Stash Report #7

 I fell off the wagon this week.

First, I took my 4 yr old to the quilt shop with me to deliver the tulip purse sample.  The last few times he was there he hadn't wanted any fabric.  Well, he wanted a purse like the one I had made.  Sew, I asked him if he'd like a backpack (picturing Daddy's face in my mind during this conversation - LOL) - and he said "OK." 

Sew, my LQS owner hopped onto Moda Bakeshop and got the requirements for the backpack.  We needed 1.5 yds and he picked out Cat in the Hat, which has been in the shop for some time, surprised it took him so long.

He also picked a half yard of soccer fabric - no idea what this will be, but there was no talking him out of it!

For a 4 yr old boy I felt the coordinating red was a little too..um...not girly...but maybe baby-ish?  Well, I have some black at home we can use for the straps, etc. I can put red pockets on the inside.  However, I did not have enough black and Hancock's had a 50% off coupon this weekend, sew, I bought 2 yds of black.

I've become very picky about buying fabric at the box stores but $3.49/yd for a Kona solid isn't bad.  That's the same price as Connecting Threads without the shipping charge.  Does anyone out there know - is this related to the Kaufmann Kona solids?  The bolts do not say "Robert Kaufmann."  Is it specially marketed to the box stores?  The box stores have a better selection of solids than almost any quilt shop I've been in, except, Hancock's of Paducah, and I find it difficult to choose a solid online - need to SEE it myself. Although, I did get charms of the Connecting Threads solids, mirages, and batiks to help in ordering colors.

You know how we all plan about 10 quilts while we work on one (or 17)?  Well, I've decided to make a quilt for my former boss's retirement in November.  He's a hippie from the '70's - and he tends to like modern and simple designs.  When he bought his first house he had all the walls painted gray.  Sew, I had to buy some solid gray. Online, I was leaning toward the Kona ash but in the store I saw grey, a little darker, a little more intense. So out came the 2nd coupon from Hancocks for 50% off a cut of fabric and home came 3 yds of grey.  I'm thinking about making this simple Spinning Coins top in batiks, greens and blues with a little brown or black thrown in.

What have I done this week?  Not much. This seemed to be a week of running errands in my free time.  I made it to the gym 3 days -- woo hoo!  In the evenings I cut a few scraps from the tulip purses into various sizes of squares following advice from blogland about cutting those scraps into usable pieces now that I can pull out later for  leader/ender projects.  I have been reusing some plastics for this.

Another evening I made the January block from our guild's BOM.  We are doing a Civil War theme this year which has me buying more fabric online as my close LQS's don't carry much, if any. I'd rather spend my time on other things than driving an hour to get to a shop that might have some fabric I like only to spend 15 minutes there and head home again. Yes, when I'm on a mission, I don't dilly dally, I know what I want and I know my budget and I'm not easily swayed for impulse buys. It's worth the shipping costs!

Back to the block, the directions are for 12" finished blocks.  I have enough big projects so I decided I'd make a wall hanging with 6" blocks, all seams pressed open.  We'll see how many patterns I may have to substitute to avoid working with 1/2" squares!  This one wasn't bad as it called for strip piecing the 1.5" squares in the four patches.  I may make another when I get some more fabric as I'm not satisfied with the contrast between the brown paisley and the background - I like a lot of contrast in my quilts.

Oh - and in working on this it was very handing using the Block Fab free app for my iPod.   It doesn't have tons of blocks in its library but for the ones it does have it allows the user to change the dimensions.  It then provides the yardage and piecing requirements.  Very handy.

I haven't quilted a stitch this week.  I like to use Warm & Natural b/c it gives me the option to quilt up to 10" apart.  The Hobbs 80/20 gives the option of 4" apart.  This is a difference that I forgot about when my LA'er asked me if Hobbs was ok with me. Well, usually I like close quilting but with 3 quilts in the queue, and a simple piecing design on the one currently "under the needle," I was hoping to do minimal quilting.  Next time I take my quilts to be basted, I will take some Warm & Natural.

I did get some silicone spray and some Sullivan's basting spray, also with a Hancocks coupon for $7 and change.  The June Tailor spray at Joann's does not work on batting that isn't 100% cotton and alot of my batt scraps that I want to use are 80/20 or poly.  I used the Sullivan's to help make a button - boy! is that stuff sticky!

I'm anxious to try the silicone to see if it eliminates the drag on the vinyl sheet that's over my sewing machine bed and cabinet. The cabinet is electronic put has a large opening to fit practically any machine.  To cover some of the space I placed a sheet of vinyl over the bed and cut a hole for the feed dogs.  It helped but there is still some drag during FMQ.


Here are my numbers this week....not counting the Civil War fabric order that shipped Thursday.

Used this Week:    0
Used year to Date: 8.125 (7 1/8)
Added this Week:  7
Added Year to Date:  18.5
Net Used for 2011:   -10.375

Head on over to Patchwork Times to see everyone else's stash busting progress.