joe'smom

I made huge progress this year -- I finished my 5-yr. prepping project (prepping quilts made from stash bundles), and organized each of my stash areas (I do literally have fabric all over the house). I feel as though I've really turned the corner on buying fabric just because it's pretty, thanks entirely to the moratorium thread.

Gemm

Way to go, Tranum and Joe'smom and thanks for continuing to add your success stories here!

I've been over-busy in my non-sewing life lately but have managed to play around a bit with my box of thrifted pre-sewn HSTs and other pieces. I've really enjoyed the creative process along with the feeling that I am still getting into the sewing room now and then. I think my favourite part has been trying to find "sets" that will work with the different block patterns. No idea what I will do with them, but for now I'm just glad that they are looking much prettier than they did when they were bits shoved into baggies. They're ending up at 4.5" unfinished.

Here are the blocks I've made so far. :-)

WMUTeach

I like your blocks. They remind me of a sew-a-long from this site from 2019 hosted by "Quilt Police". She had perhaps 30 blocks, mostly HSTs. I know I saved the pattern for the QAL but it is easier to just locate the photo of my version. A pleasurable way to use up scraps and to try new blocks.

Gemm

WMUTeach - What a great quilt! I wish I had seen that before I spent days going through my quilting books and Pinterest trying to find different variations! HSTs are certainly incredibly versatile, aren't they?

WMUTeach

Gemm, here is a chart that I keep in my collection of odd but useful quilting information. I know, a day late and a dollar short but perhaps you can use it in the future.

oksewglad

Oh no it took you 5 years...I've just started a prepping project and have about 10 flimsies sewn and about 15 quilt kits put together with lots more fabric to use! Have bought fabric only to help complete a kit.

petthefabric

With the price of fabric, I’m more motivated to shop stash.

joe'smom

I have gathered together several bags of fabric to give away. This will be the prelude to finally dealing with my scraps. I'm facing the fact that I can't cope with an elaborate scrap user's system (and don't have the space for one), so I'll have to figure out what sort of simple system I will be able to handle.

rryder

Happy Holidays everyone!!!

Joe'smom- I simplified my system a while back. I keep some scraps that are smaller than a fat quarter but bigger than a 10" square uncut in a desktop drawer unit that I got from Target. Each drawer measures about 12" square and 2 inches high. The units have 3 drawers each, one on top of the other. Anything that's smaller than a 10" square gets cut into 2, 2.5, 3.5 and 5" squares (or into strips of those widths) and put into a drawer designated for those sizes.- Two units hold all my scraps, 1 drawer for each size and two drawers for uncut pieces smaller than a fat quarter. Takes up very little room when stacked on top of each other and sitting on a table next to my cutting table and only has a footprint of about 14" square. Those sizes are ones I know I'll use for the kinds of things I like to do. Anything fat quarter sized or bigger goes back into my regular stash. If a drawer gets full, I know I need to make a quilt. Don't know if something similar would work for your situation, but dropping the number of sizes I store really helped me pare down and focus on what I'm most likely to use. I try to process my scraps as I go along. That way they don't build up into an overwhelming amount.

I also have a die cut machine and bought dies in the sizes of square that I like to use, so that makes processing scraps go a lot quicker.

Rob

joe'smom

Thank you, Rob, for that valuable input!