On the Back Burner

Busy weekend. I made a trip to see my in-laws and help my MIL who was struggling with a nasty round of kidney stones. Poor thing. Thankfully, she's on the mend. Tomorrow my FIL is having hernia surgery and DH will drive up and take him in. So glad we're just 2 hours away. I'm kicking myself for not grabbing my camera . It's such a pretty drive and I missed some gorgeous shots.

This morning I'm heading out to help DH wean the colts! can't think of a better way to spend a Monday morning!

Sewing time has been negligible these past 3 or 4 weeks, but here's what's on the back burner.

For being a fairly new quilter, it certainly didn't take me long to amass a stash. I started sewing when our first child was born, but I was quite intimidated by the thought of making a quilt. Besides, my MIL was a master hand quilter and she kept us supplied with wonderful quilts. She still quilts, but for the most part she concentrates on small projects and beautiful wall hangings. I treasure everything she's given us through the years.

No one in my family sewed or quilted. In fact, I avoided it for a very long time. But for some reason I picked up the quilting bug and never looked back. However, my stash is outgrowing it's space. I have a horrible propensity for collecting western fabrics. It must be bad when you call the quilt store to ask a question and they let you know that they just unpacked boxes and boxes of western fabric. They know that even though I don't get there but about 4 times a year, once I do, it's a sure bet that I won't leave empty handed. Well a few months back I saw this quilt:

I fell in love with this quilt when I saw it on my bloggy friends blog. Then I saw that it was made with western fabrics. Sigh. Be still my heart. I have western fabric.


I have lots...



and lots...


and lots of western fabric! I hoard western fabric. And then she was so very generous and sent me her scraps! When she sees this, she'll probably think, "Well she certainly didn't need my scraps!", but I object. I did need your scraps S. It will make my quilt even more special and I'll think of you when I look at this quilt. I didn't have any of the fabrics you sent and when you make another one, I'll send you some.

This is a Bonnie Hunter pattern and the tutorial for Many Scrappy Trips can be found here. Not making any promises about how long this will take to piece. There's a pretty good chance that I'll want to make it bigger and then I'll be back to cutting strips.

So, while I had a crew of cowboys to cook for, I cut...and I cut...and I cut strips from every western fabric I had whenever I had an extra minute or two:

Then I cut some more:

And still, the stash looks as if I never touched it. How does that happen? I wonder how many quilts I have to make before I see a change. It would probably help if I didn't keep bringing fabric home.

I even have the backing picked out:

This fabric is from 1997! Yay me for using something that has been on my shelves for far too long. I can't remember what I planned to make with it, but I sure did buy a lot of it! LOL! I think it'll be the perfect backing for this quilt and I'm fairly certain I'll still have some left. :)

 More 90's fabric :



I made valances for our mudroom a very long time ago:


  and I still have some left so I cut some for this quilt:


And this is what I bought for the binding:


I'm excited because rarely do I have backing and binding picked out before even cutting fabric for the top.

This past weekend weekend DH participated in a ranch rodeo and Friday was the first really cold night we've had. We sat on even colder, metal bleachers and shivered while cheering on the contestants and I wished I had brought a quilt to wrap up in as an added layer to the already heavy coat. So this quilt may be my Ranch Rodeo quilt. I've never used wool batting, but I may give that a shot as long as it washes well because ranch rodeos come with lots of dirt.

Well my chariot awaits!