Another garage sale today, and I picked up this little beauty for $30. It's a treadle in a cabinet, not too bad condition. If the original seamstress hadn't placed her pincushion over the arm of the machine it would be in perfect shape. I wasn't going to buy it, until the vendor suggested I put another pincushion over that spot, and I thought that was a good idea. I want a treadle as a backup for emergencies, and as a piece of furniture, so the damage to the decals is immaterial. The belt is a little too tight for easy treadling, but I will buy a new one on my next trip into town. What a little darling!

I'm a bit peeved that the quilts are coming off the machine so quickly that the next one isn't even ready to load, so I am determined to make up a few backings and cut batting to size and have a stack of tops ready to go at a moments notice. I've run into a problem though; I can't bear to actually use my backing stash. How silly is that? Still, I'm having a huge struggle making up my mind what fabric to use with each top. This bit's too good, this bit's not long enough, this bit isn't nice enough quality, I want that for a future top......

These are shortlisted to go on the back of the patchwork they are laying on. None of them are big enough, so they will have to be pieced together somehow. I love the top, love all the fabrics too; now I just have to get over the feeling that I am 'wasting' them by using them up. I will have a finished quilt, with a back that I love just as much as the front. I need to get over this nonsense and just start using the lengths for what I bought them for. Backings!

I'm making a concerted effort to use up more fabric instead of constantly acquiring more, so I'm cutting hanging sleeves and bindings for every top and project. I'm determined to make space in the stash drawer, so that I can find what I want and put things away easily. I've downsized already, but I'm ready to go even further. It makes it easy when everything I wave in the direction of the bin prompts Mereth to offer 'I'll have that if you don't want it!" I get the feeling that my unwanted stash is just going to migrate around to her place.

Two weeks ago we made name blocks as a gift to Tonya for running the online classes. This is my name block, made with the hand-dyes I bought from Lisa Walton at the Adelaide show. I threw in a bit of black print to make the 3D effect. This was so much fun, I can see more projects with hand-dyes in my future. Thanks Tonya! I'm enjoying the free-piecing ideas.