more. It was a very easy technique...thanks for sharing it, Tonya!

Flu...

Looks like I'm homebound for the rest of the week. I went to visit the doctor this afternoon and he confirmed that I have the flu. So, I'm out of work until next Monday and have been instructed to relax and take it easy. I stopped at my chiropractor's office which is next door to my doctor and he told me to take elderberry extract as it's proven to shorten the duration of the flu symptoms by several days. So, I'm taking that along with Motrin and will be back to normal in no time.

Maybe I should rest at my sewing machine?

Carpenter's Wheel

I didn't have a very productive weekend. We spent all day Saturday running errands. By dinner on Saturday night I wasn't feeling very well and by the time dinner was over I was running a fever and feeling awful. I slept on the sofa until bedtime, then skipped church yesterday morning and slept. By late morning, I had moved downstairs to sleep. That was a big accomplishment! So, throughout the course of the afternoon and early evening, I took naps and when I was awake I hand sewed the little blue triangles to the edges of my block. I love how this block has turned out! I think that rather than put the corner triangles on to square it up, I'm going to make the corner triangles from the same fabric as the background (once I find the perfect fabric!) so that it maintains the shape it's in now. Then I will handquilt it and hang it in my bedroom.
I do feel slightly better today (thank you Motrin!) so I'm going to try to load a quilt this morning and run to the post office to ship another quilt. Then I'll go to work this afternoon. I'm hoping that the students who were absent last week will be in to finish their quilt blocks today, then I can get started putting their quilt together. We're raffling the quilt off to the students at the end of the year, so they were all very excited on Friday when most of them earned their first raffle ticket!

This and that...

I wanted to share this customer quilt with you. It was a block of the month which she set with large 4 patches on point and I really liked how it turned out. The colors are so soft, the florals were very pretty. She didn't do the border that was supposed to be on it because she liked it this size. Just wanted to share with all of you sampler lovers!

The next quilt on the machine will be a dresden plate made of 30s repros. It's very pretty.

I'm almost done handpiecing my carpenter's wheel block...I just have the background to stitch on. I love how it's turning out. I'll probably find a border fabric for it and make it into a wallhanging for my bedroom.