Stash Busting Parrots

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Good-bye 2022. Hello 2023!!

I'm getting very excited. We are closing out 2022 in just a little over 24 hours from the time of starting to compose this update. And I am excited because in 2023 I am taking on a new venture. I am starting a Use Your Stash club at The Old Craft Store in Carrollton, TX.  

Quilters tend to acquire fabric. I don't know if it's intentional. I'm convinced it just happens! I have intermittently worked in a fabric shop over the last 30 years. I have a fabric stash that I truly doubt I can use up in the next 10 years. And yet, The Old Craft Store just had their End of Bolt Sale, and I eagerly purchased several yards of fabric to add to my stash. I will happily admit that not one of the pieces were purchased for any specific project. I simply had to have them because the colors or prints caught my eye AND it was a good sale!

The above is only part of my stash story. I have accepted fabric from friends and friends of friends that were downsizing their own stashes. I have scooped up free fabric at quilt guild meetings. I have rescued other quilter's unwanteds. I tell myself that I'm sure I can find a use for every piece. 

However, often times that fabric is put to the side.  I say I'm waiting to use it in the perfect quilt, waiting for the perfect pattern, waiting for the perfect ___(fill in the blank)_____. The true story is - the fabric is waiting.

At the quilt store, we are hearing customers say, "I have to use what's in my stash." And I understand completely! And it clicked for me. I really enjoy finding fabrics in my stash and making scrappy quilts. This is part of the quilting process that works for me. I believe it's because I struggle with color selection. Scrappy stash quilts give me a bit of wiggle room. I don't have to decide if the reddish-blue works better than greenish-blue next to the orangish-red. I can simply put both blues into the quilt plus a dash of turquoise as well. It works! It blends. To me, it adds interest. It's exciting to see a quilt grow from pieces of fabric that have been left on the shelf.

That's what I want to inspire in 2023 with the Use Your Stash club.  We will get together on the first Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. I will present a Stash Busting idea. Members are encouraged to bring their sewing machines and projects to work on. They can work on the suggested stash buster or a project they are already working on. I will bring soup for lunch in January, but there are also several restaurants near the store for lunch.

My goal with Use Your Stash is to get members looking at their fabric stashes with fresh eyes. I want to show how patterns can be altered - by adding color, by changing the layout, by adding an element. I have many ideas for later in the year. But I’m going to let members lead where this Stash Busting journey goes!

In January, Stash Busting Parrots is going to be the big kick-off for Use Your Stash club.

I looked back in my last few blog updates looking for some information on the Stash Busting Parrots quilt top. However, I didn't find that I've blogged much about it! There was a quick mention about what I'm doing with the leftover cut-off corner triangles a few updates ago, but that's it. I think it’s time to share some of the story with you.

I want to show side by side, the inspiration quilt by Michelle McKillop (mckillopmichelle on Instagram) and my finished Stash Busting Parrots quilt top as displayed at The Old Craft Store.  (I think I have linked the original IG post by Michelle McKillop in the screenshot. Please, let me know if the link works.)

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc4qZgTpzVx/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

The two quilt tops look so different, don't they? The construction is exactly as Michelle explained. I simply added a bit of color planning. Here are some of the progress photos.

Started: May 20, 2022. The parrot print has been in my stash for at least 8 years. I chose to use it as the main fabric and I selected colors to match for the color rounds.

I also started with 4 yards of the black Twinkle for the accent color.,I did have to go back for at least 5/8ths yard more to have enough for the border.

My first intention was to do a rainbow color order, but I guess I got a little distracted from that thought. I really don't mind. I love the way it turned out!

It was slow going. I cut one square at a time, auditioning each piece.

I was so certain about getting yellow into this quilt. But it wasn't making me happy. I felt like it was blaring neon. My Heartbeat suggested purple. I auditioned some pieces over the yellow...

... and it was perfect!!

July 24, I had other projects with deadlines that I needed to work on, but it was really difficult staying away from this one. Pieces just seemed to be magically falling into place.

Also adding to the time, I was stitching a second seam before cutting the corner triangle off... to be used in another project soon. Shoo fly blocks are being made from the smaller Half-Square-Triangles.

and this is the last picture I took at home. That was August 26, 2022.  A black border was added after this photo was taken.

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It was so fun stitching this stash buster!  

Stash Busting is a personal process. This is how I take my journey. I hope it inspires the Use Your Stash members to find their own journeys.🤞

Ok, closing for now, but keep checking back because I want to tell you about other stash busting projects I have in mind for upcoming months! 

Thank you for stopping by and reading the update.     HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

A scroll through photos...

Despite my lack of presence here in blogger, I have been making a lot of quilt tops.

 

I almost always take progress snapshots as I work. I do this for a couple of reasons. The miniaturized version on my phone gives me a condensed look at what is on the design board. Especially with scrappy quilts, I can better see where colors need to be more balanced. 

Taking photos also helps me keep a timeline of my progress. If I take a picture of the fabric pull or the first block, the date is attached to the photo. It's like having a cheat sheet with so much information. It tells me when I started, what colors I planned, and I can see what was going on in my life from other photos I took around the same time.

So, today I was curious what is on my camera roll since the purple butterfly quilt in my last update...

In September, For The Brave was a store sample for a Block of the Month.

I enjoyed the piecing a lot. The directions were a bit off the beaten path, which kept my attention very well.

The pattern has two versions. Both use the label panel pieced into 4-patches with an appliqued heart.

On September 13th I started working on another sample for the store.

Originally, I had made kits for a puff quilt with the same fabrics. The puff quilt got lots of attention, but the kits weren't selling. So, my co-worker Susan and I found a simple pattern and I made new kits out of the Puff quilt kits in hopes that customers would be more inclined to make it. 

The puff quilt has finally come home with me. Sweetie loved on it for the first day, but then decided her blankie is still her favorite.

I wonder if any of my loved ones are into polar bears?? I really don't know what to do with this quilt!

Then October had me jumping into color. My co-worker Doris curated a bundle of fabrics that I had to have and was perfect to make up this star square pattern. (I'm sorry, I don't remember the name at the moment.) There is one more kit that needs to sell before this quilt top comes home.

I moved on to making up the 2023 3rd Saturday Sampler. Started on October 17, 2022.

This quilt is 96" x 111". It took a lot of time.

November 30th I was making prairie points.

Finally, I got it to the store at the beginning of December and we started taking sign-ups for the Saturday Sampler.

In the meantime...

I saw this Pinterest pin. I couldn't find more information on it.

I am starting a Use Your Stash club in 2023 and I HAD to create these zig-zags for my club!

According to my photos, I started this one on October 17th too and finished December 6th.

I looked for a written pattern for something similar, but couldn't find anything. I might try to write one if there's any interest in this quilt from my club members.

 In the meantime, I started getting to know my Babylock Flare embroidery machine...

November 2, I found this free download. The pattern is for a small hexagon table mat. I got the spider stitched up but then put it to the side. Hopefully, I get back to making a finished item.

November 3, I tested out a block from the Cup of Cheer by Kimberbell. I'm a bit disappointed with this project. But I think that due to that I am a beginner with the embroidery machine. When I get a chance, I plan to take classes to learn all the tricks to machine embroidery. 

However, I am happy to have figured out the quilt first, then applique Star block. I think it would be fun to make a whole quilt with this method.

November 6, I tested embroidering on towels... I like it!!

December 4th - Pinterest lead me to a free tutorial by blogger Badskirt.  She calls her quilt Bargain Basement. It's made up with Half Rectangle Triangles. I just couldn't resist! 

I ended up with a 63" x 96" quilt top. It's brighter in person. The lighting in my sewing room does not make good pictures on my phone camera. I'll do a more detailed blog post on my progress if there's interest. I tweaked the pattern and design a little bit to fit my whimsy. 

One more project to use up some of those smaller pieces floating around my sewing room... it's totally scrappy. I believe the pattern is called Broken Herringbone. Anything and everything will be used. It's made with 2" x 4" rectangles. 

Yes, this one is also for my Use Your Stash club, so more on this later...

Thanks for hanging out with me and letting me scroll through my photos with you 😘!!

oops! Looks like I started this blog post almost a month ago!

I had only uploaded photos, so I'm not quite sure where my thoughts were.

This is Spring Sprouts, a quilt pattern designed by Laundry Basket Quilts.

The pattern is perfect to use as a Block of the Month, which is exactly what I did.
I tried to make it as scrappy as possible. Using as many coordinating fabrics in each block. Greens for the leaves were hardest to find, so many of the blocks use the same greens.

When I pieced the sashing stars, there were a lot of left over triangles...

 

... I just can't let these precious itty-bitties be unwanteds!

And so I had a little sewing day with them...

without a plan. First, I sewed two or three into half square triangles, but quickly dismissed going in that direction. It felt like I was loosing too much of the triangle. Which is really silly, because a 1/4" seam allowance is a 1/4" seam no matter which way it's sewn! The finished size is still the same no matter in squares or in rows...\

put together in rows please me more and away I went

playing with color placement. The color triangles were picked up randomly (yes, I'm going to let you believe that I didn't purposely place the prints where they wouldn't be near itself) and the backgrounds in vertical columns.

The triangles were pieced as they were. I didn't bother with trimming all to the same measurement.

Most of the points turned out pretty well, but by the time I had all the rows put together, one side is noticeably longer than the other.

I put borders on anyway (not pictured) but I haven't decided if I can live with the noticeable wonkiness. Which is weird that I am hesitant about it, because I actually LOVE wonkiness the most!

For now, it'll remain on the design board until inspiration dictates how it should be finished.

The other half of the left over triangles became butterflies.

I've been wanting to make one of these quilts for a long time.

where you simply sew the triangle onto a corner of a square. I kept the triangles in matching pairs. I think this makes them look like butterflies, don't you? I might stitch antenna and round the wings with embroidery stitches later. Or just leave it as is. I haven't decided yet.   

I moved onto the quilting.

I have a new embroidery machine. I was very excited to learn that I can do edge to edge quilting with it.

I searched many internet stores for digital butterfly quilting designs and decided on this one. (Sorry, I don't remember the name of either the pattern or the company at the moment.) I was certain this stitching pattern was going to be perfect for my quilt. But a practice piece showed me it was much too busy for what I envisioned.

I practiced some free motion butterflies along the side of the embroidery machine stitching. 

Although there's more space between the stitches, I still felt it was too busy.

I ended up grabbing my Ipad mini and loaded a picture and started doodling stitching ideas.

I wanted simple, organic, and butterfly in flight-ish (loop-de-loops.)

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... and once again I got distracted.

The above was composed on Oct 11.  Today is Dec 10. 

I was waiting to get a good photo of the quilting on a sunny day, but I guess I forgot.

So... I don't know if this is a good photo, but let's be done with this update!