Trying to Use It All

For someone who has as much fabric as I do, it's kind of crazy how I try to use every bit of fabric. I had a quilt kit that came with three fat quarter bundles, but I wanted to make a king sized quilt instead of a queen so I bought a fourth matching bundle. The pattern that came with the quilt kit required no background fabric. While reading through the pattern, I decided to resize the blocks by just a little, and by doing that and using my EZ angle ruler I could make much better use of the fabric. Just with those two small changes I made sure I had plenty of extra fabric. 

I cut all the fabric into the three sizes of HST's I needed for the main quilt, knowing I'd have no problems using extra HST's. I've got all the blocks made for the main quilt, I sewed those up at the hotel in March. Now I've got all the extra HST's to play with. I had a couple yards of white fabric with me at the hotel, and I made HST's until I ran out of the white.

This is the quilt I made from those blocks. This quilt top is assembled now, and waiting to be basted. 

I really like that quilt and wouldn't have minded making it larger, but I didn't have any more of that white fabric, and if I'm going to mix backgrounds my rule of thumb is to use at least six different background fabrics, or stick with one. The differences between solids is much more noticeable if you only use two different fabrics. 

I still had more colored fabrics in that size of HST, and I liked them with white, so I matched all the rest of that size with a different white fabric. 

This will make a great baby quilt, and I think I only have 6 HSTs in this size that I didn't use. I just spotted a mistake in the top row, so I'll go switch that, but if you see any others feel free to let me know. 

Now I only have the medium sized HST's from the original quilt left, and I cut white HST's to pair those with too. I might make a herringbone quilt from those too, I haven't decided. 

I've been sewing all those HST's as leaders/enders while I assemble quilts. But, of course, eventually those become quilts as well, so I'm constantly looking for more leader/enders. I have several quilt centers that need borders cut and sewn on. I'm using borders less and less as my quilting journey evolves, but some quilts need borders. Other quilts look nice and fresh with just a contrasting binding to finish things off. Sometimes I'll add a border if I just need the quilt bigger and don't want to make any more blocks, but overall, I'm probably NOT putting borders on at least half my quilts these days. 

I am ready to start a basting spree. I ordered 90 yards of batting, so I can baste to my hearts content and not run out. I'll run out of pins long before I run out of batting. I think after I finish the king size quilt I have half quilted, I'm going to try to knock out a bunch of the smaller quilt tops I have ready to quilt. I'm out of hangers for hanging quilts, which means I have over 25 quilt tops hanging! I think knocking out a bunch of smaller ones will give me some momentum. 

Tomorrow we're finally having the appliance repairman come out, so hopefully I'll have a working dishwasher and ice maker soon. Summer is here with a purpose now, so having an ice maker again would be pretty nice, I've been without one for almost two years and I'm bad about remembering to make ice even though I have ice cube trays. I'll be surprised if both appliances actually get fixed tomorrow, with all the supply chain issues I know parts may be hard to get. I'll keep doing without an ice maker if its prohibitively expensive to fix, but I'll buy a new dishwasher if I have to. I'd definitely want another Bosch, because it's hands down the best dishwasher I've ever had, and this is the first time it's needed any repair in over 8 years. I did some online shopping, and there aren't many dishwashers in stock anywhere in town, but I did find a Bosch, so even though that model isn't my preference, at least I could get one if it comes to that. I'm pretty sure it can be fixed though, the motor still works, it's a draining issue, and it could use a new seal. Maybe it just needs a good cleaning in areas I can't access. 

I've already cleared out all the areas the appliance repairman will need, and let me tell you, trying to put all the food from the small freezer into our full sized freezer was an adventure! I try to keep tabs on what's in the freezer, but I did have a few things that were small and had fallen into nooks and crannies and forgotten. I tossed a couple things, but most of it was fine. I'm much better about organizing my big freezer than the small one. Since I did manage to get everything into the big freezer, once the ice maker is replaced, I can organize the small freezer as I put things back. I think I'm only going to put frozen fruits and veggies in the small freezer, which should make it easier to keep things organized in both freezers. I have a good system for storing meat, prepped meals, and leftovers in the big freezer, but not the fruits and vegetables, so only having those in the small freezer would likely make my life easier. Up until now I have had fruits and vegetables in both freezers, and it makes it hard to keep track of what I have, so this could be a great solution, but I won't know until I try!