Stashbusting Paddlewheels

Here's my stashbusting quilt, the Paddlewheel Quilt. This is a fast to make stashbusting pattern. All the blocks and the border were finished, from cut to sewn, in a weekend. The quilting always hangs me up, but there is no reason why you can't tie this quilt. This pattern uses a surprisingly small amount of background fabric. I enlarged this quilt to nearly a queen size and used just over a yard of background. One fat quarter of paddlewheel fabric makes 3 blocks. I know this pattern dates back to the 30s (a windmill variation), but this one has been simplified to minimize seams. The pattern can be found in Thimbleberries Book of Quilts by Lynette Jensen. This is the second quilt pattern I've made from this book. Clear instructions, goes together quickly. This quilt features 9 inch finished blocks and I just made more blocks to fit my bed. Stash usage: about 17 yards.

Stashbusting Tip - Block Of The Month

I'm still working on my stashbusting Paddlewheel quilt. I will have the borders on by the weekend.

Every January, oodles of online places (as well as quilt stores) start a Block-of-the-Month series. Why not join one and use your stash!? Even better, plan on joining one and quilting it at the same time with either a Quilt as you Go or Reversible quilt options. That way, when you are done, it's already quilted and you just put it together. I'll have to make a decision once the first blocks are revealed. If I want to do a lot of quilting, then I'll have to buy a solid or muslin for the backing. If not, then I have plenty of fabric for backings. Either way, I'll be using Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 batting. (tip, it helps to precut your batting squares and border pieces and just keep them in the same bag. Cutting one at a time is a real pain).

So, in the spirit of that, and getting some immediate use out of my Christmas present (EQ6), I am joining QATW (MSN group) 2007 BOM. I chose a Debbie Mumm fabric that I've had for a few years (heck the store closed and I still haven't used it in a tote bag which is why I bought it!). I plan to primarily use this fabric in the border, but will include small amounts in some of the blocks. I only have a little over 1 1/3 yards, so I have to be creative in carrying it over.

Here are my selected fabrics. Backgrounds in front. Some of these fabrics are also being used in another project, but I only need small amounts, so it's not a problem. Note that I have few darks. I'm trying to avoid having more overly dark quilts and using more mediums and a few jewel tones to add spark. We'll see how that goes.

These are the fabrics where I have enough yardage to use for sashing and border fill-in. The sashing is best with an allover pattern, so my best choices are the blue and the goldish/red (on top). Decisions based on yardage...Hah.

Stash Usage

Stash Usage: Sister's Choice: 2 yards greens and beige.

Most of the Sister's Choice quilt was scraps which I wasn't counting.

Year total: 24yards (isn't this pathetic? I have hundreds of yards!)

Hearts Block

Here's a great stashbusting pattern to try! Now, granted, I'm making this primarily from precut 2 inch scraps, but if you strip pieced it from your stash, you'd be done with this quilt in no time! Darlene, on the Stashbusters list, recently posted a photo of this block that inspired me. I looked and found the same block done in one of Shar Jorgensen's early books. That is what my 4 heart block is based on. You can use any size square. The white strips are a little smaller than the finished squares. Just looks better that way. In the hopes of actually using this quilt sometime during the winter, I'm thinking of quilting it section by section and putting it together like a reversible quilt. That will also use a bunch of stash for the back since the pieces only have to be a tad larger than this block.

Sister's Choice Stash Usage

Here's the Sister's Choice quilt. Although mostly scraps, I did use about 2.5 yards worth of stash yardage and fat quarters for it. The backing and binding will also be from stash! Most importantly, my 2.5 inch square box has been emptied a lot. This great stash using pattern is known as Farmer's Daughter, although identified by Bonnie as Sister's Choice. Here's a link to Bonnie's version as well as a link to the pattern.
http://www.quiltville.com/sisterschoice.shtml.

State Fair Stashbusting

I didn't do any quilting yesterday, but did visit the Minnesota State Fair quilt entries. I thought I would feature quilts that are great stashbusting quilts. The first is a surrounded square pattern. This has become a very popular quilt style after it appeared on the cover of a new quilt book (which of course I have). There are now many patterns and variations on this theme. All work well for using stash, particularly since it's easy to draft your own based on a center size that works best with YOUR feature fabric. I plan to make this with a novelty fabric in the centers and coodinating fabrics for the outside rectangles. You could also do Christmas novelties (or any other holiday that you have a lot of).

My second example is a 4 patch quilt. Easy, easy, easy and seems to work with nearly anybody's stash. Just takes a little planning ahead of time. Very popular design ever since the book Nickel Quilts came out. You don't have to use 5 inch squares or scraps. Your fabrics do need to coordinate a bit. This also works with novelties provided you have a very contrasting fabric for the diagonals such as featured in this example. The actual block consists of 2 squares with 2 4 patches using the same fabric. Here's a link to a double 4patch pattern. Note that the quilt example aligns the dark squares differently.
http://www.quiltwith2sissies.com/freedble4patch.htm


This last quilt is more traditionally used for using up scraps. It is a 9 patch on point with triangles making up the remainder of the block. Although it appears they are set in vertical strips, this quilt consists of rows of 1/2 square triangles alternating with 9 patches. Setting it on point gives a different visual orientation, particularly if you plan where your darks are located. This would be a great quilt to use up leftover solids either in the half squares or in the 9 patches. Another example I've seen recently uses the same two fabrics in all the half square triangles which gives another effect. Finally, you can use solid squares instead of 1/2 square triangles for yet another effect.

Introduction To Stashbusting

Welcome to my Stashbusting blog. I have hundreds of yards of fabric that I need to use up in quilts. I was inspired by the Stashbuster's List' challenge to use 100 yards of fabric in 2006. Since my regular blog (www.WayTooMuchStash.blogspot.com) has been so helpful for finishing projects for all my needlework, as well as sharing my old and new skills and discoveries, I thought I would have a second one that simply documents my stash usage. This blog will not have frequent entries, but hopefully regular ones!

My previous successes come directly from two sources: The Stashbusting Yahoo List and Bonnie's Quiltville.com web site. If you have lots stash or scraps to use, these are wonderful sources for tips and ideas to get that stash used rather than insulating your closet or bed. If you want to join the email list, join YahooGroups and search out Stashbuster. The amount of mail is overwhelming, so select DIGEST. Take some time to look around the site and at some of the past messages. Many obvious things are answered. For tips, hints and patterns, Bonnie's web site is Quiltville.com.

I used to have all my fabric sorted by color, but two moves, illness and many fabric purchases later, my stash no longer fits into these neat categories, nor can it be contained in those 12 boxes that fit neatly under my cutting table (a little larger than a large sweater box). I have way too much focus or feature fabric that don't fit and don't have accompanying fabric to blend in. I have already eliminated all the poor quality and fabric-I-now-hate from the stash. Still have boxes and boxes left! Stashbusters currently challenge requires actually finishing a quilt. I'll get a couple of those done done, but I'm just trying to finish tops, particularly those with one directional, fabulous novelty fabric. So, this blog mostly will document using yardage as I finish tops. It will inspire me to use more! Since I have to start somewhere, stash is defined as fabric purchased in 2005 or earlier and doesn't include scraps.

Stash use so far this year:
Diamond Scrap Quilt: 1 yard binding (black)
Floral Triple Irish Chain: 5 yards backing (shamrocks)
Eye Spy Reversible: 2 yards Mickey Mouse plus solid fabrics, 1.5 yards Eye Spy swap
Maple Leaf Quilt: 2 yards leaf fabrics (swap), 3 yards border + binding fabric, 7.5 yards backing fabric (pink paisley flannel)
Total stash use as of August 30: 22 yards