Once a year my sewing room gets a pretty thorough cleaning. I have a sofa bed in there and my nephew sleeps on it when he visits at Thanksgiving. While I was trying to organize fabric, notions, books, patterns, kits, UFO’s and current projects I realized I need to get serious about finishing things and using stash. I’ve hardly ever met a fabric I didn’t like and it seems like most of it ends up in my sewing room! One of the Yahoo groups I belong to offers a challenge called the 100 yard dash. The idea is to use 100 yards of fabric from your stash. I decided to have my own personal challenge and try to use a mile of fabric—that’s 1,760 yards. Stash, completed UFO’s and even new starts will count toward the challenge. The only thing I won’t count are things like shop samples or commission quilts where I buy fabric specifically for the project. I know it will take a long time (I’m hoping to complete the challenge in two years) and if I succeed it will put a serious dent in my stash. I still buy quite a bit of fabric, but hopefully the net amount will be significantly reduced—and maybe it will all fit in the sewing room instead of taking up the entire basement.
This is the first finish of my challenge. It looks better when you click to enlarge the picture!
This quilt was based on the “Pie Birds” table runner from Kim Diehl’s book Simple Charm. I just loved the block and decided to make a whole quilt from it. I used strips from my 2” strips drawer and with a black print. By cutting the units with the Omni 96 and 98 rulers each “log” had one fewer seam than in the original block. I think the piecing was faster this way too. Win-win!!
This quilt measures about 60” x 74” so my estimate is 8 yards used. Only 1,752 yards to go! Unfortunately, even after piecing a quilt this size, the 2″ strip drawer is still overflowing!
