I have been progressing steadily since August, sewing 2 7/8 inch squares into Half Square Triangles (HSTs). My container had been so full, that not another scrap of fabric would fit and still close the cover. Here is what is left! Still enough to make a twin sized quilt.



Enjoyed some of the pleasant Fall weather today with a backyard french fry and marshmallow char. Yes, that is the Christmas train in the back.



Leftover bunnies from Easter marshmallows can char nicely.

Here's an example of the crummy meander quilting I did on the Witch quilt. I have now taken all of it out and am in the process of requilting. If I had used orange thread, it would have looked pretty good, but the purple was just awful.

50 Quilt Tops from Stash?

I plan to get a little more involved in using up my stash now that I have a new Bernina and can quilt much more easily. I know now of 2 women who spent 2 years using up all their stash in many, many quilts. I have UFOs and excessive stash, so I'd like to make an updated 2 year goal to try and dwindle that down and complete projects. For now, I want to make the goal of finishing 50 quilt tops. I don't typically make small children's quilts, so this is fairly ambitious, but at the same time, the goal is not to get them all quilted, either. Once I have the tops done, then I will know what fabrics I can use for backings.

So, this goal starts in November. A finish will be either a top or a quilted/tied quilt that is primarily made from stash or a UFO.

Using Up Stash

I recently completed a wonderful Floral Triple Irish Chain. All but the white and the binding was from stash. This was fabric that I originally purchased in the 90s to make a watercolor quilt. Never made it, but now it is gorgeous in the new setting. This particular quilt uses 2.5 inch strips. Bonnie's instructions below are for 2 inch strips and squares.


Once or twice a year, I go through my scrap bin. I pop an audiobook into my MP3 player and I cut up a selection of fabrics into my neverending Drunkard's Path and Apple Core collections. The remainder is cut into 2 7/8, 2.5, 2 and 1.5 inch strips and squares. This prevents the scrap bin expanding into the mess I had it before as well as USES fabric that isn't getting used. I have PLENTY of squares for applique, so no need to keep all of this. Having precut strips and squares also helps a lot to get down and working on a project.

I save TONS of 2 inch squares and 2 inch strips. I love leader and ender projects and just wanted to bring your attention to it. Bonnie, over at Quiltville, provided easy instructions on how to use up your accumulating 2 inch squares in some eye popping quilts!

http://www.quiltville.com/leadersenders.shtml

Getting Some Stashbusting Done!

I'm finally cutting into some fabrics that have been hanging around for years. First, I started my Dad's Train quilt. Simple. Yep. Ok.. What I opted to do was cut out 5.5 inch squares from the various train fabrics and do a square-in-a-square method to frame them. I mention this on here because it is a great way to stashbust any kind of novelty fabric. Use a large print for the blocks and use a small print for some of the frame. I use Easy Angle to make my square in a squares. There's a small amount of waste, but they are perfect every time. Decide how big you want the square to the half inch. The surrounding square is done by cutting a strip the same size with an Easy Angle. Sew. Trim. Done.

Square In A Square Using Easy Angle
http://quiltville.com/sqinsqtutorial.shtml
http://quiltville.com/sqinsqchartpf.html

Slow stashbusting

Seems I'm buying fabric at the same rate I'm using it, thus the stash is staying the same. Used some in swaps, bought more for another swap (I have few pastels) and took advantage of a buy 10 get 10 free fat quarter sale. I now have enough variety of 30s repros that I can feel comfortable that I need no more of that for current planned projects. I will need to buy some 30s repro solids, but that purchase can wait for some time.

I finally used up the game characters fabric, all 4.5 yards, in pillowcases. A quilt was probably 4 or 5 years away while a pillowcase could be enjoyed NOW! My sister is huge on gaming (Guild Wars), so I made her a pillowcase for her specialty pillow as well as 2 king sized ones. There was enough fabric left for my king sized pillow too!

New Years Eve Mystery

If you want to bust stash, try Bonnie's Mystery Quilt on New Years Eve Day! I'm not sure what color scheme I will be doing, but I hope to be able to bust stash on this.

Log Cabin Quilt top Done!

I finished the Log Cabin quilt top this week! I'm just waiting for a nicer day to lay out the backing, batting and top to roll up to tie (I need to do it outside). It is a queen sized quilt 82x96 inches and primarily made of stash. I swapped for many of these fabrics using stash in a 10 inch square fabric swap (green, gold, brick red and beige). Pieces were cut using Shar Jorgenson's (Quilting from the Heartland) Log cabin templates. Alas, this project did not use a lot of stash, but I had plenty for all the blocks. However, log cabins generally are great stash users especially if you have enough fabric of each type to do long strips.

Fabric Used:
8 yards for the blocks (stash)
1.5 yards black sashing (new)
3.5 yards border and binding (new)
7.5 yards flannel backing (new)

Tree Quilt using 2 Novelty Fabrics

Is it stashbusting when you deliberately bought fabric for a project and just didn't get around to it? Hard to say, but this pattern is stashbusting, so I'm including it.

Here is the Vikings Twee Top. I bought the deer and Vikings fabric in early 2007 deliberately for a quilt for my BIL and then didn't know how to combine it. The trees had been cut out for 5 or 6 years. I started doing the trees and had an AHA! moment. Deer, Vikings and trees have absolutely nothing in common but have everything in common with my BIL (Vikings fan, hunter and has 80 acres with lots of trees). Think about it. Do you have novelty fabrics you have no clue what to do with? Think about combining them based on someone's hobbies or interests.

This quilt used up 10.5 yards of stash fabric and 9 yards of newly purchased fabric. The remaining Vikings fabric goes with my sister to make an additional project. The flannel was a deal at $2.50 a yard and it is football fabric!

Fabric Used:
3.5 yards deer fabric for borders and binding (stash)
3 yards of Vikings fabric (stash)
4 yards estimate for tree blocks (stash)
1 yard purple block sashing (new)
1/2 yard dark purple narrow border (new)
7.5 yards flannel backing (new)

Pattern used (FREE!) at this website.
http://www.ezquilt.com/patterns/winterpines/winterpines.htm

Courthouse Steps

Here's a good scrapbustin' pattern! This particular model of Courthouse Steps came from a Moda University pattern and features a 12 inch finished block. Uses 1.5 inch strips for the 9 patches (3 inch finished) and 2 inch strips for the steps. The scrap border is made up of leftover 2 inch x 4.5 inch pieces. I did buy yellow sashing and the blue to avoid a Christmas look due to a lot of red and green, but all the rest came from stash. This quilt has been left in 3 pieces in order to make the quilting on my home machine much easier. Very surprisingly, the border exactly matched each piece. I was wondering how I was going to handle that and it became a non-problem!


Now, to see a more traditional courthouse steps, using all 1.5 inch strips, here's Bonnie's example. As you can see, a real scrapbuster if there ever was one!
http://quiltville.com/courthousestepsdone.jpg

Here's a link to a site that features log cabin as well as Courthouse Steps. Unless you are doing something really small, I cannot see how foundation piecing makes this better, although I see that it is a method that is popular.
http://www.equilters.com/library/logcabin/easy_log_cabin_part5.html

A Really Nice Quilt Idea

Occasionally, I come across a stashbusting quilt idea that is novel, but easy to do. This is a baby Rail Fence quilt with a twist. The quiltmaker is Stephanie Driel in Australia who is a member of our Stashbuster's group. She uses half-square triangles in the center of each rail. What a great way to use up fat quarters! This would look great even on a queen-sized quilt. Easily, this would go together very quickly with quick cutting techniques for the HSTs. The solid-from-a-distance fabrics really make this work for me as it gives the eye someplace to rest.

Rail Fence Busts Stash FAST!

I want to first point out the the example quilt was all new purchased fabric, not stash. That said, if you have novelty fabric or a large pattern you want to show off, this is a very fast pattern to make and would use stash quickly.

This was the original inspirational drawing done by a member of QATW in EQ5. I like the orientation of the rails as well.


To make my rail fence alternating blocks quilt, here's what you do. Fussy cut your novelty fabric(s) using a 6.5 inch square. If you have an overall pattern, you can just cut fabric into 6.5 inch strips, then subcut to squares. Select 3 (or more) solid-from-a-distance fabrics that look good with your novelty. Cut into 2.5 inch strips. Sew 3 strips together. Press to one side making certain that you don't don't get any little folds in the front. Using a 6.5 inch square, trim off selveges, then cut 6.5 inch squares. Repeat until you have enough rail fence blocks. Decide on an orientation and sew row-by-row. I start on the bottom and work up-I find it easier to catch mistakes along the way.

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