Brown Bag Quilt - revealed

I completed the quilting and binding of my brown bag quilt late last night (or, early this morning is more accurate).

As part of the Brown Bag Quilt (BBQ) challenge, you were given a swap partner, and the two of you traded 2 yards of fabrics that you either didn't like, or would probably never use. The fabrics shown above are the fabrics I received last fall. Interesting color palette, but I noted that not all of the fabrics were a regular 100% quilting cotton. As I was to find out later, this posed quite an interesting challenge when it came time to cut these up and piece them into a quilt top. And, just to add to the mix, the fabrics on the right were 7" x WOF. Now, that's unusual.


Well, here's the completed quilt:

I'd been wanting to try the Square in a Square quilt pattern anyway, and so I decided to try it with these BBQ fabrics. The squares were 5" more or less, and I cut 2.5" strips out of the other fabrics. With the remaining strips that were about 2" or so, I used them on the back, to sample yet another quilt I'd seen that I wanted to try:

The quilt is roughly 48" x 64". With the exception of the border fabrics, binding fabric, and backing fabric, and maybe one small cut of fabric for the blocks, I used just about all of the fabric I'd received.

This was a fun project. I'd been reducing/eliminating my fabric purchases for some time now, and this challenge fell right in line with that; I had to use the fabric I was given, and while I could add fabric from my stash, I could only add 1 cut of purchased fabric. Sadly, I had enough stash fabrics that coordinated with this, that I didn't even have to go and buy anything.

Oops; don't mind those loose strings that I need to cut off. :)


It will be a gift quilt. This is definitely a little different from what I normally do, but I don't think it came out too bad. What do you think?

Wordless Wednesday

BBQ and Design Wall

Remember this BBQ, or Brown Bag Quilt contest?

http://www.brownbagquiltcontest.blogspot.com/

Remember that the due date is April 1st?


Well, I've completed all the blocks for my BBQ, and they are on my design wall:

The lighting is rather poor in here, which is why the photo is not well lit. Touching it up with Picnik only goes so far. At any rate, I should be done on time with this quilt. See? Even when I don't blog, I am busy.

Sunday State of the Stash Report 3/27/11

More yardage out last week!

March 20 - March 26
In: 0 yds
Out: 24 yds


YTD
In: 2 yds
Out: 112 yds
Net: -110 yds

Wordless Wednesday

I know this is not quilting related, but...

...I just about cried when I saw this, I laughed so hard; it is hilarious!

Civil War Reproduction Fabrics?

So, I was gifted four large bags of fabric...

It took a lot of sorting and folding to get to this point. (Who just balls up their quilting fabric and shoves it in a bag? I don't even treat fabric I don't like in that manner!)

Browns

Greens, blues, purples

Light backgrounds--sorta

Light backgrounds--love that rooster!

Greens (the one 2nd from the right looks out of place)

Reds and pinks

Civil War reproduction fabrics? Yes or no? Seriously, if you know, please leave me a comment. I have a feeling that some of these are not Civil War reproduction fabrics, and if you see one that isn't, tell me, so I can pull it. I think I will try my hand at a Civil War quilt, and I'd rather use the appropriate fabrics, and leave out the others.

Sunday State of the Stash Report 3/6/11

I got some more fabric purged!


Feb 27 - Mar 5
In: 0 yds
Out: 42 yds

YTD
In: 2 yds
Out: 88
Net: -86 yds


Yay!

Jelly roll swap

I am on a self-imposed "No-Buy" right now. I have so much fabric, I really need to make what I have work. And when I can't find something I think I really need for a quilt, I dig in and look harder and make something that I already have work.

So, I have been looking for fun fabric swaps. When I swap, while I get new fabric coming in, I also am getting rid of an equal amount of fabric. It's a wash!

On the left are two jelly rolls that I have received from another quilter; on the right are two jelly rolls that went out earlier this week from my own stash to her. Aren't they yummy!

I joined (yet another) Yahoo group that focuses on stashbuilding (you probably recall prior posts where I mention my stashbusting groups), quite often through swapping and not buying. I found a willing swap partner, and we settled on a 2.5" strip swap. On the top is a 20-strip roll of miscellaneous fabrics, and on the bottom is a 40-strip roll of batiks. This is an absolutely ingenious way to add more variety to your stash without spending any money (except for postage), and without increasing the size of your stash, as well.

Look more closely above at the beautiful fabrics my swap partner sent me! Don't hate me because my stash is beautiful...:)

These 2 rolls above are the 60 strips I sent to her. The kicker is, I had no idea I had at least 40 batiks! Where did they come from?

(A close-up above of the batiks I sent out this week; just so we could see them better...)

That's what happens when you are unorganized and your fabric is in different places; you don't know what you have. I have recently finished some larger purging/sorting tasks, and so now I can really start on the not-so-large projects, such as consolidating, organizing, and purging fabrics. Um, wait; on second thought, this is another major task. :) I was speechless when I put all of my batiks together, to discover that I had so many.

I suggest doing some fabric swapping of your own! Set some ground rules, so you won't be disappointed. For example, are you sending out quilt-shop quality fabrics, and you only want those in return? Make sure that is a stipulation (my partner and I did this). What size fabrics do you want to swap? I actually did a swap of quilt-shop quality scraps a few weeks ago with another swap partner. Are there specific types of fabric, specific colors, etc. that you want? That you don't want? State that, as well. Are you flexible as to when you want to send/receive the fabrics, or will there be deadlines? Make that clear. Also, consider that some swaps are one-on-one, and others are done in a group, with a coordinator. (Yes, I am also doing a group swap; I sent 12 quilt-shop quality batiks, and I am getting 12 new ones back!)

You are welcome to contact me if you want to talk a bit more about this, or if you want the name of the Yahoo group where I've been swapping. Or, you're welcome to contact me if you'd like to swap with me! I seriously suggest that you consider this; with the price of fabric rising, this will become more of a necessity than a luxury.

Featured artist: Joyce Coley

For the month of February, my friend Joyce was the featured artist at a local art gallery.

In the above photo, Joyce is seated.

ALL of the pieces you see in these photos are hers.

If you'd like to contact Joyce about purchasing any of her pieces, or pieces you'd like to commission her to create, you can click here to go to her blog.