My Second Quilt

Yay! I can finally post this here now. I had to wait because this quilt was a Christmas gift for Maria and I know she reads the blog. Now, you may be thinking, Christmas?! Christmas was over a month ago! Yes, but I didn't see Maria at Christmas, since she was home in Austin, and the quilt was a little too bulky for Zach to take it down during his New Year's visit. Since we knew we'd go visit Zach and Maria in Boston at the end of January, I just held on to the quilt and delivered it in person.



This is, as I said in the title, my second quilt. My first measures about 5" x 12" and was made to go along with a doll bed as a Christmas gift for our niece in 2007. So I've moved from doll quilt to lap quilt; hopefully my next one (on the sewing schedule for September of this year) will be big enough for a full/queen bed.



I had a lot of fun picking the fabrics for this project; the blue and chocolate was the starting point, since Maria loves that combination. The top was machine-pieced, but the quilting was done by hand; I used embroidery floss and did long running stitches along the length of every other strip. The hardest part was putting on the bias tape, since the quilt was so thick; I used contrast stitching, which sounded like a good idea at the time, but it makes my mistakes a bit more evident. But that's okay. It will be nice and warm to help keep Maria cozy through New England winters.

Stashbusting

When I said the word "stashbusting," my husband yelled, "WHAT?!" and quickly covered his face. You see, he heard "'stache busting" and assumed I was going after his beloved handlebar mustache. I have no such intentions; I actually love his 'stache, as it perfectly expresses his quirkitude. No, the stash I intend to bust is my fabric stash. This weekend I pulled it all out of storage so I could take inventory and actually, you know, use it. Well, it turns out I have amassed over 100 yards (!) of fabric, most of it in lengths of two yards or less.

Some of my 34 different quilting fabrics.

I'm not going to turn Choice of Pies into a sewing blog, but I did want to let you know of my plans. I created a monthly calendar with two or three sewing projects listed next to each month; if I can keep up with this schedule, a good portion of my stash should be obliterated by August. Pictures of all the fabrics are in my Stashbusting 2009 Flickr set, and I will add pictures of the projects (which include a hoodie, five dresses, two blouses, two aprons, and more) as they are completed.

I also have some pantry stashbusting planned; I recently reorganized and realized I have seven different kinds of rice (wild, jasmine, sushi, brown basmati, brown nishiki, long-grain brown, and arborio) and six kinds of dried beans (chick peas, lentils, adzuki, pink, small white, and rattlesnake) just waiting to be used, so I'm probably going to do a lot of variations of rice and beans in the comings week. Clearly I have some packrat tendencies. There's nothing wrong with having so many different kinds of rice and beans on hand - each serves its own purpose, and long-term storage isn't a problem - but it's been a while since I've tried to do anything different with these humble and nutritious ingredients. Best of all, they are all cheap, and even cheaper (free) since I already have them on hand. I anticipate lower grocery costs in February while I shop from my own pantry.