Sunday Stash Report

The Scrappy Trips quilt is finally nearing completion. As you can see I have the top and bottom borders to complete. I decided to arrange the blocks in uphill-downhill fashion instead of the Trip Around the World, because I would have needed a sixth row to complete the last set of the pattern, and I didn't wanna make another row. So now it looks more like a Scrappy Bargello, which is just fine.

I didn't expect to like this quilt as much as I do. It is filled with ugly fabrics that I've had for a long, long time. I remember how I acquired some of them; but others I have no idea where they came from. They could have come to me by way of a trade or other quilters' scraps that were given to me, I just don't know. I wasn't very discriminating when I started building a stash, was I? Well, I refuse to throw away perfectly good quilting fabric; and I wouldn't give them away because I'm pretty sure no one else would want them either. Bonnie was right about one thing though--in a scrappy quilt like this, they turn out looking pretty good.

I still didn't use up all the scraps of these fabrics though. Keryn commented on her blog last week that some of her fabrics she'd had "forEver" and was so tired of seeing them in all her quilts. I suppose it is like that with a lot of us, and I now believe that I am destined to live with some of these scraps for the rest of my natural life. Even scrap quilts seem to beget more scraps.

At any rate, I used 7/8 yard for the brown border and the binding, which has been cut and set aside, plus another yard for the piano key border.

I also got the binding for my Blooming Nine Patch machine sewn to the front of the quilt, which used another 3/4 yard. I'll be working on hand stitching that down this week.

The long arm quilters and machine quilters out there will likely be bored silly with the next part; so skip it, if you like. Our quilt chapter is having a machine quilting skill builders workshop next weekend. We will be using a preprinted panel of quilting designs that is currently available in quilt stores. There are different designs on the panel, from simple loops and meandering to more complex feather type designs. I wish you could see the details better in the photo, but it was hard to get a good picture.

Our plan is to quilt all the designs once and then repeat the exercises using different color threads for more practice. I thought it was a great idea, so I bought a couple panels to start practicing. I didn't do very well, did I? It's pretty wobbly; but I had fun, and it will get better from here! Practice, practice, practice! Later this week, I am going to be very brave and machine quilt my Scrappy Bargello with a simple meander and one of these loopy designs in the border. I used a yard from the stash to back the sandwich for the quilt panel.

The fabric that arrived in my mail earlier this week totalled 8 yards. Additionally I receive a scrapbag every month from Keepsake Quilting. That also arrived last week, adding another 3 yards to the stash. I rarely buy fabric anymore except for a specific purpose, and these scrapbags are a small treat that adds something new and fresh to my collection. I've been getting this scrapbag for years, and I finally realized that most of it doesn't get used because it is odd patterns; so I called and switched to the Basics club of the month, which also cut the incoming yardage by half.

So here are the totals for the Sunday stash report:

Fabric used this week: 3-5/8 yards
Fabric used year-to-date: 14-1/8 yards
Fabric purchased this week: 11 yards
Fabric purchased year-to-date: 11 yards
Net fabric used: 3-1/8 yards

It could be better, but it could also be worse!