Shaking up the stash

Have you seen Bonnie Hunter's blogposts just lately, showing her stash re-organisation? Here and here.  I was inspired to do something about my messy cupboards and stash drawers.

The pink and brown yardage was all over the place. Why is all that red in there? I've been pulling things out of here, and shoving them back in a hurry, till I couldn't see everything I had.

Much better.

The greens were in even more of a mess.

That is so much better, and I found new homes for most of the stuff on that fourth shelf, so now the browny-pink yardage can live there.

I have a thing for this reproduction green and yellow fabric.  I think I have enough for at least half a dozen quilts, so surely I can stop buying it now. Maybe.

Tomorrow I'll tackle the other cupboard that holds the blue yardage, and the lengths of pale floral fabric.

I also put away all the fabric that was cluttering up my working space, sorted 8 (eight!!) drawers of neutrals, and put away all the new fabric. It's a wonderful feeling, seeing the cutting mats cleared, just waiting for the next bout of activity.  In the last week I've started 4 new projects, and all I want to do is get cutting, but I have borders to attach tonight.  It will be good to have a finish, before the sewing room is covered in fabric and scraps again.

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Brickwork quilt

I was doing really well with my leader-ender project. I sewed the bricks in pairs of light and dark, and every so often I'd sew them into rows.  It was a fun, easy project with no pressure.

And then I started wanting to lay out all the bricks first, so it took over the design wall.

And then I just wanted it finished so I could have the design wall back, so it was no longer a leader ender. I'm reeeally bad at leader-enders.

So now it's all in one piece, and just needs it's borders.  They are cut and ready, but I want to have a play with something else for a while, so they'll have to wait.

I'm going to make another brick quilt very soon, because I really would like the bricks to be a little larger, 2.5" x 5" finished.

I needed something else to use as a leader-ender, and because I had nothing prepared it was back to the 1.5" squares container; I now have eleven 3" brown nine-patches. 

 I guess I'm going to have to think of a project to use these up.

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Quick quilts

 My stash drawers are in chaos, it's really hard for me to find anything that I want straight away.  I'm sick of searching high and low for a single piece of fabric, only to have it turn up in an entirely unexpected place.  It's such a waste of time when I could be sewing or cutting. I'm determined to do something about it over the next few weeks.

• Sort out the stash drawers properly, label each one.

• Weed out everything that is a fat eighth or less. Store them in a  wire drawer, for cutting into strips or squares whenever I have time.

• Go through all the small containers, file that fabric back in the stash drawers.

• If something needs to be in a small container for a project, label it

• Re fold and stack all the fabric on the shelves

• Find a better home for all the shirt materials.

• Put bolts of fabric back on the shelf neatly.

• Have a maintenance plan so it doesn't get messy again. Excuse me while I have a bit of a laugh over that.  I never put stuff away properly, that's why I'm in this mess in the first place.  But I can live in hope.

While I'm sorting through the drawers I want to pull out FQs that I don't absolutely love, and make a quick quilt with them.  If I cut each into a 16" square, and sewed them 5 x 5, I would have a top that was 80" square. That would be really painless. or I could cut them into 8" squares, and sew them 7 x 9, like the quilt below, which is 70"x 86". Then I can add borders, and get a big length out of the cupboard as well.

 It would be a really quick way to get some less than treasured fabric out of the drawers, and make room for new stuff. And the offcuts would restock the strip drawers. I'd need more like a metre of most materials, or use different greens and blues.  I'll come up with a plan when I've weeded out more fabric from the stash.

Or I could make some pieced backings the way Bonnie does. I did that about 10 years ago, and I really enjoyed those quilts with virtually another quilt on the back. I donated those quilts, and I sometimes wondered if the recipients chose to use them with the back facing up.  They were pretty.

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A quick little finish

I was quilting a little quilt for someone else (no photos allowed), and there was a large piece of backing fabric still on the rollers.  I grabbed this little baby quilt that I made at the start of the year, added a scrap of batting, and had it finished in no time.

I even bound it, so it's ready to go into the donation pile.

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I used a panto called Jilly, and it gives the right amount of movement and interest without overwhelming the simple piecing. This is my 3rd quilt quilted this year, not a great record, but there has been so much upheaval that I haven't been able to do more.

School holidays are coming up, and I should have a little bit more time at home.  If I get 1 or 2 tops and backings ready then I may squeeze another couple finishes in.

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Finished

I concentrated on making the borders for my Tiny Album top, and sewed them on without a hitch. 

I'm so pleased with how it turned out, it looks quite antique, which I was aiming for. 

       

                         

I had a lot of fun with these blocks, and they used up a pile of my small scraps and strips. And the sashing used up a treasured piece of archival stash that I'd been hoarding for 19 years. That was one of my goals this year, to use up yardage from deep stash, and I certainly achieved that. I don't know what my next project will be, but I think I'll rummage through the special fabrics and see what else I can turn into a quilt. It's a good feeling. 

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Stash enhancement trip

At the very start of August Mereth and I planned a little trip to visit our favourite fabric store in Adelaide, Tricia's.  There were some new Covid cases showing up, and we were afraid that there would be another lockdown and we wouldn't be allowed out, so we needed to go while we could.

We went to Tricia's before lunch, and spent hours browsing.  That shop is so crowded, there are stacks of bolts in front of the shelves of fabric, we had to work hard to get some of them out. We made a few purchases, took a heap of photos, then went and had lunch. Over coffee we consulted the photos, decided what we regretted not buying, then went back and topped up the purchases. It was a fun way to shop, no regrets later over something we didn't get.

I debated a long time over these border prints and large florals, but none of them came home with me.  Some of them went home with Mereth though.

Not a bad haul from Tricia's, and I could have bought so much more but I was being a little bit sensible for some reason.

Ah, Neutrals! Can never have too many of these.

This is a pretty random bunch of half metre pieces; no reason behind any of them, they just caught my fancy.

                                               

Some more pretties; love that pink.

I got 1.5m of this lovely pale paisley. I think it's from a Christopher Wilson-Tate range.

These should spice up future projects.

There were a few FQs to add to the modern stash.

And two wideback lengths, because I want to get some more quilts on the machine before the end of the year, and having the backing ready to go will help that. I have so many blue and white quilts, I'll have to choose which one I use this for.  The cream text print will go with a number of tops too.

It was a lovely trip, and we enjoyed every bit of it.  There was no uptick in the Covid cases, and no lockdown, so we could do it again if we wanted. Maybe some of those border prints will still be there. Just have to add to the bank balance first....

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Getting closer to a finish

And the blocks are  all set together.

It took a lot of late nights to get it to this stage, but I'm very happy with how it's looking.

The next step is a 2" border of pink, and then the same green as the setting triangles around that.  Unfortunately there's no more of the pink, so I will have to find a substitute.  There isn't a lot of that green left either, so it may end up being only 3" wide. The green is from 2006, a line called Calico Craze, so I've only been hoarding this for 14 years. 

I do have a possible replacement fabric in mind, but I don't want to use that unless I absolutely have to.

I was wondering how old that pink was, so I consulted my fabric book and found it right at the start, 2001. I bought it at a discount patchwork shop in Sydney, Patchwork Products, which has sadly now closed.  That shop was like an Aladdin's Cave full of wonders, and all affordable which was a little miracle in those days.  So that piece has sat on the shelf for 19 years; it really is from the archives.

None of the more modern pinks seem to match this, and I had nothing large enough for a border in the old fabrics; a hunt through the scrap drawer found a strip that would do, but I had used it all in other quilts.  A shout-out to Mereth, and she found yardage in her stash drawers.  I'm not surprised, because she uses scraps so much that she doesn't get to cut into the yardage very often.

This one is also 19 years old, it's a better colour match in real life. My phone can't handle vibrant pinks apparently.  In return for the pink I gifted her a neutral beige that she needed for her latest project.  It was so old it predates the fabric books, from last century in fact. Some of my stash is Ancient....

Going through my fabric book was interesting.  So many of the fabrics I am currently using came from 2000-2002, I would never have said they were that old.   I feel even more determined to start using them and not saving them for another 20 years.

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Progress on the Tiny Album blocks

I'm moving slowly towards a finish on the Tiny Album blocks. I chose a pink from the stash, and it's a really old one, I think it was from the Cocheco range. It has nothing printed on the selvedge, so no clue there.

I made the blocks in several long sewing sessions, I was grimly determined to get this closer to a finish, and there were quite a few nights that I called it quits at 2am.  Silly of me, but I don't have anyone to answer to.

I use the parts of one block as a leader-ender for the block I'm working on.  During one of those late night sessions my concentration slipped, and I did this.

I was about to press it and then thought, 'Hmm, that doesn't look right....'  

I fixed it with a bit of seam ripping, but it was time to call it a night. I didn't want to make a mistake trimming those blocks to size, I would be devastated to make a slip with the rotarty cutter.  Cant fix that.....

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Still working on those bindings

This tumbler quilt is finished at last.

This donation quilt is finished as well.

I'm glad I decided to focus on finishing off the binding on all those quilts.  I'm guilt free now, until I quilt something else.  For some strange reason I really enjoyed those 10 bindings; it was nice to be completing projects, instead of rushing on to something new.

I have several quilts that I was quilting on my Janome around 2006, and then I never finished them once the Statler arrived.  I might dig them out of the dark recesses of the cupboard and see what they need in order to be finished. Better late than never.

I really need to finish one of my piecing projects though.  I seem to be sewing constantly and never getting anywhere. I'm doing a fair bit of yard work, so I'm not sewing as much as usual.  I need to research some quick patterns that will give me a finishing fix.

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More binding

This Tumbler quilt has a bit of a story behind it.  I made it while I still lived in Rockhampton, and quilted it on my friend Kaye's Statler on one of my visits to Sydney.  It never got bound because I lent it to a newly opened patchwork shop for display.

Then I moved down here and forgot about it, and years later the patchwork shop closed, and I thought that was the last of my quilt.  But a couple of years ago the mother of the patchwork shop owner was touring Australia by caravan, and dropped the quilt off to me here in Crystal Brook. How strange that it finally came back to me, after all that time. But it still hasn't got its binding, which was made at the time and never used. The edges need a good trimming, and then I'll take great pleasure in applying the binding at last.

This quilt was made and quilted years ago too, and was meant to be a donation quilt.  That didn't happen, because I didn't bind it straight away (I'm seeing a pattern here), so I need to get this finished and sent somewhere where it can do some good.  It's quite drab, but in my expererience guys often like more sombre colours, so I think someone out there will claim this.

I don't know if I"ll have time to quilt anything on this trip home, but I have a few deadlines to work at so I hope that will keep me inspired. Onward!!

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Binding blitz

I'm almost ashamed to admit how many quilts were laying around, just waiting for their binding. I rarely follow my quilts through from piecing to binding. Once it's a top I forget about it; if I quilt it then I act as if it's all finished.  Sometimes I trim it ready to bind, make the binding and then it just gets packed away. I'm always ready to abandon it to something more interesting, so my stack of completely finished quilts rarely gets any bigger.

However! This time I totally fixated on clearing the workroom of the stack of partially finished quilts that were reproaching me and taking up all the shelf space. The bindings for all these were made as they were being quilted, so I just had to grab the box of bindings and start sewing.

 I began by sewing the binding onto 3 quilts that I intend to finish by hand.  Sometimes I want an easy project when I don't feel inspired, and I just want to watch TV and stitch.

This 9-patch has been quilted for many years; I'm one side away from it being finished. This was actually made and quilted in 2010.

I'll hand sew the binding on Isla's quilt, and put a few special thoughts into it for her.  I know I meant to give all the kids quilts for last Christmas, but I ended spending time in Queensland instead, so it didn't happen.  Maybe this next Christmas. The Puss In The Corner quilt was quilted in October last year.

This quilt called Plaid Explosion was long overdue for binding.  It looks great now, ready for a turn on my bed.

One of my Shirt quilts had it's binding applied in less than 2 hours.  Why do I put this off? It was quilted last year some time.

A Puss In The Corner made from charm squares and quilted in 2015 was next on the list.  It looks pretty good now that all the raw edges have been covered up.

Road To Oklahoma also waited a while for it's binding. It was quilted in November last year.

This quilt was quilted a long, long time ago, but amazingly I could lay my hands on the binding I made for it at the time.  I do have good intentions, but I get distracted very easily.

So 8 quilts had their binding attached, and 4 were entirely finished. Next time I"m home I"ll concentrate on completing the remaining 4, and binding the two that I didn't get to. Both are QS, so it will be a big job.

I know I was lazy to let them mount up like that, but I deserve a few brownie points for getting so many bound this trip. I didn't get distracted at all.

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Fussy cutting

I haven't once sat at my machine in my sewing room this trip, which has to be some sort of a record.

Instead, I've been hand sewing on these 3/4" hexagons from January 2018.  I started them so I would always have a hand project to take with me, but I never went back to them.  Too busy churning out tops or chasing grand-babies.

I'm enjoying the change of pace, and looking at some of my favourite materials with a different perspective.  I no longer visualise them pieced into blocks, but as motifs to be cut apart and rejoined in patterns.  

I'm not sure I can deal with these odd shaped remnants that have donated parts for the cause. I've spent decades trying to use up every last piece of my fabric, and not waste any, and now I'm turning them into Swiss cheese.  My mind struggles with that.

I have some bagged up ready to go, and I'm cutting more each night.

It's easy sewing, and such a lot of fun, but progress is slow.  This is definitely going to be a wallhanging.

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Top tally

I seem to remember making a rash statement at the start of the year, about aiming for 20 quilt tops in 2020. That was before the year was turned upside-down by a pandemic, and Finn arriving and the family requiring my presence.

However, I'm not going to abandon that goal just yet. I put the borders on this little top that I made in May, and it's the 11th top finished this year. 

Can I finish 2 tops a month until the end of the year? I still think it's possible, I have so many projects close to completion. It will just take a bit of planning and preparation. 

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