My Fresh Sewing Day for March

The first of every month is called Fresh Sewing Day over at Lily’s Quilt blog. It’s a day to reflect on all that you  have accomplished the month before.

In the month of February, I completed two quilts and pieced one of my largest tops to date.

To go backwards in the month, I just completed Eagle’s Landing. I pieced the Batik Catawampus the week before, and during the first week of February I finished quilting Boxed In and Out. All of this sewing and quilting made for a very busy month. The weekend of the 20th, I hosted the TGIFF linky party for the first time. It was great fun seeing what all the other quilters were completing that week.

In February, I had one non quilt sewing project. I made a custom cushion for a storage bench that my daughter inlaw purchased to hold our grandsons’ mittens and hats and have a place to take off their shoes when they come in the house. I had questioned her choice of brown with gray piping, but it fits the color theme of the bench perfectly.

It also complements the lovely new laminate flooring she installed in her living room.

In February, I added some needed fabrics to my fabric stash.  All new fabrics have a specific future purpose, not just adding them because I liked them.

I found the four red,white and black print fat quarters (from JoAnn’s Fabrics) to the left hand side of photo to go along with the set of red,white and black jelly roll strips that I won in December from the Sew Mama Sew’s Giveaway Day. I found the two red with black lettering fat quarters in my Mom’s stash that I inherited and while the red is a bit different it is possible they will work in the same quilt design I have planned.

At the top of this photo is all the batik scraps leftover from making my Catawampus king size quilt top. I purchased the four batik fat quarters in the front (from JoAnn’s Fabrics) to add some extra color and larger pieces since I am still planning on somehow increases the sides of the quilt design out to make it 110 by 100 inches instead of the 100 inches square.

This collection is for a future project that I am working on with a designer friend. It will hopefully be another king size quilt for our bed. I had purchased 10-12 yards of the chocolate brown solid during Black Friday’s online sales at Hancock Fabrics. I had the creamy color batik (2.5 yds) in my stash from a good 5 years ago. The mustard was purchased two weeks ago at JoAnn’s and half of the 6 yds I purchased was used in the Eagle’s Landing quilt. I purchased the Amy Butler’s Garden Maze in Mustard which is from her old Midwest Modern line of fabrics from an Etsy store called Sew Simple Fabrics. This store is going out of business and has awesome prices. I got the Amy Butler for only $2.10 a half yard. I thought the way the auction was set up that I was purchasing all that she had at 5 yds. But it appears she has a half yard yet available. There are not too many fabrics left, but I did check out her Etsy page just this morning and she still has some Amy Butler, Joel Dewberry and Riley Blake prints. They are from older lines but so reasonable and a way to make some cheap quilt backs or just add favorites to your stash.

If one buys new fabrics, they really must add some new patterns to play with as well. Right??

I purchased Strip Ribbons by GE Quilt Designs. This is the quilt pattern that I intend to use all those red,white and black prints in. I did alot of research to find just the right pattern that could use the jelly roll strips I had and have potential to make a nice king size quilt. The largest quilt is 86 by 100 inches and considered queen size. It takes 42 blocks or what I have for jelly roll strips to make that size. Add 7 more blocks would get me the 100 inch size and add another 7 blocks, it should take it up to the 110 by 100 inch size I want (actually could be 114 by 100 inches). I will just have to see how far my accent fabrics go to see how far out past the 100 inches I go. Two weeks ago, I purchased 15 yards of black solid fabric (a friend gave me a gift card to Hancock’s) and I intended to use that towards this future quilt. When home and putting my fabric away, I rolled it up on an empty bolt to keep it all smooth. I discovered in the closet, that I had 10 yards of black solid that I forgot I purchased back during the Black Friday sales as well. So with 25 yards of black, I am set for a long time. I wish I had that amount in grays.

I also purchased Charm Dash by Ms. Midge. And I found Cross Roads by A Quilting Life and Jumping Jacks by Color Girl Quilts. These three quilt patterns will be added to my stash just because I think that I have possible fabric choices in my stash. I liked them all because of either the Churn Dash or plus/cross styling as though are recent designs that I have worked with and enjoyed alot.

To start off the month of March, I have my Dr. Seuss baby quilt basted and I hope to get it finished this week. Our new Nephew was born on Uncle Max’s birthday last week. Uncle Max received his quilt yesterday, and now I need to finish the one for Connor.

Another project that I hope to start in March is getting a back made for my 39 Shades of Charming quilt. It was made with Meadow Mist Design‘s Charming pattern. It is 105 inches square. I have 3 yards of the black with white text print. I have chosen the teal/turquoise tone on tone floral as my binding. I am still working out how to fill in the rest of the backing. I do have that 25 yards of black to work with, but it needs something more interesting than that. I think I am all out of the turquoise solid that I used on the front of the quilt. Decisions, decisions….

Well, it appears that March may be quite busy as well. I have another big project in the works that I can not blog about yet. If I am not busy quilting, I am not a happy camper.

Thanks to all my blog readers for your continued support. I will be linking up this post with Making Monday,   Lily’s Quilts,  And Sew We Craft , Show and Tell Tuesday and other weekly link ups.

Happy Sewing,
Shelley