Last year in 2024 I got to feeling guilty about the size of my novelty stash. Early in the year I had gone through every piece of novelty fabric and cut off two strips width of fabric & 2.5" wide and another 4.5" wide. If that left less than a fat quarter, I cut all of it up either in strips or into 4.5" squares. This gave me lots of room in the baskets for the folded fabrics, but it also gave me 3 full baskets of precuts. Now my goal is to make a dent in those precuts.
Accordingly, I started collecting ideas from FB, catalogs, etc. I take a snip of the idea and draw it out in Electric Quilt, then create basic instructions in OneNote. I include screen shots of the quilt and each block, yardage requirements for background fabrics, and basic cutting instructions. I have OneNote synched to my phone so I can refer to these instruction sheets anywhere. Here is an example.
If it is a purchased pattern, I print the pdf to OneNote for the same reason. I have a section for quilt patterns, a section for ideas/inspiration, another for quilting ideas. I started using OneNote at work about 10 years ago and now I don't think I could function without it.
Once I start looking for ideas, they seem to come in a group. In December I drew out ten of these pattern sheets and then cut out kits. The thing I really like about kits is that I can grab one and get started sewing without any preparation. I can take one to a sew day or several to a retreat. I was in a piecing mood in January, so I have been busy sewing up those kits. I only have 3 left. All of these are smaller sized for donation to a local crisis pregnancy center, so they were fast to piece. Some are repeats of prior quilts that I just enjoy & others are new ideas.
This is first is the quilt illustrated in the instructions above. The design is by a guild friend who did a sew day a few years ago. I wasn't able to attend the sew day but loved the pattern and have made it twice now. This friend also loves bright colors and novelty fabrics, and we share ideas frequently. I flipped the blocks differently than I had originally drawn to make a different secondary pattern.
This next quilt uses 2.5 x 4.5 precuts, grouped by color. Super fast and fun to sew. I've made this pattern four times. The first two I just did random arrangements of the novelty colors and one sashing color. But I think I like it better alternating the black and white sashing and novelties to create interlocking columns.
I got this next idea from a sewing group post on FB. I constructed it using black and white half square triangles and 4.5" novelties, set on point. The direction that the HSTs are turned creates the illusion of columns, but the only pieces on bias are the setting triangles around the edge. Once it was done, I decided it need to be a bit larger, so I added the pieced border - mostly because I really didn't want to rip out the setting triangles to add more rows/columns. But if I do it again, I will stick with the HST as this border distracts some from the optical illusion of the HST columns.
I decided I needed some practice making flying geese, so I did these large stars using the four at a time method. I like the secondary pattern created by the sashing and black corner triangles.
This next top is a pattern by Kim Brackett called Scrap Basket Blues. I enjoy it so much I've made it three times. I always enjoy how many of her patterns create their own sashing within the block.
This last quilt is a recent repeat. I enjoy grouping colors together to create the snowballs. I also like this pattern because I can use some of the white novelties that don't often get used in color study type patterns.
Three kits left and seventeen tops hanging in the closet. I should probably spend some time quilting soon.
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