Stash report - 20 November 2011

Nothing in and nothing out of the stash this week.  I bought a couple of FQs yesterday, but they're for a gift, so will go right back out, so won't be counted.

I did get a chance to stitch for a few minutes last night and a few more this afternoon.  I finished my Mittens quilt!  The grandchildren immediately claimed it for cuddling on the family room floor.

I don't know if I'll have a chance to sew at all this week.  Thursday will be spent at the family Thanksgiving gathering, and Friday DD works but the grandchildren will be at home, so I'll have babysitting duty.

Numbers this week:
In this week:                          0      yds
In YTD:                               93.92 yds
Out this week:                        0      yds
Out YTD:                             53.20 yds

Net for 2011:                        40.72 yds ADDED to stash

Check with Judy at Patchwork Times to see how everyone else is doing this week.

Stash report - 6 November 2011

Yesterday I quilted my Mittens quilt.  I love the way it turned out!  I used the "Winter White" pantograph (Dave Hudson) - it's snowflakes, but not too dense, so the quilt is still "fluffy".  I pulled left-over binding pieces from my bag and put on a scrappy binding.  It's now waiting for the hand-stitching of the binding to the back.

So numbers for this week:

Added this week:            0      yds
Used this week:              1.89 yds (wide backing for mittens)

Added YTD:                  93.92 yds
Used YTD:                    53.20 yds

Net for 2011:                 40.72 yds added to stash

Check with Judy at Patchwork Times to see how everyone else is doing this week.

Stash report - week 25, 19 Jun 2011

I've had a productive week this week with my two vacation days. 
I made the three pillowcases for the grandchildren.  I finished the binding on my Mexican Cross - it just needs a label, which is printed out.  I finished my Inspiration Round Robin from several years ago - binding/hanging sleeve and label are all attached.  And I made a Jelly Roll Race quilt top (of course, I bought the jelly roll for that this week).

I did make quite a few purchases this week:  fabric for the pillowcases, there are leftovers from that.  Then the jelly roll (actually a Bali Pop), with some 1/2 yds and FQ of batik for my jelly roll quilt, and a honey bun because it was really the type of fabric I wanted and couldn't find in a jelly roll.  That will be turned in to something this coming week.

So my numbers are overall moving in the wrong direction, but I'm pleased with what I got, and am happy with my UFO progress so far this year.

Numbers:
In this week:              13.11 yds
Used this week:           6.17 yds

In YTD:                     56.54 yds
Used YTD:                42.43 yds

Net for 2011:             14.11 yds in


Check with Judy at Patchwork Times to see how everyone else is doing this week.

UFO number for June

Judy has drawn #8 for June. My #8 is my Shakespeare in the Park. Right now, I have all the blocks made for the twin size that is the way the pattern is presented in the book. I put it away at that point when I decided that I like it well enough to want to put this on my bed. So now I need to cut out and piece a lot more blocks. The good news is I have a week's vacation coming up later this month with only one day committed to something else. It would be really great to have most of the piecing done so this could be quilted that week. If DH really goes out riding somewhere for the weekend, I might get a start on that. Pulling those fabrics will also give me a chance to cut squares for my friend Marianne's ivory charms. That will follow putting the trimming, making the binding and putting it on to finish the Mexican Cross.

UFO #6

I pulled out UFO #6 this week - it's my challenge quilt from The Quilting Post from several years ago.  I couldn't find the leftover challenge fabric I had intended to use for the backing, so I pulled something else from the stash.  This isn't a very large quilt - about 28 x 43.  The quilting is finished, and it's unloaded.  Now it needs trimming and binding.  If I can get the binding on, it might be a good project for in the car on the way to the basketball game tomorrow. 

A new year, a new (old) project

Well, it's the first of the month, so Judy at Patchwork Times has picked this month's number out of the bag:  the first UFO focus project for the year is #6 - for me, that's my TQP Challenge project.  This is ready to be quilted, and the quilting will be used to secure the fusible applique.

Before I get to that one, I need to finish the quilting for the project that's currently on the longarm - that one is actually #9 on my list - the QuiltBug mystery from New Year's Day, 2008.  I'm almost finished with the quilting - I have 3 sides left of the inner border, then the outer border, and the quilting will be done.  I plan to get lots of things quilted this year!

Judy's 2011 UFO Challenge

Judy L. at Patchwork Times is having a UFO Challenge for 2011.  You list 12 projects you want to finish.  On the first day of each month, she will pick a number from 1-12.  That is the project you work on for that month.

My list is:
1. Judy Martin Swap Blocks - finish assembling, borders, quilt, bind
2. Mittens - borders, quilt, bind
3. QOV mystery - borders, quilt, bind
4. Mexican Star - borders, quilt, bind
5. SVQG Round Robin - quilt, bind
6. TQP Challenge - quilt, bind
7. NYE 07 mystery - quilt, bind
8. SITP - decide if it needs to be bigger, (more blocks?), assemble, quilt, bind
9. Quilt Bug 2008 Mystery - quilt, bind
10. Fall tablerunner - borders, quilt, bind
11. Sunbonnet Sue - quilt, bind
12. Christmas stars blocks - setting, borders, quilt, bind

Are you seeing a pattern here?  Lots of things get held up at the "needing borders" stage.  And I have a lot of quilting to do.  Next week leading up to Christmas is going to be busy with family, but the week after Christmas is vacation - and I plan to spend some time in my sewing room.  It would be good to get some of the backings and binding ready for all the quilts I'm going to try to get quilted next year.

Stay at home retreat

I've been having a solo stay-at-home quilt retreat this weekend.  I took Friday as a vacation day and have been quilting all weekend.

On Friday, I pulled out a set of swap blocks from the "Romp in the Swamp" with The Quilting Post friends.  Because we had a retreat in Louisiana, our swaps were Southern or Louisiana themed.  The set I worked with this weekend was stars in Mardi Gras colors - green, gold and purple.   Sashing, backing, and binding are all from stash.  The quilting on this one is a freehand ribbon meander - sort of like streamers.  I even had a batt and thread in the stash that worked for this one

I'm calling this Mardi Gras.  The binding is sewn on the front, but still needs to be turned and hand stitched to the back.















I just took off the machine another quilt from swap blocks, also through TQP.  This is a from a swap of 6" blocks in 30's reproduction prints.  I got some half-circle templates yesterday, and quilted this with Baptist fans. 
This also has the binding applied, but still needing to be stitched to the back.

The next set of blocks I"m working on is much older - these are from a 1995 swap, on Genie, I think.  We had a group of 25, each of us picked a focus fabric and a Judy Martin block pattern.  We sent a piece of our focus fabric to each person, and we all made our selected block in the different fabrics.  My focus fabric was a teal background with wheat-brown flowers and purple leaves.  I've put my blocks up on the design wall (looks like I did not make my own block in my focus fabric....)

I want this to be a bed-size quilt, so I'm going to do some type of sashing, and maybe a series of borders - narrow inner border, then a pieced border of some sort, then maybe a final narrow border.  I went to the LQS yesterday and found to pieces of brown that go well with the brown in my focus fabric, and one piece of wine that matches one of the leaf colors, so I've got something to work with.  I think I'll play with some designs in EQ before I start cutting anything.

Oh, and all of the pictures today are from my new camera.  I was having a lot of trouble getting clear pictures with my old camera, so I got a new Canon PowerShot SD1300IS.  I like it so far.

Time to find some lunch.   DH will be back from his mini-vacation in a little while, so I'll probably stay out of the sewing room this evening. 

Busy Day

Well, kinda.  Today started EARLY - up at 2:30 a.m. so we could take DMIL to the airport.  Leaving her at the security line seemed almost as bad as leaving one of the children there by themselves.  Even if we know that she's perfectly capable of managing her bag and getting through security and to her gate all by herself, LOL.  We did get a call mid-afternoon that she has safely arrived at her destination. 

Dance practice this afternoon.  Some things are working, and some just aren't.  I think I'll be working on natural spin turns forever....When we go in to practice tomorrow, I expect they'll be better - it seems to work that way.  One day the timing is just off, then the next it works.  At least I hope so.  Even the things that don't feel like they are working right are much better than they were at our last competition, so I'm really pleased with our progress.  Having the dance floor in the living room where we can really work on one figure at a time is helping.

This afternoon I worked some more on organizing my sewing room.  I got rid of all of the batting scraps that were piled in the corner.  They were mostly usable sizes, but had become a favorite cat bed, so they got tossed.  Underneath the batting were two cardboard bankers boxes.  Both had sewing things - one had my BOM blocks from several years ago, still in their mailing envelopes.  I had wondered where those had gotten to....so they now reside (out of the mailers) in a plastic shoe box on the shelf of the spare bedroom.  The other box had miscellaneous dressmaking scraps - those went in the trash, and some quilt books and magazines.  The books are on the shelf in the spare bedroom, and the magazines got boxed up with most of the others from the sewing room to go to the storage building until things are straightened up enough that I can decide where to keep them.  I also found my Featherweight - it was also hiding under the batting scraps.  I knew it had to be in there somewhere, but couldn't figure out if it was in the back under the cutting table or where...

Tomorrow I'll run to Walmart and get some more plastic drawers to put where the bankers boxes were - I can make a nice stack of those to hold some more folded stash.  I'm trying to get rid of all of the totes that are stacked around - they're too difficult to get anything out of, so nothing in them actually gets used.  By having everything folded and in the drawers, I can see everything and get to it to use it.  Once it's all folded, I'll have to go through everything one more time to sort by colors, but that will wait for now.  I'm also going to get a couple more plastic shoeboxes for storing UFOs - if I keep everything for a project together in its own box, then I can just pull one out and work on it - then put it away in its box if it reaches a stopping point before it's done.  Storing those in the spare bedroom closet also frees up space in the sewing room.

I almost have the longarm table cleared off - without putting it all on the ironing board or cutting table, so I'll be able to load some of these tops and get them quilted.  The next project after that will have to be finding somewhere to store all the finished quilts - or sending some off for others to enjoy.