August BoM

Since school has started and I've gone back to work, not much has been happening in my sewing room lately!  I did manage to finish my August block for the And Sew On block of the month.  I think this one might be my favorite so far!  In looking at Kristy's example, it appears that her stash is neatly organized by color.  Not so in my stash!  I keep trying to come up with a system, and it usually just goes back to looking like this closet:

I'm getting excited to make the September block and finish up this wall-hanging!  It has been a fun process.  I'm linking up to  Anything Goes Mondays today, and also Needle and Thread Thursday later in the week!

Summer Goals

I've never really set many goals for myself as a quilter.  Since my day job can be somewhat stressful, it seemed like quilting should be done only for pure enjoyment, without any pressure to produce. That can make for a lot of WIPs and very few finished quilts, but, actually, I've got quite a lot to show for my hobby!  This summer, however, I've done a lot of sewing, and have several finishes that I am really proud of.  My biggest goal was to finish my Scrappy Trip Around the World quilt, and I did that a couple of weeks ago, right as company was coming for 10 days.  Perfect timing!

I love this quilt!  It is pure scrappy, and just fun to look at.  I lost count of how many different fabrics are in it, but I only duplicated a few, so there have to be at least 100 fabrics, maybe more!   Every piece has a story about what other project it came from - a special baby or birthday quilt, or the kit I bought in Albuquerque several years ago to make my beautiful southwestern quilt. 

I chose a completely whimsical cat print for the back of it that makes me smile every time I see it.

Machine quilting through each block, with straight lines on the diagonal gave me a chance to look at the design of the quilt with different eyes.  See the hourglasses?

I even made a scrappy binding for this quilt, using my favorite prints from the quilt itself.  This turned out to be fun, too. 

Who's this quilt for?  Just me!  And I'm going to enjoy it a lot this winter!

So will I set more goals for myself, now that I achieved this one?  Probably not, although I have lots of ideas about what I want to do next.  I guess I'd better get back to sewing!

I will be linking up with Kelly at Needle and Thread Thursday.  Looking forward to seeing what everyone else has been working on!

Scrappy Storage Idea

Karen at Quilty Creations is having a Sunday Link-Up to show your stash organizing ideas, and it's so interesting to see what other quilters have come up with!

When I first started blogging in January, it didn't even occur to me that a quilter might make an entire quilt just out of scraps from her stash!  I didn't have a very big stash, and still don't, really, but I've started to look at scraps in a new way.  Especially now that my Scrappy Trip quilt is almost done!  A few years ago I saw this idea for organizing your stash in an American Patchwork and Quilting magazine.  These are CD/DVD shelves, and they work really well for holding all kinds of fabric!

I've had the one on the right for quite a while, and it's full!  So this summer, I got a second shelf which is twice as wide! And now it's full too.  I guess I've started collecting more fabric!

I haven't really gotten around to organizing my stash completely by color yet, so right now there are shelves that hold different kinds of fabric, like flannel, or lines of fabric, like my Honey Honey or Hello Sunshine stashes.  And for now, that works for me!

 

I guess I'd better get to work on my next scrappy quilt!