Nell's New World and my space (stash report week 47)

Here's what I've done this week:

approx 12x15 inches

It's called Nell's New World and it is based on the first book we read (Lover's Knot by Clare O'Donahue) at the Quilters, Books, and Bindings blog.  You can read more details here.

It isn't finished.  Still needs quilting and some embellishing but with our holiday schedule, well, things may not get done 'til New Year's. To keep my sanity this holiday season, I will be making more trips to the gym rather than sitting on my duff at the sewing machine trying to meet deadlines that I've made up in my head.

Why Blogger?  It is saved in the correct orientation!!

Speaking of the holidays, we are expecting my husband's family. Our closest relatives are two states away. They will all be here together for 2 nights about 3 days before Christmas - 5 adults and 2 kiddos under 8 - in our 3 bedroom ranch.  We go from having no visitors to being filled to the rafters!

To make it easier, well to make life easier, we got a chest freezer this week.  I mentioned cleaning the basement in anticipation of it s deliver last week. It has arrived! It holds a turkey and a ham and soon will have a couple trays of lasagna that I can pull out when we are filled with guests.


That is all I have accomplished this week.  Yesterday was DH's birthday so I made him a chocolate cake from scratch.  I once thought "from scratch" meant it was difficult.  I have everything here to make a cake from scratch. When was the last time you read the ingredients on a cake mix box?  I couldn't find one without partially hydrogenated oil, i.e. trans fat, in it.  Unless of course, it was organic and cost from $4 to $7 - then we're back to using what's already in the pantry.

We went out Friday night to a steak dinner and a comedy club with friends.  So, after our fun and paying the babysitter, a cake from scratch made sense - LOL!!

Here's why I won't be getting anything done as the holidays approach, in addition to just being busy cleaning and planning DS's birthday party and fretting (yes, a visit from my MIL does that to me - can we say "Marie Baronne?").  My sewing space is a corner of our basement family room.  I have two machines set up, the 2nd one is under the dresden plate that I had to move from the design wall.

To make room for the Christmas tree, which we put down here so we can set up my 6 foot table upstairs for family meals, I have to condense all this stuff.  The old computer armoire that makes a great storage cabinet must be closed, the ironing board comes down and gets tucked away, the machine in the cabinet gets closed and pushed under the window, and the table gets pushed in front of it.  The machine on the table will be stored in the armoire in the space where the CPU sat, bottom right. Oh and the design wall will be taken down.

This is the view from the design wall.  The tree goes where the train table is - who knows where that will go.  Maybe the loveseat will be put in front of my smushed sewing table so the train table can be pushed toward the patio door.

There's my 6 foot table all folded up behind the loveseat.  Even when I have it up, it's in the way!

When I started sewing down here the space was just right.  Now that I've become addicted, well, it's a little cramped.  It doesn't help that when the machine cabinet is open, I cannot walk around the table from the ironing board to the armoire - about 4 steps.  Instead I walk around the other side of the table.  Hhhmm...will have to come up with a s lightly better arrangement for the New Year.





On to the numbers - no change for me!  I would like to increase the "out" column but keeping the "in" column from growing is a good reason to celebrate as well.

Used this Week: 0

Used year to Date: 65.42

Added this Week: 0

Added Year to Date: 115.57

Net Used for 2011:   -50.15

Check out more Stash Reports at Patchwork Times

Have a great week!!