use your stash!

I have a lot of big plans for this year. One of them is to use more of my stash. We all say that every year, don't we? Well, I have a plan of attack. I must admit I'm a bit hesitant to do roll out this plan, because I'm afraid that I'm biting off more than I can chew...so I will state this as an intention of what I hope to do. :)

My plan is to make a quilt top each month, mostly from stash. I will reserve the right to purchase a few things to make it work, if necessary. Each pattern will be pretty straightforward and fairly simple. (Nothing new there!) And, I plan to share that pattern each month (any day I choose) here on my blog. It is my hope that this will inspire you to use your stash, too!

Here's the first pattern, called Long Division....

Finished size is 60'' x 75''

I designed this quilt to showcase some of those big bold prints that I was hesitant to use because they were too pretty to chop into tiny little bits. I used 70 different prints, each fabric is only used once. In order to keep things somewhat orderly, I arranged the prints according to value.

Materials:
2.625 yards medium and dark fabrics
1.375 yards light fabrics
1/2 yard binding fabric
(I didn't round up in my estimation of the fabrics above...so you can if you need to.)
4 yards backing fabric
64" x 79" batting of your choice

Cutting:
From light fabrics, cut 20 pieces 6.5" x 12.5" These are A pieces.

From medium and dark fabrics, cut 20 pieces 6.5" x 9.5" These are B pieces.

From medium and dark fabrics, cut 30 pieces 6.5" x 11.5" These are C pieces.

Assembly:

From the A pieces, take 5 blocks and sew them together, horizontally, end to end. (See rows 2, 4, 6 and 8 in the photograph below.) Make 4.

From the B pieces, take 10 blocks and sew them together, vertically, side to side. (See rows 1 and 9 in the photograph below.) Make 2.

From the C pieces, take 10 blocks and sew them together, vertically, side to side. (See rows 3, 5 and 7 in the photograph below.) Make 3.

Sew rows 1-9 together and you have a completed quilt top. Baste, quilt and bind as desired. Then wrap up in your pretty new quilt!

This is a 100% stash quilt. Yay! But I didn't even begin to make a dent in my stash. Boo! However, it is a step in the right direction! I hope you like this one as much as I do. If you make a quilt using this pattern, I'd love to see it.

Happy Monday to you!