In July I managed to get a little sewing done - mainly practical things like a quilt backing and quilt sleeves, but I also completed my blocks for two different traveling quilts (#Iwishicouldgotootravelingquiltbee).  I made the block shown above (shooting star block by Lee Heinrich) for Jennifer Johnston's Night Sky quilt. Jennifer asked for blocks made with low-volume prints on a solid dark blue background - preferably a background made of several different blue fabrics. The blocks were supposed to be things that one might find in a night sky. Below are all the blocks that have been made for Jen's quilt so far.

The second traveling bee quilt that I worked on was Stephanie Thomas's Hawaii-themed quilt. This is the second of the traveling quilts where I've had an idea for a block and have been unable to find an existing pattern. So once again, I turned to my quilt design program (EQ7) and designed my own blocks. I sketched some surf boards using the program, but in the end I made the surfboards free-hand using improv piecing techniques.

Once I had my surf boards sewn in to a row, I had fun piecing the rest of the existing blocks together until we had a quilt top. These quilts still have several more rounds to travel through, but it was really fun to see one this "put together."

In March of this year I did my fabric destash, but had fabric left over that didn't sell. I was tired of looking at the remaining fabric in a tub on my floor. So a bit impulsively, I put some of it back in my stash, and the rest (the majority) I put in a bag and took to my local quilt group and left it all on the "Free" table (22 yards of it). It feels great to have it out of my house and the tub out of my sewing room.  Being down just about 130 yards for the year feels good too!

Fabric Diet Standings

Fabric Purchases: Zero, Zilch, Zip!!
Fabric Used in Projects: 25.25
Net for the Month:-25.25
Net for the Year: -129.25

As I anticipated, once my kids got out of school in early June, I didn't get a whole lot of sewing time.  I did take advantage of summer camp one week and get my double bear paw quilt quilted. Other than that, my design wall looks about like it did on June 1. The one exception is the New York Beauty "sunshine" block in the lower right-hand corner.  For those of you who know NY Beauty blocks, this is "Block 0."  Note: the blocks on the right are all part of a traveling quilt group I'm a part of. I didn't make the other blocks. Search #IwishIcouldgotootravelingquiltbee on Instagram to see more pics of our traveling quilt projects.  The theme for this particular traveling quilt is "Hawaii."

This month I also sewed up some "team" flags for soccer camp (below). My boys were (L --> R): Azerbaijan, Madagascar and France.

I used scraps to make the flags, so that didn't help my quest to use up fabric yardage. Scraps were also used to make quilt show ribbons for my local guild's show in August.  I'm working on a tutorial on how to make the ribbons (partly just so I remember from year to year how I  make them, partly for anyone else who may want to make a fabric show ribbon).  I'll share pics of the ribbons when I get the tutorial done.

This month in the process of quilting my double bear paw quilt, I ran out of thread and had to order more. Since I was paying for shipping anyway...I decided to throw the above 1/2-yard cuts in my cart. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the state text print on the left (Heritage by Stephanie Marrott for Wilmington Prints) was actually in dark blue, not black. Sometimes shopping online can be tricky!

Fabric Diet Standings

Fabric Purchases: 1.5 yards
Fabric Used in Projects: 3.5 yards
Net for the Month: -2 yards
Net for the Year: -104 yards

I doubt that much sewing gets done in July or August, so I'll have to churn out lots of quilts somehow in September - December if I still want to hit my goal.