Stash Report Week 18 - 200th post celebration

This week has not been a very productive one. It took me about 3 days to  recover from spending 5 days out of town, with DS in tow, cleaning out my grandma's house.  After almost 50 years, there's a lot of drawers to empty.  I'm not done yet but at least DH will go with me next time.  

Yesterday I finished my messenger bag with an inset zipper so I can carry it on vacation. The stripe fabric came from Grandma's and the polka dot came from the estate sale where my mom bought tons of fabric.  I used directions in The Bag Making Bible by Lisa Lam to add a zipper.  It's not perfect but I can't wait to carry it.  It went together really easily.

I mailed hexies to my Inchy Hexagon Swap partner.

And, I received some, too.  Aren't they pretty?!

These are some others that I made.  I have bunches of squares packed for our trip.

When I got home Monday afternoon, there was an email from Tonya telling me I had won a pack of milliner/straw needles on her blog, Hillbilly Handiworks.  They arrived this week, along with a pretty little fat quarter that could make some interesting hexies, depending upon how it's cut.


The needles are wonderfully slender and slide so easily through the fabric.  However, they have the tiniest eyes I ever seen.  My needle threader barely went through the eye!  Gotta use some thin thread with these.  I'll use them more while on vacation and see how well I like them after doing a few hexies!

I finally counted the rest of the fabric from my grandma's house.  There's about 10 yards here. The pieces on the left are the biggest.  The Christmas print is about 54" wide.  If it doesn't go on the back of a quilt, it may become a table cloth.

I'm overdue for a giveaway.  It was my 200th post about 8 posts ago.  This embroidery pattern caught my eye as soon as I saw it and it seems quite appropriate for stash report Sunday, so I bought one to share.


Please leave one comment telling me what you like most about the month of May.  For me, it's my birthday month and it's "the month of May" for the Indy 500.  I will not be able to reply to all your entry comments this week.


To enter you must leave me a way to contact you.  "No reply" bloggers will be disqualified unless you leave an email address in your comment.  I must have a way to reach you.  If the prize isn't claimed in 3 days, I will have RNG generate another number.  The giveaway ends at midnight Saturday May 5th.  The winner will be announced in next week's stash report post.


Now for the numbers:

Used this week: 1.125

Used year to date: 17.025

Added this week (purchased/won): 0.25
Added this week (inherited/gifted): 10

Added year to date (purchased/won): 19.431
Added year to date (inherited/gifted): 41


Added year to date total: 60.431

Net used for 2012: -43.406

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

Have a great week!

One Flower Wednesday

Wow!  I have some flowers to show on a Wednesday.  I made these while I was in Indiana this past weekend and finished one up last night.

Now to get more neutral squares cut so I can make some stepping stones while we're traveling next week.


Today I posted my hexies for the Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap. 

I was thinking about leaving the swap.  I've sent 8 hexies in 4 months of 2012 and until today, had only received 2 in return.  Susan's package gave me a little boost, and hope, that maybe my past partners would eventually keep their commitment.

Check out more pretty flowers at Journey of a Quilter.

Stash report week 17

This is a quicky and it may not work since I haven't been successful using Blogger's schedule feature.

I'm at the public library in the small town where my grandma lived.  They added onto the original Carnegie library, after they built a new jail - must get the priorities right huh?, and it's great!  DS is enjoying the children's section and since there's not so many children, he can play games for more than 30 minutes.

I haven't used any fabric this week except to make some hexies for my swap partner and for my own garden.  And, I haven't counted any more that I brought from Grandmas house, so my report is unchanged from last week.


Used this week: 0

Used year to date: 15.9

Added this week (purchased/won): 0
Added this week (inherited/gifted): 0

Added year to date (purchased/won): 19.181
Added year to date (inherited/gifted): 31
Added year to date total: 50.181

Net used for 2012: -32.281

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

Have a great week!

Still counting..and cutting (stash report week 16)

Howdy ya'll!


Boy, I wish we could move back to farm country.  All these trips back home to clean out Grandma's house make me really homesick.  


However, after being here 14 years, my back yard is enjoyable.  All the hard work is done, years ago we added another patio, a dry creek bed, and built 3 big retaining walls for erosion control.  One thing is sure - DH and I agree that our next house will not be on a hill - we want a flat yard!  

Some mint

And with food prices so high, I want a vegetable garden.  I love my flowers but some edibles would be great.  By a garden, I mean a plot as big as my current suburban front yard, enough to can or freeze from, you know, for use over the winter.  Right now I can grow a few things in pots to eat over the summer but its only the herbs that I can really save for winter use - good thing my 5 yr old likes pesto on his spaghetti!  Oh well, like Grandma always quoted, "if wishes were horses, beggers would ride."

It's Bingo time!  I've never played quilt bingo before and DS wanted to join in.  I finally got our cards all done this week.  You can check out more info on playing here and there's still time to join in the linky party.


Yesterday, after a great class at the gym, the sun came out.  It rained here most of Friday and was still at at it yesterday morning.  I truly thought I'd see an ark floating down our street after hearing all the rain Friday night.  "We" planned to power wash the deck and outdoor furniture this weekend - thank you, Mother Nature for taking care of that chore, especially after I moved the furniture from the front porch to the yard for a good shower - LOL!

The sunshine also made me want to "do" something that did not involve sitting at the sewing machine.  So, I set my 6 ft table up near the patio door and grabbed all that fabric from Grandma's house that I washed and pressed a few weeks ago.  There just isn't much space here for stuff to sit and I've been moving these piles around - it disrupts my creative and/or productive chi. 


So, a with a few episodes of Sherlock playing on Netflix.com (new episodes start next month! - apparently I am quite the Anglophile - and what is it with the British being so good at murder mysteries?),  I started counting and then cutting into all that fabric.  The total for yesterday, see that's not all of it yet, was 31 yards!!  Really??!!!




How many of you have a problem cutting into fabric that's more than a fat eighth?  Boy, I do - so I decided to overcome this "affliction" and make these piles into something I can use.  Most of this is fabric that Grandma picked up at Joann's or Wal-Mart or that someone gave her.  Here's an old dress that was in her fabric pile - haven't cut into that yet!

I've mentioned that I'm going to make a charm quilt with all these fabrics using a tutorial from Wedding Dress Blue.  Well, my quilty friends are gonna make one too, a group project.  We're supposed to get together and have a cutting party since 3 of us have GO! cutters.  Using the GO!'s for squares are much easier using scraps than larger pieces so I started cutting strips that can be subcut for use with the dies.

The piles above are 5" squares and 1.5", 2", 2.5" and 4"-5" strips.  The larger strips can be used for the 2" and 3.5" dies very easily.  The other strips are just usable sizes for future projects.  I ran lots of the scraps through the Baby for some 2" squares.


I'm not done!  I stood at my cutting table for about 6 hours yesterday. 

I had one teensy incident where I didn't retract the blade before contacting the knuckle of my other hand.  Nothing serious, just in a bad spot.  A little neosporin and I'm good to go today.








So, here's the updated numbers.  I'm going to keep a separate line for Grandma's fabric just so I'll know what I purchased versus what I inherited.


Used this week: 0.33

Used year to date: 15.9

Added this week (purchased/won): 0
Added this week (inherited/gifted): 31

Added year to date (purchased/won): 19.181
Added year to date (inherited/gifted): 31
Added year to date total: 50.181

Net used for 2012: -32.281

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

Have a great week!

2nd Quarter Finish-A-Long Goals

I have a very short list of small projects for this quarter.  There isn't much time left for sewing/quilting between gardening and cleaning out my grandma's house.

I hope to finish this bag really soon so I can carry it on our family vacation.  It's a mini messenger bag pattern from an issue of McCall's Quilting that I bought at our guild's quilt show.  The only thing I had to buy for this one was the fusible fleece.  The stripe came from my grandma's stash and the navy polka dot was in the estate sale fabric that my mom gave me last year.

If plans work out, then I will add a zipper to it using directions in The Bag Making Bible.

Above is another bag that I hope to finish and get out of my way.  It was going to be my "winter" bag using Luna Notte candy bar and fabric.  Now it will be next winter's bag!  I hope to put a zipper in this, too.  It will look like this one below, my "summer" bag based on the Mill House Inn tote at Moda Bake Shop.

Click over to Rhonda's blog, Quilter in the Gap, and see what everyone else hopes to finish up this spring.

BINGO cards

Tonya at Hillbilly Handiworks and several friends are hosting a Bingo game for their "May for Me" celebration.  Click the link for details.

Given all the scraps in this house, it seemed an easy task to find 25 two and half inch squares.  This post is to link up and show the "key" to our cards.

B:  Paisley, Plaid, Colts, Bowling balls, Cat
I:   Rooster/chicken, "Lucy", Ladybug, Butterfly, Cricket
N:  Urns, Paddington, Free (green), Dog, Holly
G:  Buttons, Pumpkin, Cow, Flowers, Jigsaw
O:  Pawprints, Vines, Fabric, Fox, Gloves

When I asked DS if he'd like to help me pick out some fabric, he said, "OK."  Then, he said that he wanted his own Bingo card.  Sew, we cut 50 two and half inch squares to make 2 cards.

B: Flowers, Dinosaur, Horse, Bobble, Fox
I:  Butterfly, Bowling pins, Backhoe, Sparkles, Pinwheels
N: Paddington, Sailboats, Free (green), Cat, Pigs
G: Bowling balls, Stripes, Hockey, Plaid, Blue swirl
O: Colts, Pawprints, Bag, Teddy bear, Cowboy

We duplicated a few of the fabrics - easier cutting for me - but placed them differently.  I hand pieced my square while we traveled over Easter weekend but I did DS's on the machine.  The letters are just fabric markers.  I used the handy dandy envelope method and then quilted them so I wouldn't have to put binding on something so small.

*Edit - check out more Bingo cards over at Hillbilly Handiworks.

Have a great day - Namaste.

A great mail day

Last week, before leaving for Easter in Indiana, a package arrived from Genevieve at Gigi's Quilting Treasures.  I won her Leap Day giveaway and she sent a sweet bag filled with goodies!

There was so much in the bag!  Coasters, an ornament, a pincushion, some fabric tags (which I use all the time), a lovely little wall hanging pattern, and a Pocket Patchwork folio with all kinds of blocks in it.

And, fabric!  Isn't the Raggedy Ann and Andy fabric cute?

Thank you, Genevieve!

Stash Report week 15

This is a really quick check in as we just returned from Indiana and sorting out my grandma's house, something you will "hear" me say often the next few months.

Nothing changed.  I still have't finished ironing all the fabric I brought home after the last trip to Grandma's house and I brought home a little bit more this time.  This coming weekend we will be staying home so maybe, just maybe, I will get my numbers updated and my sewing space organized - in between housework and yard work, that is.


Used this week: 0

Used year to date: 15.570

Added this week: ?????????

Added year to date: 19.181 (???????)

Net used for 2012: -3.611

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

Have a great week!

In bloom...a garden post

We all know by now that everything is early but there are few plants in my yard that I know for a fact are one month ahead of their usual blooming time.  Lilacs are one of those plants.  They are usually in full bloom for my birthday during the first week of May.  They're out now!

I love lilacs!  They were the first shrubs I planted when we bought our house and we purposely put them right next to the front door.

These are dwarf Korean lilacs.

Here are some scenes around the backyard.  I've been making trips to our local park and getting a few pots full of free mulch.  A little bit at a time gets the job done eventually.

Solomon's seal

Unfortunately, the bleeding hearts are looking a bit ragged with our temps in the 90s the past two days.  They really don't like the heat.

perennial geranium

Other plants have been showing signs of heat stress - poor things, all that new growth isn't ready for these high temps.

corydalis

columbine

blue eyed grass

knockout rose

Allegheny Viburnum.
Evergreen but no sweet smell.

We're getting ready to go back to Indiana, so I'm not doing any sewing.  Still ironing the white fabric from Grandma's stash.  I did cut up the smallest scraps with the 2" square die in the GO! Baby yesterday.  In about 15 minutes I had about 85 squares cut.  It takes a teensy bit of time to place a small scrap just right on the die to get one or two squares but it's easier than making four teeny cuts with a rotary cutter.

Stash report week 14, and more

Same pic, just as pretty this week.

This is my 200th post!  Whodathunk!  As soon as I get myself more organized, there will be a giveaway.


Last weekend I was at my grandma's house in Indiana starting the long, hard task of cleaning it out.  Of course, I got to the quilts and quilting supplies.  Since DS and I went alone in the SUV, which is whole story unto itself - let's just say DH saw to getting a new fuel pump in the car ("OUCH!" says the pocketbook), I had room to bring back some boxes filled with about 6 quilts and two unfinished tops.    I will do a post and show those to you when I'm feeling a bit less overwhelmed!

This weekend is our area shop hop.  My quilty friends and I piled into the only car that hold 6 (thanks, Joyce!) and hit 7 shops yesterday in Illinois and Missouri.  Guess what I bought - no fabric! You will see why later.  I bought three little items in three shops and did not spend more than $5 on a single LQS purchase.


No, I spent my $12 at the chocolate shop down the street in Highland, IL.  Since it's the weekend before Easter, I bought DS some chocolate covered homemade marshmallows, a chocolate covered twinkie, and some peanut butter and caramel eggs and other things.  YUM!!

No projects have been tackled this week.  Well, I did get my March hexies mailed out to my partner in Australia.  DS and I need to get out Bingo cards done for Tonya's May for Me Bingo.  At first he wanted to share my card but then he decided he wanted one of his own.  So we sat down and went threw a tub of fabric and he decided what pieces he wanted.  Then I sat and cut!






I brought home a box or two of fabric from Grandma's house. Old fabric, mostly, although I found some FQs that Grandma bought when we visited quilt shops 2 summers ago in Wisconsin.  Here's what most of it looks like now.

It didn't always look like this.  Most of it was unfolded and who knows where it all came from.  Some of it leftovers from making garments.  And some it is garments!  There's a lovely piece of burgundy with white flowers that is about three gores of a what's left of someone's skirt.

It all went into the washing machine divided mostly by color.

The lights.

The reds.

The blues and blacks.

The greens.  Grandma always liked green.  The walls of her house were mint green when I was a kid.

And the whites.  Most of this is sheeting, I think.  When I iron the pieces I can tell for sure if they're all cotton or if they have a touch of poly in them.






And iron them I do!  I need order to the chaos!  At some point I need to figure out how much is there.  There are 3 stacks:  1/2yd or more (which is usually less than 1.5 yds), less than 1/2 yd including small pieces, and a teeny stack of FQs.


Sew, my conclusion to the stash report is that  I have used nothing and I have added to it.  I just don't know how much as I am not done ironing and I'm not counting til I am done ironing.  To be continued.......


Here's last week's stash report that I didn't get linked up.

Used this week: 0

Used year to date: 15.570

Added this week: ?????????

Added year to date: 19.181 (???????)

Net used for 2012: -3.611

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

Have a great week!

Liebster Award

Good day!  As I write this post, I am home sitting by the patio door listening to the birds sing, watching robins bathe in the birdbath, and enjoying the cool morning air while the sun peeks through the trees, which now have some leaves.  What a lovely day!

While I was away this week Mariella, aka Cancun Quilter, gave me a Liebster award.  Surprise, surprise!! Thank you, Mariella!!

The Liebster Blog Award rules:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award.

2. Link back to their blog.

3. Copy and paste the Liebster award to your profile.

4. Pick 5 blogs that you feel deserve to be in the spotlight (they must have @200 followers or under).

5. Blog about it and leave a comment for your nominations to let them know that you have chosen their blog.

Here are 5 blogs that I enjoy reading:

Wedding Dress Blue

Art As You Wish 

(Barbara is local artist I met while standing in line at a Joann's Grand Opening last spring.  She is doing a painting a day on her blog.)

Aunt Henny's

Miki's Fabric Creations

Angela At Home

Please click over and say, "Hi."

While we're talking about nature, here's Ruby after her first long walk when I got back home.