Late last year, I challenged myself to make quilts only from the fabric I have on hand before buying any new fabric.

I had acquired a stash from various fabric swaps and grab bags (or boxes) . . . Not all of the fabric would have been my choice, but I was stuck with it.

My first piece was called “Prayer Shawls, All.”

Next, I revisited an earlier design, and made “Birds of a Feather.”

I kept to the bird theme, and made this untitled piece of blue birds and orange birds.

I wasn’t entirely happy with this piece because I had to buy additional blue fabric to complement the orange (did I mention I have a LOT of orange fabric??).

But something clicked as I neared completion. My stitching improved. Mind you, I’ve been sewing this particular patch for YEARS, but somehow something changed. All the pieces fell into place; I stopped pinning pieces together before sewing; and, the patches turned out nearly perfect (except for trimming dog ears around the patch).

But, why get better at the END of a project??

To get ready for the NEXT project!!

I gathered all the leftover pieces from these three quilts, and sorted out the cool-colored fabrics: blue, blue-green, and green. There wasn’t much. And, I cut as much orange fabrics as I could (and I STILL have a lot of orange).

This is the design I’m gonna use:  Do-Si-Do.

This design calls for a single patch colored two different ways. Here’s one:

I stitched these patches in a random way.  I picked the first two pieces from the top of the stack and stitched them together, and so on. I ended up with these patches.

Now, some of these patches are single, and some have multiple copies.

First, I set them out, grouping like fabric together to form the trunks of the pinwheels.

Here’s the other stack of patches to sew.

I stitched these patches just like the first set: randomly. I set up a flannel design wall and put the original patches on it. Then I started matching the colored diagonal bars in the new patches with trunks.

When I ran out of matching “arms,” I improvised and substituted colors. After that, I put patches where they’d best fit in.

What do you think of it??