What a week!

I taught FMQ at Papanana today and had a class full of WONDERFUL students! If you are ever having a bad day, or the news of the world gets you down, I recommend going into a quilt shop.
To quote my mother, my face hurts from smiling! My next FMQ class is April 27 at Sewingly Yours, and I am looking forward to just as much fun, sharing my passion.

Here are the balance of the mini quilts I finished this week:

 Sweet Spring Table Runner 20" by 30"

 Basket Block wall quilt 20" square

Close up to show the straight line FMQ on the setting triangles. I love how this turned out!

Wall quilt featuring Flea Market Fancy and Grand Hotel fabrics

20" by 20"

There is another quilted, but not yet bound. Maybe tomorrow!

These quilts will be for sell by Taproot Artisans in Harmony, NC. The hubs and I were out that way about a month ago and stopped in to see what was in there. The shop is in an old mercantile shop with large grahic barn quilts hanging outside. As we looked around, the proprietress, Janet and I were talking. She asked about my quilts, I showed her the blog, and she invited me to produce some work to sell. Why not? I adore making these little quilts. They go fast and allow me try different things.

Taproot offers classes in painting your own barn quilt (in a variety of sizes) as well as doing barn quilt tours in Iredell County, so it seems a natural fit. I hope they sell!

The organized stash

Jenny at Squawk That posted about her fabric stash, and how her taste has changed since she began quilting. She also writes about the enormous fabric collections quilters have and what can happen to them over time.

It is tempting to amass fabrics, new collections are released all the time and the marketing makes them look irresistible. That's marketing's job. I can see the temptation, and I have experienced stash envy, but I am not a collector. I like to use my fabric stash. I do experience trepidation before cutting into my beauties, but I just love cutting them up and stitching them together with new fabric friends, watching them transform into a new form!

My current stash, 1 yard and greater. Wrapped on boards and arranged by color.

I like to have enough fabrics to play with, and my taste is evolving, so I make it a priority to use my stash. Maybe I use them for gift or donation quilts, if I have fallen out of love. Or I might use them as FMQ practice/therapy (I MUST quilt for sanity!), but I have really focused on using them. It just how I am.

My FQs, sorted by color and in baskets.

So, if I love a pattern, I buy 2-3 yards. Since my Color Theory class, I have been rounding out my stash with specific color families and for these I am buying a yard. I had been buying charm packs and entire collection FQ bundles, but I am trying to use the ones I have and focus on larger pieces of fabric, just how my quilting habits have evolved.

And my husband has promised, they are not going to stop making fabric any time soon.

my favorite thus far...

I got the binding on this one last night.

As I pieced it, I realized I just love this combination of colors and shades: bright, saturated blues and greens with pure white and black. And polka dots!

19.5" square, Square in a square traditional block using Kaffe, Phillip Jacobs and Tula Pink fabrics.

How is it I have had this many trips around the sun without realizing how much I adore this?

I want to make a big quilt using these colors/shades. And polka dots!

another mini finished

3 mini quilts done, 3 more to go!

18" square, featuring Flea Market Fancy and a Kona Snow star.

I am in a rhythm here!

FMQ-ed wavy lines, scrappy binding.

Cutting, piecing, quilting, binding, rinse and repeat. 

Gotta say, I love the little quilts, instant gratification!

little projects

2 cute quilts.

Churn Dash 14.5" square

A mix of patterns.

 

An 8-pointed star, 12" square.

Kona Snow and Kaffe prints.

I have been invited to place some small quilts into  craft shop in Iredell County, so I have been working on these and several others. The shop owner gives barn quilt tours and sells barn quilts so she asked for traditional quilt blocks. I am having a lot of fun making these!