February Stash Report and a Wall Hanging

I had some HST's that were screaming to be used that were leftovers from this quilt. I didn't have very many so I made this cute wall hanging.

15 x 15

I had some trouble with my longarm getting stuck in certain spots despite the fact that there was nothing blocking the tracks. This made a lot of my quilting looks like a child did it!  But I can live with it.  I don't draw well anyway, so my freehand quilting always looks a little wonky!

Stash Report

Five more quilts for the year! 2 more from the Hard to Use pile (HTU). I used some of that Kona I purchased at the beginning of the year in 2 of this month's quilts. There is still plenty of it left for more quilts. Still only a small dent in the fabric stash, but at least it's down this month.

FEB IN:  0 yards   
FEB OUT: 39 yards

YTD IN: 69.75
YTD OUT:81.0
YTD CHANGE: 11.25 out 

Yearly Goals
4/20 HTU
10/36 Quilts

Rainbow Bargello

 66 x 81 (after washing)

Look at this gorgeous quilt! Before we get started on what I did and the changes I made, you can find the original quilt tutorial here. (link is no longer valid- sorry) She used 2 Classic Rainbow Kona Cotton Jelly Rolls.  I found a list of the colors in that roll and made my own. This quilt is for sale in my shop. (SOLD)

I followed all her directions except the cutting.  She started with a 1 inch strip and went up to 3.5 inches by quarter inch increments.  Then she went down to 1.5 and back up.  Since we started with a 1 inch strip I went down to a 1 inch strip instead of 1.5.  So I have 2 more strips in the middle of the quilt.  I think it might have been better to go from 1.5 to 3.5 and back down to 1.5 as those little strips are too small.

I was having trouble deciding what color to quilt with: either medium gray or mono poly.  I finally decided on the gray thread because it is so much easier to deal with.  It looks great on every color!

Then I had to decide on the binding.  It was between red, blue and a blue-green jade color.  I can't remember the kona name at this moment.  I only had enough blue and red, so I chose blue.  I like this choice too!

I found this black cross hatch in my stash.  I know it looks gray here, but it's really black and white. It was extra wide so I didn't need as much fabric as I thought, but I did need 7 or 8 inches more.  I really wanted to put a rainbow on the back even though it was extra work cutting all those strips.  Yep, please with this choice too!  

Kyrstal says this quilt is fast and easy.  I disagree.  I was anything but fast.  There are 41 strips to sew together and then 36 rows that had to be pinned, each seam of every row.  I was pretty tired of pinning, sewing, and ironing over and over.  I ended up sewing a few at a time.  But I do think this quilt is worth making!  I would recommend using Kona because these colors are very saturated. I substituted a couple non-kona colors and there was quite a difference.  Although I did get them blended in pretty good.

This was my One Monthly Goal.  It also fits into the Year of the Stash.  I hope you are using your stash this year too, one quilt at a time!

Linking with Confession of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF, and Fort Worth Fabric Studio

Southwest Sunflowers

64 x 64

So here is Hard to Use Fabric #4.  This one was hard because of the colors in the sunflower print.  I started out to making a square with a 1 inch border with the sunflower in the center.  I was going to alternate the yellow and the brown.  I guess I was very uncreative that day, because it was terribly boring.

Edited to add:  original sunflower print was cut at 5.5 inches, sashing cut 1.5 inches

After letting it set for a while, I decided to cut the squares down the diagonal and see what I could do with that.  Then I put 4 halfs together to form a new square, set it on point and added some of the original squares back in.  The original squares needed to be bigger so I added the cream around each block.  Finished it off with the triangles and there you go.

Still not my colors or my style, but it is better than what I started with. The sunflower print had to be used and now it's gone!  Brown meander and a matching back and binding to keep it cohesive.

Linking with Freemotion by the River.

The Year of the Stash is Going Well!

My goals were set at the end of last year. The biggest one for me was using a lot of the large pieces of hard to use fabrics I had hiding in the closet.  Some of it was sitting by itself and some of it had a buddy or two to go with it. I didn't want to use them because it was either to hard (or so I thought) or I really didn't like it.  But I have challenged myself to get these fabrics made into pretty quilts.  Here are my first three this year.

Country Floral

This pink floral fabric has a hard to match minty green that I found enough of to make a quilt. I am not used to making a 2 fabric quilt, but I am pleased with how this turned out. I did a lot of math to figure out how to not purchase any fabric, but I ended up buying a yard of the green because I was short.  Almost all stash!

Urban Neighborhoods

These fabrics were already in a pile in my closet.  I don't remember why they were there, but they had been there a while. 100% stash!

On the Square Irish Chain

Here is one of those floral prints in my stash I don't like.  But I was determined to use it AND make it pretty!  Two marble prints I bought last year make this irish chain stand out. It's all stash.

My goal is to make 20 of these types of quilts, hopefully using all stash to do it.  I have 2 more of these quilts started and another finished.  I'd say the Year of the Stash is well under way!

Another Postcard Quilt

 48 x 60

Isn't she pretty? In the first Postcard quilt I made, I didn't have all the right colors and I wasn't as pleased as I wanted to be with it.  So this time I ordered the right Kona colors and did it right. Sometimes you have to have the right colors, ya know?

I quilted it with the same wavy lines and backed it with a gray cross hatch.  This time I used a gray binding instead of orange. Think that helps make it look better too.

Yay for do-overs! Now I feel better.

Linking with

On the Square Irish Chain

64 x 64 

This is #3 from my pile of Hard to Use Fabrics.  I had to do some searching to find 2 fabrics that went with this floral fabric.  I found the dark one first that one was pretty easy.  I found the second one at our local quilt shop when it was having it's close out sale.  It doesn't look like it from these pictures, but the floral fabric does have this mauve color in it.

I used the picture from this post to figure out the 3 different blocks.  I didn't take a picture for you though.  I get to sewing and forget about blogging stuff a lot!  But the blocks are 10", 8" and 8x10".

I quilted this with the clear monopoly thread because I didn't want a dark thread on the floral print or a light thread on the maroon fabric.  I didn't have a mauve thread either.  What would you quilt this with? Got the rest of the floral on the back which was my goal!  Use it all up!

Linking with TGIFF and Fabric Frenzy Friday

Polka Dot Baby Quilt

40 x 50

This cute top was pieced by my son!  While he likes to sew, it usually takes him a long time to make a top.  I remind him once in a while to sew a row or two or do some ironing. His sewing skills are improving a lot. Most of his points match!

I gave it a larger meander than normal.  Muscle memory made this a little more challenging! I kept wanting to make it smaller.

Small polka dot on the back with a solid red binding was all I could find in my stash for this quilt.  But I think it goes nicely and David is pleased.

February's One Monthly Goal

I plan on turning this pile of Kona Cotton into this quilt just as soon as I get rid of this cold!  It's gonna be beautiful!