It has taken me just over two years to complete a challenge I started in September 2017, which was to sew all 18 patterns from the Quilty: Easy Modern Quilts- November 28, 2016. The purpose of it had twofold. One was to use mostly fabrics from my stash and minimized the expenses by not buying new fabrics. The other one was to reduce the bundles of quilts I would need to pack in boxes because we were in the process of moving, which we did, twice in a very short time.
Stash Reduction
While I used most of the unwanted fabrics from my statch. Some which I purchased years ago for the reason that I couldn't remember. The fabrics lingered sadly on my shelves unloved. Those were sad, sad days. To tell you the truth, I was quite surprised how some of the quilts come out, even if I didn't like the colour of the fabric. It's not always easy 'to fit' some fabric with other ones. It takes time and playing around with your stash just to get the right combination. Sometimes I changed everything around after passing hours in blending a few fabric combinations together. But in the end, I love them all. They all have a story and a purpose.Did I Cheat?
As difficult as it was to only use my stash, at times, I had to purchase fabric because it was a very good deal. I purchase Batik during the retreats but use little of it. I also purchase black, grey, and white as background.Fabric Inventory
After we moved, someone suggested I made an inventory of my fabrics. After hours of sorting out all my fabric by size, instead of colour theme, I was amazed at how much fabric I had in store. It doesn't look like much, but I do have enough to last a lifetime. If only it was this easy with quilting, but it is not. My entire stash of fabric consists mostly of darker tones, very little medium tones, and none existence light fabric. Also, I don't have blenders: White, Black or greys. Anything that would break the business of certain fabrics.Happy Ending
Since then a few top quilts got quilted, one was given away to my mother-in-law during a kemo recovery, a few tops are hanging on my walls so that I visual a quilting design for them. And I am not overwhelmed by having all those top quilts unfinished on my shelves. On the contrary, there are tons of opportunities to develop my quilting skills.Next Challenge
Yes, I have thought of other challenges for myself. Not sure yet which one I will go for.Here are a few I'm thinking about:
- Use my fabric with EQ8, which I just purchased a few months ago
- Make 12 top quilts from Canadian quilters
