The Folly of Stash Reduction

Here's a shot of the quilt I was making while using up a sizable portion of my stash of brown fabrics. The lovely embroidered blocks were made by Debra, and the pattern is inspired by one I saw in an Australian magazine. The inner and outer borders were also conveniently from my stash, but before I decided to use them, (the blue one was hiding in the blue drawer, even though it fit perfectly in this brown quilt) I foolishly doubted I had anything that would do, so I went out and bought these fabrics

So much for stash reduction, right? Maybe we should call it stash refreshment instead. I think I'll use one of the dark browns for the binding. If I don't already have the perfect fabric in the brown drawer already, right? This quilt top is now finished. The borders are sewn on, and it's joined the line of tops in the closet waiting to be quilted.



I've been weeding through my stash and converting fabrics I don't think I'll use into strips so that I can crochet another rag rug. The first one was made from old t-shirts, and I'm happy to report that it washes very well and that after the first washing it doesn't fray at all. These cotton strips were cut at 3/4 of an inch, so I'm hoping for less of a struggle pulling the stitches through than last time. Here's a link to the post with a picture of the first rug.
There are lots of patterns on the web for making bags and such out of plastic bags you cut into strips just like you do to make rag rugs. Here's a bag I made. Guess what I use it to store?

Yes, those are balls of plastic strips waiting to be made into another bag. The New York Times comes delivered in bags this lovely shade of blue. How nice of them to use such an appealing color.