Another pretty day (stash report week 9)

..that's what the weather man says.  We're supposed to hit 60 degrees again today. The birds must agree because our cardinals are singing and the chickadees and titmice are chirping away.

Quilting has taken a bit of a back seat.  I wish I could've kept the momentum going but in my small space it's tough to get another top readied for quilting while I still have my first three out being finished.  Only one still needs its hanging sleeve and label, which is ready to go. (I might have done it yesterday but I chose instead to lie down and read.  The more I quilt, the less I read!)

Oh, and this is something that we did as a Christmas present for my father in law.  I saw it on Sew Many Ways.  Grab a frame and repurpose it by replacing the glass with duct sheeting, which is metal and magnet friendly.  I made the magnets last fall, also a project from Sew Many Ways.  Anyway, from the sheet we bought before the holidays, we made one 8x10 as a gift, one 10x14 to hang in DS's room, and two small ones for me to use around my sewing space.  I say "we" because DH cut the sheet metal for me.  I'm thinking about doing a few for Mother's Day gifts as well but I may learn to cut those myself.

On the sewing front, I decided to cut the black and white fabrics for the "T" blocks that I showed you last week.


The pattern is from Fat Quarter Fun (by Karen Snyder) but I'm only using a few FQs.  Several pieces are scraps from previous projects, including backings.  Makes me feel good to use up fabric!

I've been using the Easy Angle ruler that Bonnie Hunter, and her followers, rave about.  It is very nice, not any slower than cutting squares.  The first two blocks are right on size wise.  And, since I do a lot of piecing with the featherweight, which uses a screw in seam guide for that 1/4" seam, it's much easier to feed triangles under the presser foot than squares.

Each FQ makes 4 blocks, not 2 as I had originally convinced myself.  Sew, after cutting Friday evening I had to go back and cut some more!  Since several pieces aren't FQs, then there a few smaller pieces that will give me only 2 blocks.  I'd like to get this project all cut and the triangles paired up to make for some fast piecing, since I don't intend to do much piecing at home.  I'm going to try to get this done while out on sew days with my quilty friends.


This leads me to my one fabric purchase this week.  I ordered 3 yards of batiks for less than $4/yd from an online store.  $3.68/yd for 1895s! At one point I had 8 yards in my cart and then I asked myself what I was going to do with all that.  And, I thought of the previous stash report with two finishes on it and of my quilting expenses for the month. My cart shrank down to 3 yards!  What's that quote?  Something like, "A bargain's not a bargain if you don't need it."  

It took the store one week to mail out my order so I received 2 yards of fabric as one was sold out.  That's ok!  It was a "just because" design from McKenna Ryan.  Some of the 2 yards I got are going into the "T" quilt so a few strips from Blond Ale (Hoffman 1895) have already been cut.

Since it's way too hard for me to figure out how much I've cut out and then remember not to count it next week when I've cut more, I only count fabric once the project is done.  I will count the 3/4 yd that I used in making hanging sleeves and the 2.67 yards that I used to finish up Aunt Caroline's Rose Garden.  I did not include the blocks in the quilt since I didn't count them "in" and since I didn't make them.  I just counted the sashing, cornerstones, binding and backing and it finishes at 39x52, so it's not a large quilt at all.


Used this week: 3.42
Used year to date: 15.570
Added this week: 2.0
Added year to date: 6.625
Net used for 2012: 8.945


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


Have a great week!

Daddy Time (stash report week 6)

...Equals quilting time!!!


Yes, DH was out of town this week and to make it up he took DS to practice his swimming yesterday afternoon.  Then they went to lunch and shopped for socks. That left me home alone to quilt and get ready for the next step...binding.

This one is trimmed and first in line for some binding.

And this one is all quilted, finished late Friday night, thanks to some words of wisdom from a blog (again, don't recall which one) that said, "it's easier to quilt wavy lines than straight lines."


As mentioned before, I plan to turn the backing to the front so I spent about 1.5 hours marking the seam line, cutting the batting, then cutting the backing.

Then, I got this one off the back of the chair and put it under the needle - "just keep quilting, just keep quilting."


Even after the boys got home, they left me alone in my sewing corner and I echoed all 12 blocks.  Then, I stopped and did a bit of yoga to stretch out. Still have the sashing, cornerstones, and borders to go.

I still didn't buy any fabric this week, however, I did buy a new die and 2 books from Anita over at The Other Side of Me.


The ladies in my quilt guild who do those beautiful applique quilts say that the Piece of Cake Ladies are the best.  So, now I have one of their books.  Don't expect to see one of these any time soon.


The embroidery book is great - all nature scenes - I am a farm girl, after all.

The die was a great price and I see this spicing up a border sometime in my quilting future.


There was also a hexie die in the box for a quilty friend Charla.  When we met at our LQS yesterday, I almost bought a couple FQs but decided to wait and reward myself after I finish my show quilts.

The only piecing I've done is my hexies.  It's raining here for second day in a row - uggh, sorry about the pix! The one on the left is black with pink and the other is purple with white dots.


There are usually two machines set up - one for quilting and one for piecing, but the piecing machine is off the table to make way for the quilts while quilting.  "Just keep quilting,...."

We have a great public library here with regional branches.  However, our branch is teeny and browsing the shelves doesn't usually yield anything new.  One has to request titles from the catalog and then pick them up. Imagine my surprise when I found these 3 books on the shelf a few days ago. 


Nothing added to the stash this week and I've been to 2 shops. However, later I am going to a Super Bowl sale at the LQS that boasts more batiks than any other shop in the area.  I will buy something - I know it - to celebrate my near finishes!!



To the numbers...
Used this week: 0
Used year to date: 2.15
Added this week: 0
Added year to date: 2.50
Net used for 2012: -0.35


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

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!!

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!!

At it again... (stash report week 33)

Hollyhocks survived the heat and bloomed, too.

First off - we had lovely weather this week.  Mother Nature turned the tables in our neck of the woods.  We even turned the AC off for a few days and enjoyed nightly lows in the 60s - in August!

So, to celebrate the cool temps, the high today predicted to be about 83 degrees, we will be staining our deck.  We didn't get it done this spring since it was so wet.  DH isn't very happy about it, but, it has to be done.  DS, who is 4, can't wait to help.  I just hope he doesn't get more stain on himself than on the wood - yeah, right!

With life and other events, I didn't personally add to my flower garden this week.  However, I did receive one flower and some paper templates from Jane of Want It, Need It, Quilt It as a "welcome" package to the Inchy Hexagon Swap. 

I've been working on flowers for my partner in the swap - one down, one to go.  I'll show them to you after they arrive at their destination.  Head over to Pigtales and Quilts for more flower gardens.




The fates are conspiring against me!  A new Joann's opened near me and the Grand Opening was this week.  Then, there are lots of sales and I've been able to resist the online sales, but my LQS had it's annual FQ coupon - 20 FQs for $25 (can't pass that up, right?!).  So...I added a lot of fabric this week.

I tried to fill some gaps in my stash by getting yellows and oranges.  Let's not forget the polka dots - even a dot batik.  The large batik cuts are actually half yards, substituted for 2 FQs.  Apparently a FQ got dropped somewhere b/c at checkout we counted 16 and here there are 15 - oh well, still a great deal.

One advantage of a metro area, I live within 15 miles of three quilt shops, two Joanns, and two Hancocks. With the Joanns Grand Opening I stood in line 3 days and twice was among the first 100 in line and got two $10 gift cards.


One of those days I met a local artist who does photography and painting, especially nature but also portraits.  We had a great conversation passing the time and exchanged blog addresses - please take a moment to check out Barabara's blog and her web site and say "hi."
 

With coupons, etc., I paid about $2.85 for a king size Mountain Mist Cream Rose batting (102x120), in anticipation of some big finishes once my consulting gig slows down in a couple weeks.

I felt and judged and bought some cuts of fabric at Joanns.  The 2 yards of brown will be border and binding fabric for the Scrappy Friendship Quilt (most of which is Joanns fabric).

Of course, the gray and navy polka dots 1/2 yards are for hexies.  They are also to get me 16 more charm squares for a project I will do "one of these days" with the dotty charms I received in a recent swap.

Sew, here's the damage!!!!

This week's numbers:
Used this Week:  0
Used year to Date: 47
Added this Week:  7.75
Added Year to Date: 83.175
Net Used for 2011:   -36.175

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

Whewwie, it's hot! (stash report week 23)

It's HOT, HOT, HOT!

Hope ya'll have had a good week.  We altered DS's pre-school schedule a bit this week.  He still goes 3 mornings a week but what difference it makes when those 3 mornings are Tues-Thur rather than Wed-Fri.  I'm sure it was mostly in my head but I just felt so far behind before I even started with no free time in my week til Wed morning.

A couple weeks ago DS asked me to teach him to sew.  I bought some tapestry needles, burlap, a hoop, and a whole bag of embroidery floss all on sale at Hancock's.  He likes it.  He isn't stitching even stitches but he understands to put the needle in the same side it came out, to pull the thread all the way through, and to leave some thread for a knot.  He wants to "make" things so we made a pincushion for his needles.

A pattern arrived this week that I won from Primitive Quilts and Projects blog. Isn't it cute?  I've never worked with wool but would like to try.  Hhhmm, maybe my mom can get me some wool to felt (she loves to shop Goodwill).


I have been busy cutting charm squares for two swaps.  The first you saw last week.  Karen at Sew Many Ways is hosting a red & white swap so here are 125 squares and the selvages. This swap is closed already.

Sewing in the Wendy City is hosting a polka dot charm swap and there are probably some spaces left if you are interested!  I bought 4 half yard cuts, 2 of which are batiks (on the left), for a total of 80 charms.

Most of my sewing this week has been a little free motion embroidery to finish off my "Be Merry" block of the month.  I hadn't worked on these in ages.  All they need is the finishing touches to the applique blocks and then the very simple setting kit (8.5" squares and four patches).

Here's what the embroidery can do for a rather dull looking little piece of fabric.

Wish I had a "before" shot of the red bow - it made a huge difference as the red was a solid.

I did one more hexie this week.  I really like the 3/4" size, which this one is, because it appliques nicely on a leftover charm square.

I signed up for the Inchy Hexie Swap.  Sew, I bought the 1" paper pieces and showed you the one I made last week.  Here's the size difference:

No finishes but I did start quilting another quilt for DS this afternoon.  If I can get to it tomorrow, I may have a finish for next week. I don't count yardage until the project is completely finished, a little extra incentive to get them quilted and bound.

This week's numbers:
Used this Week: 0
Used year to Date:  33.25 (33 1/4)
Added this Week: 2
Added Year to Date:  59.215
Net Used for 2011:   -25.965

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


Here's a little quote from Stray Stitches that I need to keep handy - and to share:
 A bargain ain't a bargain unless it's something you need.
~Sidney Carroll