Stash busting

I am on a mission to use up my fabric stash.... ok, maybe not all of it and I don't think I'll really deplete the whole thing...I mean I am still adding to it, so it will never really be "gone"   Recently I've had 2 fellow quilters give me parts of or all of their stash.  One is an old friend that I haven't talked to in years, she called me to see if I would like her fabric (and patterns and books) since she was not longer quilting.  The other was a lady thinning out her stash.  Both of them blessed me with an abundance of fabric.  God is good!!

The trick is finding a pattern that I like, and can make quickly.  I settled on 3 patterns.  Two are from  www.Quitedtwins.com and the other is from a free McCalls e-book.  All three patterns are scrappy and so cutting the fabric and sewing is easy. The QuiltedTwins patterns use 2 inch strips, and the McCalls pattern uses 1.5 inch strips.

I hate cutting fabric. I never really liked it, but if I am going to make quilts, then it must be done.   I have a Sizzix from my scrapbooking days and I purchased a few quilting dies to go with it.  I use them often.  Well, for these 3 quilts I splurged and bought a June Taylor Shape Cut Ruler. Of course I used a 50% off at Joann's.  Oh my goodness, how did I ever get along without this!!!  I've used my Sizzix to cut strips before, but this allowed me to cut 4 strips at 2 inches and 2 strips at 1.5 inches.  And I always cut about 6 layers of fabric at a time.  It made cutting through the "scraps" so easy.  I was able to breeze through the fabric that was given to me and make quite a dent in my stash.

I just need to cut some more grey half square triangles and I can use these quilts as leaders and enders while I finish Aaron's quilt.  His takes a bit more thought while sewing.  But it is going to look great in the end.  I sure hope he still likes those colors when it is finished...LOL