Command Decisions

I have this idea of stashbusting this year. My shelves are full of fabrics that are still pretty but not at all in tune with my current tastes. I'd probably never use them. So I've pulled out some of most "What was I thinking?" fabrics for freemotion practice and I've decided that all of my La Petite projects for the year will be out of the remaining stash fabrics. I may never get rid of all of them but I'm making some good strides.

In fact, when blog-hopping I fell in love with the layouts from Freckled Whimsy's Charm Pack Quilt-a-Long and decided that rather than pull out some charm packs I'd rather use stash fabrics. I pulled a nice rainbow of ones that I completely adore and said "Go forth and conquer." And then I pulled a Melly.

I'm still working on getting a consistent seam allowance even with my 1/4" foot so I was surprised to find out that only three of the 150 HSTs I made were under the 4 1/2" trimmed size. The four-patches? Yeah.. not so much. I stared at them and thought "Ok... I can pick out the ones that are big enough to trim and make more to make up for the shortfall. Or........


Yeah, I trimmed everything down to 4.25" and moved along. In the long run it took less time to trim 150 HSTs than it would have taken to piece 40 more 4 patches.

I took as much care as I could to be non-anal about how the blocks went together and ended up having a good time. Probably it would have gone faster if I'd chain-pieced but I enjoyed making each block individually and putting it up on the wall. There are three blocks left to put together but here's how it looks now:


I actually think there might be too many fabrics but it's so happy to look at. Really, just so happy.

Other stash-busters on the drawing board? A reverse snow-ball (so colors on the corners and a white on white print in the centers) from my oversized orange stash. A blue pinwheel from Scrap Basket Surprises. And I think a brown and cream one to be manly. Also, the November La Petite project is going to be purples with the lights being a cream with little purple buds. I'm totally looking forward to it.

But with the whole day Sunday to myself I chose to spend some time very slowly putting my first block of Fig Tree's Butterscotch Tarts pattern. I used the layer cake from a Gypsy Rose jelly cake.. and, thanks to some cutting issues, some of the jelly roll as well. Whoops. Pictures forthcoming.

In the mean time, how do you guys deal with lots of bulk? Press seams open? Lots of steam? Help?