
It's been a bit quiet around the blog the past week or two. I almost didn't get Slash the Stash up for April. Life gets busy, hectic, and hard sometimes. My grandmother passed away Thursday, and I've been dealing with lots of mixed emotions. We have multiple family events planned for the week, so it will be quiet around here for another week or so.
Despite the lack of posting, I have done a fair bit of sewing. I have learned when I'm dealing with stress and difficult things I tend to do two things--sew and eat. Probably not the best coping skills, but both tend to be enjoyable when other things aren't.
Although I didn't finish any stash busting projects this month I started several. Three of which were off-shoots from the quilts I made my cousin. I originally tried to incorporate other pieced blocks with my designs for her quilts. After auditioning these various blocks, I realized it wasn't working. For some reason, instead of just making one block, I cut fabric from my stash for 10-18 blocks for each different design. You will be seeing these made into baby quilts in the near future since they are all cut and ready to sew.
First up I cut 18 blocks for the Retro Flowers quilt from The Sometimes Crafter. I love how these blocks come out, but they are not my favorite to sew. It's a bit tricky getting everything to line up just right.
When the Retro Flowers weren't working, I tried this block. I cut out 10 blocks for this design, and will be adding at least two more. I love how the blocks work together to create a great secondary design.
Finally when that didn't work, I tried granny squares. I was thinking of doing these as a design on the back but changed my mind. I only have one sewn up for now, but have at least 12 cut and ready to sew.
I also made great progress on my scrappy improv quilt back for my color quilt. I have loved this project. It's been so fun to put together. Improv piecing is such a great change of pace from the precision required in other projects I have going on. This pieced section is about 55" x 55". Almost all of these fabrics were pulled from my scrap boxes. I thought this project would make such a great dent in each box. It didn't. In fact, I can hardly tell that I sewed anything from my scraps. Those boxes are still just as full as ever. It might be time to destash some scraps. I'll be sashing this in Kona white then basting and quilting this monster soon. One of my goals for May is to finish this quilt.
Now it's your turn! What did you make from your stash this month?!