Stashbusting report

I thought I had nothing to report for stashbusting – lots in the work but nothing finished to top stage where I usually count it. But then I glanced up and there sitting on the ironing board is the new shower curtain I made yesterday and just need to add the buttonholes along the top to finish it today.  The bathroom is getting a fresh look.

So add in that fabric used and my numbers stand at:

53.75 yards used year to date

21 yards purchased year to date (I haven’t added in my Camp Loopy Safari fabrics yet since they haven’t arrived – with Camp the next three months, there should be much fabric movement in and out as each project has to be done by the end of it’s specific month).

So year to date net used is:  32.75 yards.

Hopefully this one will be finished to top stage by next week.

  I’ve just got about half the last block to applique yet. These will just get a thin little sashing strip between them.  Not sure yet if it will get a border or if I will be borderless.

One of my favorite blocks (other than the upper left one that looks like knit fabric) is this one.

Critters in their little sleepers.  I have a whole other stack of these cut out  for a boy’s version – lots of bugs and fire trucks and dogs.  Need to gather a few more fabrics for that one.

 

Happy Mother’s Day!

Stash in and stash out

There’s been lots of sewing the past two days, but only a tiny finish to add to the “used” tally of the stash busting report which does not in any way equal the new fabrics that came in for two projects. 😉  But nonetheless the stash page has been updated.

More Tiny Dancer blocks were made this morning.

 They are definitely very addictive to make.  I’m nearing the end of the jelly roll strips that will work for this project – some of the strips have too large a print or very wide stripe and print that I don’t think will show up well.  I can only get one block out of a strip but I think I’ve got enough left of the strips I’ve already used that I can get a half block out of them so where there are half block around the outside in some of the photo to straighten off that side, I’ll move those half blocks to create full ones and replace them with.

I think I’ve got six or seven more blocks cut and then I’ll see where I’m at.

I also pulled out some binding left over from some other project which was great for this little hummingbird.

  I just need to hand stitch the binding to the back.

 

4/5/15 Stashbusting Report

 

Autumn Ripples Revisited – 4/4/15

I just had to show yesterday’s finish again because I love fall colored quilts.  You can see the full report here with updated photos of recent finishes/ufos to completed top stage.  One more project out of the tops stash and now finished and ready to use and today’s project will be quilting a baby quilt which I should have done by the end of the day.  Then on to quilting the queen size wedding quilt.

It’s been a very relaxing week of vacation with much knitting and quilting – someone really should clean up the mess I made in the sewing room but for today, I’ll concentrate on quilting.

So 10 more yards used this week, no purchases added in. There are purchases coming, but they haven’t arrived yet.  The purchases will be for the Block Party Picnic quilt along and I might have ordered a quilt kit – something I very seldom do since I normally like picking my own fabrics.  But it was on sale, and it’s a bit of a mystery since it warns that some of the fabrics are not the same as shown – and it’s one of those designs that just makes me smile when I look at it.  Thank goodness vacation is over and I go back to work tomorrow – being on vacation can be expensive even if you don’t go anywhere. 🙂

But in the meantime, if you’d like to work on a great stashbusting quilt (or need an excuse to order new fabric) click the Block Party Picnic image in the sidebar and it will take you to the links for the yardage, color image of the quilt, and also a blank line drawing in case you want to get your colored pencils out and color in where you want to place certain fabrics.  I haven’t decided the exact date for the Block Party Picnic QAL, but it will be sometime next month.

Happy stashbusting!

Sunday Stash Report and stuff

Ah some progress on the fabric stashbusting front since I can now add in the fabrics for my Moda Challenge quilt.

As I was adding the in something definitely didn’t seem right and last time I updated the  State of the Fabric Stash page I added in my net fabric used as the amount purchased YTD.  I knew I hadn’t bought that much new fabric!

I have it straightened out again and the numbers stand at 9 yards purchased YTD, 32.5 yards used, net busted 23.5 yds.  You can see the rest of the information – quilts started, items to top stage and I actually not have a complete finish — at the linked page above.

Speaking of stashes – you know you have too many yarny things in process and yarn items and patterns stashed in too many different, unorganized places when you cannot find the front of a sweater you had finished!  Yes, the search was on for a cotton top I had started last year some time.  I’ve been working on it off and on between Loopy Academy and CF KAL projects and just finished last night the elbow length sleeves I was knitting two at a time.  I had the back of the sweater in one knitting basket, and I’ve even already blocked the back, but the front was not there.  So after searching what I thought were all the logical places, I remembered the brown laundry basket where at some point I had dumped a bunch of random stuff — small items in progress I wasn’t liking and need to rip back and rewind the yarn, yarn that had mysteriously arrived in my mailbox that I hadn’t put in the proper storage containers yet, leftover bits and bobs from other projects, socks in progress, etc — a mish mash of knitting stuff.  So after trying to dig through it and making a tangled mess, I just dumped it all out.  No sweater top there (it was nicely folded and put on the shelf that attaches to the bottom of my new ironing board – I’m not used to having one with a shelf there so didn’t even notice it the first time I checked the sewing room.).  So today’s task — clean up and organize this mess, along with the other new yarn that has come in and also sort through the other various baskets of knitting scattered about the living room and sort of prioritize what I want to work on.   It’s a good day for this type of job since Mother Nature is being a nuisance!!  Gray, gloomy, very windy, low 30s and it’s currently sleeting.

But here is my found sweater.  I need to block the front and sleeves and I’ll be ready to stitch it together.  The first photo shows the true color – sort of aqua easter egg color –

but the second photo shows the lacy stitch a bit better and the bottom of the sleeves and hems of front and back are seed stitch.

I may get this blocked later this week but in the meantime, time to go sort that pile of yarny goodness I dumped on the floor.

State of the Stash – Fabric Stash – 3/8/15

I did have an addition to the fabric used column yesterday — adding in the fabric used for the Because of the Brave Moda Challenge quilt top I showed yesterday will now bring my totals to:

Fabric purchased year to date:             9.0 yards (Kona fqs)

• Fabric used year to date:                         31  yards
• Net stash used:                                             22.0 yards

That’s a really good start to the year for me.

You can see the rest of the totals I’m tracking (new started projects versus UFOs completed, etc) at the State of the Fabric Stash page by clicking the button in the sidebar for that page.  If you click on the quilt images there they will enlarge.

My numbers above will take a step backwards next week though.

These fabrics should be arriving on Monday.  They will be joining some fabrics I’ve pulled from the stash and will be used for my PatchKats quilt.

Remember – the PatchKats project starts the weekend after next on National Quilting Day so gather your fabrics.  All info (yardage) can be found by clicking the image of the PatchKats quilt in the right sidebar of my blog.

Hobbit Shoes

My Hobbit Shoes were dry this a.m. and couldn’t wait to try them on.

They are the perfect fit!  And oh so warm, even after I stepped out onto the cement outside my door in my jammies this morning to get a photo in actual daylight.  I did not loiter long though since it’s not a fit day for man or beasty or woman in hobbit shoes to be outside since the temp is zero and the wind chills are – well whatever they are they are just too dang cold!

I love that these come up around the ankles and keep them toasty as well, whether the tops are folded down or up straight.  My worry was they would slip around but they are a great fit.  They need a shave with the sweater shaver (which obviously was put somewhere “special” and not back in the drawer where it usually resides) so that will have to wait but then the colors on the top part of the will brighten up a bit with the looser halo of fuzzies removed.

Hot biscuits just came out of the oven  and are calling to me ….

Oh – and no update on today’s State of the Stash – Fabric Stashbusting front.   The numbers remain the same as last week.  No sewing time this past week but no fabric purchases either.

On The Needles – Jan 30, 2015

Lots of sweater pieces on and off the needles and laying in curling piles.  From left to right – my CF luau vest: back done, right front done, and it sort of blends into the back because it’s laying on top of it – but I’ve got a few inches of the left front done.  Need to wind another ball of yarn for that one.

In the middle is my CF Deep Winter KAL sweater – Stonington – a cardigan.  Back is done and laying on top of that is the right front – I’m about a third done with the front.

And lastly only right, my CF Featherweight KAL sweater.  One side/underarm seam is done and I need to seam the other side (which takes a long time on that fingering weight yarn) and then add the ribbing bands that go on the front and neck area.

And, in addition to having three new sweaters, think of all that yarn yardage to add to my “used” tally. 🙂  It will be offset soon with a yarn purchase tho — the information for Loopy Academy Semester II came out today.  I was on the fence as to whether I’d continue since the first semester projects took me away from my sweater knitting.  But the second semester projects are all about different techniques  and the minimum yardage requirement for each of the three projects  is not huge so I decided I’d do second semester.  So I’ll at least get my Freshman year completed at the Academy!   Check out the link – you can join in at any time – do first semester now, or be an over achiever and do both semesters at the same time to graduate with the rest of the freshmen. 🙂   One good thing – even with purchasing yarn for the class projects I know they won’t linger in the stash because they have to be done by the deadline.    I ordered yarn for the first of the three required projects, which is a felting project.

I ordered some Lorna’s Laces Haymarket and this color is Huron.  I’m going to wait to decide what I want to make with it when I get it.  I want to see the colors in person and see how it looks when you start knitting it up.  I think the colors might go really well with my bedroom furniture (the palest blueish green looks to be the color of my furniture) and I’m thinking felted bowl for on the dresser or bookshelf – those places that serve as a catch all for change or jewelry that never seems to make it back in the jewelry box, or the collection of shawl pins.

The other projects are knitting stripes and making something with a slip stitch pattern in it – but they can be anything (no specific pattern like cowl or socks, etc.)   I have several patterns that would work in my Ravelry library so I’m planning to also use projects I have been wanting to make from my Ravelry library instead of search out new patterns.

Now to stick dinner in the oven and then wind another ball of yarn for my vest – I’m hoping to get the other front done tonight (which is probably not possible even if I do stay up all night LOL) but I’d definitely like to have it finished so I can get it blocking by Sunday.

Sunday Morning Sewing – 1/25/15

I’ve been puttering in the sewing room this morning.  I did update the State of the Stash page (button in sidebar) with this weeks totals.  I did add all those lovely Kona fat quarters in.  So I’m doing better not buying yarn than I am not buying fabric but I don’t randomly buy fabric just because I like it.  I do only buy with a plan and those fat quarters will be used in several projects.  So if you check the Stash page you’ll see I’m still in the black (thank goodness for the backing on the wedding quilt which offset those 36 fat quarters!) 🙂

I already put part of those two fat quarters to use (how’s that for stashbusting!) LOL . This morning I quickly pieced two blocks of the Dr. Seuss quilt to see if I liked them as well in fabric as I do on paper/computer screen.  And I do.  These will be fairly quick and fun to make.

  I posted a photo of what the whole layout will look like yesterday.  It will be fun picking fqs to match up to the Seuss precuts.

 

Here’s the photo that appeared in Quiltmaker in addition to Emerald City (which I didn’t notice until later yesterday after posting the first one). They also give directions for a  wall hanging size project that they call Peridot — it looks like it was made in honor of St. Patty’s Day with all those various green and white fabrics.

State of the Stash (fabric stash that is) 1-4-15

What a lazy day I’ve had – I never nap but I did today which just blew my whole afternoon. 🙂  So I’ve accomplished very little – other than getting about 3″ knit on my new Winter KAL sweater.  Back to work tomorrow – my vacation is over – my cold is not over but at least I wasn’t at the office during the worst of it to share the germs with my co-workers.

I had planned to get back in the sewing room to sew the final seams of my mystery quilt, but  decided I’ll leave that until later this week.  I will post a photo tomorrow of my blocks up on the design wall so if you’re working on the mystery and don’t want to see the reveal – well you have been warned.

My plan for this year is to count fabric as used once a top is completed.  I actually sewed way more fabric than I accounted for last year since I was waiting until it was a finished project to add it.  So when a project has reached completed top stage, I’ll add it in to fabric used and then when backing is used when it gets quilted that will be a separate addition.

I’m also going to keep track of number of new projects started versus number of projects finished.   I did fairly well (at least better than some prior years) with starting and finishing projects last year since many of them were for Camp Loopy or challenge projects that had a definite deadline.  So I will see how this year goes — if I’ll be a starter (starting way more projects than I finish) or if I’ll be a finisher (finishing what I start and then some — which is I hope the category I’ll end up in a year from now).

So for the first state of the stash report of 2015:

Fabric purchased year to date:  zero

Fabric used year to date:  zero

Net stash used:  zero

Projects started in 2015:  1 (Seeing Stars Mystery Quilt)

Projects completed in 2015:  0

Check out the other Fabric Reports/Stashbusing at Judy’s Patchwork Times.

 

Sunday Stashbusting and other fun

I’ve actually been in the sewing room the last couple of days — doing, amazingly enough some sewing.  Of course that doesn’t yet affect the numbers of my stashbusting report, which currently stand at:

But I hope by next weekend to have my Asian quilt top I’ve been working on finished.

I also going to pull this wall hanging out of the closet — I think it got set aside with only the side sashings to get added to it since I’m not sure I’m going to add any other borders to it.

It needs to get finished so I will have a new fall wall hanging to put up.

While I had planned to get to work right away sewing sashing on my other project, I opened up EQ and of course now a couple hours have gone by.  Every so often I go back through the old EQ designs to see if any of them “speak” to me.  Sometimes going back I see something different, or see what needs to be changed.

Sometimes turning the blocks on point makes all the difference – sometimes not. 

When I turned one block on point and plugged in the blocks,  I was looking at it thinking “this looks familiar”…. why….

and then it finally came to me — it looks like a granny square crocheted afghan.  🙂

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But enough of that fun — more coffee, something to eat, and then I’ve got blocks to sash.