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It's a flimsy!  

I auditioned a couple of red/green prints for the border but nothing looked right (or I didn't have enough) so I used the background.  

6 yards in all.

Here's a closeup.   

Several people have commented on how small the 9ps are.   I cut 1-1/2" strips and the blocks are 3-1/2 (3" finished).   I don't think that is that small.  Maybe it's all the practice I had with the mini-9p swap I participated in for so many years.

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Stash report, March.  Fabric in:   ZERO   Fabric out:  91-1/4 yards. (That ...

No change in the numbers.  Maybe next week.

My OMG for March was to finish the striped top and get it basted.  It was a good month in the sewing room, and I quilted it too.

I started the binding, but don’t expect to finish the quilt this month.  Once I bind it, I’ll decide if I want to add squares between the lozenge blocks.  I intentionally left them off because I didn’t want to quilt through them in dark thread.

I’m linking to Stories from the Sewing Room to share my OMG progress.

Hard to ...

No change in the numbers.  There was opportunity to buy but no motivation.

I had a Guild meeting yesterday with Jane Sassaman as the guest speaker.  She gave an interesting talk on her journey as an artist.  I enjoyed the opportunity to study her quilts up close.

I also turned in my charity quilt and the red, white and blue blocks.  With that challenge finished, the guild announced a “paint chip” challenge.  It’s something I did years ago in a different group, and many other quilt groups/Guilds have done it since.  Here is the paint chip from my ...

No change in the numbers.

My local library had a book sale this week, and I picked up this book.

I doubt I’ll ever make a quilt from it.  I bought it because it belonged to a woman I knew from a Guild I was in many years ago.  Her name and contact info were written in the front.  She was such a nice person and an amazing quilter.  Inside there were pages of hand written notes describing a quilt she designed.  It had to go home with me.

In the sewing room, I added borders to the striped ...

No change in the numbers.

The center of the striped top is together. 

Next comes the borders, which I’ll keep simple.  There’s a lot going on in the blocks.  I auditioned several striped fabrics, and it was chaos.  I’ll save those fabrics for another project.

I also picked the backing fabric, although I may be a little short.

Fabric Added: 0

Fabric Used:  .75 yards

Net Fabric Used:  .75 yards

How did you do this week?

The Stay at Home Round Robin is quilted and bound.  Hooray!  

I've scheduled a quilt a month with Barb.  Whether I take something from the box of flimsies or create something new will depend on the month.

STASH REPORT, February ...

No fabric in this week.  Some of the striped fabric in the orphan box went into the fabric recycling bag.  There were pieces of questionable quality upholstery fabric I was never going to use.

I sewed the first column of the striped quilt together.

I made no effort to match seams.   I’m happy that the blocks were all about the same size.  I went into it thinking that might not be the case.  With two more columns to go, there is potential for a renegade.  I’m hoping to get the top done soon.

Fabric Added: 0

Fabric Used ...

No change in the numbers.  There was opportunity, but no need or desire to add to the stash.

I now have 20 striped blocks made, and today is decision time.  I need to choose a setting to determine if I need more blocks.  I also need to decide if I’m going to donate the quilt, which will have a bearing on size.  I have no idea which way it will go.  It depends on what the quilt has to say about it.

I have plenty of fabric left to make more blocks if needed.

Fabric Added: 0

Fabric Used ...

No change in the numbers.

I sewed and trimmed more striped blocks this week.

I’m not sure if the setting I planned still works for me.  No worries though, as there are many other ways to set them.

I’m not sure about the lone yellow block either.  I need to add more yellow and green, or it will have to go.  So many decisions when you don’t follow a pattern.

Fabric Added: 0

Fabric Used:  .375 yards

Net Fabric Used:  .375 yards

How did you do this week?

No change in the numbers.

I sewed more stripe blocks this week and trimmed a few to check that the pattern will work out.

Squaring these up was a bit of a puzzle.  My ruler that was long enough wasn’t wide enough, and the one that was wide enough wasn’t long enough.  It took a couple tries with a two-ruler set up to work it out.

I really hope this quilt is worth the effort that’s going into it.

Fabric Added: 0

Fabric Used:  .375 yards

Net Fabric Used:  .375 yards

How did you do this week ...

I did a double take when I typed February.  How did that happen?

No change in the numbers.

This week I finished a piece I stitched last fall.  It has been gifted, and I can now show it here.

It’s a pattern from Hinzeit, which came with the charms.  They do not name their patterns.

Now my work table is all cleared to start sewing striped pieces together.  I figured a size for the triangle pieces that should accommodate cutting variations.   I’ll find out when I start sewing.

Fabric Added: 0

Fabric Used:  .375 yards

Net Fabric Used ...

The amaryllis will bloom while I'm away so I took it (and some produce) to Mike and Jen, the neighbors who will watch the house.  Not only do they have the house key but they also have the car keys because if the house is burning the cars need to get out of the garage. 

I was determined to finish The West Wing before the trip.  I watched four episodes Wednesday night (got through Matt Santos' election) which left me with five episodes for Thursday.   All that TV time meant sewing time. 

No change in the numbers.

I started playing around with settings for the larger pieces of Stripes Squared.   I liked this one but had concerns about construction.  The irregular pieces might be hard to fit together.

After a few more tries, I came up with this setting that creates a secondary star pattern. 

I figure this one will be pretty forgiving with the way the stars are skewed.  I’ll sew a few together and see how it goes.

I still have two stacks of triangles, which may or may not end up as a border.  One step at a ...

No fabric in this week.

I finished Winter Tree, my art quilt group’s January challenge.

I talked about the idea and the construction in the last two posts.  From there, I added beads to suggest snowflakes and used a dark binding as a frame.  I also added a fence made from railroad yarn that I painted white and then gray.  The original yarn was too bright and didn’t fit the color scheme.  The yarn is so delicate I hand stitched it down.  The quilt is about 11″ x 13”.

This quilt was my January OMG and the first ...

No change in the numbers.

Work continues on the Challenge Quilt, which I ended up naming Winter Tree.

This is a challenge for my Art Quilt Group.  Throughout last year, members took turns presenting short programs on different techniques.  We covered a variety of topics, including trading cards, junk journals, using AI for idea generation, dimensional fabric sculpture, creating portrait quilts from photos, free motion applique, and others.  The challenge for January is to make a small quilt using one of the program techniques.

I chose AI for idea generation.  I started with a prompt that generated a picture, but ...

Welcome to the first Stash Report of 2026!

Everyone gets to start over with nice shiny zero balances.  Did you hit your usage goal last year?  Do you have stash goals for this year?

My goal for 2026 is to use more than I buy.  I expect to add fabric this year as I am out of light yardage in multiple colors.  Scraps will get me by on smaller projects but less so on larger ones.  We’ll see how the year plays out.

I’m still working on the challenge project.  There was a lot of trial and error ...

 I managed to stay up until midnight on New Year's Eve.   I watched a new movie and an old one on Netflix.  New: Wake Up Dead Man, the third (and best, so far) in the Knives Out series.  Old:  How to Steal a Million with Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole. A fun caper from 1966.  

As I watched I quilted and bound the golden bowties wall hanging.  (I left for Florida with it basted. I was afraid I'd make a mess of the quilting. But it turned out okay! I hand-sewed the binding to ...

No change in the numbers.

This week I finished Herringbone and Holes, a free pattern for members of EGA (Embroiderers’ Guild of America). 

Back when I was a member of the local EGA chapter, we did this project as a stitch-along.  I stopped four bands short of a finish.  For reasons that had more to do with me than the pattern, I did not enjoy this project. 

I decided it was time to either finish it, pitch it, or frog it.  I added one more band to make it look like a complete design.  I backed the pulled work with ...

No fabric in this week.

I finished the ornament quilt.

I’m so pleased with how it turned out.  Now I’m sorry I waited so long to finish it.

I started sewing Snow into a pillow.  Here’s the finished stitch.

I’m going to count out the fabric for both here.  I used less than I expected, but they were small projects.

I still hope to hit net 20 yards out this year.  So close, and I still have time.

Fabric In:  8.625 yards

Fabric Out:  28.375 yards

Net Fabric Out:  19.75 yards

How did ...

No change in the numbers.

After finishing a big project, I started something much smaller.

I stitched these designs over 25 years ago from a Bucilla ornament kit.   I knew from the start I didn’t want to make ornaments.  I already have more ornaments than I can fit on the tree.

I was thinking a small wall hanging but never figured out a design.  Then I stopped stitching and forgot about them for 20 years.  Now that I’m stitching again, I’m determined to finish all my old pieces (and the new ones too).  There is no sense ...