Stash Report - April 8

My pink & green quilt this week made a nice dent in my stash.  4.5 yards used for the remaining blocks and all those borders.

Unfortunately, I then took advantage of the weekend to head out to the quilt shop.  I picked up backing for this quilt and one other, for a total of 8 yards.  1 step forward, 2 steps back apparently.  I wonder if I'll be able to meet my goal of breaking even this year.  The goal to reach 100 yards used seems realistic enough, since I'm 1/3 of the way there.

Total this year:
35 3/4 yards out, 65 1/2 yards in
Net for 2012: 29 3/4 yards in

Head over to Judy's blog to see how other quilter's are doing with their stash busting (or building, as the case may be).

This week's finish

Pink Posies is complete!  At least, the top is done.  It may be a while before it is quilted - this turned out bigger than I was expecting.

I consider this a definite success.  I bought this fabric a couple of years ago, with no particular pattern in mind.  So, I randomly bought a couple yards of each, and a bit extra of the floral.  When I designed the quilt, I did choose the size to use as much of the fabric as possible - and in the end I have less than 1/2 yard of the dark pink and floral left.  And only scraps of everything else!  Pretty good planning, if I do say so myself.

And now that the quilt inspector has approved this one, I am headed out to look for backing while I ponder my next step.  Start the April colour challenge, or quilt one of my tops.  Or perhaps actually finish a UFO, since I have a couple that need borders, which I'd really like to finish.

Border Time

This is the state my quilted started in today.  I finished all the blocks earlier this week, and now it's time to start assembly.  It's not quite finished yet, but I hope to have it done by the end of the day.  Holiday Friday's make for great progress in the sewing room.

After I finished all the pink and green blocks, I auditioned a couple of border options.  It was easy to pick - the one on the left wins.  Now the only problem is, the extension I made to the center row is the wrong width for the double border.  So I'll have to figure out how I want to extend it.

Of course, changing the plan midway leads to trouble.  The first thing I did was cut the wrong border strips and attach a floral border directly to the pink blocks.  Rats.  It's a good thing I stopped at the quilt shop yesterday and picked up this new seam ripper.  I already have 3 of them, but the newest one is at least 8 years old.  So I treated myself to a new one - and WOW!  I barely have to use any pressure at all to cut threads.  What a change.  This made quick work of detaching the wrong border, and I now have the first round of border attached to the quilt.

Now I think I need to head outside to enjoy some of this sunshine, before it disappears.  I'm linking up to Finish it up Friday with Crazy Mom this week.  Drop by to see what everyone has accomplished this week.  And come back here tomorrow to see how many of the borders I manage to finish today.

Pink & Green Progress

I finished the blocks for my pink and green quilt today.

Some of the readers suggested reversing the colours, but keeping a pink block in the center.  So I moved some bits around to have a look at what that produced.  I like it!  I think this brings the balance I was looking for, and lightens the overall look. Since the pink is much darker than I planned, I think this may be the right choice.

I did have to remake a number of blocks, to get the edges to all flow correctly.  But that went pretty quickly.  I'll extend the green center into the first round of the border, to complete the diamond.

And now looking at it, I see that I have to rework the borders again.  I had a narrow dark green border planned first, but that will mess with the diamond.  Needs more thought, so I guess I'll sleep on that.

Design Wall Monday - April 2

I've been working on a new quilt this weekend.  Designed it a few weeks ago, but I was determined to finish my March projects first.  Now, I can concentrate on this one- at least until a design for the April colour challenge jumps out at me.  The was the original design.  However, the pink was much lighter in my plan, so I'm not sure how I feel about this layout now.

So I tried this one.  Not really happy with it, and I think that's the reason the quilt had a pink center to begin with.  Four more blocks and I can still decide to change it.  Once I make that last block - it has to be either pink or green and that will end the debate :)

April Colour Palette

Oh my goodness.  I don't know if I can bear the colour palette this month.  The colours themselves are interesting, and I think will make a lovely quilt.  But I almost wish I didn't know where the inspiration came from.  Can I make a quilt using colours drawn from moldy pie?  Yes, that's what I said.  The story is over here.  What do you think?  Could you ever look at a quilt made from these colours without seeing that pie, if you knew the source of the inspiration?

While I'm pondering that decision, here's another look at my March colour palette quilt.  After reading the comments, and taking the quilt to my local quilt shop, I've decided that the borders can stay just as they are.

Check out the other colour palette quilts on Judy's blog today (but watch out for that pie).

Stash Report - April 1

I used 3.5 yards this week, working on a new quilt.  The blocks are about half-way put together, and while it's not quite what I was envisioning, I think I'm going to like the end result.

Nothing came in, other than 2 packages of batting.  So my stash report continues to move in the right direction this week.

Total this year:
31 1/4 yards out, 57 1/2 yards in
Net for 2012: 26 1/4 yards in

Check out Judy's blog for more Stash Reports today.