Quilt made, stash reduced just a bit

I seemed to have spent years acquiring fabric, yarn and other craft supplies based on the notion that these commodities might halt production and then whatever would I do with my free time? I’ve pared stashes down over the last few years, making some things, donating some supplies and tossing out a few things that just needed tossing.

When my sewing buddy and I used to go on an annual quilt shop hop here in SE Michigan (anywhere from 5-8 stores are involved in the annual Michigan Stash Dash), I was always drawn to baby and toddler quilts. I like the colors, especially the bright ones, and whimsical prints appeal to me. Once I was a purist about selecting my own fabric, cutting and piecing it and hand quilting it so that I could truthfully call it a handmade quilt. Then I found a printed panel for an “Eye Spy” quilt that I absolutely loved. I bought it, made it as a gift, and went back to buy 3 more panels. I still have one here to make up for Colton. He doesn’t need another blanket, but playing Eye Spy with it will be fun.

On one of the trips I saw this fabric and thought it might become the backing for the other panels. When my son asked me about making something for a co-worker’s baby, I decided to use this to make an easy quilt. The baby is a boy so the race car fabric (purchased for something else that never was made) is appropriate. What I like about a busy backing fabric is that the print hides some less than perfect stitching that might occur. I took the easy way out on this. I ran straight stitching following the lines of the hexagons, the green border stripe and the red banner with the words. The binding is a purchased binding also applied by machine. In this case, I think it worked just fine. Normally I take more time on a project like this, and likewise, my son would give me more of a heads up when asking for this kind of favor but the employees in charge put this together at nearly the last minute. Collecting money and shopping for baby gifts doesn’t take as long as making something. Money is really tight for my son right now and he knew I am trying to downsize my stash so this worked out to both our benefits.

I played with stamps, colored pencils and ribbon to make a gift card for the event
A recycled gift bag takes one more thing out of my closet. Now if I could keep up this momentum and avoid bringing anything new into the house, I’d really be getting somewhere!

On a serious note for a moment, I don’t know that I’ve ever asked for prayers, good vibes, and/or anything else positive in your belief systems, but I am asking for something today and apologize for being vague about this. All I feel comfortable saying at the moment is that it is that someone close to me needs a turn in their luck and encouragement. This person knows as I do, that luck doesn’t happen without you doing the work towards your goal, so neither of us is unrealistic. I believe that God knows what is in all of our hearts and what our needs are, but I also believe in the power of prayer. Asking for a little light to shine on both the person and their need would be very much appreciated.

Thanks. I will explain more when I feel that I can.