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At Plum Loco Ranch, Door County, WI.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Winter in the midwest (stash report week 2)


This can't be winter. Mother Nature is all confused!  We were out in T-shirts at the park in 70 degree weather just a few days ago.

You will all think I am crazy, but I like to feel the cold air on my face when I walk the dog - it's invigorating!  Shores up the constitution and all that.  LOL - I've been watching some British murder mysteries on Netflix, can you tell?

Guess what!  I got to the machine two days this week - Sunday afternoon and Friday night.  Here's what I did last Sunday as DS pulled out his new toys.
There's another little bag but it must be in his room and I'm not willing to risk waking a sleeping child at this time of the morning!

All the fabric is from my stash.  I just couldn't bring myself to use too much of that estate sale fabric for his bags - just too ugly. However, he liked the green.  The rest came out of the stash box. They are all slightly different sizes so I'll guess that the larger ones each averaged about a fat eighth while the two smaller ones together make up another fat eighth.

This is the reason I haven't gone through and cut up all my scraps Bonnie Hunter style.  I like to make little bags, pouches, etc.  "One of these days" I will cut up the ugly stuff first and leave the novelties as they are for a while longer.

That same day, I did .... -mending-. Uggh - that dreaded word.  "Well, you sew, can't you fix my jeans?"  Aye, aye, aye!  "I don't sew, I quilt!"
Then I fix them b/c it's so much cheaper than taking them to someone else to alter. I think I'm getting it down after about 5 years.  It's really not so hard.  It's just time at the machine that's not spent making something, something that's not on my long of projects that are in some state of "unfinishedness."
The most annoying part was running out of of the gold jeans thread after the first pair.  That means there's another pair waiting for me!

However, my mom does sew, not quilt.  For Christmas she made me this jacket using silk that my in-laws gave me last year.  My FIL brought it home to his mother after he'd been on Okinawa when he was in the Marines circa 1959.

Here's a close up.  The details range from reds to pinks.  The fabric had been sitting in someone's cedar chest for all those years. Nice to see it being used. Now, where will hubby take me so I can wear it?!

Have you made out your UFO list?  I have a notebook where I jot down lists of projects "to quilt," "tops to finish," "blocks to finish for tops," and then all those projects that are sitting with fabric and pattern together waiting "to be cut." I won't bore you with my list except to say that I have 7 projects to quilt and bind and about 10 to cut.

Friday night I got a great start on one of them:
I wanted to echo the circle of the Dresden pattern and found that large circles are quite easy with the walking foot and one of its guides.  One more lesson learned - woo hoo!

During the Christmas madness in our house, we had one day "off" and I put 3 of these hexies together after a long session at the gym.
Sometime since the New Year, two more joined them. I need to cut and baste more petals.  I also need to get hexies made and mailed for my January swap partner.

Here are the ones I did in December for the Inchy Hexagon Swap.
I assume they made their way to England around the holidays.

A great effort has been made on my part to stay out of quilt shops right now.  I have unsubscribed to many shop e-newsletters and deleted others without looking.  If I need to buy fabric fabric it will probably be neutrals or others needed to specifically finish a project.  My mantra is, "do you need that fabric to finish a project, do you need that fabric to finish a project, ..."


Used this week: 0.5
Used year to date: 0
Added this week: 0
Added year to date: 0
Net used for 2012: 0.5


Voila'!  I'm on the plus side!!  (it's the little things, isn't it?)


Please click over to Patchwork Times and see other stash reports.


Have a great week!!






6 comments:

  1. Wow! I got exhausted just reading about all you've done. You have been so busy and have accomplished so much. WTG. The jacket is gorgeous. Your hexie flowers are beautiful. The little bags, I'm sure will soon be filled with treasures. And, I agree with you about the, ugh, jeans. I just finished hemming several myself. Not fun. Happy New Year!

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  2. Wow, sounds like you've been busy! I'm with you on staying out of the quilt shops and deleting the emails. I HAVE to not buy so much fabric this year, but it's hard.

    Love your new jacket and hexagons!

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  3. You've been really busy. Very beautiful silk jacket. Hope your guy takes you someplace nice so you can wear it.

    Good luck with your stash busting this year. I like your mantra.

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  4. I'm totally in love with your jacket and that wonderful fabric - such a treasure. I too am working on UFOs but I have a few more than you unfortunately. blessings, marlene

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  5. Our weather here in Iowa has been unbelievable too! My husband was out cutting wood in a t-shirt and I was cleaning leaves out of flower beds as it was almost 60! What a beautiful jacket! Your hubby definitely needs to take you out so you can wear it. I've been pulling UFO's out also and trying to decide which ones will get worked on this year.

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