de-stashing and getting started..

(almost) all the quilt tops laid out and ready (and almost ready) for quilting

What do I write to start things out?  I've had a family blog for about four and a half years now and I've been itching to start a blog just devoted to my little creative outlet: quilting.  So here we are!

Over the last few months my serious addiction to fabrics has gotten to the breaking point and I decided that a stash cleanse was necessary.  Unfortunately I love all my fabrics too much to part with them in anyway other than quilted form and so began my year of scrap quilting.  Apparently I'm not the only one with this problem...  This year my goal is to work through my stash until I've whittled it away to a reasonable level.  Reasonable being one tote in my garage.  Or even better small enough to store on my shelves in my studio (read: corner of the loft/office/playroom).

I've had a lot of projects in mind to use up the stash on and its just become a matter of momentum to get going on putting those ideas into action.  And in the last week I've really made some good headway. 

My current project has been one from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts.  Oh how I love the projects in this book.  I got it from the library a few years ago when we still lived in Seattle.  Unfortunately somone had taken out the pattern page which made it kind of impossible to do half the projects. But since I loved it so much I went out and got my own copy and have been biding my time till I started this little baby...

I was TOTALLY intimidated at first by the circle and rounded corners.  In fact I remember turning to this page when I first got the book from the library and thinking, "well that's one I'll never do..."

Never say never right?

It actually is way easier than it looks.  Time consuming because you have to cut out all the individual color wheel pieces with scisors instead of rotary cutting but quite simple to piece.  But, seriously, a great way to utilize an oversized fabric stash.

Turns out I have a TON of blue and red fabrics (not really surprised there, two favorite colors) and I only had three orange which is weird because I feel like I'm really digging orange lately (wait till I post about the boys' room) so I had to go out yesterday and get three more oranges. (that's the sort of fabric purchasing we'll allow this year.  ONLY to FINISH projects!)

I have to admit.  I totally love it and can not wait to get it hanging on the wall right here in the loft studio (/playroom/office).  I love it.  I ran out of white fabric for the last quadrant but the plan is to run over to San Jose's Jo-Ann's tomorrow since I'm headed over the hill to my little mountain playgroup anyway.

Excited...