Stash Busting: January

Hello all, and hello 2013!

I've decided to join in the flurry of stash busting that's been taking over the sewing blogosphere. My pledge is simple:

I, Chloe of Buttonandneedle, commit to making one stash busting project each month in 2013! And to think very carefully before buying new patterns - my biggest temptation!

So, without further ado, here is project number one, inspired by the great list at Stashbusting Sewalong HQ.  Itty Bits, consider yourselves made useful!

To get the ball rolling, I made a pincushion! Yes, very ambitious, I know. But it reminded me of all the fun fabrics hiding out under my sewing table, and I finally used the Kelly's Pincushions pattern from Joelle Hoverson's great book, Last-Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts. I bought the book when it first came out, the birds on the cover alone were too cute to pass up. I did make a whole flock of them, as well as at least four Super Quick & Easy Baby Quilts. It's a lovely book, the designs are really nice - fairly simple, but well thought out, all the better to show off your fabric choices.

For scale.

Arty pincushion!

A few years ago, I made a quilt. It was a fun project, and I'm very proud and happy with the result. However, it led to a rather large accumulation of quilting cottons & scraps. I have enough to fill an under bed bin, and haven't done much with them. So this year, it's use it or lose it for the quilting scraps. I'd like to get them down to half a bin or less - ambitious, but do-able, I hope!

I'm pretty excited about this challenge, I've already got some ideas percolating for some of the next projects. By making one stash project a month, I should make a nice dent in the larger-than-I-thought pile of fabrics that have been quietly multiplying in my sewing nook.

Let the stash busting continue!