Monochromatic Challenge

October's monochromatic challenge was a 2 colour quilt.  Any 2 colours, plus a background.   I picked up a set of fat quarters one day when I was out shopping for inspiration, and it turned into this Hallowe'en quilt.  Orange, black, and white - I think this qualifies for October's challenge.

 The block pattern was inspired by September's block lotto (curved rails) quilt blocks.  I cut each of the 10 FQ into 4 squares, 9x9".  Layered all of them (well, OK, I layered a few at a time) and cut the curves, then swapped colours around to make 40 unique blocks.  30 made the front of this quilt, and the other 10 framed a panel on the back.

The quilt was finished in time to hang in my front window for Hallowe'en - a good thing since I didn't have any other Hallowe'en decorations out.  The trick-or-treaters were out in force tonight, despite the cold weather, and the quilt greeted all of them from the window.

 November's challenge is black, white, and one other colour.  Which is perfect, because I have my black and white (and red) fat quarters just waiting for my attention.  This should give me the inspiration to keep that one moving along.

Design Wall Monday - Oct 31

I can't show you what's on my design wall today, because it's the sneak peek for November's block lotto.  But, I do have a couple of things to show you today.

First, my pink quilt is progressing through the quilting stage.  I've completed most of the center of the quilt, and one round of the border.  Two more border rounds to go, and then some small (4x4") squares in the middle that need quilting still.

Second, I have my next quilt - or at least the fabric for it picked out.  Here's where I need your help. What quilt pattern would you use for this?  I want something that will highlight the pink flowers, and I'll use the stripe for the border.  So I have a focus and 2 colours.  Any suggestions for quilt patterns with this set of fabric?  I thought about a disappearing 9-patch, but I'd really like to do something I've never done before.

So, after you leave me your quilt pattern suggestion :) hop over to Judy's blog to see what other quilters have on their design walls this week.

Stash Report - Oct 30

I worked on a lot of projects this week, but most were small items. And 2 I can't show you yet, so I will count them here and post pictures once the secrets are out.  The BOM and October block lotto were on my design wall last Monday.

Usage for this week:

Backing for 2 baby quilts - 1.75 yd
Block Lotto for November -  1.25 yd
Mystery Monday - 1 yd
BOM & block lotto for October = 1/4 yd

Total - 3.25 yards out
Zero yards in

Stash Totals for this year:
Overall, 92.25 yards in, 84.5 yards out.
Net for the year:  7.75 yards in.

Still trying to work my way back into the black. Check out Judy's blog to see what other quilters did with their stash this week.

Guess Who Came to Town!

This post has absolutely nothing to do with quilting.But I had so much fun today, that I just had to share.

Jen and john (the hubby of Jen), the author of Cake Wrecks came to town!!  I can't believe they came to Canada, let alone my own city, and even my end of the city.  Only 20 minutes away from me - I absolutely had to go!

I spent the afternoon at their book signing, and it was so much fun.  They were great, and the fans' "wreck-licas" were very entertaining.  Little cupcakes made by fans, immortalizing some of the best wrecks from the site.

I picked up a copy of their latest book, and got my own "wrecky" dedication from Jen :)

After that, I had to "fix" my book cover. Apparently, a minor mistake was made when the books were originally printed, which escaped all the copy editors.  After the final copies were ready, it was noticed, and "corrected" by the publishers with a lovely, correctly spelled, sticker.

My book is now sans-sticker, and much wreckier :)

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Once again, Amy is sponsoring a Blogger's Quilt Festival.  It's a chance for us to see and learn about a wide variety of bloggers and their creations.  I debated this year what quilt to post, and I decided that Triangle Delight was the pick for this festival.

I wanted to make a quilt for my sister and her husband.  She had hinted that she'd like to have one, so I went on a hunt for a pattern.  I wanted something different, a bit intricate, and not just a traditional quilt block.  At my local quilt store I found a book of quilts focused around triangles.  There were lots of patterns in there, but none that caught my eye - except one photo.  A beautiful quilt in rose and burgundy colours, in a tiny thumbnail photo half-way through the book.  I loved it!  But nowhere in the book were there instructions for this particular quilt. And the quilt did not use the same basic blocks that the rest of the quilts were built around.

However, I was determined not to let that deter me.  I bought the book, and headed off to my sewing room to do some drafting.  This was before I had any quilt design software, so I drafted the pattern by hand.  I identified the basic block, drew it out and made myself some templates for it.  Then, I worked out fabric yardage, and went in search of the perfect fabric for my sister.

I found the background fabric which I really liked, and matched the rest to that.  Assembling this quilt was more work than I had expected.  All those triangles.  All those points.  And there are several variations on the block, in terms of colour placement in this quilt, so I had to carefully keep track of that the whole way too. But eventually it all came together, and I was pleasantly surprised by the way the triangles seem to float on top of the background fabric.

The quilt was finished and delivered to my sister in time for Christmas 2009.

Check out the quilts from the other participants by following this button.

Practice makes perfect

My "third" project was really my 4th or fifth.  While I was working on project #2 (the quillow), I stumbled across an on-line mystery quilt.  I thought this would be a really great way to get some interaction with other quilters, and maybe learn a bit more.  It was a one-day mystery - 7 or 8 clues posted over the course of a single day, so I planned to spend that day in my sewing room and see how it went.

Still working from my stash, I pulled a few fabrics - green, blue, red, white and a dark, which mirrored what the creator was using.  I was a bit concerned, because these were novelty prints, but they all had similar primary colours, so I figured it would be OK. I happily went to work when the mystery came on line, and even finished it.  But, about halfway through, I realized my error.

The "red" didn't look red when you cut 2.5" squares from it. Ditto for the other colours - the novely prints were so large and bold that in the smaller pieces, the novelty pics took over and the main colour was completely lost.    I think you can see that from the pictures here - from top to bottom, "red", "blue", and "green".

The end result of that experiment was a complete disaster which looked like a random mish-mash of colour.  I crumpled it up, stuffed it in the back of the closet, and swore never to speak of it again :)  And, I didn't take a picture.  Several years later, I came across the top while moving and tossed it.  So, no evidence remains.

Fortunately, I didn't let that deter me on my quilting journey.  I still loved the process (and now I knew that I loved the process of assembling a complete top).  And I learned from that experience - that you can't mix and match a bunch of novelty prints cut into small pieces.

And hence my next quilt was born.  I still wanted to use up stash.  And I still wanted to do a complete top including quilting.  So I did a reset, planned a small baby quilt, and used a combination of my novelty prints and a solid white to break up the jumble.  This time I settled on an "around the world" layout - to try to help draw the eye to the background colours by grouping them.I pieced the quilt in 9-patches, after carefully drawing out the colours so I could make sure I made each patch correctly.

I backed this quilt with interlock - that was one of the purposes of making this quilt.  To find out if that would work, because the other half of my stash was interlock fabric - mostly in solids, thank goodness.  This quilt has a red back.

I discovered that it was possible, although challenging to do that.  The quilting here was a free motion (marked) swirl pattern - I never was one to start simple :)  The stretchy backing made it challenging, but I got through it with only one or two puckers in the backing.  Not too bad for a first attempt, I figured.  And still undeterred, I continued on my quilting journey.  Next up - a Christmas present for my nephew, was 5.

Date: March 2004

Recipient: Charity quilt for the Linus Project

Pattern: 9-patch cream & colour, Around the World layout

Fabric: cotton, interlock backing

Size: 36” x 36”

Quilting: machine quilted by Krista

Block of the Month, Part 2

The second installment of the Blogger's Block of the Month came out today.  Not being the patient type, I headed straight for my sewing room after work, to see what I could make of it.  The instructions are on Vicki's blog, here.  This block was fun to put together, and since Vicki's instructions left a number of corners trimmed off, I made mini-half-squares which I will keep in hopes that they can become part of the sashing or border later on.

This month's block is on the left, surrounded by the spare half-square triangles (which need trimming).  Last month's block is on the left.

Design Wall Monday - Oct 24

There isn't much on my design wall this week.  I've been focusing on finishing my pink quilt, and the baby quilts I made last week.  I did manage one block this week, for the block lotto (blue & cream).  This was a neat block, made from 2-8" squares.  I wish I could remember where I found the tutorial, but I haven't been able to retrieve the link, unfortunately.  Very easy block to make.

The other is last month's block from the Bloggers Block of the Month.  That one is up because the next block is due out on Tuesday and I can hardly wait!

On the left you can see my stash shelves.  I'm almost 1/2 done washing, ironing and folding all that new fabric.  Hidden in there somewhere is the rest of the fabric for the BOM - I guess I need to find that before tomorrow.

Check out Judy's blog to see what other quilters have on their design walls.



Editted to add:

Michele and Denise both recognized the block, and helped me find the original tutorial. It's from Quiltmaker Magazine - Anita's Arrowheads. For a limited time (I don't know how long) the tutorial is available here

Stash Report - Oct 23

Oh My Goodness. What have I done?  My quilt shop sent me an email earlier last week, saying they were having a "surprise sale", Saturday only.  Finish the bolt and get a discount on the fabric.  I decided I would drop in, just to see what they had to offer.  After all, I've been doing really well on depleting my stash.  So well in fact that this is what I had left in my closet Saturday morning. 

The pink & green stack on the left is for a planned project.  The boxes contain pieces which are fat quarters or less. So that gives me the stack on the right as my entire stash.  I think this might explain my lack of inspiration for my next project - there is not much to choose from there, and certainly nothing I could turn into a quilt.

So, I hit the sale on Saturday.  I think my quilt shop loves me now.  Here is the result - all end of bolt, ranging from .5 to 4 meter lengths.  The backing for my star quilt is in there, in addition to the backing for the black and white.  Apparently I'm still missing red & yellow in my stash however. I also picked up a pattern - I wanted to take a class on this but missed it, so I thought I'd try it on my own.  That should use a bit of this stack.
In: 63.5 yards

Fortunately, I also did some quilting this week, so I have some outgoing stash to balance that pile.

Baby quilts: 1.75yd
star border: .25 yd
backing for pink quilt - 4.5 yd
Total out: 6.5 yards

Stash Totals for this year:
Overall, 92.25 yards in, 81.25 yards out.
Net for the year:  11 yards in.

I'll have to work hard this week to get that number back into the black.  Pop over to Judy's blog to see what everyone else was up to this week.  I think I'll go see if looking at other stashes will make me feel better about my week :)

Pink Quilt

I decided that my next move should be to find some space in my sewing room - which means finishing some projects.  So rather than cutting into the black and white (which is sitting on my cutting table, calling my name) I will continue to work on the quilting of some finished tops.

First up, my pink quilt.  This was not part of the monochromatic challenge for August, because I made it back in June.  And now I'll finish it in October, completely spanning the "pink" month :)

I decided to step outside my comfort zone, and rather than an all-over meander, or straight line quilting, I'm going to quilt each section.  Nothing too intricate, because I don't want this quilt to be heavily quilted.  Plus I'm not sure my skills are up to it.

I considered feathers - I do have a quilt that I really want to do in feathers, but I need some practice first  But I decided that this quilt didn't fit the feather pattern, so I chose a simple flower.  In the blocks on the edge of the quilt, where the fill is a slightly different shape, I'm filling out the quilting with an extra leaf.

I haven't figured out yet how to quilt the pink strips themselves. Hopefully something will come to me before I get to that point.  The smaller background squares will be quilted with 4-leaf clovers, I think.  Or a miniature of the flower in the larger areas.

This is a rather large quilt (80x80"), so I expect the quilting to take some time.  I may break down and setup my old sewing machine, so that I can do some piecing in the meantime, while I work on this.

Willpower

I did it!  I finished 3 quilts, without giving in to the desire to cut into my pretty black and whites.  Two baby quilts assembled (and ugly fabric no longer in my stash).  And the borders are on my watercolour star.  Success!

Now, the question becomes, do I reward myself with the black and whites, and start cutting triangles and hexagons.   Or do I take the next logical step, and quilt some of the 5 quilts I have that are waiting for my attention?  Decisions, decisions. 

When I first mentioned making these baby quilts, before cutting into a new project, one reader commented that I had a lot of willpower.  As I think about it, I am starting to realize that it wasn't so much willpower that kept me on track with the baby quilts. It was fear.  Those black and whites - 25 fat quarters of them - are going to be cut into 1.5" triangles and hexagons.

I just finished the watercolour star, and I am starting to doubt my sanity about wanting to jump back into the land of itty bitty pieces.  Admittedly, the pieces are slightly larger this time.  But they come with the joys of Y-seams.



Here they are, all stacked up.  And in the back, you can see 3 more works in progress (or in planning) that I really should finish up.  So, what is it?  Quilt some of the 5, finish some of the 3, or start a new one?  Help me out - leave a vote in the comments, and maybe you can help me make up my mind :)

Quillow

After finishing the block for my friend's quilt, I knew I liked quilting.  But, before I jumped in with both feet, I wanted to figure out if I liked *all* the steps.  So far, all I had done was piece a block  What about assembling a top, and quilting it?  So I went back online, looking for a pattern to make.  The goal was to make this entirely from my stash, since I had a lot of cotton from making clothes for my kids.  Then, if I liked it I could consider actually spending money on quilting supplies.

I think was the point where I bought my first ruler (6x24").  I already had a rotary cutter, as I'd been introduced to those joys by a friend much earlier, and used it almost exclusively for cutting the fabric for children's clothing.

I found a block pattern I liked, and designed the colour layout - because even then I really didn't like the look of scrappy quilts.  Back then, I did all my designing on paper, in hardcover notebooks.  So I grabbed some coloured pencils and went to work.  And wanting to make this somewhat useful but easy to put away, I decided to make a quillow.  For those not familiar with the term, a quillow is quilt that folds up and tucks into a pocket to make a pillow.

Then I checked out my fabric shelves.  All the cotton fabric was bright cheery children's novelty fabric.  Not a single blender or solid in the bunch.  That was not going to work.  What I did find was a really cute corduroy with bears playing baseball.  Really cute, and a lightweight corduroy, so I didn't think I'd have too much trouble manipulating it.  Digging around some more produced more corduroy, in complementary colours, even!  So I had a pattern, fabric, and a plan.

I merrily started cutting the fabric for the squares.  After a few cuts, I decided to assemble a couple of blocks to make sure it was going to work - and to confirm the colour placement.  After the first block was assembled I made a frightening discovery.  Corduroy is directional!  OK, you probably knew that already, and so did I.  But I hadn't considered what that actually meant for assembling a quilt top out of it.  Some will tell you I never do anything the easy way, and this quilt was no exception.

I lucked out, and my first block had all the lines going in the same direction.  I had fortuitously picked a quilt block which, when cut, provided sets of pieces that all paired up perfectly to account for directionality.  I did muck up a couple of the early blocks, and the nap runs the wrong way - the cords are correct, but upside down.  You can see this in the picture.  But I was happy enough to get it mostly straight, so I decided not to stress over that.   The quilt is backed and bound with the baseball bears fabric.

The quilt is 5x8 blocks - about 60x94".  On the back is the pillow pocket.  I created a large square for that, with a slightly different colour placement.  It took several attempts to figure out how to attach the pocket  and what size to make it so that the quilt would fold up neatly inside.  Binding/finishing the edges of the pocket was the biggest challenge, along with sizing (the green border was not in the original plan).

 One major discovery I made, is that corduroy is VERY heavy  This is the heaviest quilt I've ever seen.  Also, corduroy sticks to itself - so folding this quilt into its pocket is difficult.  Not impossible, but it takes some practice and perseverance.  But it is toasty warm for sitting under, and you can tuck your feet into the pocket to keep them warm and off the floor.

As my first completed quilt, this one is special to me.  I learned a lot making this - more about what not to do than anything else.  Rule #1 - don't quilt with corduroy :)

For all its challenges, this quilt simply reinforced the idea that I wanted to quilt.  And next time, I would do it with the right type of fabrics.

Name: Diamonds are Forever

Date: Jan 2004 to Feb 2004

Fabric: corduroy

Size: quillow, 9" squares

Quilting: machine quilted by Krista

Design Wall Monday - Oct 17

What's on my design wall is not what I had expected to have on it today.  I was all set to work on my black & white quilt, but when I started trying to lay things out for cutting, I realized how many half-finished projects I have sitting on my work table.  So, rather than start something new, I thought I would try to clean up a bit.

So here is what I have.  First, it was 6 4-patch posies.  Not a bad way to use up some pretty ugly fabric that I have had sitting around for 16 years.

But I didn't have enough of any greens to do the sashing for 6 blocks.  And the two greens together just wasn't working for me.

So instead, I decided on 2 baby quilts - 25x25" is a good size for the CHEO babies, so these will be perfect if I add a couple of alternate blocks to one of the quilts.  All the parts are cut out now, and I should be able to get these off the design wall pretty quickly.

Then, I need to border the watercolour star.  Since I bought the fabric this weekend, I'll try to do that next.  All to get me to a point where I can play with this:

So far, it's just a design in EQ6, but I am *so* looking forward to turning it into reality.  And you thought I'd had enough of little bitty pieces.  My templates make 1.5" finished diamonds. so I'm off to crazy land again.

Stash Report - Oct 16

I finished my Hallowe'en quilt this week - that was a total of 10 fat quarters, a panel, and binding - 4 yards total, out for that project.  However, I did have to hit the quilt store this weekend.  1/2 yard for border on my star quilt, and a fat quarter for my new project.

So that's 4 yards out, and 3/4 yards in this week, for a total of 3-1/4 yards out.

Stash Totals for this year:
Overall, 28.75 yards in, 74.75 yards out.
Net for the year:  46 yards out.

Check out more stash reports over at Patchwork Times

A Hallowe'en Finish

My Hallowe'en quilt is complete, and hanging in my front window.  A full 2 weeks early, even!

This was a lot of fun. I took inspiration from the block lotto curved rails, and 10 fat quarters I picked up this past weekend when I was out looking for inspiration.  The curved blocks went together really quickly, and used pretty much every scrap of the 10 fat quarters - I cut the quarters into 9" squares, and then cut the curves in those blocks.  Final blocks were trimmed down to 8" unfinished.  The FQs made 40 blocks in total - 10 down the sides of the panel on one side, and the other 30 blocks made up the reverse of the quilt.

I quilted it with freehand loops, and hung it with clips (to keep the 2-sided option) in my front window for the season.  I can't wait for daylight tomorrow, so I can see what it looks like from outside.  The panels in the window will probably interfere a bit, but hopefully people will be able to tell what it is.

This is my first seasonal quilt. And now I'm inspired to do something for Christmas next.

A Quilter's Journey

I hope my regular readers will forgive a bit of self-indulgence on my blog.  I have been quilting for almost 8 years now, and I realize that I have little record of those early years.  The last couple years are documented on the blog - at least snapshots into my progress and plans.  But my early quilts, most of which were given away, are hiding in the corners of my computer, in pictures with no context around them.  So I have decided to start a journal here, which will describe the process involved in the creation of each of my quilting projects.  I flatter myself that this might be of interest to some of you.

My plan is one post a week on this topic.  Certainly no more than that.  Sometimes less, as life becomes hectic and my journaling takes a back seat to other activities.

My introduction to quilting came unexpectedly, and rather sadly  I've sewn since I was young.  My mother taught me how to sew - I still remember my first project (a pair of flannel pyjamas).  I dabbled from there, and when my kids were born I made a lot of their clothing.  I considered quilting a few times, but could not see the point - what did one do with all those quilts, anyway?

Then one day in 2003 a friend, who I knew only through an email group, told us she had breast cancer.  One of the group members suggested we make a quilt for her, since we were not close enough to offer any direct support to her and her family. Over 30 of us contributed blocks, one quilter on the list assembled the quilt and sent it out for quilting.

This was my very first venture into quilting.  I bought 2 fat quarters in the colours chosen for the quilt (purple and green - the recipient's favourite colours), and searched on-line for a pattern.  I found a "friendship star", which seemed perfect.  Carefully following the on-line instructions, I assembled my first quilt block. Above is the end result including an embroidered phrase in the center block.  Below is the finished quilt, just before it was sent to our friend.

By the time I finished this single block, I had decided that I loved quilting, and wanted to do more.  I haven't looked back since.

Sigh...

I hate it when that happens.  Now, instead of spending the evening relaxing and hand-stitching my binding down, I get to spend it with scissors and tweezers, trying to pull all the bits of batting out of my stitching :(

The happy news is that except for this oops, I am done quilting my Hallowe'en quilt.

Curved Piecing

After I made my Hallowe'en quilt, I thought a tutorial on curved piecing might be useful.  I know there are a few of these already out there in blog-land, but this is how I made my blocks.  These were inspired by the curved rails over at Block Lotto in September.  The concept is a "free-form" type of piecing, with no templates, and no careful measuring.  It goes together easily, and creates a quilt with a lot of motion.

First, I chose the design.  Nice smooth curves, with some intersections for added interest.  Using the same technique from the block lotto, I layered my fabrics (5 in this case) and cut all my blocks at the same time.  This ensures that the curves are perfect matches for each other.  Then, I rotated the colour sets in each pile, to create blocks with different colourways.

Start with fabric squares which are 1-2" larger than you want the finished piece to be, because you are going to lose length and width in your seams, and the amount you lose depends on the sharpness of the curves and the number of seam lines you cut.  Also, gentle curves are easier to sew than sharp ones, so keep the curves gradual.

The sewing order is the reverse of the cutting order.  Whichever curve you cut last, you sew first.  This ensures you will not have any Y-seams to deal with.  And no pins are required for this technique. Lay your pieces on top of each other, right sides together, aligning the raw edges at the start of the seam.  Don't worry about the rest of the seam for now.  Take a  few stitches to get started and hold this end together.

Then, gently ease the seam line, to align the raw edges as they pass under the needle.  Don't try to align the whole seam at once.  Just do the inch or so in front of the needle, and move down the seam as you go.

When you are done, you should have a nicely eased seam, with no puckers.

One important thing to remember when piecing curves cut this way - your end points will NOT line up.  The seam line on piece on the inside of the curve is shorter than the seam line on the outer piece that it matches.  Notice how the orange piece is longer than the black, in this sample.  You have to accept this, choose your matching point (I picked the end which will get buried in another seam), and just go with it.  In the end, you will trim all the blocks to the same size.

 Press the seam flat - a little bit of steam is sometimes useful here.  I find it works best to press towards the inside of the curve, in most cases.

I usually chain piece the same two sections in each block together, then press. Be very careful to keep the pieces in order as you press them. Then when you go back to the sewing table, you simply take the pieces in order off the next pile, and again chain all your blocks.

When you are done, trim your blocks to the planned size (or, figure out the largest square you can get from the completed blocks, and trim all of the blocks to that size, to maximize your quilt).

Here is my finished quilt top, all ready for Hallowe'en.  4 hours start to end, using the curved piecing technique above.

Hallowe'en Progress

I love holiday Mondays!  After our Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday, I spent most of yesterday relaxing in my sewing room.  I managed to put together the front and back of my Hallowe'en quilt.

And as I type, it is now sitting on the sewing machine with the quilting almost 1/2 done. This might set a record, if I manage to get some time in there tomorrow to finish up the quilting and prep the binding.

I'm using a variegated orange/brown thread in random loops for the quilting.  The current plan is to bind it in orange, assuming I have enough left in the yardage I found in the stash.  Alternatively, I'll make a scrappy binding.

Design Wall Monday - Oct 10

Happy Thanksgiving, to all my fellow Canadians!  We celebrated yesterday, because I like to have a day of rest before heading back to work, after making the big dinner.  I've put my long weekend to good use.  First, the star is done!  It still needs a border, but the center is complete.  And it's going to take a rest off my wall for a bit, while I ponder how I want to handle borders.

I put the pack of 10 fat quarters that came home on Saturday to good use.  Here they are, all cut, sewn, and arranged on my wall.  I've decided on a 2-sided quilt for Hallowe'en.  One side will have the panel I showed yesterday, with a row of blocks down each side.  And the reverse will be 30 orange/black/white blocks.

And the best news?  I re-read the October Monochromatic Challenge post, and I found that it is 2 colours plus a background.  So, here is my orange & black with white background, quilt for October!  Yay!  I didn't think I was going to have a chance to play with the monochromatic group this month.

Check out Judy's blog to see what other quilters have on their design walls.

Stash Report - Oct 9

I went out today, and did some damage to my stash report.  I needed inspiration for my next quilt, since the star is almost done.  I also grabbed a quilt that's waiting for backing, and took it along to see what I could find.

Backing successful - and off the sale table, even.  50% off more than makes up for the fact that they didn't have wide backing in a suitable colour.  4.5 yards in with this purchase, but it will be heading out relatively quickly, I hope.

I also found my inspiration.  A Hallowe'en quilt, which may make use of this panel I was given a couple of years ago (or may not - it depends how to colours look once my blocks are made.  The block pattern has been chosen, so I'm ready to go as soon as I sew the last few seams on the star quilt. 2.5 yards in.

So that is
4 yards out - star quilt
7 yards in - backing and fat quarters
For a total of 3 yards in, this week.


Stash Totals for this year:
Overall, 28.75 yards in, 71.50 yards out.
Net for the year:  42.75 yards out.

Check out Judy's blog to see what everyone else did with their stash this week.

Another Finish

My final tic-tac-toe quilt is done!  This was my August UFO, and the blocks have been in my hands for over 18 months.  The back is pieced, with some additional blocks from the lotto.  I'm glad I finally got motivated to finish this one, thanks to Judy's UFO challenge.

I LOVE this colour.  I've actually had the blue in my stash since 2005, when I first started quilting.  Bought it because I loved the colour, but never found anything I liked with it.  These mixed tic-tac-toe blocks were perfect.  And the six on the back were chosen because they worked so nicely with the blue.