Sunday, December 25, 2011

Stash Report - Weeks 51 and 52

Well, here's the last stash report of the year. I almost didn't take the time to post today but when I remembered this would be the last report of the year, I decided to take a few minutes and do it before the obligatory afternoon Christmas nap.

I'm thrilled with the year-end totals!

Here's the report:

Fabric Added These Two Weeks: 7.50 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 195.125yard
Fabric Used These Two Weeks: 15.00 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 397.375yards
Net Fabric Used for 2011: 202.25 yard

UFOs Done, Done, Done (Pieced, Quilted, and Bound): 12
UFOs Still to Do: ??? (Why do I even bother putting this on the list?)
New Quilts Done, Done, Done (Pieced, Quilted, and Bound): 38
Quilts Ready to be Quilted and Bound: 11
Quilts Quilted and Ready to be Bound: 0

Check out how other quilters are doing with their stash usage.
Go to Judy L.'s Patchwork Times.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Design Wall Monday

Here's what's on the wall today.



I'm participating in the Iron Quilter Challenge at The Missouri Quilt Company and this is what I''ve made using two charm packs of Summer Breeze by Sentimental Studios for Moda Fabrics. Ignore the yellow fabric that looks like a border. That's the fabric that I want to use as backing and I'm checking to see if I have enough. I don't want to have to buy more fabric and I think that with creative piecing this will work. The quilt's kind of small, about 50" x 60" or so and it shouldn't take me long to finish. Of course since the challenge deadline is December 31st I really don't have much time to wait to finish this up now do I?

As much as I like this quilt, the really exciting thing about today's Design Wall Monday is the design wall itself! Up until this past week, my design wall measured about 60" x 76". Here's a link to a picture of the original design wall construction. Of course I quickly found out that even though that was great, I like making larger quilts and needed to add width to my wall. Here's a link to my solution - design wall "wings".

Well, there's an update. Jack, my wonderfully supportive husband built some sturdy, removeable wings and now my design wall has the ability to extend to 96" wide! AWESOME!!!



I have not added the batting to the wings yet, but that will happen soon. The wings are removeable, which I really like. Here's a view from back side of the wings. The cross bars hold the wings and give them stability. When not in use, they are stored behind the orginal design wall. The wings themselves are stored next to the original wall and are not in the way. YEAH!!



Here's a picture (partial view) of the back side of one of the wings. Do you see the brackets?



I'm so luck to have the space for this and a husband who "gets" what I do!

Check out what other quilters have on their design wall today. Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Stash Report - Weeks 48, 49 and 50

Well life has certainly gotten in the way of regular blogging lately. I look back to October when I participated in the Blogtoberfest and how I made it a priority to blog at least once everyday, even if it was a very short and to the point post. Well, obviously blogging hasn't made it's way to the top of my  priority list for December.

Anyway, I've done a little bit of quilting (mostly hand-work) in between all the other things that need/needed to get done (Thanksgiving, traveling, being sick, family stuff, etc.). I played around with a variety of projects, but I'm excited because I finally added the binding to this quilt, which I've named 4-Patch Galore. This has been quilted for a very long time and I just needed to bind it. As I was looking for the picture to post here, I realied that this picture is before quilting and binding and I haven't taken another one yet. I have to take care of that!



I also finished my Shadowbox quilt. Again, this picture is before quilting and binding. Thanks to everyone whe gave me suggestions and comments about my fabric choices for this quilt the last time I posted about it here!


I did some repair work for a friend on one of her grandmother's quilts and returned it to her before I took a picture of it. (DUHHHH) Maybe I can stop over and get a picture. It was a dresden plate quilt and needed some repair to the binding. I just added a new binding on top of the old one that was falling apart.

I did take the time to quilt the Cheese and Crackers quilt and will hopefully get the binding machine sewn today. That will give me a  hand-stitching project for when I don't have time to use the machine or when I'm not home. Of course I still have my hexagon quilt that I can always take, but I'm finding that the last 10 blocks are gettting pushed aside for other projects more frequently than not. It's too late for this year, but I've already set a goal to have that quilt DONE, DONE, and DONE (pieced, quilted and bound) during 2012. That should  be doable since I've decided that I'm going to have someone else hand quilt it for me. I know I'll just keep setting it aside and not do it myself, so why not just bite the bullet and send it out? A friend asked me why I didn't just machine quilt it and be done with it. I just can't see doing that when the entire quilt (king size) has been hand pieced.

Anyway, I digress   ramble. Here's the stash report (the main reason for this post).

Fabric Added This Week: 0.00yards
Fabric Added to Date: 187.625yards
Fabric Used This Week: 11.50 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 382.375yards
Net Fabric Used for 2011: 194.750 yard**

**I'm so close to 200 net yards used that I can smell it. I'm pretty confident that I'll reach it because I plan to quilt at least one large quilt this week or next and that backing should do it, plus I have a project that I have to finish for someone by the 29th and none of that fabric has been added. YEAH!!

UFOs Done, Done, Done (Pieced, Quilted, and Bound): 11
UFOs Still to Do: ??? (Why do I even bother putting this on the list?)
New Quilts Done, Done, Done (Pieced, Quilted, and Bound): 35
Quilts Ready to be Quilted and Bound: 12
Quilts Quilted and Ready to be Bound: 1

Check out how other quilters are doing with their stash usage.

Go to Judy L.'s Patchwork Times.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Stash Report - Week 47

Short and simple report today, as I have to help finish the wood splitting so we can get the splitter back to Ellen and be done before our Thanksgiving guests and travels begin.

This past week saw some productivity, at least more than in the past few weeks so I did use a bit of fabric. I also bought a little bit, but the good news is that it's all been used already!  :-)

Here's the report:
Fabric Added This Week: 4.75 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 187.625yards
Fabric Used This Week: 16.375 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 370.875 yards
Net Fabric Used for 2011: 183.25 yards

UFOs Done, Done, Done (Pieced, Quilted, and Bound): 11
UFOs Still to Do: ??? (Why do I even bother putting this on the list?)
New Quilts Done, Done, Done (Pieced, Quilted, and Bound): 33
Quilts Ready to be Quilted and Bound: 15
Quilts Quilted and Ready to be Bound: 1

Check out how other quilters are doing with their stash usage.

Go to Judy L.'s Patchwork Times.

Cheese and Crackers

I meant to post this earlier but got busy and forgot. :-(

I finished the interior of my Cheese and Crackers quilt. I had originally planned to add multiple borders to this (at least two and probably three), but I think I'm going to leave it just like this.


When I put the fabrics that I had planned for the border around this part, I felt like they just didn't work. I felt that I lost the design of the "cheese sticks" and I did not want that to happen. I could always look for alternate fabrics (I did check my stash and didn't find anything), but I really don't want to buy anything for this quilt. I already have the backing fabric set aside and now that I'm not including borders, I don't have to worry about whether or not it will fit. This is still a decent size, measuring just shy of 80" x 90".

Jack was looking at my border options and his suggestion was to leave it as is and use a brown binding which is what I was going to do anyway, but we don't have to tell him that. We'll just let him think he thought of it. :-)

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Done Shopping

Well, the wedding dress shopping was not an overwhelming success. :-(

The shop didn't have any of the dresses in which Lynn was interested. When she called to make the appointment, she asked if they carried the brand/maker that she likes and they said yes. She didn't think she needed to check all the model numbers, but I guess she shoud have. I'm not sure but I don't think they had any (maybe one) of the ones she had seen on line, but the saleslady did pull some that were close.

There was one dress that she liked alot, and Becky (Ty's mom) and I really liked it also. It was very flattering and she really looked great in it. I think she's going to call another shop (near Cleveland) that carries the brand she likes and ask them if they have the actual model numbers. I guess I'll be dress shopping at least one more time.

We did make a stop at Pat Catan's and were delighted with being able to find everything she was looking for. She even spoke to a manager about a possible discount on buying a large numbrer of candles and he agreed. What was really funny though is after he agreed and we were checking out, the candles were on sale for $1 less than the discounted price, which was 30%. Of course we got a few extra just in case they're needed. :-)

Shopping

I'm not a real shopper. Even when it comes to fabric shopping, I can only do it for so long before I have had enough. When it comes to Christmas shopping, I'm kind of lucky because my family celebrates Christmas and Thanksgiving together so I have to have that shopping done early (next week, folks!) so I do that and then can take a breather before shopping for everyone else.

Well, today is a shopping day, but not a Christmas shopping day. I'm going with Lynn and her future mother-in-law to shop for a wedding dress. :-) 

I'll let you know how it goes.