Inaguaral Blog

Hi, I'm Deb. Welcome to my blog! I have been around quilting my whole life. My grandmothers quilted. My mother quilted. My sister quilts. However, I did not begin seriously quilting until 1987. It started quite innocently. My dearly beloved Quail (now my husband)  and I had decided to "save money" and move in together. However, Quail  was overwhelmed by the amount of possessions I had at the tender age of 27. Granted, he was a life long bachelor of age 43 who owned a couch, a chair, two plates, two glasses and a fry pan, so it did not take much for him to think I was over the limit. In my efforts to downsize, I went through the two boxes of  my mother's fabric I had been hauling around for about four years. ( She had passed away in 1982) I picked out a few of my favorite fabrics and then sent the rest off to the dump along with some other worn out items. After all, I had the boxes for four years and hadn't done any sewing with the fabric. What use was it? That was August 1987.  September 1987, I went to the annual quilt show of the Heritage Needlework Guild in Nebraska City, NE. I was smitten. The next month, I went to my first guild meeting. Jo Morton taught a class on hand piecing a log cabin block and how to use fabrics to make the quilt look old. (This was in the dark ages, before reproduction fabrics) I was beyond smitten. I was head over hills in love.

My first hand pieced, hand quilted mini quilt 

Look at those lovely 80's prints!

Backside of the mini quilt. Hmm, apparently BEFORE I learned how to bury my knots!

But, a problem presented itself. I no longer had a stash. I had sent it off to the city dump a few months earlier. Budding quilter that I was, I cleverly decided to make a scrap log cabin quilt for my dear Quail. This meant that each time I bought fabric, it was "for your quilt." I dutifully made sure at least one strip made it into a block...and the rest was for me!! I eventually moved from hand piecing the quilt to machine piecing, but nonetheless, I stretched out the "for his quilt" fabric rationale for ten years!! 

Quail's long awaited "football" quilt

Yes, I said TEN years. Ten years of buying little fat quarters "for your quilt." Buying sale fabric at my local fabric store. Buying impulse fabrics from my favorite quilt shops. While I completed other projects in the mean time, my stash continued to grow at a rate disproportionate to my ability to use it. I have since come to realize this is not a common problem with quilters. We can't help it. We love fabric. If you are like me, you like smelling fresh fabric. Touching  the smooth cotton. Petting it. Pressing freshly ironed cotton next to your cheeks. Warm cotton smells to good.


Now, another ten years have passed. My quilting life has had its productive and unproductive years. But even when I lacked time or inspiration, my love of fabric did not diminish. My sewing stash has gone from three tiny baskets labeled  light, medium and dark to two rooms which are bursting at the seams. I have become:

                 The Cluttered Quilter

With this blog, I am taking my quest public. I have inspiration. I have ideas. I haven't the foggiest idea where that one pink fabric with the pretty little flowers is. I need organization! I need horizontal surfaces to sew upon! I have come to the conclusion that my inspiration and ideas will never come to fruition until I declutter and organize. The best way to achieve that, is to work on it every day. Join me! I welcome any suggestions and comments! I hope to be able to offer some organizing ideas for you!


Deb