Sunday, December 09, 2007

Stash-Busting Strategies

Between work, medical appointments and tests and my health challenges at the moment, I don't have a lot of time for agressive stash busting. But I'm going to focus on a few things and make some baby steps anyway.

I know that I tend to collect fabrics for quilt design ideas that frequently never get made. My first stash-busting strategy is to make a couple of those quilts . . . or at least piece the tops and use up the stash that has accumulated.

A year ago, when I was choosing blocks for the Beginner Block Lotto on about.com, I also designed a beginner-friendly quilt made from the same blocks or elements of the blocks or techniques. I've been collecting 30s reproduction fabrics for it for a while.

I finally began real work on it this weekend–here are the blocks I've made so far.

In January we made blue and white double four-patch blocks. For my quilt, I made 26 scrappy four-patch blocks.

52 four-patches

In February, we made mono-chromatic pinwheel blocks. There will be four in my quilt.

4 pinwheels

In March, we made many (many!) I-spy snowball blocks. There are also 4 of those in my quilt.

4 snowball blocks

In April, we made 9-inch maple leaf blocks in fall colors on a blue sky background. For my quilt, I made eight smaller, 6-inch blocks.

8 maple leaf blocks

In May we made big scrappy basket blocks. I made one for my quilt, too.

1 scrap basket

Stay tuned to see how the rest of the 2007 lotto blocks are represented and how they all fit together . . . and the smaller version Amy made last summer whens she tested the pattern in a very different colorway.

7 comments:

Granny said...

We aren't all going to go about stash busting in the same manner so finding a method that works for you is great! Love the lotto blocks so far! Good luck with everything going on in your life right now.

Randi said...

Sorry you are having health challenges right now. That makes it hard to get anything done! I am loving what you have going so far.

Debra Dixon said...

I like 30s repro fabrics so will be following along to see your finished quilt.

Rian said...

Whatever your health challenges are, I hope they go away soon!! This quilt is going to be a real beauty! I love the 30s fabrics.

Donna said...

I love the 30's fabrics too. I'll be watching for the finished top.

The Calico Cat said...

Great idea... I wish I could remember all of the projects that I had in mind when I purchased "X" fabric.

Love the basket - must be the 30's brown - I've never seen one.

I found a new to me blog & was inspired by many of her simple quilts... checkerboard using squares, checkerboard using rectangles... I have both of those hanging around...

I think my brain is like my tummy - it has no idea how much time a quilt takes, just like my tummy has no idea when it is full...

Shelina said...

I too have purchased many pieces of fabric for a particular project or idea. Then it sits there and I wind up forgetting what project it was for. I think it is a great idea to use those up, so they don't get used by some other project. I am thinking I should attach notes to my fabric to remind myself what they are for. Then at least I'm making a conscious decision when I use them for something else.

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