I'm a knitter, not a QUILTER!!

I'm a knitter. That's what I do. Before that, I was a paper crafter. Before THAT I was a cross-stitcher. My point is, I've had a LOT of hobbies!

MANY years ago, my mom tried to introduce me to quilting and I gave her a VERY FIRM "NO!". The last thing I needed was to add ANOTHER hobby to my list. Plus, we lived in a tiny condo at the time and there was simply NO ROOM! That worked for a very long time (like at least 20+ years) and now...here I am.

Last week was National Quilting Day and the lovely people at Fat Quarter Shop were kind enough to give the quilters of the world a free quilt pattern to play with. It's still free and you can find it HERE. The Mini Wonder Quilt is, in my opinion, perfect for a beginner! It consists of mostly squares and half square triangles (HST) that even I managed to figure out.

I used fabrics that I had been gifted - fun fact: back when I was a Stampin' UP! demonstrator, Stampin' UP! created a line of fabrics that coordinated with our Designer Series Paper! It wasn't the *best* fabric money could buy, but it was GREAT for someone still learning (and I have LOTS so I can practice new skills and ideas when they come up).

I'm just about done (you might notice the clips in the photo above). I've already discovered that I prefer hand binding over machine binding, so that's a process. Last night, I watched Frozen II (for the eleventy-bajillionth time) and learned that one viewing got me through about ⅓ of the binding process on my small quilt. So, two more nights of Frozen II and it'll be completely finished - YAY!!

Did I make mistakes? Oh yes! Probably more than I can count. Am I OK with that? Well, since I didn't tear the whole thing apart, I'm going with yes - LOL! Any new hobby is a learning experience!

While I was finishing up the quilt, I came across the Kindness Project on Instagram, hosted by Terri Staats of Sweet Treasures Quilts.

I was excited because it was a pull from stash project (use what you have) and I have some fabric stash. Of course, it turned out that I didn't have NEARLY enough fabric. I was explaining to my friend Joyce (the culprit that got me into this mess!) that fabric stash is kind of like yarn stash. Do I have a lot of yarn? Yes! If I wanted to make a sweater, do I have enough of ONE yarn to make it? No. I don't have any "sweater quantities" of yarn. Do I have fabric? Yes! But because I NEVER intended to start quilting, all my fabric is in small ½ yard to 1 yard quantities. I sew project bags to house my knitting projects. :) I didn't have "quilt quantities" of fabric, so off I went to the internet!

I was DELIGHTED to learn that there are (surprisingly to me!) a whole LOT of quilt shops in Canada! I found an extensive list on Facebook (there's lots of quilting groups too!) and started exploring. I knew how MUCH fabric I needed, I just wasn't sure what kind of fabric I wanted. Enter Erica at Studio 39 Fabrics! The bundles and additional fabric that I was able to order from the Eloise's Garden line were just PERFECT!

Since all quilting shops are closed right now, due to COVID-19, it's nice to know that small business owners like Erica are keeping us in fabric so sewers and quilters can stay occupied during this difficult time. Erica is still working hard to ship out fabrics to all of her Canadian Quilters and I SO appreciate that she is! And it arrived quickly too, so I'm off to cut fabric now...

Keep your machine oiled and your needles sharp!