Building the Stash

      I am reporting proudly that I am building my stash as an ongoing process. I never know what fabric I will need to use and I build most of my quilts shopping in my own studio. There is only 1 local quilt shop left in the Buffalo area and they concentrate on novelty fabrics. I know it is not the popular thing to do, but I enjoy building the collection for quilt usage and I use fabric every week . People do give me quality scraps and send me fabric that I am grateful for also.
     Autumn fabric was almost half off and I needed to replenish what I used.

     After working on those Kindred Pinwheels, I fell in love with Tilda fabrics, and after seeing the Hibernation series on Maureen's blog, I bought a fat quarter bundle and another small one of the blenders which I did not photo.

     To keep me going in making comfort quilts, Vicki augmented my stash by gifting me some awesome hand dyes. Yes!!

     I forgot to photo some lovely blenders that I picked up at Hobby Lobby to go with the Hibernation fabrics. All of these just get my creative juices on high alert which is good because it gets dark so early now and we are entering grey sky season here.
     Let the cutting begin!

Progress with pinwheels

      It has been very satisfying sewing the Kindred Pinwheels blocks with the Tilda triangles Maureen sent me. In fact, I have so many blocks that I think they are too much for one quilt and will split them into 2 comfort quilts, 4 by 5 blocks each with lattice and borders.

Rosie's inspection looking for imperfections and stray threads

Figuring out lattice and cornerstones

I will make the second quilt with darker lattice and then light cornerstones, so I am just testing the idea with a few greens. Not sure if these are the lattice fabrics yet.

Last blooms standing

      Well, Oct. 31st, I saw snow. On Halloween. Fortunately, I took photos before of the remnants of my garden because it still had lovely flowers. I can't take apart the garden or boxes if there are still blooms on the plants, so I will be prying them out once the weather turns ugly probably. We just have too many months without flowers, so I hang on to them for all its worth.

Autumn quilt bordered

       It was a journey, but I finished piecing Appalachian Autumn and put a border on it. I do not like to have many seams in the binding, so a border will help alleviate that. I varied a lot from Bonnie Hunter's pattern, but I really like the way it turned out. I also premade the binding so it will vary from green to brown to orange like the quilt.

Too many seams to put a binding on for me

Comfort times three

       Sort of a record- three comfort quilts went out the door in one week to three different people. The quilts were all quilted, but needed to be washed (I wait until I get a recipient before I wash, dry and immediately bag), sew pockets on the bags, make pocket quilts and complete labels. I had been praying for recipients for those quilts, but was surprised by so many requests at once. Unfortunately, all were cancer situations.
     I am very privileged to be a quilter and grateful to secure the resources to make comfort quilt kits. Every quilt is needed and does it job to provide comfort in a distressing situation.
     The first was a batik Upstairs, Downstairs that I had to mail. Postage is kind of crazy, but it got to SC pretty quick and safe.

      The next one went to a man who had surgery to remove a cancerous kidney. When I washed the quilt, the hand dyes all bled into the white and I was freaked. Fortunately, I keep Vicki Welsh's great guide on hand and Blue Dawn. After soaking in Dawn and hot water submerged in the tub, it rinsed out and the quilt was saved. Vicki, I owe you again!!

The bleeding came out!!

     The third quilt went to a young woman with very aggressive colon cancer. Doesn't it break your heart?