A broken stash diet!

I have been on a stash diet all this year. It has been a year of trying to finish many of my stitching WIPs and quilt UFOs. And there are many to finish. Having taught quilting in the past as well as having to come up with projects for my quilt group means many things just sit unfinished on hangers. My goal this year was to finish as many as possible and not allow myself to buy any new stitching or quilting supplies unless I needed them to finish a project.

I decided a couple of months ago that I would break my stash diet when a few of the ladies in my quilt group and I went up north to an open day at a quilt shop. I set a limit for myself on what I could spend and stayed well within what I had planned only buying 5 half meters of fabrics. The second fabric looks like a plain white but it is a really sweet cream tone-on-tone fabric with a pretty floral motif. The letters I will use to applique onto something for my grand niece.


I bought these fabrics at a second quilt shop that we went to. It is only 15 minutes from the first and we rarely go there since it is far away but all wanted to take advantage of being nearby. This shop is set up in an old Dutch farm and has very honest prices on their quilt fabrics.


One of the things about this shop is that they have set it up in a way that they are able to always have quilts exhibited on the walls. Being a farm, it has the advantage of space. You can see the shop on this link.

I loved the quilt above as it is a clever way to use lace, knitted items and various sewing accessories. Click on the photo to enlarge and really see all the fine details. I would love to make something similar to place my bobbin lace practice pieces from my classes on.


I adore the autumn as I am sure you know as a regular reader and loved this quilt not only for the pattern but for the color.


Sunbonnet Sue's washing day. It is mine too come to think of it. *grins*


Isn't this a great use of pattern!


Cheerful and nostalgic Dutch plaids.

If you enlarge this photo, you will find a playful way of breaking up this simple pattern with tiny sailboats.


Historic Dutch chintz (Hollandse sitsen)! I have all of these beautiful fabrics waiting to be made into a quilt. Another part of my stash diet is also a start diet. I am not allowed to start a new project until I have finished a certain amount of the UFOs. This is on my list of new starts though.


And finally, I took this photo after we sat and had a cup of tea. We talked about how cute the little kimonos are around the center block.

Having driven up north on Friday with my friends, Jos and I decided to stay home this weekend. I really missed Cranberry Cottage and sewing a new quilt block by hand. We worked very hard to redecorate our laundry room and I tried my hand at creating a large wooden rack for the wall in there. It has turned out really well and I will be sharing that later this week. For this reason, I am behind on reading blogs and hope to catch back up with all of you this week. In the meantime, I am now off to my quilt studio to trace the templates for the next block which I am going to put together tomorrow. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend?