Hi friends!
In my blog post last week I mentioned how I was going to participate in a 100 day project challenge – to create something every day for 100 days.
My plan was to draw daily AND to make a nine patch block using my scraps. I am now up to day 5 and going strong! And I realized that making blocks everyday will help me smash my stash!
A few of you even told me you were going to make blocks everyday as well! Go us!
Smash my Stash!
I don’t know about you, but sometimes my stash is inspiring; I love looking at different fabrics I have collected and they inspire me to a new design or to use them to create a color palette for my next quilt.
But… and there is always a but isn’t there?… sometimes my stash can get overwhelming.
Since I design quilts for a living, I constantly am gathering new fabrics, making quilts and having leftover fabric that ends up in my stash!
This 100 day project is perfect for making easy blocks- and I found it is just as easy to create 2 blocks at a time as it is to create 1. So I am already ahead in my block count!
Patterns with Leftover projects
A while back, I started to design a few of my patterns with what I called Leftover quilts. What I meant by that is, sometimes there is leftover fabric from a project. It’s pretty hard to use up every last scrap of fabric in a quilt. So we buy 1/2 yard of fabric and have a 3″ strip leftover. Or we have extra squares or… you get the idea.
Or in the case of my quilt Up and Down, you make 4 Flying Geese units using the no waste method but you only need 3 of them. What to do with the leftover geese?
For that quilt, I added a small quilt to the pattern that used those leftover geese!
I did a similar thing for my quilt pattern Bright Hope.
I made the main quilt, realized that with the stitch and flip there were all these leftover triangles and so I include instructions to make this leftover quilt!
Of course, I have realized I can use other leftover HSTs to make this leftover quilt!
My Stash
I am on a mission to smash my stash and reduce the overwhelm. I am going through some of my pattens to see which ones will make good scrappy quilts. For now, I am making my nine patch blocks and I will refer to my pattern, Ninth Square, to make quilts.
I am also looking at Hop the Fence– that one recommends using a jelly roll but my scraps of partial strips will work just fine!
Tell me, is your stash inspiring or overwhelming? Or maybe, a little of both! What are your strategies to reduce your stash?
In the meantime, I will be in my sewing room, making nine patch blocks!
happy quilting!
Kate
P.S. As quilters we do love our fabrics. Earlier I shared that one of my dreams has been to have my own fabric line and that’s coming true this year!
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