Sunday, January 21, 2018

2 yards, 1 charm pack and 5 projects later

I follow a lot of quilters on Instagram these days.  I thoroughly enjoy the amazing things that they create.  One of the many things that I enjoy are the days in Jan where they post their #quiltmystash posts.  A couple years ago, I determined I couldn't make anything new for myself if I didn't finish previously purchased quilt projects first.  As a result, I cut my fabric purchases to pretty much 3 maybe 4 each year the past 3 years.  The problem is that sometimes you buy fabric that is not necessarily intended for a specific quilt.  This quilt is made from those kinds of fabrics.  I bought this fabric online from Hancock's of Paducah back in 2008 or 2009.  The line was called City Bloom by Bernartez Kitty Yoshida.  I purchased 1 yard of my 2 favorite flower fabric in the line and a charm pack. 

I purchased the charm pack of this fabric because I simply I loved the fabric.  I whipped up a mini quilt this past week from the small 20 piece charm pack.  I wish I still had the details on the line of fabric or anything!!!  But I don't.  Nevertheless, I love it and it was fun and easy to make.  I can't wait to put it out this summer.


A close up

The process...goes something like this.

When I found the fabric in my drawer a month ago, I moved it to my sewing desk.  Then it fell out while I was making Christmas presents so I moved it to the top of another stack...and I did this easily 5 more times.  So, the day that I pulled out the fabric it was such a relief to finally be working on something that I kept pushing around.  Generally speaking, I lay all my fabric out in big enough sections that I can see them all together while I am decided what to do with them.  Then I spend a significant amount of time on Google searching, scrolling and saving pictures of various quilts.  When my kids won't let me have anymore time to myself just scrolling, I usually put it away for an hour or so.  At that point, if there is something that stuck out to me, I will go find that picture and decide if it is "the one."  Then I try and lay out the fabric one more time in that order to see if I really like it.  I just sew away at that point afterwards.  Great fun.  This view of my kitchen table really represents my life.  From the random quilt books, to the computer open on the side for my youngest to work on his online preschool, to the breaks I take each day to play games with my kids, to the mess of fabric.  I want to see people actually post pictures of their sewing room in progress.  I doubt that it is as clean as I picture in my mind.  I try and clean up for a few minutes everyday, but because my fabric is stored in my storage room two rooms away from my sewing desk, it is near impossible to keep it super clean.

Laying it out

After I finished, I couldn't help myself.  I took all the really small pieces that I cut off the corners of the quilt and I actually sewed them together.  After squaring them all off to a mere 1 1/4in, I sewed them up to make a pillow cover.  Honestly, I would have loved to make this a square overall.  However, I wasn't about to cut 40 more squares of fabric that wasn't left overs.  So I will probably always regret that, but sometimes you just have to decide if it's worth it or not.  I decided it wasn't.  So, there you have it.


The finished pillow cover....definitely NOT my favorite thing I have ever made.  But I am posting a picture of it anyways.  I needed to be able to make it bigger I think.  I also don't like the border with it because the pieces are so small and the border make them look all pixilated.  But,  regardless, I enjoy it when I put it out this summer.

While I was typing up info on the picture, I was realizing that I also had 3 other projects that I made from this fabric.  Hence, the title of the post.  When my daughter was an infant I made a baby blanket with my absolute fabric from this line of fabric.



Then one day I decided to make a bright, floral butterfly quilt with random fabrics from my stash.  Honestly, I don't care for how it turned out.  But, I love each of the blocks individually.  Yes, the close up are to show all the mistakes I didn't catch when I was piecing the quilt together.  Ugh.  I don't know how I missed them, but I did.







Then in true nature of my sewing, I didn't find the bigger pieces of scraps I had at that time.  I took the extras from the butterfly quilt and made a mini-table runner.  Also...not my favorite scrap item, but it is still fun and bright.


All together without the baby quilt:

I had fun sewing up 5 different projects from my stash over a period of 9 years.  I guess that is what makes a fabric stash fun!!!  Hope you enjoyed.  

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