Fabric Diet: September 2018

September has come and gone, and I had a pretty successful month sewing; including a couple of quilt finishes. I'm just going to jump right in to it:

Works in Progress (WIP's):
After I finished the memory quilts last month, I felt like working on a few more old WIP's, so I sewed together a bunch of medium-value red and white half-yards to make a backing for my scrapping flying geese quilt (below). And that's as far as I got on that one! Nothing like a big quilt needing to be basted to slow one down on that project.

I also continue to stitch away on my next hexagon project. I'm still not committed to a design, but I'm enjoying sewing lots of low-volume fabrics together. (You can see my latest flower above.)

New Projects:
This month I started and finished (!) a pumpkin quilt for fall. I made this pattern about the same time a year ago and really enjoyed how quickly it all went together.  I had the quilt quilted by my local long-arm quilter and I love how it turned out. I tried so hard to make this one "fall themed" rather than specifically for Halloween, but in the end I went with some glow-in-the-dark cats for the backing...

Finished Projects:
As you may have read already, this month I finished the memory quilts for my cousin and aunt/uncle, along with a blue string baby quilt. You can read about those quilts here and here.  I am pretty excited that I was able to finish 4 quilts this month. That maybe a new record for me (though some of those tops took a long time to make).

Traveling Bee Blocks:
This month I remade the bee blocks that were stolen last month. For Steph's Norwegian quilt, I did my best to recreate the original two star-in-a-star blocks, and then I made a third.  I also remade Kayla's blocks, but forgot to get their picture before I shipped them off.  These blocks mark the last blocks for round 2 of our traveling quilt bee.  Time to think about what I'd love for round 3!

That's all for projects this month. I made a lot of stuff, right?
But I also had an amazing fabric-buying opportunity this month. Heather Ross re-released her Lightening Bugs collection (shown below), and I was lucky enough to buy a few of the bundles of fabric.  I can't remember when I bought the fabric, but it arrived this month! 
The 32 yards I bought from Heather, combined with fabric to back the pumpkin quilt, plus buying some fabrics that I needed for other specific projects made for a large fabric-buying month.

Fabric Standings
Fabric Purchased: 50 yards
Fabric Used:  48.25 yards
Net for the Month:  1.75 yards UP
Net for the Year:  47 yards UP

In all, I'm up 47 yards for the year. I think I can go ahead now and say that I'm not going to end the year negative (using more than I bought). But I really am not sure what October and November will bring. And who has time to sew in December??  I'm ok with it though. It's been an interesting activity to track my fabric purchases vs. usage.  I'm not sure if I'll do it for next year, but I am looking forward to comparing 2018 to 2017. (I think I did better at using up fabric last year.)

Happy Fall to Everyone! Here's to cool rainy days with lots of sewing.

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