Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Back

This is the story of my week. I'll start with the happy news - stepping forward.

I've made progress on three fronts!

1. The wheelbarrow block for the 2015 quilt along is stitched and finished!  I have only the templates to draw and a very quick pattern to write. This one will be ready to publish next weekend with time to spare! Sneak Peak!

2. Next step forward. I had started this last week, but now the latest mug rug for my daughter's office pals is completed. I'm halfway done with that project. Four down and four to go. There it is, at the bottom of the row of mug rugs next to (insert drum roll) the finally completed fat quarter quilt top on my design wall!

3.  Yes, the fat quarter quilt top is completely pieced! It's a week late, I think. Or is it two weeks late? Nothing that I'm going to fret about, though. At least it didn't get tucked away in the soon forgotten box of quilting UFOs!

The quilt top is 48" x 48" and the colors are much softer than they appear in this photo.  

And that leads me directly to the first of my backward steps this week.

Big fail!! I really messed up on the goal that I knew would be the hardest to meet. "Try to use fabrics from my stash instead of buying new fabric."  It started with the quilt top. I had thought I might use it on our dining room table. We are so very overdo for a change, and the green is an exact match to the cushions on our dining room chairs.

I thought I'd get my hubby's opinion first. I could keep it this size to fit diagonally on the table or I could easily turn it into a lap quilt by adding a border. This is what happened when he saw it.

"It's beautiful!" he said. "A perfect match for this room. Is it finished?"
"Umm, no. It still needs batting, backing and binding."
"What's backing?"
"The fabric that goes on the back of the quilt." I showed him the back of a handy quilt.
"Oh. I forgot," he said.  "I can never remember the names of all these quilt parts.  What are you putting on the back?"
I admitted that I hadn't purchased a piece from the same fabric line, but that I would probably be able find something usable in my stash.
"No," he said. "You'll ruin it. Buy something that matches."

I'm sure that my eyes positively lit up at that idea. So, I promised myself that I would buy absolutely no new fabric for at least the rest of February, and within minutes I had ordered a matching piece online!

Then my son brought a shirt over. A button had fallen off and he didn't have the right thread. I didn't have matching thread either, so I headed off to buy a single spool of gray thread. It was either that or remove all the buttons and replace them with thread of a different color.

Have you ever gone into a fabric store and come out with only one spool of thread? New spring and summer fabrics were everywhere! Shelves and shelves and shelves of beautiful newness! And the intoxicating fragrance of the fabrics... and the soft silky smoothness gliding under fingertips... the visions of new quilts that came suddenly to mind...

I was doomed from the moment I opened the door. Fail #2. Yup. That makes two mess ups in two days!

I'm done! I swear, no more new fabric for the month of February.

Wishing you a wonderful week!