Gemm

I think I have reached the point of having "too much" stash because as I was pulling boxes of fabric apart this week looking for inspiration I found a piece of fabric I have absolutely no memory of acquiring. There is quite a lot of it and it just might be the backing I was looking for to complete my brights quilt (I'm thinking this quilt's official name should be "indigo gypsy garden dance" named after two of the focus fabrics but that's such a mouthful...). I'm going to look at that trick of cutting a long piece diagonally to make the backing piece wider - I'm not sure I have enough length, though, so will be looking for details on how to do the math for that process. :-)

Three cheers for finding things in stash! :-D

Iceblossom

There are a number of resources for the "Flynn Method" to diagonally piece backs.

Here's a pretty nifty one:
https://www.floridaquiltnetwork.com/flynn.html

Gemm

I also found this: https://jinnybeyer.com/wp-content/up...-Worksheet.pdf

I am going to have to do another check but I think I'm going to be about 1/4 yard too short for what I need... /sadface

I still wanted to share the link here because it seems like a great way to figure out if you have what you're looking for in stash! :-D

Gemm

And it's not good news - I'm actually closer to half a yard short of the backing fabric. So now I'm looking at what else might have been hiding in closets and under beds and imagining what a great story I will have when I DO (I believe in myself!) manage to make this backing from stash and have it look like it somehow belongs to the top. :-)

Iceblossom

If you have a coordinating but contrasting fabric, you could insert a bar of it between your triangles. We had a thread on that a couple of months back.
https://www.quiltingboard.com/vbulle...g-t326365.html

And if I can get this correct, here's a picture I drew up.

WMUTeach

Thanks for the mini-tutorial, IC. This method may be in my future!

Iceblossom

Piecing backs is one of my super powers!

And now off to my Tuesday sewing group I go.

Gemm

That would work so well if I had a coordinating piece of fabric! I did something like that before when I was using up my baby flannels and had the perfect piece of fabric to link the bits (see photo). I could also have just done a vertical slice and put in a strip of something but again, the "something" was lacking. The backing I was hoping to use was really going to be a standalone only - it would have worked because it was mostly navy like my border but wouldn't have played all that well with the other stuff in the top.

It's okay - I've had enough time to enjoy looking at the half-metre cuts I bought and posted about at the end of July (#297) and am bound and determined to use them up for this quilt. That was the reason for their purchase and I keep telling myself I'm just being silly hanging on to them for a quilt I haven't thought up yet!

Iceblossom

Although it is possible I may go out again, I am officially done with my participation in the Shop Hop. As of tomorrow, the dedicated 3 shoppers will go over the halfway mark (69 shops participating). The gal motivating the trip did win one of the "find the bunny" prizes.

This weekend is the local guild show. Not planning on anything but will look at the vendors for specific dragon and bowling themed fabrics. Will also officially join the guild.

To help me keep my mind on reducing my fabric, I have begun prewashing the blacks and grays I have accumulated over the past year, from the shop hop and my favorite shop that closed down. Well, the fabric on the bolts will stay on the bolts for now but the fat quarters and such are being prepped.

I don't mind the washing, the machine does the work. But ironing is not one of my favorite tasks So I'm hoping that ironing the first stack of stuff will slow down my acquisition.

If I can do the Bonnie Hunter this year with a black background, or with civil war fabrics it would be very very good...

Iceblossom

Oof! I have prewashed and ironed yards and yards of black and grey fabrics. Yesterday I started with the "dragon hoard". A lot of the pieces were gold embellished yardage/small yardage I got from the thrift stores. I started leaving the tags on for various reasons, a number of the pieces were from 2019 and survived the move.

This will be a fun project for me to make, I'm not sure if I'm making for me to keep or just for the fun of making, but I do know I want to make it at least small twin/couch size. I've been playing with layouts and concepts. Although I have bought fabric for this, I will be using at least as much out of stash.

Here's a picture of the dragon fabric and hoard. The first picture is the purchased fabrics. The second is the stash+purchases.

The small multi-color heavily metallic piece on the lower left is what I bring with me to help with colors and such. The large (3 yard) piece of hard to tell but Parasols I obviously have a lot of... and so am concentrating on the Red-Russet-Orange-Brown with gold embellishment.