Growing Trees and Not Enough Fabric

Test Set

I've started a new project!

I started out by trying to make my triangles using regular rulers at first.  It was complicated and took a lot of time to figure out, but I had almost got it.  And that was when I realized I wouldn't have enough fabric to make this method work.

So I broke down, found some coupons in my inbox and bought the silly tri-recs ruler set at Joann's for half off.  It was a very good move; well worth the money!

I finished making my test set and started cutting into the real fabric.  After I made my largest triangles (6 inch tall blocks) I ran into a big problem.  I started thinking about what came after the trees and realized I need easily twice as much sky blue as I have.  Oh no!  I bought this fabric forever ago, so getting more is almost certainly out of the question.

The blue already used is in the back.

I really don't want to have to take out what I've already done and start over with something new, but I didn't plan on this being scrappy.  I scrounged around in my stash and came up with the following options to consider supplementing the blue I've already started with.  I'm not convinced any of them are working for me, so I'll probably be heading out to the store in the next few days to see what I can find...


So, what would you do?  Go scrappy or find a new blue and start over?

A Secret Finish!

I have a finish to share today, and it's a doozy!

I've disappeared for the past few months because I've been working double time to finish a secret quilt.  (Surprising people you know with a quilt gets a little tricky when you have a quilt blog!)

This quilt began at a mystery weekend several years ago.  I started the hand quilting in December of 2012.  The last binding stitch went in Saturday.  (Record time! That's about 1/3 of the calendar time it usually takes.)  Tuesday it was gifted.  And now I can show it off without ruining the surprise!

So, without further ado, I give you... "Secret Garden."
Hand Quilted.  Approximately 62x80.

Linking up with Finish it up Friday.

Sunday Stash

A little while ago I bought fabric for another quilt when I had no time to start it.  And since I'm not exactly trustworthy when it comes to not overloading my project list, I've had my husband holding on to my acquisitions.

But yesterday I reached my goal and unlocked my fabric!  So I can't help but show it all off.  And as I type, the first batch is already through the wash.
 

The funky black above is the border.  The first border I picked was giving me such trouble.  I kept picking out colors to go with it and coming up against the fact that the colors matched, and I didn't like them at all!  Once I realized that, with the help of my awesome husband, everything started to come together!



Tans for the background and some small borders.  There's a lot of tan.  I think there is 5 yards of the fabric on the left.  It's a big quilt.  Bigger than I expected it was going to be... with a lot of open space.

I can't wait to start cutting in to it all!

Linking up with Sunday Stash!

Labor Day Progress

I hope everyone had a nice long weekend!  We had some unexpected sun and so there was a lot of hiking, kayaking, and swimming going on around here but I did make some progress none-the-less.

Here's a little sneak peak at what's going on over here these days...

What's in a stash

When I saw people were showing off their stashes at Sarah Quilts, how could I resist joining in?  So here's my little piece of heaven...

Why, yes.  My closet doors are mirrors.

Having a stash makes me quite happy.  I will unashamedly admit that I sometimes come to my sewing room just to sit and surround my self with all the pretty colors.

Assorted yardage and panels

I don't have the largest stash around, that's for sure...  But when I was restocking my sewing room after the renovation, I started to tally up what I do have.  And I was shocked at how much fabric I have accumulated!  I measured over 130 yards.

I organize my fabric primarily by size, marked so that I can tell at a glance whether I will have enough for what I want to make, but I also try to keep coordinating sets together.

Fat Quarters

When I started out as a quilter I mostly made pillows.  And even after I transitioned to making large quilts, I will still walk out of a quilt store and say: "Well, I only bought fat quarters."

But I have recently realized that's very silly.  I am not into making scrappy quilts and I can only make so many pillows!  So my new motto is: if you like it, buy more than a quarter!  (I don't see any way this could go wrong...)

What a mess!

And then there's all the fabric that has thus far escaped being put into my formal stash.  The fabric that is in use; that is odd shapes and sizes...  that has been washed and is patiently waiting to be ironed and put away...  Whoops!

Linking up to Sarah Quilts' Show me yours...I'll show you mine party

A New Fabric Pull

I managed to sneak in some sewing time recently and, despite having many projects waiting for some finishing touches, I now have a new wall hanging that I'm starting to work towards.  I started by pulling these fabrics from my collection:

And now I need to figure out how to make some trees.  I made a test block this weekend but was not impressed with how it turned out.  The method I attempted will need some adjusting and I'm not convinced it's the way to go.

So now I'd like to put the question to my visitors!  Does anyone have a favorite (and hopefully easy) method to make an isosceles triangle in a square that they would care to share?

Linking up to W.i.P. Wednesday.

Team Pillowcases

Fabric purchases!

Phew!  Summers are always so crazy.  Most of what I've had time to do on the quilting front is buying more fabric and racking up the projects.  Because that seems reasonable right?  I can't get to the ones I've got, so I'll just sign myself up for more?

One set of fabric is currently in my husbands possession.  I'm not allowed to start any new quilts before I have one finished!  So it's a good thing he's got it.  Resisting fabric is not my strong suit.  But it also means I can't show it off.

However, I do (finally) have a small finish to show off.  Recently we had a co-worker who suffered a house fire.  I thought it would be nice to make his kids pillowcases.

We started with the idea of soccer.  But my husband pointed out that the boys were probably too old for something like soccer ball pillow cases, so I had to get a little inventive.

I found out their favorite players and decided to make pillowcases with more subdued fabric in the colors of the teams.  Unfortunately one of the teams had only white as their color, and that wouldn't make a very interesting pillow case.  So I decided to try and mimic the stripes on the jerseys.  What could go wrong when making something more complicated?

After sewing the three blue and three white on white strips together for the band, I figured out which was the right side of the white fabric.  And it wasn't the side I'd used.  Whoops.  But with a bit of stitch ripping in front of the tv, I'm pretty pleased with how they came out!

Linking up with Finish it up Friday.