Stash Refill

I've been very, very good, and busily emptying the stash.  However, I'm close to finishing several of the big projects that have been on my "must do" list, and I can finally move on to a "wanna".  As I mentioned in the previous post, I've been plotting for about a year now to adapt a cross stitch pattern, specifically Monet's Woman with Parasol, into a quilt.  I collected the greens last summer.  Thought I'd be using the stash for the blues...but in my defense, I didn't have these shades of blue anyway.  The pattern calls for 60 colors.  The scale will be 1 inch finished squares.  Yesterday I cruised out to Kuna to check out Knit One - Quilt 2, a quilt shop I'd never visited before.   Ended up at both Craft Wearhouse and JoAnnes.  Hopefully I can find the last 3 fabrics I need at Quilt Crossing this afternoon.  I bought some 1.5" fuse-able grid that's designed for watercolor quilts.   I ordered it on-line and discovered that there was some differences in the number of squares/yard listed on the website and what was actually on the product, so I may have to do some creative piecing in the background sections.  

I was also keeping an eye out for pink & green batiks to go with my summer road trip project:

I found a great historical quilt on the Quilt Index made in 1880, that I thought would look fun and modern in this color-way.

I've been periodically cutting out the raspberry & lime hexes and organizing them in baggies.  I'm using a shower curtain ring to hold the bags together.  After trying several different hex patterns on line, I found that the one at The Sometimes Crafter best met my needs.  She also posted some links that got me thinking....in the interest of time, I'm going to try glue stick instead of basting all this fabric onto the papers.  I will probably regret it later.  I decided to trim up all of these using a hex ruler rather than the tutorial's squares approach.  I may hand quilt this later, and having predictable seams will keep me from going crazy.   I just realized that I used the teal that I'd planned for this quilt on the Joseph's Coat.  Hopefully I can find something in these colors at the store. (Teal/blue is so tricky to match with colors changing annually).

My other brilliant plan came to me last week while riding on the back of the Harley.  I usually buy 1/8 yard cuts of batiks that I simply love but have no specific plan for.  And I was thinking about a post on Stash Manicure that had to do with cutting and organizing fabrics into charm squares and jelly rolls.  It occurred to me that if I bought a 1/3 yard of Irresistables...I could cut a 2.5" strip, a 5" strip - to be cut into charm squares, and I'd still have about an 1/8th left.  Then I can organize the squares into stacks and come Christmas time, I have great presents for my quilter friends.  I was so excited about this idea, that I started cutting my Joseph's Coat fabrics that were large yardages into squares and I have a head start on gifts!  So many bloggers do give-aways to celebrate blogging anniversaries...Hmmm  maybe I should do that too.  Anyone interested in winning batik charm squares?