Sunday Stash Report #40 - Overwhelmed with fabric!

 What could be better than being gifted with one bag of fabric?

 

How about 5 bags - these are large Kitchen Catchers stuffed to the gills!

 

I have been working my way through the bags for the last two weeks.  Every night when I get home I pull out a stack and divide it up.  There are yards of quilting cottons - the average size of most pieces is about 2 metres, but some are as large as 4 metres.  Once I pulled them all out, I had a 3-foot high stack!

 

 

There is fleece, linings, knits, poly-blends and satins mixed in.

And even quilt battings, interfacing (both fusible and non-fusible) and quilting frames.

I am sharing the wealth with some of fellow sewists.  My sister is getting 2 bags of the non-quilting related fabrics, with the exception of a few knits I'm holding back.  My best friend is getting one bag full - I'm sharing the quilting cottons with her by dividing them up.

There were a bunch of "scraps"  - some of these totaled a yard or more of leftovers from projects she had made (like aprons,etc.)  I've been working through those, cutting them up Bonnie Hunter-style.

As I'm working through the stacks of fabrics, I am cutting a 6" strip off the end of the larger pieces.  When I'm done, I plan on having a giveaway right here on my blog (hopefully next week)!  Any Bonnie Hunter fan will love these - there is everything from modern to 1970's calicos.  So far, I have 24 strips (4 yards) put aside, but there will be more by next week.

I have lost count of how much came in, but I have estimated that I kept about 25 metres of the quilting cottons for myself and gave about the same to my friend - I am going to make my added-this-year figure an even 200.  So that is what is in, folks!  I better start punching out some of those projects.  I am officially on a fabric diet until the end of the year.

Added since my last report: 28 metres

Added Year-to-Date: 200 metres

 

Used since last report: 11.5 metres

 

Used Year-to-Date: 41 metres

 

Net used/Added for 2013: 159 metres

 

 

Although I had some finishes this week, they weren't enough to offset the very generous gift I received. I finished this Chevron Chenille from this tutorial by Anneliese of aesthiticnest.com!

 

Of course, I didn't get a picture after the many hours of cutting - by that time I had to leave for the baby shower!  This little quilt is deceiving, what I thought would be a quick project took a lot of hours, about 5 hours of stitching every single one of those chevrons and twice as many cutting them.  I used small scissors as it was easier to control. If I'm ever crazy enough to make one of these again, I would use one more layer of flannel in the middle (I used 2).  This project was good for 4 1/2 metres used.

 

And this I-Spy and another one almost the same - these were birthday gifts for my 3-year-old grand-nephews. My twin nieces are so in sync that they managed to have babies 3 weeks apart.  Not only that, they both delivered at the same time of day, on a Saturday, and they weighed exactly the same.  (In a funny coincidence, my grandchildren were also born on Saturdays and weighed the same)

I love making I-Spy quilts for the littles.  I keep them simple, using 99 different 5" squares in a 9x11 layout.  I back them with minkee for a nice warm cuddly quilt and just quilt them with a cross-hatch from corner to corner for the boys (and a petal design for girls).  I plan on making a couple for the friend who gifted me all that fabric, for her grandbabies.

Each I-Spy uses 1.6 metres for the front (finished size approx. 40x60"), the same for the back and .3 for the binding.  Total for both quilts - 7 metres.

 

I seem to work best under pressure, which means I don't have time to take a picture of the finished project before it goes out the door - must get better at that!

This week I need to get started on my Christmas projects.  I'm down to the last few blocks of my Easy Street blocks (after fixing 5 that had pieces turned); so hopefully I can bang those out today and start the assembly.  It needs to get down if the long-armer is going to get it done for Christmas. 

 

And of course, a few grandbaby shots:

 

Yesterday I took Alex to the fire truck displays.  He loved all the tools he could see and touch, but his favourite thing to do was to use the window crank - he had never seen one before!

 

 

 And Zoey has started her first dance class.  I couldn't believe they start them at 2 now, back in the day it was 3 and potty-trained.

 



 

Doesn't she look adorable with her little ballerina bun and tutu!  I love the magic wand that she insisted went with the outfit!

 

Have a wonderful day - make it a sew day if you can - I am!

 

Terri in BC