Friday, January 15, 2010

Stash busting of the fabric persuasion

Six years or so ago, or about the time that the drawer of seasonal prints exploded, spawning an additional large box of bits and pieces, the detritus of 20 odd years of making Christmas 'stuff', I had the bright idea of cutting the smaller bits into random width strips about 6" long.

The aim was to make enough to join them together into a nice simple strippy Chinese-Coins style Christmas quilt, quickly done with the brain more-or-less in neutral.
Then I moved house and they got 'misplaced' ... only to surface just before Christmas '08, when I made a few more, and got as far as pinning them up on the design wall.
... and there they sat until that Christmas was over.

If I'd gone ahead and finished it at that point, it would've been somewhere between a cot[crib] quilt and a lap sized one.

Of course, if I'd done that, you would have already seen it, so the fact that I'm bringing it up now kinda confirms that I didn't give it another thought. At least, not until a couple of weeks ago when I yanked the tub out again.

and promptly decided to discard quite a few of the ones that I'd already done.

Fast forward through intermittent bouts of mindless cutting and sewing:
the' cot quilt' is now a large queen size


and I decided to do a pieced back as well

rather than go out to buy another 8 metres of fabric

At the moment it's just a top - no quilting yet - but it still looks pretty good spread out on the spare bed

It has been CAT scanned and deemed worthy



and y'know what? I didn't buy so much as a fat quarter of new fabric for this piece and that blasted Christmas fabric drawer is still full.

... and I haven't worked out whether I'm really, really late with this quilt ... or doing spectacularly well for Christmas 2010

14 comments:

ozjane said...

I really like the width of the sashing there.....and now I cannot quip about not seeing Christmas quilts.....
I said to the man who delivered my divine elegant new white super expensive down to under half price Christmas tree...and he said....I think you are a bit late luv..I think it is a Christmas tree.
I said...I am acually super early and very frugal.....so I think the same comment applies...except as usual you worked..I just spent money....LOL

ozjane said...

I cannot spell or punctuate either....

lisette said...

it's stunning and aren't you clever getting a jump on next christmas?

Rose Red said...

I think you have done spectacularly well for Christmas 2010. Since clearly it is a different project than the original!

Lindi said...

The 12 Days of Christmas has passed, so it's now forward planning for 2010! The quilt looks very swish. Christmassy, yet regal. :)

Donna Lee said...

I'm all for putting the best spin on things so it's Christmas 2010! It's a beautiful piece. And it'll make a great bed quilt.

BeeBee said...

I say you are WAYYY early for Christmas 2010 and I'm quite jealous. Of your timing, stash busting and the pretty quilt. Glad it passed the cat scan - those can be dicey.

Jennifer said...

Ah yes....it needs the cat seal of approval, never mind what the humans think.

Julie said...

Love the quilt!

Nicole & Phil said...

make it a present for 2011...that way, if it gets misplaced again, you won't have that guilt! Then if you get it done by Xmas 2010....how awesome you will be!!!! :)

Alison Schwabe said...

Of course the drawer of christmas fabrics was still full after this -you know they breed down there in the dark, don't you? And the notion of 'staxhbuster ' is a just a quaint old wives tale ....

Alison Schwabe said...

sypo from an old wife - 'stashbuster' of course ....

cinzia said...

great way to use up all of that xmas fabric. I don't usually like xmas quilts but this one has a buzz about it. should look good when finally quilted.

Alwen said...

Well, I love that! There's nothing like the richness of the dark greens and burgundies.