The chicken had a Flannel Party

I am big coward, a baby, a chicken! For the last two and half weeks I've been staring at my double delight quilt top, it's all ready for machine quilting but I can't summon the courage to get started. I keep changing my mind about the quilting, what color thread should I use, etc. Then I say to myself, it's just a little too big for my machine and I should sent it out to a long arm quilter. The decision shouldn't have to be this hard but indecision is. It all comes down to I am just a big chicken.

To get myself out of this self pity funk, I started sewing some flannel scraps my good friend Ann passed down to me. Most of them have a baby or child motifs, monkeys, frogs, butterflies, fairies, ladybugs and some sports themes as well. The colors are softer and with lower contrast than I am used to, but I decided to work out of my comfort zone and use them to make a small baby quilt for practicing machine quilting. I figure if I tackled a small project and relax about it, maybe the bigger quilt will stop being so intimidating. I started trimming the strips last Saturday, most of them were a fraying 3 inch brick of various Lengths that I trimmed down to 2 1/2". Didn't want to work on a complicated pattern or cut down even more, so I decided on a "center medallion" with just rounds of strips sewn together, kind of long cabin style. This is the result: And a close up of a corner:

I was having so much fun and had enough strips that I continued on and made two tops, I stopped the rounds when the piece measures just short of 42 inches on either length or width, this way I can use a single piece of fabric for the backing. Hopefully the plan will work.

Oh, yeah... stash report:

Fabric Added Weeks 17, 18 & 19: 1 1/2 yards

Fabric Added Year to Date: 76 1/2 yards

Fabric Used Weeks 17, 18 & 19: 0 yards

Fabric Used Year to Date: 37 1 /8 yards

Did not use any stash for the flannel project. A little buying expedition for six fat quarters helped somewhat with the self pity funk.