Bricks and Stepping-Stones

I don't know if anyone remembers that I joined the Sew My Stash 2015 movement (if it can be called a movement) with a promise to not buy a bunch of fabric and to use more what I have. This quilt came entirely from my stash. The blocks, the backing and even the binding came from inside my sewing space. I should set more substantial goals to work through my stash, but this one resulted in a great finish. The pattern, Bricks and Stepping-Stones, is free from Bonnie Hunter's website. She has loads of free patterns that are great for quilters of all levels and you should totally check it out.

While cutting up some of my fabrics, I cut some strips. Here are my selections for the quilt. It turned out I didn't have enough, but this is what I started with. (This is not a tutorial. If you want to make a quilt like this go to Bonnie's site and get the full story there.)

I pressed and trimmed and stitched.

I pressed some more. Where Bonnie chose blacks and neutrals for her stepping stones, I pulled reds and some neutral/light fabrics. My stash is woefully lacking in neutrals and blacks.

I counted, and recounted. I realized I was short a few. I cut more strips and made more. Then I had about 20 extra.

I grabbed my stack of bricks.

I made some blocks. I made a bunch of blocks. 80 or 90 of them.

I pieced the backing with some leftovers from other quilts. Here, I've folded the backing and top into quarters so I can make sure I have enough room to load it onto the quilting frame. Backing is one of those things that does not hang out in my stash.

Again I used this fun flower motif. I matched the thread to the backing and quilted with Superior Thread's So Fine in red.

Quilted and off the frame you can see the full scrappy effect. I see at least one more of these in my future. I do still have bricks cut to the right size.

I grabbed my bin of leftover binding and stitched up some scrappy binding. The binding bin is another great reason to make scrappy quilts. The bin of leftover binding never seems to run low.

I machine-finished the binding on this utilitarian. I came to terms with machine-finished binding and the fact that I would never finish all the quilts I want to make if I hand-finished the binding. Check out my binding tutorials page if you want to see how I attach my binding. I still occasionally hand-finish binding, but the machine-finish is so much faster (about 30 minutes from start to finish once you're practiced) that I use it more and more.

Do you have more fabric than you will ever use? Remember, no one remembers the quilter for the fabric he/she hoarded. They remember him/her for the quilts they made and gifted with love.

Go! Make quilts!