Sorry,
I still don't see the pictures.

I see your pictures just fine.

Nice finishes, Motorcylemad! I'm glad the pictures came through for you.

Cat....your Carolina Crossing is awesome..

Motor...wonderful finishes. I keep meaning to make pillow cases to match my bed quilts but I always get distracted. Lol...

I made a completely unnecessary purchase just because.....a panel that I have no idea why I bought it or what I will make with it but I know you understand..

Teen, I bought the Texas version of that panel! I plan to use it as the focus in a cowboy quilt with some fabric I found picturing a cattle drive. The bedroom will be in honor of my maternal grandfather, who went on his first cattle drive at the age of 7. He taught me to ride, round up cows, & I admired him. I have one of his branding irons, the bridle to a great horse of his, & his saddle, made in the 1940's. Along with the cattle drive fabric, I'll probably add some bluebonnet fabric, the state flower of Texas. The panel will be toward the top 1/3 of the quilt.

I'm running out of white. Plain white, white on white...ya know all purpose background.
1) I called my lqs who is doing delivery. No white. On order...may 7th...ish
2) went to 2 different Wal-Mart's. The fabric section has been . After they cleaned out the cottonelle, they went for the cotton.

You know its a dog-eat-dog world when the Wal-Mart runs out of fabric.

I just checked equilter, they still have various whites available. It's taking them about a week or so to ship instead of the usual 48 hours or less, but their computer system is pretty good in terms of tracking what is sold as well as what is still in stock.

I admitted here that I ordered some solid white and black, it's just so versatile and essential to do things with all the wild and crazy stuff. I ordered American Made Brand (looks like they are out of white there now, sorry but as the ads say not sorry!) and really looking forward to the package arriving to see whether or not I like the brand. I sure like it in theory but I've been buying kona for a lot of years.

So during normal times, I would have expected the package maybe last Friday? (I'd have to look on when I actually ordered) and I"m hoping to get it Monday next week. Maybe.

edit: Slapping my hand for fabric enabling! But really, black and white solids are like thread, sort of indispensable for good scrap/stash integration. I know I will use them within the next 5 years which is my criteria for buying. Typically I buy 3 yards of each about every year.

Hey, Conchalea, I've given some away but I still have quite a bit of various fabrics from when I was collecting for my cowboy boot project. Many are smaller but some still yardage. If you have something in mind, I just might have it and if I do I'm glad to send it your way -- whether in pictures first or package later format. Don't have much in terms of horse themed fabric, but lots of southwest to Montana style of cowboys, boots and gear, leather looks, large scale pictures, on and on...

This is a bit of a weird one. I picked up a quilt kit from MSQC. The pattern was made with something like 29 x10” squares out of a layer cake they supplied. Unfortunately they weren’t quite 10” square and so I couldn’t make the cuts accurately. I would have been ok using the extras but I didn’t want to use the solids as they stood out too much and the light prints did not have enough contrast. I picked up a couple of charm packs to complete the pattern about one year ago.

I had a lot of leftover fabric including the border print because I couldn’t bring myself to use it for binding, I used something out of my stash instead.

This was my attempt to use up what was left over. I would have been ok with it except I over thought the colour placement. Other than the center I should have cut down the 10” squares and just gone random. Also I made a big mistake cutting the borders. As a result two sides have some rather small pieces joined together and I had to add the corner stones which I don’t like at all.

My mom says she likes it and so I will finish it for her. A learning experience if nothing else.

We can be such harsh critics of ourselves. I'm with your mom :)

But yeah, sometimes we learn something about our projects -- sometimes we go in knowing that in advance and other times it sort of hits us over the head.

Cattitude - I like it. Its nice. Not every quilt has to have 800 2" squares.

Since my white isnt here yet I decided to take the plunge and try foundation paper piecing. Because nothing says lunacy like yet another random block.

Teen: What a neat panel to honor your new state of residence.

Cattitude: That quilt is very pretty. You did a great job of solving your problem with the kit.

Rff1010: Congratulations on your first foundation paper piecing project. Very nice.

Cattitude, your piece has nice balance of color placement. Very symmetrical. We learn something new with every quilt we touch.
.

rff1010 , nice job. I love paper piecing although I haven’t done a lot of it. It is the only way I ever get a perfect block!

Continuing to take a break from a couple of projects that I have had a falling out with.....instead making fast and fun scrappies! Don’t know what it is called, just copied something I found on Pinterest.

I needed more navy to finish up and took a chance that it would be from the same dye lot and yeah it was!

In my first year or so of quilting I bought between 250 and 300 FQs. If a bundle was on sale it had my name on it. 25 mixed Tulla or Kaffe? Couldn’t order them fast enough. Cat fabric? Sooooo much cat fabric! Of course they were the uglier ones that the shop couldn’t sell. I will be so happy to see the end of them. I have four more tops kitted up and then they will be done. After these I will be going controlled scrappy and curate fabrics just like I would for any other top.

Catitude, I like the combo of brights on dark. They are a favorite of mine. I like the pattern, too.

Very nice, Cattitude!

Conchalea.....what a great use of your Home panel....to honor your grandfather. Such a great collection of memories. I'm sentimental and totally appreciate what you have planned....so cool...

rff1010... Walmart out of fabric? Wow.... State of emergency! Lol.. Love your PP star. Great job. Your posts always crack me up.

Cattitude...seriously, your projects always rock! Beautiful finishes. MSQS is very flexible about returns but you certainly made it work.

I' in! Just go to add my name to the list. I did this last year, no additions to my stash with the exception of when I won Fabshop Hop certificates and the shop didn't have anything I like except a fabric. I plan on doing the same this year of 2020. Trying to use up more of the stash. A lot of growth has been from the freebie table at my quilt group meetings. Hard to pass up giveaway if you like the fabric.

Welcome, DebJ. I don’t belong to a quilt group and thankfully am not exposed to freebies....good thing as I doubt I could resist.

On another note..... early Jan I placed an order with MSQC (notions only, no fabric!). Have not ordered since and yesterday received a “we miss you” coupon. Well....that’s something that has never happened before!

Cat..two great finishes! I especially like the "plus" one, the black makes a nice contrast for all those pretty brights. And way to use up stash.

Teen, call your panel a CoVid exemption...for we've had to stay "Home". I've seen that panel with Iowa outline for the "o" here.

I'm sewing a little quilt with 2" squares; have the blocks done. It will measure 42 x 48 when done and uses over 2 yards of fabric before adding a border, binding or backing, mostly from gifted fabrics...sounds like a win for me and the donation recipient.

Welcome Deb...the more the merrier.

I sent my son another 10 yards of fabric, then my brother came up to fix a leaky shower for us, we were talking, I asked if his wife is sewing ( she’s a very gifted seamstress) he said her sewing machine was broke, they had no way to get it fixed....I sent a sewing machine home with him, I had inherited it from an aunt, really didn’t need it, very nice machine, it has sat in a cupboard for 4 years, waiting for someone to need it and it’s staying in the family. She has 3 fairly new grand babies and hasn’t been able to make things for them, I sent probably 15-20 yards of fabric, fleece, Minky, Terry, chenille, and flannel along with some patterns. Stuff that’s been taking up space that I never seem to get around to using. I still have lots, but maybe not a couple lifetimes worth anymore. I seem able to use more the more I give away- at some point maybe I won’t be embarrassed to have someone come into my sewing room. I’ve also made 95 masks now- I know there are people making thousands but I make 5-10 when ever someone I know asks for some, I’m going to start working on another scrap quilt tomorrow.

Good going ckcowl!

Through a chance encounter here on the forums, I'm going to be sending someone a couple of my donation/thrift store projects to practice long arm quilting on -- ones not even admitted to on my unfinished top album because, well, I didn't make them. Need to put on a couple borders/put together a couple backs before they are truly ready to go but I'm giving myself a week to do it. Isn't all that much really, will fill my hour or so a day of fabric playing needs in a way not involving masks and I am moving yardage!

Yesterday was wash day, had been given two rather large pieces of yardage of unstable dark green hand dye/batiks by my Tuesday group ladies and so boiled them a bit first. Then it was a washer full of stuff, so today it was dryer morning and I'm taking an ironing break. Blech. Hate ironing.

So saying good-bye today to this top that I bought last year/earlier this year. It was two pieces that I put together to make a twin sized project. I still need to square it up, and I might end up chopping off about 6” in length to have it better fit the border/backing and still have enough back for the long arm. I love the elephant stripe I'm using in the border but it has been very hard to use. It was a thrift store purchase and has been in the stash maybe 5 years? I think it holds together all this bright chaos well and I'm so glad it has a project to be used in. I'm having to be a bit fussy about cutting the stripes and will have to piece it together for proper length but then it will just be a plain fabric border.

The large scale bicycle I'm using for the back was another one of those “less than $5 for a back!” buys and I think goes better with this than anything else I can imagine. It has only been in my stash for less than a year, is a Shamash and Sons print, don't run across those very often any more so don't know how long it had been unused in some other stash.

Iceblossom - I love both of those fabrics: the elephants and the bicycles. I would have snatched them up too.

I bet your SIL did cartwheels when your brother got home. Such a lovely thing to do...

ckcowl: Wahoo on your destashing by giving others fabric. Plus you are now down one machine. You have a generous heart.

Ok, those borders turned out to be a bit more effort than I had supposed, it's a good thing I had a lot of that elephant fabric because the repeat was something like 11". Following the lines in the fabric, what I used was something like 7.25" cut, my crumb quilter is going to get lots of 4" strips. I had a long talk with myself to start with, that the pattern wasn't that obvious and that I could just cut across the grain and not worry about any of it. There is a deliberate about 1" drift that the strips slant on across the width of the fabric.

Anyway, plenty of fabric and OCD tendencies meant I fussy cut the seams for the borders as well as the cutting line, that's the picture -- just me giving in to my obsessive tendencies.

The Turtle Panel is another thrift store find from last year, again under my price point of $5. The only thing I did was add the realistic rock borders which came from another thrift store scrap. Originally I was going to piece a back using a turtle fabric that has been in the stash for a long time, but for this I decided to use another large scale fish print for the back. It is two different makers, the colors are a bit brighter on the back but that's the nice thing when you are doing realism -- the fish are the same!

Today I have another thrift store piece to put together, it's a simple rail fence. When I bought it, it had a miserable little 2" wide poly blend flimsy green broadcloth border which I took off. I think it needs one more row of blocks for a better size -- even though this is a thrift store find, I have many of the fabrics (or close enough) in my stash and think my row won't be noticeable. Then I will border it with a calico that will also be used for the back but I can't make the back until I know how big the front will be.

edit: I did take off one row of the quilt to make it fit better on the back, with that off I have exactly 4" top and bottom for the long armer! Plenty of extra width on the sides.

Iceblossom, I love the fish with the turtle panel, and all of your bright colors!

ckcowl, it is fun to imagine how happy your SIL was when your brother came home with the sewing machine. Way to go!

Love the elephant border!

Rob

ckcowl....nice going. Your SIL must have been ecstatic!

Ice....I love your colorful projects. So cheerful, just what everyone needs right now.

Yesterday I was working on a throw size scrappy. I required 128 each of mirror image 2-1/2” x 4-1/2” snowballed units. As you know it’s pretty tedious running all those units through the machine and I was day dreaming. 30 units into the second set my brain switched off and I switched back to the opposite corner.....(I need a head-slap emoji).

Looks like I am making a bed size now.

Also I received the second shipment of my order for fabrics I need to finish up other projects. The shop threw in a yard of freebie fabric. Normally I would be pleased and appreciative however I am so into using up my stash that I was annoyed! It’s in the donation pile right now but it might make a cute tote....on the fence right now.

Well, I had a rather nice day yesterday but did very little sewing. My neighbor was out of printer toner and asked me to print out a couple of medical forms for him, so I did and we chatted about his mask sewing which he's still doing and he is thinking that maybe he can still be physically active enough to sew as an occupation being somewhat less hard than construction. Then it was time to go to Costco, and then my Son, DDiL, and baby Leon came out to pick up the diapers and such. Such a nice visit even though I didn't get to hold him, he was awake and active and it just felt nice to be out in the sun with the son and grandson!

A week or so ago, one of my Tuesday group was shopping my stash. She had started out wanting solids, then tone on tones, and out of the 10 or so fabrics I pulled for her, this one was my next-to-the bottom choice, but she saw much more in it than I did. So, although I did no work, all of the background triangles did come out of my stash!

Iceblossom: Different eyes and a different vision for the fabric and it turned out very pretty.

Ice Blossom; I've used that same fish panel, 2x. I love the elephant print.

Success! I finished 23 pillow cases with 21.5 yds fabric. I really got stopped by the Covid: attitude and masks. Our quilt group is now meeting on Zoom and encouraged me.

So now I'll do some UFO quilting and clean out some space.

Inspiration struck! I'm putting these tops together with their backs and bindings and I hadn't made any for the Bright Thrift/Elephant border and I thought about those pieces I had to trim out of the repeat... Score! I usually make bias binding but some straight grain isn't going to hurt this at all. Since I had to trim down the pieces, I did it randomly and then deliberately turned every other one upside down so didn't do a super obsessive binding... but I admit, if the piece folded better I probably would have.

So yesterday I met up with a fellow forumer who is working on her long arm skills in a sunny Joann Fabrics parking lot midway between us and presented her with five donation projects for her quilting pleasure. Her eyes lit up at the turtle panel and she said "ooo that will be fun" which is perfect because when I looked at it I just had "I got nothing". We chatted at 6 feet away for about 15 minutes and then turned around and went back home again.

On the way home, I dropped off a package of pre-cut 4" squares I had found in my stash to one of my Tuesday group ladies. That would be the same one who did that last picture I posted. She showed me the finished "Horse Blanket" top, complete with binding before it is donated. She also did my two preemie quilts that I was going to do just when the Bernina went down. She wanted to do some quilting but was having problems getting started with new projects so I had said -- you want tops? I got tops!

<evil laughter> all in all, I'm doing excellent with stash reduction and project completion this year all while doing very little of the finishing myself.

I'm going to switch the Brother back to zig zag mode and finish up a few more masks. Then it's time to put that Bunny Star together. I can do masks while the hubby sleeps in... but I need his bed to layout for the quilt project.

My sister came by a couple days ago ( I know, breaking rules) but it was necessary. While she was here we were talking about a couple new projects she needed to do- but needed to order some fabric. I invited her to shop my stash- so she could get started instead of having to wait on orders. Another 12 yards of fabric plus’s probably 2 or 3 yards worth of scraps went out the door.
im actually getting to the point where I could set aside a day ( or a week) to sort, fold, organize my shelves without being so overwhelmed. Not yet, but I’m getting there.

Ck & Ice, good job on reducing stash, all while helping others! I know how overwhelming sorting & organizing must be, since I cleared out my entire house for my move. I had to make a list & work on 1 room at a time. Maybe y'all can devise a similar method. Some suggestions; by color, by shelf/tub, or (in extreme cases) by room or even building!!

Forgive me, sisters and brothers. I fell off the wagon...but it was a . Bluprint sent me a 60% off coupon and i need batting. But they had a Mystery Fat Quarter bundle of 30 for $25 after the sale. And then there were clearance fabrics for $3.60 a yard. I limited myself to only blenders and only got a few.
This Covid got me crazy and Ive been having a difficult time. But I made the coins for a coin quilt and used up most of my string scraps. I'm not normally a "Shopping Therapy" person, but I am feeling better and more optimistic about the world.

Sad part - no batting to be had - either Warm & Natural OR Hobbs.

Well, don't feel bad, Rff1010, I fell too, but this wasn't my first fall of the wagon this week. I have been so housebound since the first stay at home orders that I just needed some fabric therapy. Since I couldn't go on my bus trip to Paducah and Hamilton, MO, I had money burning a hole in my credit card The only solution was to do some online shopping.

I have been trying so hard to stay on the wagon but have fallen off twice so far. I am using fabrics from my stash everyday and making great progress too. Even with mask, which have actually been a great way to use my stash. The quilt top I just finished, the Drunkard's Path came from my stash too. I then cut a bunch of 5" squares to make another Depression Block quilt. That is always fun to make. I have fabrics everywhere in my studio right now because I will pull a piece from the depth of the shelf and of course other pieces come with it. So now pieces everywhere! Have no fear they will get used. I keep getting more and more orders for mask so those pulled out pieces will be put to use quickly.