{Post 1,162} Tree of Life Border and Wild Geese Sashing Prospect

Well, well...so much quilty finishingness going on here.

Here is my Tree of Life quilt with the bright red border.  I'll tone it down a little with a dark backing and binding.

Folded in half on the design wall:

Here is a potential sashing and cornerstones for the Wild Geese blocks.  The sashing is a fabric I just received yesterday.  I found the cream squares in a drawer.  Don't know why I had them cut, but here they are.  They are one of my favoritest ever Thimleberries creams, so I think I'll use them.  Best to get them out of that drawer and let them live, right?  Bonnie Hunter would be so proud!

{Post 1,161} 119 Yards of Fabric

Yesterday I received two 30-yard rolls of Hobbs 80/20 batting and this box of Thimbleberries fabric, which contained 119 yards.  Twenty-yard bolts look huge on my fabric shelf next to the ones which contain only a few yards.

I only ordered one bolt of each (there are 20 yards on each bolt).  Somehow I got two of the blue ones.  Shipping costs so much that I won't return it, however.  I see some blue quilt borders and backs in my future!

I used the bright red (3rd from the right) to border my Tree of Life quilt just a few minutes ago.  I am wondering if it is too bright, but it's on there now!

I planned to do a lot of flower garden work today (weeding, leveling, planting, raking), but the pollen count is so high that it will just have to wait.

Pics of my Tree of Life quilt to come later.

{Post 1,160} Stencils and DVD for Sale

I know many of you use the same notions I do for piecing and quilting.  This won't become a sales blog.  No worries there.  I just know that there are some of you who live in remote areas and don't have access to the stores that others do.  I put some new quilt stencils and a Ricky Tims DVD in my Etsy store this AM.  

My store name is ShelbyStitcher.

Here are a couple of the stencils:

{Post 1,159} Block Comparison

I continue to work on these Wild Geese blocks.  Being the scrap generator, there are always more pieces to work into the blocks.  Plus, I'm thinking of using one of the soon-to-arrive bolts for sashing, so no hurry on those.  Now that I've decided to go the sashing route vs. the alternate block route, I have to piece more blocks anyways.  Not.  A.  Problem.

This morning I made up one of these blocks for a Christmas present for someone.  I think they're called Charming Squares or something like that.  It is a Moda free pattern.  You can find it here.  

The Wild Goose block is 8" square.  The Charming Squares one is 14".  The smaller one is sooooo many more pieces and seams, but I love the smaller ones.  The larger ones have their charm, but it's the tiny pieces that stir my interest.

After some deliberation yesterday, I put a few more items in my Etsy store.  A set of 10 cream Thimbleberries FQs and a starter kit for Kitty Cat Charm.  I will be putting new stencils and books in there soon as well.  I think I'll give it the rest of the year and then go back to eBay if this doesn't work out.  there are advantages to both sites.  My store name is ShelbyStitcher.  You can get there from this link.

{Post 1,158} Buying Fabric Online

Well, somebody (cough, cough) might have just ordered 7 bolts of Thimbleberries (and two 30-yard rolls of batting).

I want to start selling fabric online again (I haven't done that for a few years) and need the input of those of you that sew.

Would you be more likely to buy yardage (with you selecting the number of yards), a group of FQ, a "jelly roll", or what?

I have a store on Etsy, but the business for me there is slow.  eBay has always worked well for me, but there is the time limit.  Which one do you buy from more frequently if ever?  

The last time I was at a fabric store (if you're thinking "why do you go to a fabric store when you have over 100 bolts of fabric at your HOUSE?" you're not alone) the fabrics were $9-11 a yard.  What in the world??  It made me eager to start selling the fabric I already have again.  

Eager for your input.

{Post 1,157} Wild Geese and Snowballs

I bound, washed, and dried the gift snowball quilt tonight.  Hope to get it in the mail tomorrow.  It's hanging over my quilt frame here.  Moral of the story:  adopt one of my kids and do many, many things for them, and YOU might get a quilt next!

The Quiltmaker magazine has a new scrap pattern by my friend, Bonnie Hunter.  When she started paper piecing these little blocks, there was no pattern, so I drew my own.  I have 100 of the little buggers finished (which will make 25 blocks), so I started laying out a design for them.  Ironically, the magazine came out a few days ago.  I was going to set them w/o sashing strips and put an alternate block made of 4 squares (essentially a 4-patch).  It was too difficult to make them match perfectly with all the thickness of the many seams.  I ripped out the couple I had sewn and added the sashings.  These are 8-1/2" square as they are.

Now I am thinking about putting a wider dark scrappy (or not) sashing between these 4-patch wild geese blocks with a gold cornerstone.  Just an idea I'm throwing around.  I'm about to figure out how large the quilt would be if I do that.