Sunday stash report

I've actually USED a lot of fabric this week, but none of it will give me a finish that I can count - yet. The top for the Cottage in the Woods is done, backing is pieced, binding is made, and I've made a few more blocks for Allietare. But no finishes.

As the photo shows, Allietare is coming along slowly. I'm wishing I had stuck with Bonnie Hunter's choice of grey where my green is, or that I had picked a nice clean blue. The green is OK but I think blue would have been even better. Oh well . . . 

I do have a big quilt being quilted so hopefully I'll have another finish to count fairly soon. I'm hoping that I have something in my stash that is suitable for binding it. Guess I need to do some digging later today.

In this week: 3 yds

In this year: 5 yds

Out this week: 0 yds

Out this year: 11.5 yds

I'm still happy to be ahead of my stash. 

Cottage in the Woods flimsy

I had an uninterrupted morning (except for laundry) in my sewing room today and look what was finished.  My collage in the woods top is all ready to be quilted. I really like how it turned out. 

And I dug through the stash to make a pieced backing for it. I found 3 yards of a tan, used up another 2/3 yard of the same green used in the border. And used another 1/3 yard of lighter green from the stash.  And made my binding from the same brown as the narrow inner border.  So it's ready to become a real quilt instead of just a flimsy. I'll figure out the total yardage used once it's all done. The green and brown borders came from 3 yards purchased this week.

Allietare progress

My mystery quilt progress is pretty slow. 10 star blocks are finished. 20 more to go and then 20 of the other block. 

I like these blocks - but it will be a slow WIP. 

Sashing or no sashing

Here are the cottage and pine tree blocks all laid out together. 

Now I'm trying to decide if I want to do this with or without sashing. Here it is without sashing above. Or maybe they need some cream sashing with small brown cornerstones. Or keep it all cream so it all floats.  I think I need to keep this on the design wall for awhile and let it percolate. Suggestions from my readers would be great. The cottage block idea came from a reader comment on a post about the pine tree blocks a couple of months ago. I think it was Nancy at Wyoming Breezes who suggested tucking a cabin into the woods. So clever!

12 of the pine tree blocks are the ones that I won on our bus trip to the Black Hills this fall. Those have signatures of the ladies that made them. One even has a star on top to look like a Christmas tree and that one will need to be close to the cottage. Two blocks are identical and from the same lady. I'm also considering making another tree and using one of the duplicates as my label on the back of the quilt.

Too many different options to consider.  But that is half the fun isn't it?  I'm linking up with Judy's Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

A little cottage & stash report

The small version of this cottage block is just as cute as the large version. Love this one even though there were a LOT of 1" squares in this little gem.

My big finish for the week was the flannel quilt so I get to add 12 yards to the used column. Yay!! That includes the 6 yards used on the back. 12 yards might be a bit low but since the quilt blocks and top were made so long ago I just doubled the backing and called it good.

In this week: 0 yds

In this year: 2 yds

Out this week: 12 yds

Out this year: 16.5 yds

So I've gotten a bit further ahead of the stash at least temporarily.

Cottage in the trees

Here is the non-30s fabric version of the cottage block. This one will be combined in some way with the pine tree blocks that I won on the bus trip for a "Cottage in the Woods" quilt. 

I won 12 pine tree blocks on our guild bus trip and then made 3 more. So adding this cottage will make a 16 block arrangement.  I don't know yet how I plan to arrange them but I'll probably keep it fairly simple. 

Cottage block

Another Farm Girl Vintage block added to the mix. This is the 12" version of the house/cottage block. Isn't it cute? I even found a green with daisies to use as the grass strips across the bottom.

But I also cut the pieces to make an identical 6" version, plus the pieces to do a non-30s version of the big block to go into a different project. 

Probably not much sewing will happen this weekend as we are going to some college basketball games on both Saturday and Sunday. But hopefully I'll get these other 2 blocks sewn. 

And I need to get back to working on my mystery quilt blocks again. I surely don't want that one to become a UFO.  I seem to have no trouble making single blocks here and there every week, but am not making much progress toward getting this big project moving along.

Farm Girl Vintage - cherries

This is such a cute block and it will join the others that I've made from the Farm Girl Vintage book. And I discovered that my choices of red 1930s fabrics was a bit limited. My only real criticism would be that the one green is too dark compared to the other 3, but it will be fine.

It's a good thing that Cindy warned us to look closely at the instructions for the stems, because they were a little tricky to line up correctly. 

Saturday Sampler progress

Some final blocks need to be finished, but overall I think this will be the final layout. I've even sewn row 1 already.  

I took the 14 small blocks and am making a 4-patch block using 2 pieced blocks and 2 print fabric blocks.  I framed a 4.5" square of the print with white. I think this will work. And I have enough of the print to use as a final border. But I'm getting way ahead of myself because first I need to finish the blocks.  Maybe by the end of the month,

Saturday Sampler 2003 is finally finished

This is an old UFO - and it's finally finished thankfully!  Ode to Aging was the name of this one and I made 2 that year. The other one was done in bright colors and it was finished right away and given away as a gift. But this one was done in flannel and I just didn't like it that much. So of course it went to live in a bin, or a drawer, and then hanging in the closet for 13 years.

Shame on me!  But I finished the binding while watching football on Sunday; it's finally done and I'll be able to add 12 yards of fabric used to my stash report next week. The size is a long twin, and it weighs a ton. It's about 85" long and only about 60" wide. 

Sunday stash report - January 17

Nothing in this week and nothing out - at least no finishes to claim.  I've been working on the binding on the flannel quilt but since it is black binding I've limited my evening sewing on it.  I did work on individual blocks for RSC16 and Saturday Sampler, but that was about it. On Saturday I got my RSC16 column (row) put together. 

And Sunday sewing included making the last large block and planning my layout. The last appliqued floral block and the small version are left to make. Planning was complicated for this one, but finally I made some paper pieces to represent the 6 appliqued blocks, 12 large blocks, and 14 small blocks. Then I started rearranging them until I found a layout that I liked. I'm going to make some additional small blocks out of a coordinating print to go with the pieced ones. Next steps will be to play with the actual blocks.

In this week: 0 yds

In this year: 2 yds

Out this week: 0 yds

Out this year: 4.5 yds

So I'm still ahead of my stash, but not by much.  Yet!! Maybe by next weekend I'll have that binding done and can count the whole flannel quilt in the used column. 

Row 1 of RSC16 is done

This row reads sort of blue which was the color of the month. Actually it is a vertical column rather than a row.  

Maybe I used a little too much purple. But it's pretty so I am happy with the result. And ready to see what February brings. 

This morning I also cut all of my pieces for the last Saturday Sampler block. And I finished another mystery quilt block. Instead of sewing this afternoon I am headed to a basketball game. 

An attitude adjustment

I took the morning off today . . . call it a mental health day. Unfortunately I do have to work this afternoon.  Some work frustrations are getting the better of me lately, so I need an attitude adjustment desperately.

But I refreshed my creative energy a bit this morning by making one more Twinkle Star and cutting out all of the pieces for the last 4. That will give me 8 of them for the RSC16 column quilt. I also made a few more units for the mystery quilt.

This month's color is blue with an optional touch of purple. I can't quite decide if today's block has too much purple or not. But, I'm keeping it because it is pretty. The star points and corners are a dark blue and purple batik. And like always with a batik the color can look so different in different sections.

My first block didn't have any purple and I have one more ready that will be only blue. And I guess if this column (vertical row) reads mostly blue from a distance, then it will be fine.

Sunday Status of the Stash - January 10

The only fabric purchases made so far this year . . . 1 yard of black flannel to use for binding an extra long twin sized flannel quilt and a snowman panel that was 50% off. I picked up the quilt from the long arm quilter and hopefully I'll get that binding on during this next week so I can count the whole quilt as "used" yardage. I did the machine work on that binding yesterday so now I need to trim it and then do the hand stitching. 

I finished some pillowcases this week, including this short one using a Disney Princess panel. It is just big enough to hold an 18 or 20" square pillow form.  This one may have to be mailed to my niece in Texas to give to her granddaughter since they just returned from a trip to Disney World where she had the ultimate princess experience.

In this week: 2 yds

In this year: 2 yds

Out this week: 2.5 yds

Out this year: 4.5 yds

So I'm still ahead of my stash by a little.  

Using stash a little bit at a time

Two more full size pillowcases and one "short" pillowcases can be added to the "done" pile. Not a big accomplishment but it is more of that stash used up. I have decided to keep the black and white tuxedo cat one for myself since my cat Sammy is a tuxedo. 

The smaller pillowcase is from a Disney Princess panel - will have to take a picture of that and post another time. 

Twinkle Star #3

One more of these cute little 9" blocks for RSC16 is ready to add to the column.

This one was made during my lunch break which proves they are quick and easy to do. I think I was calling it a twisted star in an earlier post but the name is Twinkle Star.

The dark star points and corners are actually a dark purple but they look dark blue in my photo. I need to lay these out in some good light instead of the lamp and the grey, dreary natural light in the house.

It has a friend . . .

My twisted star block for RSC16 has a friend now. I made a second block and this one is also completely made from scraps.

The color for January is blue with a touch of purple as an accent if we want. My first block was all blue, but this new one does have a touch of purple added. And I like that little surprise.

I have a lot of blue scraps and purple scraps so these should be pretty easy to do although I haven't decided yet how many I will do. The instructions show sizes using 6 or 8 blocks so we'll see what I decide. This is a quick block to make and ends up 9 inches.

Check out the tutorial for the column quilt for RSC16 created by So Scrappy at http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/p/rsc16-sampler.html

Word of the Year

I need to declutter my mind, my life, my workspace, my creative space . . . Let go of things that are not important . . . Eliminate the things that stress me . . . In short, I need to SIMPLIFY. This will take some work this year, because my natural tendency is more toward the messy and the complex.  

Sunday Stash Report

The first stash report of the new year and I'm ahead of my stash so far. Not that I expect to stay that way for long, but it's a nice start.

No purchases added this week but there has been quite a bit of sewing in short bursts.  I've been plugging away on my Allietare mystery quilt (Bonnie Hunter) and I dug into my scrap bins for blues to begin the RSC16 (http://super scrappy.blogspot.com ), the Rainbow Scrap Challenge hosted by SoScrappy. This first block is called Twinkle Star.

Two new pillowcases are the only actual finishes, but they do count towards stash busting.

In this week: 0 yds

In this year: 0 yds

Out this week: 2 yds

Out this year: 2 yds

Last year I ended the year having used 198 yards of fabric. That number actually shocked me. The stash won by a few yards, but I still look at this number as a positive thing. Maybe I can do even better in 2015.

I'm also linking up to http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com/ for the Oh Scrap! Post this week.

First finish of 2016 & Goals

I did manage to finish 2 of the 4 pillowcases yesterday that I cut out. I have no idea when I purchased that geometric fabric or for what. So it was time to get it out of my stash. The purple cuffs were left over backing from a recent quilt.

The next 2 are ready to go. The tuxedo cat fabric was purchased because it made me think of my Sammy. So I may need to keep that one for myself. 

I've been thinking about goals for the year - quilting, life style, work.  I started the year of 2015 with a goal to declutter, and that one needs to go back onto the top of this year's goal list. It is a constant struggle as I inherited some strong pack rat genes. 

As for quilting goals, well that includes keeping up with new projects, finishing up some old projects, and learning something new. That kind of covers all of the bases. 

I'm going to keep doing Saturday Sampler and the Sew Vintage group at my local quilt shop. I'm already excited about starting the RSC16 (Rainbow Scrap Challenge) hosted by SoScrappy. Beyond that . . . I hope to find some other fun new projects along the way. 

Happy New Year

It's a new year and I decided to begin with a little organizing. My 1930s stash had become a huge mess because I've been lazy about putting anything back as I've dug into those fabrics for Farm Girl Vintage and 1930s Farm Wife blocks.

So, one of my first tasks this morning was sorting by color and refolding anything that needed it. The small 30s scraps went into the little blue basket. The folded fabrics went back onto the shelf. And now I will be able to find what I need much easier.  Plus it isn't quite the eyesore that it had become.

Then I pulled some fabrics out of the stash that I could use for pillowcases, and cut fabrics for 4 new pillowcases - from the stash.  Maybe later today I'll start sewing on those. Last year I made and gave away about 50 pillowcases and that would be a good goal to repeat.

It always feels good to get more organized even if it's on a small level. One of the other "organizing" tasks I usually do this time of year is to update my UFO list. I was really pleasantly surprised to see how many things from last year's list are finished. And I created a new list for 2016. It's slightly shorter than the previous one, which a positive thing isn't it?