Nothing Is Finished! Let's Start Something New!!! Tula Pink's Tabby Mountain Quilt is Happening TODAY!

Greetings from the oddly frigid winter wasteland of Charlotte, North Carolina!  I hope your new year is off to a better start than mine is.  I frittered away my New Year's Day baking cranberry orange scones for my family, shopping for fabric online, and falling down a flight of stairs because my socks slipped on the carpet when I was carrying down a laundry basket.  I caught myself with the railing and didn't hurt anything more than my pride, but this was NOT an auspicious beginning to 2018!  My biggest accomplishment for Day One of 2018 is that I found a new quilt project that I want to make, and I am going to make it TODAY.  I am so excited!

60" x 74" Tabby Mountain Quilt by Tula Pink for Free Spirit

This is the 60" x 74" Tabby Mountain Quilt, a free Tula Pink pattern that is available from Free Spirit right here.  All you need to make this is the Tabby Road Fat Quarter collection, which I already own, and a third of a yard each of eight coordinating solid fabrics which I also already own.  I think I could cut and piece this entire quilt top in the time it takes me to make just ONE of my paper pieced pineapple log cabin quilts, and I think it's adorable exactly as Tula Pink designed it, so no need to spend additional time designing an alternate colorway, either.  So, why am I sitting here writing about it instead of upstairs MAKING it, you might ask?  

Because, in order to show off the large scale kitty cat print fabrics effectively, this pattern uses 30 degree triangles cut from 10" strips of fabric.  Although I own all of the fabrics and I even own a Cut For the Cure 30 degree triangle ruler, that one is only 7 or 8" tall and this is only going to be a quick and easy project if I can quickly and ACCURATELY cut out all of those triangles...

30 Degree Non Slip Triangle Ruler by Creative Grids

The Creative Grids ruler pictured above is 20" tall and it would be perfect for this project.  I just called my Bernina shop (5 minutes from home) and they don't have the ruler I need, so that means I'm either going to JoAnn's (20 minutes away) or to the next closest quilt shop or fabric store (the Bernina quilt shop in Lowell or Mary Jo's in Gastonia, both about 45 minutes to an hour each way depending on traffic).  Ugh.  Maybe I'll drag my teenage permit-holding driver out of bed and make him drive me around from sewing shop to sewing shop for driving practice???  Probably not worth the earful of whining I'd get from my reluctant chauffeur.

Although I really love this quilt exactly as is, with all of the same fabrics, I also think this pattern would be great for using up some of the other large scale prints in my stash.  And in addition to continuing to work on my WIP projects this year, I also need to mix in some quick, easy and fun projects for "instant" gratification -- and much-needed longarm quilting practice.  I need to build up a lot more confidence and experience with that beast of a longarm machine before I can quilt something that I've been working on for years, like my hand applique projects or my pineapple log cabin quilt!