Woo Hoo An Update!

It's only been six months, but I decided to update the blog anyway!
I have very few finishes of my own quilts this year, but this is one of them.  I bought this as a kit from Quilters General Store in Rockford a few months ago.  Managed to put the top together and then set it aside while finishing all the homeless and kids quilts we gave away this year (131 altogether).  Anyway, finally quilted it the other day and now I have a finished quilt.  I'll put it on the table for Christmas day with the family.   
Most of my own stuff I've worked on this year is ufo's and all of them are applique.  I have 6 different ones in a queue that I work on and hopefully 2017 will see at least a couple of them finished.
I also bought myself a Christmas present this year:  a Go! Big fabric cutter, by Accuquilt.  I should have bought it two years ago, because we have a lot of donated fabric that we use for homeless quilts and I hate cutting squares and strips.  We have 3 beginners in our quilting group, so we need to have the fabric precut for them.  So, I've spent the past few days cutting fabric and also piecing backgrounds for homeless quilts.  The goal has been to use up the donated fabric -- which is not all good quality stuff.  I am excited to say that as of today -- I have pieced backgrounds or cut all the donated fabric for use in homeless quilts and from here on out, we'll be using stash fabrics -- which is good quality fabric, just very old!  I am now looking forward to cleaning out my fabric cupboard!
I bought a calendar book made by Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet, and one of her suggestions for handling stash is to cut all the stuff that's a fat quarter or less into usable pieces.  She does 1-1/2" strips, 2-1/2", 3-1/2", 5" and 7" squares and/or strips and separates them into baskets.  I only have the 5" square die and the 2-1/2" strip die right now, and that's what we use for homeless quilts; but I think I'll design a couple of easy quilts using different size dies and cut and sort my fabric accordingly.  So, the goal for next year is to get the fabric cabinet under control and lots of fabric cut into usable sizes!
I used to cut my scraps into different sizes like Bonnie Hunter does, but found I never used them, so having some patterns designed ahead of time that are quick and easy to put together and then cutting the pieces to those sizes seems like a good idea!
Until next time....blessings.