Traveling Stash Box Giveaway!

on my 6ft table

update: Cherie of Quilted Jonquil has won Stash Box #6!  

Before leaving on our Thanksgiving vacation, Shanna told me that I had won one of her stash boxes (she had won 4 of them!).  

When I first started bogging, I entered every traveling stash box giveaway.  They were quite popular!  Then, I read less and less about them.  This one has been revived and it was loads of fun to open the box, bulging at the seams, and pull everything out.








The above photo doesn't really show you what is in the box.  There are no books, one magazine, and one instructional DVD.  This is nice as books take up so much room that might otherwise be allocated to fabric - lol!

Here are several patterns with a nice variety of projects.

...and some precuts.

...some notions, too!

To the fabric!  Several pinky/burgundy cuts, a few Asian pieces, some cute kids - just a nice variety.

For larger photos, please click over to my Flickr page.

I took one yard of a batik blender, the cute butterfly print, two cute modern prints, the Moda candy squares and the yellow scrap.  Also, two small needlework patterns.

Note: I took a third pattern not pictured here.

I added a Puttin' On the Ritz charm pack, some batik FQs since I took a batik, neutral and stripe FQs, a half yard of Riley Blake B&W, a Maisy panel to go with the kids novelty prints, and three small project patterns.

Now one of you can be the proud temporary owner of Traveling Stash Box #6!  

There are rules, which you can find here.  The most important rules are: (1) that you are an active blogger, (2) you agree to look through the box and get it on it's way to the next person in a timely manner, and (3) understand that as the winner, you pay the postage on the medium flat rate box to it's next stop.

For my own rules:

1.  The giveaway will run for one week.  A winner will be drawn at 9AM CST on Tuesday, Dec. 10th.

2.  Please be sure that you are not an anonymous blogger.  If you are unsure, please leave your email address in the comment.

Please tell me in your comment:  Do you have your Christmas decorations up?  Or, do you plan to put any up this year? 

Fell off the Wagon! !(stash report week 46)

Oh - did I ever!!!

First, a LQS had a post-market clearance sale.  I went in there needing nothing but a few greens for the new Bonnie Hunter mystery.  Well, at $1.99/yd, I came away with 9 yards (5 yards of light for a possible backing, right corner). 

Then, another 1.25 yards of green for $3.99/yd jumped onto the pile of bolts.  Finally, the one I knew I'd have a weakness for, the 108" wide fabric at 25% off plus another 30% off coupon leapt into my arms (top right)!

Guess what, 3 yards of extra wide equals 9 yards of regular fabric.  So, before the weekend my stash numbers took a big hit - 19.25 yards!  YIKES!!  It doesn't look like that much, does it?

Then, at our sew day yesterday, quilty friend Elise brought a big box of fabric from her closet.  She's de-stashing!

Well, at first I picked up 3 yards of novelty for pillowcases and bags for DS.  

After being near the table full of fabric all day, my will power waned.  Thoughts of backing for my Eleanor Burns Victory Quilt crossed my mind and a 6 yard cut moved to my bag (top).  Then, thoughts of holes in the stash reminded that there's not much yellow or purple.  After that, who can resist a 4 yard cut of floral Robin Pandolph for a possible future backing and a one yard cut of paisley in general?

Yes, my weakness garnered another 16 yards to add to the stash!

 I was so looking forward to being in the positive this year but it's just too late.  There is no way I can finish another queen size with holiday season looming.  It would take more than just one queen size quilt to put the numbers back in balance, so I have my UFO list to give me solice.  If Easy Street gets back from the quilter soon, it will be the 4th queen size UFO project crossed from my list this year.  

To the numbers......

Used this week: 0
Used YTD: 119.763
Added this week:35.25
Gifted this week: 0
Added YTD: 147.625
Net used YTD: -27.862

Check out some more stash reports at Judy's Patchwork Times.

Stash Report Week 45

Oh! How I wish everyday to be as productive as last Sunday.  

Unfortunately, quilting often takes a back seat to household chores, appointments, and, in my case, lack of sleep.  Can't FMQ when my days were starting at 4am.  So, I'm trying to get back on track today and hope to get more done on my MIL's Pineapple Blossom.

Here's the week's highlight!  A package of fabric from Hancock's of Paducah!  Yep - I shopped their "web sales" section again with an additional 15% off code.

The three neutrals will be cut up this afternoon for a neutral themed Scrappy Trip Along flickr swap.  We swap 2.5x17 inch strips.  I have no plans for a scrappy trip top, but hope to cut the strips into 2.5" squares or use the strips with Bonnie Hunter patterns.

The house print will also go into a future swap.  I'll keep the navy London bus fabric as my stash could use a few darks.

Off to get some chili fixin's and then, back to quilting.

To the numbers......

Used this week: 0
Used YTD: 119.763
Added this week:5.0
Gifted this week: 0
Added YTD: 112.375
Net used YTD: 7.388

Check out some more stash reports at Judy's Patchwork Times.

UFO Time Crunch (stash report week 44)

Now, I really must get quilting!

had it rolled this week 

The jelly roll Pineapple Blossom for my MIL needs to be finished before the holidays, preferably before Thanksgiving.  At our last guild meeting Dar, of Dar's Patchwork Garden, recommended Sharon Schamber's method of thread basting.

I'd read about it, read raves about it, but didn't seriously think of trying it myself.  However, Dar was so positive, that I went out and bought two MDF trim boards and in less than a few hours, had the lap quilt all basted using two strands of floss. No worries about the back being crinkly or wrinkly. 

And now I can count the front and back in the "used" column.  The backing is 4.3 yards so the scrappy front is 5.375 (4.3x1.25) for a total of 9.675 yards!

The quilting design came to me while I was basting as well.  So, maybe I will give that a start today.  We'll see!  I have holiday preparations to work on (i.e. cleaning the house thoroughly) and a yard to finally, once and for all, put to bed for the winter.

My additions came in a package from a Flickr charm swap.  This round we swapped one yard of neutrals and one yard of text fabrics.  As you can see, several of the text fabrics are also neutrals.

Leona, our generous hostess, also sent along some lovely batik strips, 27 to be exact.  They are so pretty and are colors that I do not have.  A scrappy batik quilt must be in next year's plans!





To the numbers......

Used this week: 9.675
Used YTD: 119.763
Added this week:2.0
Gifted this week: 1.875
Added YTD: 107.375
Net used YTD: 12.388

Check out some more stash reports at Judy's Patchwork Times.

A little bit added (stash report week 43)

Nothing much has happened here on the quilting front.

It's been a week of working out, school activities, starting the holiday house cleaning (b/c we're having a house sitter over Thanksgiving, then hosting the family Christmas), and getting houseplants indoors for the winter.  Lots of rearranging and de-cluttering has been occurring.

About 4 seams were sewn this week to get the Be Merry Christmas top in one piece.

Now to find border fabric and figure out how big the first one needs to be to accomodate the checkerboard border, b/c I'm sure I don't match the measurements given in the pattern.

Although, I have some tops that require some quilting, so this one may have to wait a while.

Two packages arrived this week.  The first was a belated birthday gift from Leona!

A cute FQ and a pattern - love this pattern company, Villa Rose Designs, very simple and quick.

The second was from the Scrappy Trip Along Flickr Swap.  So, I counted the fabric "out" and now I count it back "in" - all 3 yards of it.

I was so anxious to see the goodies that I sorted them loosely by color and put them in my bins. That's what happens when one is in house-cleaning mode!

I love this swap because you sign up in yard increments.  However, the 2.5" strips must be the equivalent of one yard and do not have to be all the same fabric.  It's a very nice way to share some duplicate FQs or some leftover scraps that you can't stand to see after using them in 3 or 4 projects!

Another reason I sorted the strips so quickly was to see if there were any colors that might work in Bonnie Hunter's new mystery quilt, Celtic Solstice.  She released her color pallet this week.

Bonnie is providing yardage requirements for 2 sizes - WooHoo!  After finishing almost 4 queen size quilts this year, I don't think I can look at another large project!

Quilty friend Elise is going to do this one with me - yeah!

I've only given my shelves a cursory look but I know this:  when it comes to gathering 2.25 yards of orange/pumpkin scraps from my stash, or that much of any particular shade of color except maybe blue - well, it won't be happening.

See, I only think I have a lot of fabric until I start to do a Bonnie Hunter quilt, then I know I'm way out stashed by so many quilters!  And, Elise is one of them!

Still in the black, barely!!!

Used this week: 0
Used YTD: 110.088
Added this week:3
Gifted this week: 0.25
Added YTD: 103.5
Net used YTD: 6.338

Check out some more stash reports at Judy's Patchwork Times.

Have a great week!

Moving in the right direction (stash report week 42)

It took about two weeks to gather the motivation to get the backing put together for Easy Street and get it to a long-armer from my guild. Since I no longer delay the gratification of counting fabric "out" until the binding is on, these numbers thrill me and put the "used" numbers back in the black - WooHoo!!

Like many quilters I consider patterns as a guideline, my Easy Street easily covered my queen size without the two borders that Bonnie used.  So, I put on narrow side borders and wider top/bottom borders to make it rectangular rather than square, measuring 91x95.  It took 8.33 yds to back it and 10.41 yds of scraps for the front (8.33x1.25).  That's 18.74 yds total - and I double checked my math b/c that is a crazy amount of fabric!

12.5x16.5 unfinished

Yesterday was our quilty friends sew day.  What a great day we had - good food - good conversation - good laughs.  

After working on borders and backing, I needed a small project.  I had been using the HSTs in this pattern as leader/enders while I worked on Easy Street.  Today I put them all together - love it!

At retreat one year ago I put this UFO top into sections.  Then, I had holiday projects to finish and never got back to it.  (Be Merry by BitsnPieces)

The hang up was the checkerboard border.  After doing Easy Street, I've learned to just buck up and stitch!  So, that's what I did yesterday.  I haven't counted to see how many more I need.  Then there's the inner border to figure but maybe I can get the top together by the holidays.


Back in the black!!!

Used this week: 18.74
Used YTD: 110.088
Added this week: 0
Gifted this week: 0
Added YTD: 100.25
Net used YTD: 9.838

Check out some more stash reports at Judy's Patchwork Times.

Have a great week!

Stash Report Week 40

Amazingly, I've gotten some sewing done despite being a tad under the weather, sinusitis and such.  Today is the first day I've worn jeans in months!  I love putting on jeans for the first time in the fall.


A few days ago I decided to sit and pin my BOM blocks.  There were two waiting for attention and I didn't want to fall behind.

Stitching 32 curved blocks, 16 squares per block, might make one think that they'd get better with practice.  It made me impatient, apparently.  For the first time there are actual pleats in my seams.  Oh well - they're done!





I finally started putting my second Pineapple Blossom blocks together and decided to use muslin sashing and cornerstones.  I had asked for help at our last sew day with the setting but I didn't have any sashing cut then.  The more I looked at what I had on the design wall, the more I felt I had to do something else.

The jelly roll fabrics just didn't have enough contrast to make this pattern sing, so all the pretty florals just jumbled together.  Splitting them up and adding a solid seemed to help.  Plus, it makes it a bit larger.  I may have it in one piece for next week's report.


Finally, feeling a bit better, I got the border on Easy Street.  I'm just using one border rather than the two that Bonnie put in the pattern.  My top is plenty big enough without a border for a queen size bed.

The quilt is square so I added a narrow border on the sides and a wider border on the top and bottom.  It's not a huge difference but it helps a bit with the overhang on the bottom.  I hope to get the backing together and get it to a long armer from my guild, whose services I've not used before, so that I can check it off this year's UFO list.

This was Bonnie Hunter's 2012 mystery quilt and its pattern will be in her next book.  If you are interested, she plans to release the color scheme for this year's mystery this month.

Used this week: 0
Used YTD: 91.348
Added this week: 0
Gifted this week: 0
Added YTD: 100.25
Net used YTD: -8.902

Check out some more stash reports at Judy's Patchwork Times.

Have a great week!