Sunday Stash Report Week 17

Happy Earth Day!  I had a couple of finishes last week, but didn't do a report because I had a weekend away.  Which led to  some more adding!  I hosted a scrapbooking retreat across the line in Monroe, WA, which had the added bonus of letting me visit some quilting shops.  I didn't go to as many as I would like, but still added to my stash.

Used this Week:  1.3 metres
Used year to Date: 45 metres

Added this Week: 6.5 metres

Added Year to Date: 41.4 metres
Net Used for 2012: 3.6 metres

One of my finishes was the binding on my Orca Bay quilt - the fastest finish ever in my quilting life!  And also the biggest quilt I've done!

I used a freckle dot in white on black for the binding - it came out perfect!  The backing is a red flannel with a black swirl and it was quilted with a variegated thread by Rhonda at Quilted Cats Hideaway.

Here's a close-up of the back and the binding:

And the finished quilt - I tried to pin it to the clothesline, but the new pins I bought won't hold a facecloth, let alone a quilt!

And the other one was the binding on this little quilt, folded in half it fits perfectly in the playpen when Zoey comes for a sleepover.

The binding matches the pants of one of the little overall girls.  I normally prefer a darker binding, but I already had this from the kit, so I used it up!

And on to the additions - a total of 7.25 yards, which translates to 6.5 metres.

Some odds and ends for card-making, a sharpener for rotary cutter blades (I hope it works), some 1/4 yd. pieces to add to my stash for future Bonnie Hunter quilts, a yard of Walk in the Woods to add to my Aneela Hooley collection, and 4 yards of a cute seersucker line to make some sundresses for Zoey.  I just had to pick up that shirt piece, it reminded me of Bonnie's love of shirts in her quilt-making.

I'm going to make this dress for Zoey, I made one last year for a niece and I loved how it turned out!

I am feeling very stressed and in a time-crunch these days.  Not only do I have to do my taxes by the end of the month, I have to take 3 courses to renew my mortgage broker license this week, create a couple of photo book projects that I have credits for, and work full-time, but I also have to get ready for a long-anticipated trip to Tuscany, Italy!  (I know, such a hardship!)  This trip has been in the works for almost 2 years, a group of friends and I have rented a private villa half-way between Florence and Sienna for two weeks, then 3 of us are taking a train to Rome for 5 days and 4 nights.  I just have to get through these next two weeks of stress, and then I can relax.

One of the ways I am relaxing is taking anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour each day and playing in my sewing room.  I have a leaders and enders project on the go, while I tackle a few new things of play.  This is what I accomplished in the last week.

I've been tackling that pile of samples and bolt-ends I bought for my birthday, stripping them into 5" strips first (good to create charm squares from), then down in 1/2" increments from there.  I got this idea from Bonnie Hunter, of quiltville.com fame, and her Scrap-User's system.

This is just a small portion of what still has to be stripped.  Anything larger than a Fat Quarter doesn't get stripped.

Against my better judgement, I started a new project.  This one doesn't have a deadline but it is very special to me and I've wanted to do this one for a long time.  It started with a T-shirt my mom used to wear to work.  She worked at Sears and when they launced the Christmas catalog (back then it was in August or September) everyone would wear their Christmas sweaters, vests, etc.  Because it was so early, my mom would get a kick out of wearing this T-shirt and getting a laugh out of the customers.  When mom passed, this is the only piece of clothing I kept.  Last year, I started dreaming up a quilt to honour her love of Christmas and sense of humour.

I saw and bought a panel of "The Grinch who Stole Christmas" last fall, and started planning and sketching out a preliminary design.  I backed the T-shirt with lightweight fusible web, then trimmed out the panel.  Because of the sleeve holes, it came out a funny shape, so I added wonky flying geese to square it up.  It measures 19" square and will be the centerpiece.

I'm also going to add words a la Tonya Ricucci.  I picked up her book "Word Play" last month.

Here is the selection of fabrics I might use so far.  The dots are from the Dr. Suess line, another of Mom's favourites.

I've been doing leaders and enders, so I'm making progress on my Thangles quilt (without using the Thangles).  I've done about 20 of 288 HST's so far.

I also finally got around to piecing some of my "Just Take 2" blocks.  These are blocks 28, 31 and 32.  I've been making up little kits for each block, using rotary-cut strips as much as I can, rather than cutting individual blocks like the patterns call for.

And last but not least, a few more hexies.  I'm up to 67 of 270 now, and since I plan on taking this project to Italy with me, I need to prep some more flowers and punch some more cardstock.  So far, I've been able to make each one different, no duplicating the centre/petal combo.

Have a great week!  I'm going to be working hard the rest of the day on taxes, courses and photo books (and fit in mowing the lawn before I need to buy a goat!).