Stash Report week 28

It's been quite a week of heat here.  My days begin around 6AM so I can walk the dog before 7AM and get the garden watered before 8AM.  Since we live in "the armpit of the gardening world,"  it's not vegetables that I grow but lots of shrubs and perennials, many of which are native.  

Our grass is dormant and sounds like straw when we walk on it.  It rained some last night and our temps are a little lower today with chances of rain.  The cloudy skies certainly do provide some relief.


In the midst of the heat, I did stay in and get some sewing done.  However, there are no finishes to report.  I have about 6 projects sitting around my basement corner.  Three of them need to be quilted, one needs binding.  And you know what?  I just don't "feel" like it.  Ever have that happen?  I don't know if the early mornings, or if it's the heat, or if it's dealing with Grandma's estate, but I just don't have it in me to finish anything these days.

Yesterday I received a box of batik scraps from Leona of Leona's Quilting Adventure.  They are so pretty I had to do something with them.  So,  I found a string block tutorial at Loose Threads and grabbed the little phone book I set aside ages ago to try this technique.  There's also a tutorial for chevron string blocks that I'd like to try.

The scraps were small, so were my phone book pages, and I have two 6.5" square rulers.  So, I decided to make my blocks 6.5".  I have absolutely no plan for these.  It was just sewing to use up some scraps.

I received 4 more hexies from the Inchy Hexagon Swap, which I left this month.  Aren't they pretty?

So I added a few more to the big piece one evening while watching tv with DH.

Then I finally quilted the sashing and borders on the Disappearing 9 Patch topper.  

I plan to turn the backing to the front for a self binding, when I feel like doing all the precise measuring and trimming.


Nothing fancy, just loops that sometimes look even and sometimes, do not!

Last Sunday afternoon I grabbed the Friendship Quilt blocks out of the closet and decided to get it into quarters, ready to quilt in sections via the Marti Michel method.  


These are fabrics that we traded in a class at the Viking sewing center in 2010 (that's a long time).  As I was pressing, look at what happened!

This piece wasn't all cotton, obviously. So, 30 minutes later, after cleaning my iron, unsewing, and resewing this quadrant was finished.











What keeps you busy in the heat wave?


To the numbers:
Used this week: .75 (gifted)

Used year to date: 20.775

Added this week (purchased/won): 0
Added this week (inherited/gifted): .75

Added year to date (purchased/won): 26.681
Added year to date (inherited/gifted): 65.75


Added year to date total: 92.431

Net used for 2012: -71.656

Please click over to Patchwork Times and see other stash reports. (**Judy's been having technical difficulties so the link may not work this week.)

Have a great week!

A little heat wave (stash report week 36)

reminiscing

Greetings!!

How was your week?  Mine was mostly slow.  I took the week off from intense, catch up housework and just did the daily chores.  Tuesday morning was mine - Pandora playing, the boys out of the house,  and me crawling around on the floor with my tailor's mat measuring quilt backs.  I got 2 backs together and one small topper spray basted.

Then I hit my usual snag.  I stabilized my quilts with some SID.  It has been so long, since early June, I think, since I did any FMQ.  Once I get started I will be fine but it's the getting started that is difficult.

Then, the heat came back, highs hit 102, and my time was spent watering - uggh.  We had a break from the humidity but the hot breeze just dried out my shrubs and plants.  Even the ornamental grass looks pathetic.  Good news is that it is currently cooler and cloudy so I am keeping my fingers crossed for some much needed rain.

I did not get too much hand work done this week.  No hexies added to my garden but here's a shot of what it looks like so far.

There are more than I thought.  If you would like to give English paper piecing a try head over to Paper Pieces.  They are celebrating National Sewing Month with free shipping this week.  Check out more flower gardens at Pigtales & Quilts.

I am now all caught with with the Embroidery 101 QAL hosted by Clover & Violet.  Here are blocks #5 and #6.  Three more to go.

With an allergy headache all day yesterday, nothing was better than sitting in the recliner and stitching.

I forgot to show you the pretty bag I won a couple weeks ago from the Green Bag Lady blog.  It's home dec weight fabric and the bag is larger than most GBL bags.

It is number 17, 177!  Isn't that something?! Teresa has given away more than 17,000 bags to help save the environment.  I love my little shopping bags.  It seems that those plastic bags multiply overnight.  I never remember to take them to the grocery store with me to put them in the recycle bin so we have bunches of them in the garage.



Here are my in progress quilting projects.

This one is a disappearing 9 patch from Moda Bake Shop that I pieced at retreat back in January.  I will use it as a table topper in my living room.

This one is a simple pattern that used 9 FQs.  I was planning to make it for charity but my mom gushed over the fabric so I figured it will be her birthday present.

This is the first time I've used flannel as a back and it seems to be fine so far.  I have a larger quilt in the queue that will also have a flannel back.

This week it wasn't fabric that got my attention.  It was a sale on these McKenna Ryan "In Full Bloom" patterns that was just too good to pass up.  They usually sell for $11 each.  I got them as a set from Dakota Cabin Quilts for $37 - eight patterns - that's less than $5 each!

Don't look for these on my work table any time soon.  I have to many UFOs to finish up.  Maybe after the holidays I can play with the pretty flowers.

That's it for my week!  I haven't been in a shop for a couple weeks.  We'll see about next week.  One LQS is having a sale to celebrate 24 years in business while the first of two new area shops opens Tuesday.  The second new shop, a modern quilt shop, opens on Saturday.  It will be a high risk week!



My numbers remain the same.

Used this Week:  0
Used year to Date: 47
Added this Week: 9.25
Added Year to Date: 92.425
Net Used for 2011:   -45.425

Head over the Judy's at Patchwork Times for more stash numbers.
Have a great week!!!

Lots of work (and Stash Report week 34)

I'm running a little late today.  Last night was sew down night at my LQS.  The owner had afternoon plans but left us a key so we could open up and start without her, wasn't that nice?!

As a result of an unusually late night, I got up a bit late so my quiet morning time before DH and DS woke up was cut short, very short!  That means no time to compose a blog post.

All of my free time this week has been spent working - for money, that is.  Sew, not much has happened in my sewing space or in the gym.  I have been walking the dog so at least some physical activity took place.  This afternoon, after a little family time, I'm heading to the gym to get the adrenaline flowing and stretch out.

In the evenings, too tired to do anything else, I managed to kick my feet up in the recliner and do a few hexies.  I finished up the hexies for my Inchy Swap Partner, which I will show you next week after she gets them.

And here's one for my little flower garden.  I also ordered some more 3/4" paper pieces. Check out more pretty flowers at Pigtales & Quilts.

Look at all these dots!  My quilty friend Joyce brought some polka dots for me to select from her stash last night.  There were some big pieces in her bag!  I cut some 1/4 yards or FQs of most but check out that white with purple dots near the top - it measures 1.75 yards. There's 9 yards of fabric there!  THANK YOU, Joyce! Hhmmm...Santa may visit Joyce a little early this year!!





I will make hexies from these prints but I will also use them to make this pretty, and huge, 24" block from Lily's Quilts.

Earlier this summer I joined a polka dot charm swap.  I have 80 charms which will make 5 blocks.  16 more charms will do another block.  There will also be a scrappy dot border on the sides to make it a bit wider.  This is one of those long range plans - I have lots of quilting to do before I piece this top!






 Here are my Civil Was BOM blocks that I got done last night.  The pattern is called Rolling Stone.

These are some blocks for our guild's charity committee.  I have no idea what they're called but we were instructed not to trim them.

My other evening activty continues to be embroidery.  I haven't worked at all on block #5 of the Clover & Violet QAL but I did work on this sampler.  It's from a new blog called We Love French Knots by Bari J.  She has included how-to videos - woohoo!

Check out more fun crafts at Sew Many Ways.

Love my little origami bag for holding my stitchin' stuff!

There's a new blog for quilting readers begun by Miki Willa - Quilters, Books and Bindings.  The idea is we read a book, discuss it on the blog, and create a quilt inspired by the book that we also share on the blog.
Years ago I belonged to a reading group and enjoyed reading new things, reaching outside my comfort zone.  Please check it out and join in the fun!

This week's numbers:
Used this Week:  0
Used year to Date: 47
Added this Week: 9.25
Added Year to Date: 92.425
Net Used for 2011:   -45.425

Next weekend I start quilting!!!!!!!!

Head over to Judy's blog for more stash busting reports. Have a great week!!

Ins and Outs (Stash report week 31)

On a hot day, a trip to the mall and the Build A Bear Workshop (to build a dog)

Greetings to you!  Staying cool?

This week was pretty quiet on the sewing front but I still have things to show you.  The lethargy was still with me and that is not conducive to sitting at the sewing machine.

However, I did get a bit of hand work done - these two little 3/4" polka dot hexies.

I've used most of the petals that I basted about a month ago so I need to cut a few more this afternoon.

Check out more flower garden s at Pigtales and Quilts.

I've been playing catch up on the Clover and Violet embroidery QAL, working on block #3.  Hope to finish this one and get #4 started this afternoon.

Since Borders is closing, I went to see what early Christmas shopping I could do.  But the first big sale I saw was 40% off the magazines.  There were exactly 2 quilting magazines left on the shelf so I bought Irish Quilting.

I don't generally pay more than $6 for a quilt mag so the sale brought it into my comfort zone.  Several kids books and puzzles also came home with me and are now tucked away in the basement.

A few weeks ago I picked up some mags off the sale table at the library for $.50 each.  At that price I just buy and look later.

The only fabric that came in this week was a win from Toni at The Quilting Pirate.  There are 21 batik charms here - aren't they pretty?

Finally, I gave 12 FQs to our guild's charity committee.  They like finished projects but they also make up kits and have sew days.  I kept thinking that I would make a top and then reality hit - I have too many UFOs and too little time.  Sewing is a hobby after all, so I decided to get rid of the guilt that swept over me every time I saw those FQs and donated them.

This week's numbers:
Used this Week:  3 (gifted)
Used year to Date: 46.5
Added this Week: 0.5
Added Year to Date:  75.425
Net Used for 2011:   -28.925

Head over to Judy's blog for more stash busting reports. Have a great week!!

How does your garden grow sew along.

Head over to Pigtales and Quilts for a new sew along - How Does Your Garden Grow! Actually, you don't have to do hexies, any shape will be fine. Love her quilt that she used for the button!

Thearica has set up a tab for the flower garden sew along at the top of her blog. We will show our flowers on Sundays, which will be convenient for me since that's the day I do my stash report.

Here are the ones I've done so far.  I like doing them, nice handwork project and a great way to use scraps.  I really like the 3/4" pieces, but the larger 1" pieces are nice, too.  You can see the size difference in this pic.

After doing a few I decided to focus on polka dots with white centers.  Sew, I'm begging friends for 2"x15" strips of their polka dot fabric leftovers.  That's enough to do one flower.

We have a day trip planned so maybe I will have a new one to show soon.

Stash Report - Week 20

First off - thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway.  Two issues: The 6 missing comments that disappeared in the Blogger breakdown have never come back.  I swear there were 129!  Also, winner #1, CountryMom, has not contacted me yet and I did say that entries with no way for me to contact them would be disqualified (be sure that you are not a  "no reply" blogger).  I will wait until this Thursday morning to hear from CountryMom - that will be one week - then I will draw another name from the comments.

If you watch the stash report week numbers, we skipped one.  Apparently we were all off by one week, according to Judy.

Good News! I did not buy any fabric this week.  WooHoo!!!!!

Of course, I also didn't finish any of my UFOs, either.  Although I did work on some little UFOs that have been cluttering my space, and my mind.  UFOs really do stress me out as one more thing on the "to do" list.

First up - the Dresden plate from Lily's Quilt QAL that I got away from some weeks ago.  It is now in one piece with all the circular piecing finished.  There's nothing to it really - that is, when you sew the right sides together, correctly, and don't have to rip over half the circle b/c you sewed the right to the wrong side - DOH!

This pic looks horrible! - at least it clings to my design wall (aka tablecloth)

Got this in one piece while DS was having an afternoon with Garfield on Netflix.  He still wants me to make him a "flower" quilt.  We pulled some FQs for it and I bought the big ol' Dresden ruler, since I will be cutting about 120 plates.

Next up - another Sweet Treat bag.  Long story and dealing with DH, this one was supposed to go my mom for Mother's Day. And the one I sent to her was supposed to go to my MIL.  Well, DH decided to order something for his mother else as I was working on them so, after some discussion....this one stayed home to be gifted at another time.

I have two more to make.  Then I will count that honey bun (Nostalgia by April Cornell) in the "used" column.

Next....this is a doll quilt made from scraps of the quilt that we gave our 3 yr old niece for Christmas.  I had that extra block (in the middle) and not enough of the blue and red to do any more.  However, I had put the tiny blocks together from the leaders and enders of the larger blocks.  More on this when it's finished, it's spray basted right now.

So on a rainy and cool yesterday, I sat down at my newly-repaired-and-working-for-the-first-time-since-bringing-her-home Featherweight, and pieced this little thing together as I went along. It belonged to my DH's grandmother so I thought it appropriate that the first project I did on it was for her great-granddaughter.

I ordered some 1" hexies from Paper Pieces this week while they were having free shipping.  I would like to join the Inchy Hexie Flower Swap, when it opens up again to new members.  Also, this size uses the 2.5" squares left over from binding, jelly rolls, etc. very well.  I will still keep doing my 3/4" hexies, too.  Well, when I get around to it.  Here's one more - that sounds like I've made a lot of them but this is only #2!  I did get some scrap squares together and placed in my sewing pocket, sew I'm ready whenever the opportunity calls.

Then, Karen at Sew Many Ways introduced me to mod podge.  No. I had never used it before.  I've done a few boxes and such for DS's art shelf and a pencil/cutter holder for my sewing space.  This week I used a pretty piece of paper that came from Shawna at 1 Choice for Quilting.  It added just the right amount of pizzazz to my clipboard that I use for my consulting work (of which I did quite a bit this week and plan do more today).

Speaking of Shawna - she's having a HUGE giveaway and an order lottery this weekend.  Check it out.

On to the numbers...
No change this week.  No projects finished and no fabric purchased (another WooHoo! right here).

Used this Week:  0
Used year to Date:  30.75 (30 3/4)
Added this Week:  0
Added Year to Date:  53.715
Net Used for 2011:   -22.875

Head over to Judy's blog for more stash busting reports.

A little project!

At Paducah last weekend I bought some 3/4" hexies from Paper Pieces.  I finally made one hexie flower using the free samples that they pass out at the show and really liked it.  Well, obviously, I needed a way to carry and store this little project.

I won this new magazine from Kathy Schmitz's blog.  It has great projects - a nice variety of small and large, crafts and quilts.

Here's my version of a simple sewing pocket from the magazine.  I grabbed a FQ and some decor bond and a few scraps and a short time later - voila! - a cute case for my hexies.  I did a little free motion embroidery on the applique to make them pop a bit.

A built-in needle case, too.

Check out all the wonderful links at the Sew Darn Crafty and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop linky parties.

This is post #100 - check back later for a celebratory giveaway!