Today, I joined 1500+ other quilters in the Stitchin’ Heaven New Year’s Day Livestream mystery quilt-a-long. This has become a NYD tradition for me. There’s no charge to participate and the quilt shop gives away some really good prizes every 45 minutes or so. Today’s prizes were electronic gift cards with values ranging from $50 to $250.

How does it work? A cutting guide and Team Rob/Team Tiffany fabric selections are released a few weeks ahead of time in their FB group. You can order a laser cut kit in your choice of those 2 colorways or use fabrics from your stash. I opt to pull from my stash. During the livestream, each block is broken down into units. The hosts usually demo a couple of different techniques and show the audience how to use new notions. I precut enough fabric to make 2 blocks and go from there. There’s a 30 minute lunch break built into the schedule and a soup recipe is shared ahead of time. (Hint: I buy a ready made version at the grocery store).

In the past, I’ve made the blocks in a patriotic colorway (go Team Rob), which were turned into placemats to donate to Meals on Wheels. This year, Team Rob chose a colorway that I really, really liked! I mimicked the colors as closely as I could, using fabrics from my stash. Once I saw the final quilt reveal, I knew I wanted to make a 3×3 block layout with borders (finished size: 48″ square). I actually have enough fabric to make the 9 blocks and borders! Haven’t decided if this will be a donation quilt or a Sadie quilt. We’ll let her decide!

This year, my husband was actually home on New Year’s Day. Normally, he’s out helping with a community service project or away on an active operation with Team Rubicon. He thoroughly enjoyed being able to watch college football uninterrupted today. 🙂

A TV for my sewing space is on the to-do list for 2026. Perhaps, I’ll be able to host a small group here to join in next year. We shall see.

Meet my scrap bin. It’s a medium plastic decorative storage basket found at stores like Target and Hobby Lobby. Nothing fancy. Most of what you’ll find in my scrap bin are bits smaller than 5″ square and random jelly roll leftovers.

I realize there are quilters who have elaborate stash management systems and cut all leftover fabrics to pre-determined sizes. Some even write books about their stash management systems. Me? I prefer a much simpler approach.

At the end of a quilting project, I “process” any leftover fabric. Random, full-size precuts are stored with my 2-1/2″ strips, 5″ squares and 10″ squares. Any larger pieces are returned to color-coded bins.

My quilting bee group makes several scrappy quilts a year for charity, so I sort the remaining bits for future charity projects, the scrap bin or the wastebasket. When the scrap bin gets full, it’s time to add a project to the rotation to use up some of the scraps.

Here’s my current project:

The FPP paper pad yields fifty 6-1/2″ blocks. I have enough of this white-on-white print to make about 12 scrappy HSTs. I’ll grab another white fabric hunk when it’s time to make block #13. Said blocks will be made into items to donate to my guild’s community service (placemats or a baby/toddler quilt).

Once a scrap become smaller than 2-1/2″ square, I toss it. If it’s been a busy, active quilting season and I’ve accumulated way too many scraps, I’ll pass them along to a friend or donate them to Scraplanta.

As a former librarian, I culled different sections of our book collection on a regular basis. It’s a key part of collection management. Applying those same principals to my fabric stash, including scraps, keeps things manageable. It’s great to save the scraps, but you also need a plan to use the scraps and/or divest of the scraps.

Yesterday, I spent time cutting out all of the blocks for an upcoming quilt retreat. We’re making a variation of Pecan Blossoms from Fig Tree Quilts. The perfect opportunity to pull out my die-cut machine, strip and small square dies, right?

Not exactly. The pattern calls for strips and squares in less commonly used sizes. I own most sizes of strip dies and their corresponding square dies – just not in two of the sizes needed. AccuQuilt offers those sizes; however, I’m not spending $300.00 for two strip dies I doubt I’ll use again.

I thought about pulling everything out and cutting what parts I could with my die cutting system and then just rotary cutting the rest as usual. Nah. Instead, I reached for my trusty June Tailor Shape Cut ruler and handy conversion chart. I had all my fabric choices finalized, starched and pieces cut to size in an afternoon.

There’s no doubt a die-cutting system is much faster at cutting out fabric versus a traditional rotary cutter and ruler. This assumes you have all of the dies required, the room to store everything and/or you have the means to buy whatever might be missing.

Over the past three months, I’ve used my slit cut ruler (June Tailor Shape Cut) to cut strips, then subcut them into squares and rectangles rather than haul out the die-cutting machine. It’s more convenient. Any applique shapes have been cut using my Cricut Maker or traced/cut by hand. The nature of how I craft, quilt and sew has changed. This time last year, I used the die cut machine to make several cut-outs for Christmas craft activities while I was still teaching literacy enrichment classes.

Perhaps I should add a Stripology XL ruler from Creative Grids to my Christmas Wish List? And make a note to re-evaluate the need to keep my Sizzix Big Shot Plus and assorted dies.