A quilty weekend

This last weekend was so perfect for quilting.

It was rainy and kind of gloomy out most of the time.  It did warm up a bit in the afternoon, but the mood for the day had already been set in my opinion.
I woke up, brewed my coffee, and sat down at my machine.  (Not sure why I skipped my usual morning workout, but it felt right to take a little break)

At our last retreat in March, my aunt (whom I talk about a lot when I am talking quilting :) ) made quilt top after quilt top.  She had previously cut up a lot of old fabric into simple 5" squares.  No matter if she got 2 squares out of the piece or 30, she added them to her pile.  Her purpose was to clean up her old stash.  So for the retreat she had thousands of 5" squares that she sewed into 9 patches, then cut them up and made disappearing 9-patch blocks.  Total scrappy.  No matching what-so-ever.

What a fabulously satisfying process.  I think she ended up with a total of 11 quilt tops of varying sizes.

Now, I am nowhere near that ready to demolish my stash, but I felt it was time to let go of a lot of the older fabric I have been hoarding (there is a reoccurring theme here if you have read some of my past posts).  I have a hard time finding "perfect" projects for that fabric I loved so much when I bought it, but it has been sitting on the shelf for 4+ years..... don't lie, I know you have some of that too. :P
This weekend I pulled out some of that fabric and made a Scrappy Brown Disappearing 9-patch.  I didn't match the fabric, I just pulled some random bits from my somewhat color organized shelving.
Wow did it turn out better than I had hoped for.  I, personally, think it is just lovely.  If I hadn't had it planned as a gift ahead of time I might keep it for  myself.

Once I finished that top, I made some little things with my sister.  Lanyards mostly to sell during the holiday season.  Then I made a bright colored table runner for a requested Christmas gift. 

THEN....yes, more quilting.  I chopped up more fabric, this time random, but bright. And made all the 9-patches for my next top. 

I feel very accomplished and wish I had about 15 more hours to spend in my sewing room, but alas...it's Monday. :)