I feel like I accomplished something getting this top assembled. Cut and kitted back in July 2016 at Big Canoe for me to piece in Tampa and somehow I just never got around to it. At one point, I lost it in the sewing room and then found it about a year ago but still it sat. Can you believe I was actually looking for an easy mindless project the day I found this sitting on top of a bin and decided to get it started?

The stars are just a hodgepodge of different greens and blues I had in my scrap bins and some look like they don’t have enough contrast in the photo but they’re OK in person as you can see in this photo.

The sashing was a bit of a challenge to line up without cornerstones but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I alternated my pressing every other row – one row toward the sashing, one row toward the block and that gave me a way to pinch and butt those seams together when I was pinning the rows together.

I’m also happy to have a nice open area in the middle of my room to measure and pin. I pin a lot of things on the big board where I press but when the project gets larger than 58 inches, it’s time to move to the floor. I guess when I get too old to crawl around on the floor I’ll have to rearrange things so I can put a couple tables together.

It was also nice to have the extra ironing board to put alongside my sewing cabinet. I like this Koala cabinet that the Jane sits in EXCEPT that there’s not enough surface to the left of the machine when I’m handling larger items. It does have an extension in the back that I used when I was quilting some on this machine but I still needed a table to the side. I don’t have room to keep a table there but the ironing board is easy to put up and take down when I need it and there’s just enough room for that small end table you see blocking the bathroom in the photo when I don’t need the extra support. It doesn’t block the bathroom when I move the ironing board and slip it back over next to the machine as you can see in the photo above.

It all fit on the truck!!! I can’t tell you how much I’ve been stressing over that and how relieved I am. Keith supervised the loading and the movers are on their way to GA. Keith still has a few tasks to complete in Tampa so he won’t be coming this way until Saturday.

I’ve been working here to get ready for the movers tomorrow but I did take out a little time to assemble this Quick Strippie. I already had it cut out so it was really fast. I’ve got a LOT of tops that are going to need quilting when I get the longarm set back up.

I sewed today! Just a couple hours this afternoon in between cleaning and organizing but that was long enough to cut and piece this 3 yard quilt. A year ago after Stephanie from my HeartStrings group shared with us some of her 3 yard quilts, I ordered 3 fabric kits from Fabric Cafe and got one of their books free. I will say that I kind of prefer pulling my own fabric from stash because I tend not to like the skinny borders they use on many of them and I like a double fold binding.

Pattern is Garden Path from the Fast and Fun 3 Yard quilt book. I did not put the narrow one inch inner border on and my top measures 43 x 61.

There was not enough fabric for a double fold binding so I pulled a blue from stash and it will work fine. When I pull fabric bundles for these 3 yard quilts from stash, I find my self choosing at least one that has more than one yard or I’ll pull 4 fabrics. That gives me an opportunity to make my border larger and to cut my double fold binding. If you look on the far right side of this photo, you can see a sliver of the blue fabric I chose for the binding.

This HeartStrings 3 yard Project could not have come at a better time for me. These are quick and easy quilts and most tops can be pieced in an afternoon. When I was packing up the stash, I packed an entire bin with bundles just for these quilts and they’ll be perfect projects for me to work on in the coming months. I can already tell that having the stash in bins is going to be a challenge but I’ll get myself organized and get used to it. I’m just grateful to have lots of fabric and projects to work on and plenty of space in this house to set up my sewing room and the longarm. I’m going to focus on the positive and make the changes I need to make for it to work.

Finn was happy to settle down for a nap while I sewed!

HeartStrings is doing a project with 3 yard quilts – what a great way to make quick quilts for donation and use up some yardage. I’ve got a couple of 3 yard books from Fabric Cafe but they’re at Big Canoe so I just decided I’d make 8 inch finished blocks with a 4 inch finished border for this one.

I’ve had this turtle fabric forever so it felt good to finally use it but I have a yard left over so it will eventually show up in another quilt or maybe on a back.

This is a quick one – cut, pieced, and assembled in two afternoons. The info I have on this pattern can be found at this link. This is the second one I’ve made but I’ve got ideas for at least a couple more because it’s cute, quick to piece, and at 50 x 70, it’s a nice donation size too.

It’s a rainy day here in the North GA mountains so I snuck away to the sewing room to piece a Quick Strippie. Now I’ll go up and watch some of the Master’s tournament with Keith and pull out my crochet!

Good grief! These 3 yard quilts are just too fast and I’ll have my work cut out for me getting them all quilted and bound. Yesterday after finishing my Rectangle top, I cut this one out and came down today to piece the top. I pretty much do my borders different on all of these but the pattern is City Lights from the Fast and Fun 3 yard quilt book.

Close-up of the fabrics

After finishing that one, I still had half the afternoon so I cut and started … and finished another one. Using the same pattern but I used 4 fabrics on this one so I could enlarge it a bit with the borders.

And again, here’s a close up view of the fabrics.

The rectangle quilt is assembled. This was from a jelly roll and meets the April Precut Challenge. It’s a bit larger then the others I’ve done – 56 x 72 – so it’s a nice donation size.

And since I couldn’t let those stripset ends go to waste, there’s another doll quilt top. I didn’t see I had those two fabrics too close until after it was pieced and I’m not taking it out!

The Strips and Strings log cabin top is assembled. Counting this one, 9 of my 17 new starts this year have been from my scraps or string bins. With the 3 yard challenge, I’ll have to make sure to keep working in my scraps and strings if I want to end the year with more of them than ones made from yardage and precuts. Scrap quilts are my favorites but it’s just so easy to pull precuts or some yardage and make a quick quilt.

And speaking of precuts, I’ve got a good start on my April precut quilt.

After I finished organizing everything downstairs, I decided I’d sew a little. These little 3 yard quilts are so fast to cut and piece that before I knew it, the top was done! This one is called Brick Street and it’s from the Fast and Fun 3 Yard Quilt book. I left the last 1 inch finished border off and will bind it in a black fabric from stash. Since the design wall has the log cabin blocks on it, I just draped it across the ironing board.

These black and yellow prints are SO pretty!