Sunday Stash Report, Week #44 - and a winner for my giveaway!

 

First up, I'd like to thank everyone for reading and commenting on my last post!  Unfortunately, life got in the way and I wasn't able to reply to everyone nor even do the draw last week like I was supposed.  On a positive note, I got through those bags of fabric (it was a great stress reliever!) and have 5 + yards of 6" strips to give away to:

 

 

 

 

#10 - Debbie. 

 

I hope you are reading, Debbie, because you don't have a reply-email set up.  I'll wait until Wednesday, then draw another number if I don't hear from you.

 

And today, I assembled the remaining rows of Easy Street:

 

 

This quilt is assembled on the diagonal - the longest row is over 12 feet long! 

 

 

Most people use quilt racks to display quilts - me, I use them to assemble all my pieces on! Here are all eleven rows and two corner pieces ready to go.

 

 

And here it is!  All sewn up and ready to go to the long-arm quilter's.  I have draped it over the kidlets' bunk bed, what you can't see is two more rows at the top.  This quilt is huge!  I'm keeping it here until I can drop it off, no wrinkles that way.

 

(Sorry for the washed-out colours, but our winter rains have started and it's hard to get a good shot. The colours in the middle picture are the closest to actual.)

 

Now, a drumroll please.... this is 20 yards out!  Talk about making a major dent in my numbers.  Adding in the 5 yards of my giveaway and that is more than half of my used total for the year.  Nice to see some progress, finally.

 

Added since my last report: 0 metres

Added Year-to-Date: 200 metres

 

Used since last report: 25 metres

 

Used Year-to-Date: 69.5 metres

 

Net used/Added for 2013: 130.5 metres

 

It's been roughly three years since I discovered quilting blogs, and one of the first sites I can across when I was trying to deal with my scraps was Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville.  I became a firm believer in her Scrap-User's System and started using Leaders and Enders for all my sewing.  Mostly, I use parts from various stages of one quilt project (for example, when working on a mystery quilt such as Easy Street, as soon as Bonnie released Week Two's clue, I would start that one, and use Week One as my Leader and Ender).  But when I didn't have any parts on hand, I would reach into a small bucket of 2" squares and assemble 4-patches.

 

 

I got a lot of 4-patches done while I was making Easy Street!  In fact, I have enough to finish what I call my first Bonnie Hunter project.

 

 

This is where I left off the last time I emptied the bucket.  The center square is 16x16 1.5" squares, with a 1.5" white sashing, then a ring of 1.5" squares, 8 squares high.  Maybe I'll get this one done next week! Other projects call, and Christmas is fast approaching.

 

Thanks for visiting,

Terri in BC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Sunday Stash Report on Monday, Week #50

I fell off the no-buying wagon the last two weeks, partly because I don't have many purples for my Easy Street quilt, and that is my main colour.

 

 

Of course, that meant I had to check the sale racks.  I only paid full price for the piece of "Oh, Deer" and the purple on the top from the Cuzco line.  Everything else was less than $8/metre!  And if you know Canada prices, that is an awesome deal.  The other two pieces were priced at $14.95/m and $13.95/m - at least I only got a fat quarter of each so it didn't hurt so bad.  Other than the two pinks at the top, I bought everything at my favourite quilt shop, Hamels. (PS: They have a great Christmas fabric sale on right now).

 

So at the end of it all, I got 1 metre of purples, and 6 metres of fun!

 

 

I also did a little online shopping and got this pattern (fabric from Hamels), along with Quiltmaker's Nov/Dec 2011 issue, which has Bonnie Hunter's pattern "Moth in a Window" (about half-way through the post) and a cute penguin quilt.  Construction Zone will be for my grandson, and I'm going to use those plaid shirts I got to make 2 Moth in a Window quilts for my sons-in-law for next Christmas.

 

Added since last report: 7 metres

Added Year to Date: 104.15 metres

 

But....thanks to Christmas sewing, I've had some impressive finishes in the last two weeks!

 

First up, this quilt is finished! Daisy is checking it out for comfort before I put the binding on.  It has a curved border, but is already packaged up for Christmas! I'll show the final picture after it is presented.

 

 

The backing is a sheet I bought at Wal-Mart - aren't those colours perfect?!  I've already counted the top and I'm not counting the backing, so all I have to count as used is the binding (.5 m).

 

 

I'm still struggling with free-motion quilting so it doesn't have as much detail as I would like, and my sewing machine didn't like it either. However, I discovered using a pre-printed panel makes it easy to "follow the lines".

 

 

I also made matching tab-style curtains with a removable blackout liner (3.5m, not including blackout liner - never counted in).  There is still a doll quilt to come this week, along with the two pillowcases I've already finished, which apparently I have never counted with the Christmas pillow cases (2 m).

 

 

I got the apron finished for Zoey.  It will be big, but she'll grow into it.  Santa is bringing her a play kitchen so she'll have fun with this. I was puzzled that I had fabric left over from the lining, but after it was done, I remembered I was going to put a ruffle on it!  Oh, well.  My new year's resolution is to make notes when I plan a project, instead of relying on my not-so-good memory.

 

I've also made some casserole hot pads from old Debbie Mumm vest panels, but no pics yet, they are wrapped as well (1.5m). 

 

 

I made some coasters as well.  These were on a panel as well, and I still have the top part to make wallhangings with - next year (0.3m)!

 

I still haven't figured out how or whether I should count those men's shirts in. I'm still de-boning them so I haven't determined how much fabric actually came out of them. 

Used since last report:  7.8 metres

Used year to Date: 98.3 metres

 

So my final number this week is in the negative, but I still have some things to finish before Christmas plus I have time after Christmas to do some of my own sewing.  My goal is to break even this year, and then next year I want to try and finish more, and keep my purchases down.  Maybe I need a rule to finish two projects before I can start a new one.

 

Net Used/Gained for 2012: 5.85 metres