The Stash Buster Challenge 2020

This is the name of a group on Facebook and with unknown days until the lockdown ends, I thought to give this one a try.  What I like is that this quilt is made up using only one block but has so many layout possibilities.

For years I’ve been complaining about the amount of green fabric (yards, fat quarters, pre-cuts and scraps) that I have and even though I don’t think I like green all that much it just seems to escalate.

I decided to make this quilt in mostly autumn colours, starting with my green fabric as half of every block.  The other half will be made up of other colours.

Now my sewing room is one big mess again, having thrown out all the scraps in the green drawer to see what would be big enough to make half a block but with the help of my Accuquilt I had 144 (the number of blocks needed for my quilt) green fabric cut and pinned to the design wall.

Now I will start choosing, cutting and adding the second colours and I guess then playtime with the arrangement can start.

O and just to have at least ONE cleaning activity on my schedule during lockdown….. I cleaned the food cupboard (not a pantry as to me one should be able to walk into a pantry) and for the next couple of weeks, I’ll obviously not be able to find anything!

A little fleece play

A customer dropped off her quilt by my gate (keeping our social distancing) yesterday and seeing that I have all day, every day in which I can do whatever I want, I got going with this.

The quilt is a little postage stamp quilt but I must give this quilter credit for her ability to play with and arrange colours.

Because it is so busy I did an all-over motif as anything else would simply disappear in all the colours but she gave me fleece as a backing and I knew the quilting would show up wonderful on the back.

The quilter also wanted a reminder of the time she made this quilt and in between the quilt motif I popped in the year and the name of this awful virus, pestering us now.

Seeing that the quilter anyway may not go to church today (national lockdown in South Africa) she plans to fetch her quilt later and finish the binding.

Modified 9-patch – Done

The quilting on this was my activity for Easter weekend seeing that we couldn’t have the kids or any family or friends over and I am appreciative of the fact that I have funds to maintain a hobby during these depressing times.

It turned out it couldn’t keep me busy for the whole weekend and now I don’t have a cooking clue what to do with the rest of my time in lockdown.  Perhaps some cleaning and organising will finally happen.  I can also cook seeing that we seem to eat way more now that we’re at home full time. 

Hubby said it is a prelude to our days on pension but we better learn to eat far less and cheaper if we would like our pension fund to last for a couple of years.  That is IF we return to work to earn an income to allow our insurance debit orders to still go off.  Times are so uncertain right now.

Anyhow, this quilt is done.

Modified 9-patch – Modified batting

Well what can I say, I am simply way too impatient to wait for the lockdown to be over before I can get batting again, so I dug through every nook and cranny in this house until I found enough batting to join and although it took a whole morning, I had a proper 96” x 96” done and ready for this quilt.

Sadly all attempts to clean and organise stopped as once I have a quilt on the frame, all non-essential activities end there and then and I don’t regard organising as that much of an essential.  Off quilting I was…yeah!

I so enjoyed the variation of the ribbon candy I did in the black. It does take somewhat longer but I like the look.

I have also started watching American Horror story and I said I didn’t want to see another movie or series soon but I think one must spice things up during this lockdown and keep the entertainment coming from different angles.

Modified 9-patch – That ever so irritating mistake

Why I never see a mistake once I’ve completed a row, I just cannot explain, o no it will take 2 more rows before little old me realises something is off.  Now just look at this!

That black, marked with a pin, should have been on top….. Ugh!!  Time to take out a new surgical blade – learnt from previous experience (yes, I’ve done this before) that for this purpose a blade works much better than a seam ripper.  There… the problem has been taken out.

With the block and its space in the quilt re-ironed, time to sew it back, one seam at a time. And before I had to wake “Mossie” at 6 am, I had the problem fixed and all my lines ran as they should.  On close inspection one can see this but I believe once quilted and washed, even I will find it hard to find the ‘insert’.

I do however believe during lockdown I should remember this…

Now the sad part is that even if I get to finish this quilt, I don’t have batting!  I have enough extra-wide backing but I never thought I’d finish a quilt in a couple of days?

Modified 9-patch – Adding colour

Once I had all my background strips cut I started with adding colour using the jelly rolls and some on my stash as the two jelly rolls would not be enough.  I’ve learned valuable lessons with this quilt.  There is an ever so slight difference between the width of a store-bought jelly roll, strips cut with the Accuquilt and the strips I cut with my ruler, using Bonny Hunter’s technique where the measurement you cut has to show up on top of your fabric (as in the lines on the ruler).

With these differences, I struggled to line my blocks up neatly and some are really wishy-washy and doesn’t line up at all.  Another thing that I will have to start doing is to finger press when working with strips.  I found many a set of strips narrower than another just to notice that with ironing, it formed a tiny pleat, away from the stitching line, which caused it to not fit. For those intending to tell me I should have set my seam with the iron before opening it up, I did!

However, this is not a show quilt and what is the use of making a new pattern if you don’t learn something in the process, so I will keep going.

I am trying to sew at least one row (15 blocks) a day and in between, I have to clean and or tidy a cupboard, now trust me to always start with the bathroom cupboards, these are the smallest and in general not very untidy.  I am just scared I tackle a large cupboard and then the willingness subsides and it never gets done.  Counting down the finishes when having started small makes me feel good.

This is my progress on this quilt so far.

Guess I have to take a shower first and put on a fresh pair of pyjamas, I can get used to this kind of dressing.

Modified 9-patch – The start

Phew! I’ve watched all 5 series of Lockdown during the first week of our National Lockdown just to serve as a friendly reminder that things could have been worse but I must admit after this, I don’t want to see a movie/series for quite some time.

I decided to partake in the quilt-along hosted by Sandra DeLand from the FB group Jelly Roll Quilts as I have 2 very colourful jelly rolls that I’ve been dying to use. By the time the group started, I was still busy with my Fractured Squares quilts and just copied the notes to get to it later.

The quilt (a picture Sandra saw) was originally referred to as 2 patch + 4 patch but she has, with the first instructions, decided to call it Modified 9 patch.

I knew I needed at least one jelly roll and background fabric but the size would determine the amount.  Off to EQ to put blocks on the background and count how many would be need for a proper bed quilt and it turned out, no less than 225 blocks…… this could have taken forever but with the National lockdown and more time on hand, I might just do well.

I had to cut strips from my stash for the background which in my case is black.

I decide to cut 8½” slices from my yardage to use this in my Accuquilt 2½” strip die with only a little waste.

First cuts of the background yardage @ 8½” intervals

Then ran through the Accuquilt to get 3 WOF strips per cut.

After what felt like an eternity I had my 225 background strips cut.

Now the very colourful jelly roll squares have to be cut and pieced but first time to get breakfast ready seeing that we now suddenly eat 3 meals a day, let alone snacking in between.