...OR I can take it back, and decide I like this blog better! The other one will be my rock adventures, but my obsessions have rotated once again. Back to quilting.

I had two UFO's first. One was my sister's quilt, oh my, I must have started it probably 20+ years ago

and I finally was able to finish it for Christmas this year! Hand appliqued and hand quilted.

Here's my other UFO which is with about 1/3 to go for my daughter, again just about 20 years old. Good thing she's patient! Promised it to her when she was 7, and now she's about to graduate with an engineering degree, hired at AeroJet Rocket Dyne, and moving soon into a house, so it's GOOD timing, right? Here's that one. I guess I was in a green Celtic phase in 1996.

I have a funny relationship with fabric. I've made  perhaps 1/2 dozen quilts, and had leftovers. Well, I thought, I should use up my stash, being the practical and frugal person that I am. So I started sewing omiyage purses. I made many, and instead of collecting them on my shelf, I started selling them on Etsy. 'Using up scraps' became a part-time business, and my fabric scraps box grew to overflow a couple of 30 gallon bins! All told I sold probably 400 or so bug purses, to all over the world.

Fast forward more, got burned out with sewing and working, so I let go of the purse making, and was happier following my stone and wire muse. My fabric sat for many years, and a year or so ago, I gave the bulk of the fabric to my niece to sew. I kept some of my absolute favorite fabrics, in case the urge to sew a purse came over me.

Which brings me to the present. Well, I think I should use up my stash, being the practical and frugal person that I am. So I am starting to sew a quilt.

I mentioned frugal, right? And maybe a touch lazy. I'm too lazy to trace things on freezer paper, too cheap to buy plastic template sheets. So I printed the pieces I needed, and covered it with packing tape. On the back I add a few drops of tacky glue dots in a bottle, and tada! Instant quilting template!

For marking the fabric, kid markers. A big discovery by quilting fanatics everywhere for marking quilts clearly, in all colors! And it washes out completely.

And for some reason, I don't want to hunch over a sewing machine. So I'm piecing by hand, a FIRST for me. I remember my wonderful, late, MIL, who introduced me to quilting. Ah, I loved that woman. She would piece by hand. My younger self could never understand how or why she would do that, when it was so much faster on a machine. My older, last 3rd self, understands completely.

Here's the first of 48 squares.

(Sounds so much better than 1008 small pieces of fabric to cut, piece, and sew!)