joe'smom

Great looking top and back, Iceblossom!

Teen

Really pretty, Iceblossom... Sorry to hear about your furbabie....

Working with tiny scraps from current project and making a 1/2" hexi pillow to match the quilt while I watch the final stages of our home build. Backsplash done yesterday and exterior and roof this week..... My beautiful plumbing and light fixtures are in and my appliances delivered. It is so close!!

Don't know if I mentioned this but some of the tile flooring patterns are different quilt blocks....including the tile floor in shower. Looks awesome...

Krisb

Teen, how great to have a quilt permanently on the floor to look at any time! Iceblossom, sorry about your furbaby—still miss mine and she has been gone almost 15 years.

Interruption in quilting plans to make a signature quilt for friends who are moving at the end of the month. Had to buy background, but balance is from stash—even had enough 3/1/2 squares for the corners without needing to cut anything. Yay!

Iceblossom

Thanks again for the kind thoughts. It helps that we had several weeks of decline and time to say goodbye. Sandy wasn't good in the car so instead of leaving Buddy at home when I run errands, I've been taking him with me. Which leads me to a fabric moratorium confession -- even though I have allowed myself my thrift store exemptions sometimes I still feel guilty. Today the hubby had to work so no bowling, but I went to the Goodwill by the bowling alley and found a glorious piece of Alexander Henry rainbow southwest/cowboy print that would have been excellent as the back of the Confetti quilt. Oh well, that one is already made and done so I guess I'll have to make some sort of similar Western theme top. Happens that although I've been clearing out a lot of the small pieces, I still have quite a bit in my western box. It was 8 yards at $3/yard so $24 which is a huge amount for me to spend on a single piece of fabric (lol and roughly what I spent at the Walmart $1/yard sale). I consoled myself that the 2.5 yards of Confetti fabric I bought cost more than that.

I finished counting the squares and triangles I've made for the Scrap Metal top and have cut and pinned the remaining needed squares. I chose a binding fabric and have gotten that squared and ready to be made into bias. I've been trying to loosen up and just put fabrics together as they occurred first as triangles and then as squares. I'd like to just let the top be random, but I think I will need to work with those really light fabrics. I do have more light fabrics in the mix since the first go-around and maybe I can just let them fall where they may... doubtful, but maybe I can -- figuring though I will layout the blocks first before sashing so I can turn the light ones together. I'm just glad I didn't plan placement for each triangle in the each square (which I've been known to do...).

What I've found in my years of scrap piecing is that when something sticks out, well it sticks out so you might as well embrace that and make sure it sticks out!

Teen

Krisb....it was fun picking out the stuff for this house. It helps to have a tolerant husband...lol... My laundry room is my favorite room in house. I went a little crazy since I've never had one and chose fun stuff. The tile I selected for this room is cheerful and is reminiscent of my love of applique... The guest bathroom is the pinwheel block and the floor of the master shower is a pattern using the Sawtooth Star block and Square in a Square. Looks really cool! When all done, I'll share some pictures...

oksewglad

Looking forward to seeing them.

Iceblossom

Dagnabit! Like I say, my math brain is just not working well lately. I know I am entirely correct on the number of blocks and triangles I need, and I thought I was done cutting and sewing yesterday. But last night I went to hubby's bowling league and while I was hanging out pinned my blocks together, and I am 20 setting triangles short. Maybe I got confused in the count of "4 piece blocks" versus "2 piece triangles".

Have no fear, I still have more metallic fabric of course, some I haven't even used yet. I can go into the 10" squares I have saved out that are Asian influenced. The remainder from trimming out my 6.5" square will be all I need for that projects.

Bowling Alley is right across from Value Village so I took a break and went over there. It was 50% linens day... but lucky for me there wasn't much of interest. I did buy two bags for a total of $3.99. There is one great piece of yardage in there of stacked teddy bears with cats hiding between them well worth that. A scrap of early 70s bright mushrooms on a yellow background caught my eye -- I have the same fabric in red in my stash. That bag also had quite a bit of bridal illusion net and I've been thinking of some projects that could use that. About half of one bag total I considered no redeeming value and have trashed, and about half a bag will be sent back to the thrift system. Also being kept is a lovely piece of poly blend yardage with large pansies, I'll use that for one of the Kuspuks (Innuit summer parka/tunic) I still intend to make for myself.

It's funny but one of the things I really notice about the Bernina my friend gave me with the thread cutter that I'm much less covered with threads that I consider usual. I cut so true to grain I often do have fiber threads as well. So it's not quite the same issue it once was but I've been thinking about putting down 10" squares of flannel on my sewing table to catch the spare threads and then cover it with the illusion net and finally thread painting with shiny variegated thread. Could even quilt as I go. I'm thinking that the different squares of flannel will take on different characteristics depending on what projects I'm working on at the time...

Edit: For those of you that have embroidery machines or use fancy threads, I've seen some really nice work making fabric out of those fancy threads as I described above, layering them down and then stitching over. You can also use those last bits on bobbins and spools. After all, we pay for those fancy things! Again, the created fabrics take on the characteristics of what you are working on.

retiredteacher09

Well....my stash grew slightly through no fault of my own. . Of course, I could have said no to the two people that gave me around 55 orphan blocks total. Also, I could have said no to the employee of the LQS when she was throwing her nice batik scraps in my basket on a sewing day. They were from her personal stash and she doesn’t keep her leftovers. They were nice sized scraps-smaller than a Fq but still very usable.

Motorcyclemad

Connie,
Don't worry about where it comes from...as long as it was not a purchase, I don't think that it counts.

grann of 6

I agree with Motorcyclemad. You didn't purchase, so no problem. My quilty friend pays me in fabric when I quilt her quilts. She knows what I like and always manages to bring me something wonderfully useful.

Saturday our power company is shutting off our electricity for the day, so I am going to set up a big table in my bright and sunny bedroom and kit up a bunch of fabrics so they are already to do when the mood strikes me. My sewing studio is in the basement so it will be too dark to do any cutting down there. I have several Bluprint kits that can be cut and ready, also. Friday will be the day I make my decisions and move the necessary fabric upstairs. I have counted my achievements so far this year, and I have made 50 quilts, 5 still need to be quilted, but they are prepped and in line for the longarm. Every one of those 50 quilts has used at least one of my precuts and only a couple have needed purchasing of backing. I have emptied one file drawer of jelly rolls. I plan to continue my moratorium into the new year.