Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Category Archives: Stash

Stash Enhancing

September 11, 2023 9:38 am ⋅

Saturday morning I had the opportunity to add to my stash from the estate of a local quilter. There was so much to chose from and as I understand it by the time I got there there was a ton of stuff which had already been hauled out. There was still plenty left, but I didn’t know where I would put it and I just didn’t know what I’d make.

From the haul, I’ve pulled these fabrics.  That flower is 8″ wide, so it makes it challenging.  But I think I’ve found the pattern.

Garden Lattice.  I’m planning on using the green fabric in place of the yellow, the peachy orange in place of the blue and the stripe in the cornerstones and for binding.  I’ll probably use the floral for the backing as well, as I have at least 10 yards of the fabric.

When I got home I finally finished the binding on Halloween Whimsy.

This is a Riley Blake kit that I purchased from The Quilted Cow last fall. It took no time at all to make.  It’s quilted in a spiderweb pattern using Strawberry Blond Glide thread.

Posted in: Garden Lattice, Halloween Whimsy, Stash

Chilhowie is Ready to Quilt

March 18, 2023 12:09 pm ⋅

I’m ready to load Chilhowie on the longarm. I just need to figure out how I’m going to quilt it. It is one row longer than Bonnie’s quilt as I want to put it on a bed. After attaching the last border, I put away all of the fabric processing the bits and pieces into my Scrap Users System. The only fabric left out is yardage for the binding and a matching pillowcase.

 

My leader/ender project this year is Rivanna. Started in August, I’m about 2/5 of from finishing all of the HST I need.

 

Meanwhile, last weekend I decided to go on a road trip to Monroe, Louisiana.  I went specifically to look at the Husqvarna sewing machines. But of course that was in a quilt shop, so a few FQ came home with me.  Eight of those pictured above are from Material Things. The other 8 are from Quilt ‘n Stitch in West Monroe.

Some yardage also came home with me.

Now off to load Chilhowie.

Posted in: Chilhowie, Rivanna, Stash

July 2022 Road Trip Fabric

October 26, 2022 2:05 pm ⋅

While in Kansas City, my SIL and I did a quilt shop hop of our own making.  I knew I wanted to go to Hunters Quilt Mart in Centerview, Missouri since the batiks were on sale. I am making Bonnie Hunter’s Rivanna in batiks on black.  I picked up 18 of the batiks at Hunters and more at other shops during the week.  Since I’ve been home I’ve brought my total count up to 30.

The pictures are sorted by ‘quilt’, not shops and are not in the order I visited the shops.  The Magnolia, gold, cream and gold & green piece I found at Hunters. I think the dark green, almost black I found at Stitch On in Lawrence, Kansas and the bottom green on green was in the bucket I won at the Guild meeting! It’s going to be the backing.  As I look at this picture I think I have an extra fabric.

The stripe in the middle I found at Missouri Star, which is where I picked up the pattern Quartered Stripes. The purple fabric I bought on a whim while I was at Hunter’s. Later that week we called and ordered the rest of the bolt as we discovered it works so well with several fabrics we picked up.

The final stack of fabric is from a variety of shops and are not for specific projects.  The solids were on the clearance rack at Hunters. the FQs I bought at Mes Amis in New Orleans. The black on white I found at KC Maker Studio.

Tuesday we stopped in at Show-Me-Quilting in Raytown, MO specifically to pick up a couple of things I ordered on line — the book and blue fabric in the left picture. I picked up some cork to use in bag making and found fabric on clearance for the quilt, binding and backing. Of course now that I look at the stripe, I’m not sure it will work well for the Quarter Stripes quilt.

Purchased at Mes Amis, the tiger stripe will be the backing to the purple, yellow & white Athena I’m making. The green backing I picked up at Missouri Star to make tablecloths. I’m not sure where I found the red buttons. I purchased it for the centers of a log cabin quilt, but then opted for another fabric.

I love these waterlilies and dragonflies.  The prints I picked up at Missouri Star, there’s that purple again from Hunters. I’m not sure where I picked up the pink/lavender.

At Prairie Point Quilt and Fabric Shop in Lenexa, Kansas I picked up fabric to make a blouse and the pattern for a bag. The bag fabric came from KC Maker Studio off the clearance rack.

Notions from Mes Amis, KC Maker Studio and Missouri Star, thread from Hunter’s Quilt Mark, and the barn wood star from the grocery store in Hamilton, Missouri.

I’m happy to report that the tablecloths are made.

And I’ve started on Rivanna.  I’m using it as my leader/ender project.  Lots of HST, so I’m working on them one color at a time. 3 down and 27 to go.

Posted in: Athena, Butterscotch, Leaders & Enders, Rivanna, Road Trip, Stash

Last Week’s Haul

May 22, 2022 10:57 am ⋅

For a number of years I was able to curb my purchases, limiting them only to the essentials — absolutely only what was necessary to complete my project.  However, over the past 30 days I’ve gotten away from that.  This was last week’s haul.  Admittedly the 6 yards of batik was a steal – I think I paid $5 at the guild auction.

I am looking for peach fabrics for a quilt I’ve been asked to make, but that doesn’t explain the brown leaves or the other 2 orange fabrics above it.  In my defense, they were all on sale, a couple 25% off that price since I took the end of the bolt.

But I went to Hobby Lobby to get 1/2 yard of white fabric for quilt labels. That was my downfall.  I love the floral print. I’ve looked at it several times and walked away.  But it didn’t happen this time.  I bought it, picked the darker purple and the lighter green to go with it.  But I struggle with 3 fabric quilts, so another green, the lavender and orange dot were purchased.  I also picked up a few fun neutrals.  Aren’t those “legal”?

My justification is that I’m getting projects done. Never mind that I purchased fabric the week before and the week I went to Kansas City.

A friend asked me if I could rebind the quilt his mother made for him in 1989.  I said sure, and the last time he came through town he left it for me. It’s done is all dusty blues, many lighter than these white hearts on blue.   Interesting, the binding is done as a facing. I opted for a traditional binding and found that Winterwool in this light blue was perfect.  I simply bound over the edges, leaving his mother’s work in place. As a result, a bit the original binding is showing.

The next quilt finished is this 2008 retreat block swap quilt. The blocks are called Glenwood Avenue, although I have no idea where we got the pattern.  Since I used the Dancing Dragonflies E2E design, I’m calling it Dragonflies Dancing Over Glenwood Avenue.  I’ll take more pictures later.

As soon as I hit post, I’ll move Shimmer to the dryer then start the binding on Strip Twist.

Posted in: 2008 Retreat Block Swap, binding, Stash, Strip Twist

What’s Next

March 28, 2021 11:08 am ⋅

After a busy week in the sewing room I splurged and purchased a yard each of the Muppets and Kermit. I have no idea what I’m going to do with either print.

I briefly pulled my MQA BOM Blocks out, thinking it would be another quick finish.  Ha! The multi-colored stripe on the left was my color inspiration.  I’ve used it a couple of times, with plans for it to be the border, but in the end have gone with something else.  So I dug deep into my yardage stash looking for possible options.  I think I’m going with #5 — keep looking.

Since I was digging through the yardage, I pulled it all out and sorted it.  Stripes, floral, tone on tone (2 boxes!), paisley/leaf, cat/novelty, neutral/batik, everything else.  I’m not sure I’m going to like this, but what I had wasn’t really working.  I slid note cards both the yardage boxes and the “FQ” boxes so I know where to begin looking.  The “FQ” boxes are roughly sorted by color.   Neutral/Tan, Pink/Red, Orange/Yellow/Green, Green/Indigo/Blue, Blue/Violet,  Brown/Grey/Black, Halloween/Cat/Multi, 30’s, KTQ.  My Christmas box has both yardage and “FQ”.  There are also 2 boxes of vintage, a box of flannel, and a box of denim.  The final box is kits. The larger bits of music fabric are stored in the former thread drawers.

Up top there is a box of UFO, Misc Sewing Stuff, upholstery samples, ties (washed), and batting scraps.  Not show below the shelf are smaller batting scraps, clothes to be deconstructed and …

A box of “fabric” vs. “scraps”.  There’s the music yardage I was looking for to use on the back of the crazy quilt. It’s just as well. I think the other music fabric worked better with the black and red on the front of the quilt.

Also in this box are the red and white FQ I collected for the Winter Wonderland quilt I’m working on, some Halloween fabric, a couple pieces of yardage and a few bits and pieces.  Clearly I need to sew faster.

With all of the fabric shuffling around my sewing room is looking halfway decent.

I’ve even exposed more of the design wall.  That’s not to say there is still not more to do, but the room is in pretty good shape.  I have a pile of batting scraps I want to deal with, then I need to spend some time in the rest of the house.

Posted in: cleaning, Stash

It’s Not My Fault!

May 14, 2019 6:00 am ⋅

I received an email from JoAnn Fabrics. Yes, I saw it said 70% off, but I deleted the email off my computer – even restarted the email program so it wasn’t in my trash folder. I deleted the email off my phone. Then my sister-in-law called me. She wanted to know if she should buy some batting with her coupon.  Since she’s going to be shipping her quilt tops to my sister, I said no. But what about baby quilts?  That’s when I  pulled the email out of the trash on my phone to read it. Now if I only had been able to go to the movie.  When I got into work I was reminded that I had to work last night, so I had about 2 hours to kill between the end of my normal work day and when I needed to work on the software.

The scroll fabrics will be used for the backings of these two quilt tops.

 

There may be a border in the future of the first quilt — but I have to dig around to see if I can find the fabric I was going to use.

The red and blue fabrics will be used in Dawns Early Light, Narragansett Blues, Garden Party, and who knows what else  The black fabric on the left I bought simply because I liked it.   I’m not 100% certain why I bought the Wrap-n-Zap since I have an unopened package — I guess because the price was right.

Meanwhile, while I was waiting for my turn at work, I’ve sewn a few rows on Carolina Chain.  That last row is just stuck on the wall.

Posted in: Stash

The Final Countdown – Task One

December 30, 2016 12:27 pm ⋅

Shelly over at Prairie Moon Quilts is again hosting the Final Countdown — a set of tasks to clear the deck so to speak to get us ready to quilt in the new year.

Task One – Get your fabric stash under control

My first thought is I’d have to find my flat surfaces to get my stash under control. I haven’t done a whole lot of quilting this year — as evidenced by this being only the 40th post of the year. But mid summer I did pull out some fabric to make a bag and accessories and that fabric has not been put back up. Then I unpacked the projects I took to retreat in June to work on them, but they got buried as well.

So here are Shelly’s questions.

  • Do you have a plan for your stash? – It’s sorted by color and/or theme. Last year I started refolding it so I didn’t have to dig in my boxes and stopped after posting the picture of my floral box. Actually, I must have sorted a bit more as when I was digging in it earlier this month, there were two columns of fabric. I must say it made it easier to grab what I was looking for.florals
  • Are you working your plan? – The sorting has been kept up, but the new folding didn’t get very far. I think if I refold the fabric it will fit better in my boxes and it definitely will be easier to find what I’m looking for. I think the next box I’ll fold/sort is the red/green box as that’s the fabric which will need to be put up next.
  • Do you need a new plan? – I think I’ll reduce the number of ‘theme’ boxes – at least move floral into the color boxes. I also have a novelty, black & white,  red & white, Kansas Troubles, 30’s reproductions, Halloween, Christmas, music and yardage boxes. As I fold, I expect some of my combo boxes to shift around.
  • Is your stash almost under control, but it just got a little out of hand because you’ve been using from it and adding to it all year? -I hesitate to say it’s under control — but that’s primarily because I’ve not dealt the two huge boxes of scraps I was given last year — or was it the year before.  Well, that and not getting the fabric put up from this summer.
  • Did it all used to fit where you had it, but now it’s sort of spilling out into other spaces and areas and making a bit of a mess? – It’s all contained in the sewing room, but I need sort it and put it away. But I don’t guess that’s really the question. Some of my boxes are overflowing — the red/green, the purple/pink, and neutral. The lids are on those boxes just barely and I moved some neutral over to the music drawers. I suspect with the refolding everything will fit better, although there may be some shifting of fabric into new boxes.
  • What are your plans for your stash going forward? – I really would like to get all the fabric back on the two main shelves so I can get one of the smaller shelves out of the room — alas there’s more than fabric on those smaller shelves.
  • Are you setting any stash-related goals for yourself for 2017? – Get the scraps sorted and dealt with, get the lids on the boxes to close easily, use it, and only buy if absolutely necessary to finish something in progress.

 

Posted in: Challenges, Final Countdown, Stash

2015 Final Countdown Task Three

December 31, 2015 12:14 pm ⋅

Shelly, over at PrairieMoonQuilts is hosting the 7th annual Final Countdown. It’s a chance to do a few things in your quilting space to get you ready for the new year. I’m not sure how long I’ve been participating, but whatever the challenge, it’s usually something which needs to be done in my space.

Task Three:

Get out of your quilt box!

Several ideas were thrown out as possibilities:

  • Learn a new technique
  • Use a different color palate than you normally do
  • Take a leap and challenge yourself
  • Join in on something you haven’t done before

I don’t like to think of myself as a naysayer or negative person (who does), but as I read this challenge all sorts of reasons popped into my head as to why I wasn’t going to be able to do this one.

  • Learning a new technique would mean starting a new project and I’m doing my best to not start anything new.
  • Using a different color palate would mean buying new fabric and I’m doing my best to now buy any new fabric except for what is needed to finish my UFOs.
  • Take a leap and challenge yourself – if finishing 12 quilts (most twin size or larger) in 4 months is not a challenge, I don’t know what is.
  • Join in BOM, Quilt-alongs means new projects and that’s in part how I ended up with as many UFOs as I have. I’m not currently part of a guild, but haven’t found one which works with my schedule, although I’m in several on-line groups.

Well, now that we know all the reasons why I “can’t” do this, lets see what I CAN do.

  • I bought a Squedge Ruler a while back and haven’t taken it out of the package. I need want a weird size table runner for my table (12″ x 30″), so this should be quick to make and FINISH. squedge 001
  • I’m going to call using a different color palate done. Although nearly everything I make is scrappy,  I seldom use a single line/designer in my quilts. I did however recently finish a quilt in all Kansas Troubles fabrics. But keeping in the spirit of things, I’ve dug around in my stash and found the following:
    • The Night Before Christmas – I bought these fabrics in 2009. I fell in love with the sample quilt, but haven’t worked on the quilt. Is it because of the limited # of fabrics or the fear that I won’t remember which fabric goes where?Christmas
    • MayPole fabrics from 2009 – Originally bought to make bags and wallets, I didn’t get it done, and now I’m concerned it’s “out of style”. The fabric as a group seems to be brighter than what’s in my stash.MayPole
    • Tuscan Sun BOM from Jo-Ann’s who knows when. – My mom collected all of the blocks and setting kit for this quilt, but did not get it made. This is not a color palate I would put together myself. Maybe it’s time to make the quilt.joannkit
  • Take a leap and challenge yourself – a few years ago I  had several patterns published in an on-line magazine and the copyright has reverted back to me. I think this is the year I’ll see about getting them published for sale.
  • Join in — for this one, I’m going to count going to a new retreat. I’ve gone to a few different retreats in the past, usually with my same group of friends. My sister and I are going to a new-to-me retreat in May.

Although I’m still trying to knock out my UFOs, a girl has to occasionally start something new. The key is to FINISH it so it doesn’t become a UFO. I’ll take some of these “kits” to the retreat this spring and summer (there’s another one in June) and combine a couple of things to get myself out of my quilt box!

Now back to Task One. Progress is being made. The stack on the left are those pieces which are really to big to fold like the ones on the right. I’ve also culled some fabric to chop up into my stash user’s system (no, I’ve not cut them, I’ve tossed them into one of the drawers of my ironing station — baby steps). Next I’m going to find the other box of florals and ultimately may decide to put these fabrics in the ‘color’ box instead of the floral theme box.

florals

 

Posted in: Challenges, kits, Stash

2015 Final Countdown Task One

December 29, 2015 1:40 pm ⋅

Shelly, over at PrairieMoonQuilts is hosting the 7th annual Final Countdown. It’s a chance to do a few things in your quilting space to get you ready for the new year. I’m not sure how long I’ve been participating, but whatever the challenge, it’s usually something which needs to be done in my space.

Task One:

Take a good hard look at your fabric stash

To be honest, my stash is what it is. I can’t remember the last time I bought fabric just because. For the past couple of years, any fabric I’ve purchased has been for a specific use — not that it always gets used as expected. Case in point – just a week ago I purchased fabric to use for the cuff of a couple of pillowcases. When it came time to make the cases I opted for a different fabric from my stash.

My storage system is by color/theme in bins on the left set of shelves. The right set holds my Scrap User’s System and recycled shirts.

mainshelves

The music fabric is in the chest of drawers with overflow neutrals.

music

Oh, and then there are the “scraps” in various boxes/bins stacked on the floor on the other side of the room and the auxiliary shelves which is holding the overflow.

auxliaryshelves

Not to mention under the cutting table.

cuttingtable

Generally, for the type of quilting I do, the main storage works for me. The issue is that between the scraps I’ve accumulated and have not appropriately dealt with and my stirring in the boxes the fabric is getting piled up. Also, over the past couple of years, what once took a whole box/drawer no longer does (music, blue) and other colors are now taking more than a half a box (green/floral).

So, what is my plan? At the moment it’s only half-baked.

ironingstation

For Christmas my husband made me this ironing station with lots of storage.  Those drawers are 7-1/2 inches tall, 18″ wide and 40″ long.  These drawers will play a part of the organization, I’m just not sure how yet.  Possibly possibly part of the Stash User’s System.

But I think the #1 thing I need to do is refold and sort the fabric in my ‘theme’ boxes. Right now, to find anything, I have to pull everything out. Although there are other boxes which are overflowing, I think I’m going to start with the floral box. It has morphed into two boxes and I think it will all fix in a single box.

floral

Clearly working through the stash is going to take a while. It will be interesting to see what I get done by January 4th.

 

 

Posted in: Challenges, goals, Stash

Still Goofing Off

March 12, 2015 11:49 pm ⋅

star-a-dayfabric selection

This mess can only mean one thing.  I’m digging for fabrics for my Star-A-Day quilt — the one that’s apparently going to take at least 2 years to piece if I don’t get a move on it.  I’m digging through the scraps I got off Craigslist for the prints and my stash for the neutrals. fortunately I’m finding some neutrals in the scraps as well.

Posted in: scraps, Star-A-Day, Stash