Mid Year's Resolutions

You can make them mid-year, can't you, not just at New Year's? I think I need to resolve to stop buying fabric until I use more up. The stash is definitely getting out of control. The shelves are stuffed to overflowing. What brought this on you ask? Well, if you must know, digging in my scrap bin. Which is also overflowing.

I am working on several projects at once and they require digging in scraps and in the stash and this has brought cold hard reality to the fore. I really have a lot of fabric! I bet you are not surprised. But such cool stuff keeps coming out. And it can make some of the things in my stash look a little tired and forlorn.

Plus sometimes when you are digging in your stash don't you just wonder how you ended up with some of it? I think our tastes change a bit over time plus there is always the stuff that gets bought when you just have to have another red or green for some project. Or blue. Yesterday I bought some blue at Joann's with my 50% off coupon because I really did need some blue. You know I did.

One of the other things that affects tastes is blogging don't you think? I have been reading lots of "modern" quilt blogs. In general I love the bright colours. While primitives is my style the brights attract me and I want to some of those, too.

Oh, well, we will see how long I can keep this resolution.

Meanwhile, what have I been up to? Well, going to quilt shows as you know, and yes there are still lots of pictures from the Boise show to share. But I thought I would let you know what little I have been doing.

First up is a panel a friend sent me. One day an unexpected package came in the mail. It was soft an squishy and you know what that means. This was inside. From Whimsicals. Isn't it cute? I have cut it up but that is as far as I have gotten so far.

This was in the package also. It is a tall house. And there is a tall house in the panel, too, see it? Now this friend knows the secret about my tall house but these reminded her of me and she got them for me. Isn't that just the greatest? I found a chain so I can wear this tall house. I love the autumnal colours in this, too.

So on to what I have been working on. I found a new blog, "Live a Colorful Life" which I read all the way back to the beginning. I found it during the online spring market quilt show. This was the quilt she showed. I fell in love. I think she will ultimately do a tutorial -- at least she mentioned she might. Anyway, even though I had never worked with selvedges before and just had the picture to go by I copied her quilt shamelessly. But hers is way better because she uses pieces of the selvedges that say something meaningful. And hers is finished with cute quilting.

I learned a lot and now I think I know how to work with selvedges. I am leaving this one alone though because I like it anyway and thank you, thank, you, thank you to Cindy for creating such a cool quilt. Go look at her blog and her really cute pincushions she makes with selvedges.

And I finally finished this top. I wasn't really happy with any of the choices I had for sashing and the voting was mixed. I found a new lighter green Susan Winget fabric that is almost like the acid green and it looks terrific I think. So now this top is finished. Boy do I have a lot of pinning and quilting to do. The box of tops and backs really runneth over. (Yes, you noticed, another new fabric purchase here.)

And then I made this little top. I love, love, love it too, now. It is a free pattern on Sew Mama Sew.
You do go there, don't you? It had a couple more rows around it but I didn't like it as much when they were there so I took them off and left it like this. I really like the different widths of the logs. The outside ones were fatter and they just seemed too big to me. Here is the link to the pattern: http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2011/04/free-fish-baby-log-cabin-pdf-pattern-malka-from-a-stitch-in-dye/ It's called Fish Baby Log Cabin. I like it so much I am going to make more like it in different colours. I have a bunch of fat quarter bottoms from making Buggy Barn quilts that will work for this I think. I found them and thought of it when I was digging in the scrap bin.

Then, speaking of "modern" quilts, which I was, I made this top, too. It is from the warm/cool quilt a long at the "In Colour Order" blog. Here is the link to the QAL: http://incolororder.blogspot.com/p/warm-cool-quilt-along.html

I thought it was fun because I got to use some of the newer and my older (from when the grand kids were little) BRIGHT fabrics. I do not have a clue where I will put it in my house but it is fun, don't you think? Well, yes, I do have a clue -- on the guest room bed under the comforter where lots of quilts go to hang out. One of these days it will be so tall you will need a ladder to get up onto that bed!

So, this post probably should have been entitled something about links since I have added so many. It's kind of an all over the place post. Just catching up and matching up to my all over the place life right now. Keepin' it real, you know.