It's been a while ....

.... since I did any proper patchwork.

I don't know if I ever shared the story of how my fabric obsession started? Well Once Upon a Time I used to make a lot of cards, while I was at a few craft shows buying bits and pieces some cat print fabric caught my eye and on a whim I bought it. I had no clue what to do with this fabric but slowly I started a little collection. Then I saw a Beginners Patchwork and Quilting Class advertised at my local college so I thought it was high time I actually put the fabric to use and went along to the class. The rest they say is history.

Quickly I managed to amass quite a stash of various fabrics and made a couple of quilts, then I found out about fabric postcards and it is through this media that I started experimenting more with embroidery and other forms of fabric art. And the stash expanded to include fabrics other than cotton, beads, buttons and threads.

Well now my little house is bursting at the seams with stuff and over the last few months I've come to the realisation that I need to use rather than buy more :) Changes in family circumstances and recent illness have helped me to the realisation that I don't need/want all this stuff hanging around. So I need to do some stash busting.
So I'm taking my first small steps on this journey and have joined a block lottery on one of the yahoo groups that I belong to. (Yes I realise this could backfire as if I win the lottery I'll end up with more stuff, lol, but at least it will be something that I can turn into a gift quilt!)

(oops this block is showing the wrong way round but I'm feeling too lazy to flip it round and reload the picture, but you get the idea).

It took me ages to make just these two blocks (I'm definitely out of practise) and they are by no means perfect but I enjoyed the process and hopefully I'll get quicker. I just signed up for a Row Robin and am hoping that not only will my piecing get quicker but it will also help me take some more steps towards reducing my fabric.

Currently I have 4 totes full of quilting cottons (this doesn't include my cat print collection which I am not concerned about reducing, grin) my target is to try and whittle this down to two, maybe even one in the long run but that will be a long way in the future I think!

I also have a couple of patchwork/quilty projects in the UFO bin which I have been so far ignoring so I'm hoping that this block practise will help me build up the confidence and enthusiasm to get them finished up, we'll see.