Stash Report week 7, 2013

I haven't managed a whole lot of stash reduction this past week. I had 2 customer quilts to do, and I had to get them done before the weekend. They were gorgeous quilts, too. It may have been winter outside, but it was spring in my sewing room. They were both the same pattern, using the same fabrics.I love the lupins in the borders. But then I think lupins are one of my favourite flowers. I quilted each one with a different pantograph. One had the pantograph Rhapsody, and the other had the pantographFay Feathers. Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous colours in these quilts. The reason I had to rush these was because I'm working at the hospital this weekend, so Scott has used the opportunity to paint the master bedroom/sewing room. So, the sewing room that was oh so neat and tidy last week, now looks like thisAnd it will continue to look like this for the next couple of days, until the painting is done, and the baseboards are in. We moved the temporary table with my sewing machine on it down into the dining room area, so I'm still good to sew. The only outage I had this week was a couple of the squares for the Grandmother's Choice block of the week. I'm hoping to do at least one more of those before going in to work this afternoon. I have in numbers this week. My dearest husband surprised me on Valentine's Day with a fat quarter pack of fabrics. I went to try and take a picture on it before writing this, but I can't get at the drawer of the dresser in that sewing room that I put it in. It is a colour palette that is really pretty, but outside of what I usually use, so it will be fun to find a project for it and use it.

Used this week:                                      .1 yards
Used this year:                                   21.7 yards
Added this week:                                    5 yards
Added this year:                                15.5 yards
Balance:                                               6.2 yards more out than in.
I had a close call yesterday. There was an email sitting in my inbox from Thousands of Bolts. They currently have a sale going for $3.29 a yard on a whole pile of fabrics. I went shopping, and before I knew it, there were 58 yards of fabric sitting in my cart. They are still sitting there. I restrained myself before pushing that final button. It is always a good time to order large amounts for backings and backgrounds. But, do I really need 58 more yards of fabric? I'm linking up to Judy's Patchwork Times for her stash reports.

Grandmother's Choice Saturday

This is just going to be a quick post. I've been working on getting caught up with the Grandmother's Choice block of the week. I finished block # 22 Jack's Delightand block # 23 Girls' Joy.

Block # 25 was released today, so I'm still behind. One of my 4 goals for February was to keep up with this, so I'd better got moving. But not today, since I have to be at work at 3 pm, and it is now 2:25pm. Good thing we only live a 5 minute drive away. Gotta run

Design wall Monday, Feb. 11, 2013

I don't have a design wall this week. But I do have a design floor. I started a new quilt on Saturday, and got 2 squares done then. Yesterday, I sat down and made a 3rd square. If I make one more, I can count it as one quarter of the squares for the main body of the quilt done.

I am totally and completely in love with these squares. I think this is going to be one of those work on it consistently until it is done patterns.
But the really big accomplishment of the week has been the condition of the studio/bedroom. All of the stuff and clutter is out of it. Only the essentials to long arming, and a little sewing now and then remain.


From here on, it should be easy to do stuff as necessary in this room. It still needs painting and the baseboards put in. The new closet looks great. I have a couple of customer quilts to do this week. I'm hoping to have them done by Thursday. I'm working a 3 day weekend starting on Friday, so Scott is planning on doing the wall repairs, and painting and baseboards while I'm at work.  I need to figure out something to do with the threads before then, since all the peg board will be coming down, and the bulletin board on the back of the door will have to come down too. Then on Monday I can contact the next person on my list to bring her quilts over. And I'll just continue working this way until city hall gets its act in gear and decides what they will let us do. In the meantime, if we have to leave this room as a studio set up while the house is being sold, at least the people coming in to see it won't run out screaming in reaction to all the chaos in this room.
I'm linking up to Judy's Patchwork Times Design wall Monday post. There is lots of fun stuff to see over there today.

Stash report, week 6, 2013

Since I cut out most of a quilt this past week, and since I count my stash as out once it has been cut for a project, I have big numbers to report this week.

Used this week:                              11 yards
Used this year:                            21.6 yards
Added this week:                             0 yards
Added this year:                          10.5 yards 
Balance:                             11.5 more yards out than in so far this year.

I think I like this business of having positive numbers. Of course, there is still an unpacked box of fabric that I purchased waiting over at the new place to be added in. But I just might be able to balance that off with at least some more used numbers. Most of that order is for backings. The rest of it is for kids quilts. I found while doing all those quilts before Christmas for the kids, that I like working with all the fun fabrics that work so well for kids. I have a whole pile of border prints and also some panels that were printed as squares, with pictures of different dogs and cats, that would make up into some fun kids quilts. The London Friendship Quilter's guild collects quilts for kids in the Children's Aid system, so some of those would be perfect for that. I'm linking up to Judy's Stash Report at Patchwork Times. Lots of stash reductions and additions to be found over there.

I have had the best day.....

Just the best day. It started much earlier than my days usually do, at about 7:50 am, with my dearest husband bringing me a cup of coffee to wake me up while I was still in bed. He knew I was going out for a sewing day, and kindly brought me a cup of coffee to make starting the day a bit easier. He's such a sweetie....... I think I'll keep him. Christine came to pick me up about 8:45 and away we went to Gail's for a sew day. I started sewing on my new quilt, "Thanksgiving" from Judy Martin's book Patchwork Among Friends. In the 5 hours we were there, I finished 2 blocks.
I am totally in love with these blocks. I wanted to keep on going, but, sadly, I had to come home and do some packing and moving of stuff. Gail was working on putting borders onto her Great Granny Squares quilt. By the time we left, she had all the borders sewn on. She's a pretty fast piecer. Christine was working on machine quilting a baby quilt, and then on her nine patch swap blocks. Karen was working on a Yellow Brick Road quilt. Bad blogger that I am, I didn't get pictures of their projects.
While I was at Gail's, Scott and Matt were here working on putting the closet back in the master bedroom. It was a successful operation, and the bedroom that became my studio is slowly transforming back into a bedroom. While they finished up the closet, I grabbed a whole pile of stuff that needed to be out of that room, and moved over to the apartment. I actually remembered to take the camera with me this time, and take some pictures. Here's the finished fireplace, with the cubby hole above it waiting for the TV to be installed. Beside it is the IKEA shelving unit that Scott and I put together on Wednesday, without either one of us losing any hair. Some of the stuff I took over today will live in that shelving unit. I didn't want to get too carried away putting stuff in it, though, because it still needs to be fastened to the wall so it won't tip over. It didn't make sense to put in things that will only need to be taken back out again. The other side of the fireplace will also be getting a shelving unit.
 
Here's one view of the kitchen, with the chairs we also picked up and put together on Wednesday. That will be our dining area. And this is what the kitchen looks like from the other angle.

 So after all that, we had a very simple supper of french toast. Then, because Gail and Christine were talking about the Mystery quilt pattern by Bonnie Hunter they are planning on doing, starting in March, and they asked if I was interested in playing along with them. I said yes, since I am having so much fun not being a solitary quilter any more. That, of course, meant that I had to go out to get the pattern in the current Quiltmaker magazine. The first stop was Chapters. They didn't have a copy of the magazine, but they do have a Starbucks. While Noel was here, he got me started on Starbucks hot apple cider, with the spices and whipped cream and caramel. It is soooooo good, like drinking liquid apple pie. So, I picked up one of those while in there. But then, I still had to see if I could get a copy of that magazine. Next stop, Walmart, and they had a copy. So, now I can study the beginning instructions, and see if I can find the fabrics to use in it. All of my fat quarters of fabric are still here. But the rest of my fabrics of larger cuts than fat quarters are over at the apartment, still in boxes. I just might have to do some more unpacking.

Play day

We've been on the receiving end of quite the snow storm today. So, I decided that it would be a jammies play day. Gail is having a sew day for a few of us from the guild who can't make it to the quilt-til-you-wilt day. I'm starting a new project this month, and I did the majority of the cutting today. I'd already used my GO cutter to cut all the fat quarters into the 2 inch strips I needed. So all I had to do today was to cut the strips into the smaller units.
I don't think I've ever pre-cut this many pieces for a quilt before. I hope I've gotten it right, and won't regret it. I have to take advantage of the sew day at gail's, because there isn't a lot of sewing going on around here. This is what my sewing room currently looks like.
We've been stripping wall paper and getting this room ready to go back to what it is supposed to be..... the master bedroom. Here is what my sewing corner now looks like.
This area used to be the closet. Matt is coming over tomorrow to help Scott turn it back into a closet again. I'm going to be emptying everything out of it except what I need to use the long arm, and move it all over to the new place. If I want a sewing fix, I'll have to go over there. It will still need the walls repaired and painted, but at least I can get back at the long arm again before then. Painting this room will be the very last thing we do. Is it my imagination, or is this process taking forever to get done?

Stash Report, week 5, 2013.

No sewing or quilting happening here this past week. We are still stuck in the midst of getting the house ready to sell. Scott finished painting the ceiling in the living room, so things are on their way to being put back together. What a nightmare painting these ceilings have been They are covered with that popcorn textured stuff..... the stuff that's all rough and falls off, and gums up the paint roller, because it comes off as it is being painted. What a mess!! But, they are done, and they look good.
We've moved everything in my sewing room. The sewing table has been dismantled, and almost all the wall paper stripped from the walls. It needs to have the walls repaired now, from taking off the wall paper, and then it needs to be painted, and it needs to have the closet put back in. We've got all the stuff we need for installing the closet here. Unfortunately, it didn't come with instructions. However,  I have enough room on top of the dresser I use as my cutting table to put a cutting mat and my GO cutter. I am starting the cutting for a new quilt. It's another Judy Martin pattern called Thanksgiving. It from her book, Patchwork Among Friends. There is a picture of it at that link. It's the one with the leaves. I guess this can count as my February Newfo.
I finally opened one of the fabric packs that came in the mail, since it was all fabrics for this quilt, so I'll be adding it in now.

Used this week:                                   2 yards cut for "Thanksgiving"
Used this year:                                10.6 yards
Added this week:                            10.5 yards
Added this year:                             10.5 yards
Balance:                                              .1 yards more out than in.
I'm going to continue cutting for this quilt, so that, come next Saturday and Gail's sew-in day, I'll have something to work on that is new and fresh and exciting and fun.
The real estate agent is coming over on Tuesday for us to sign all the appropriate papers. We are hoping to have everything ready for a photographer to come on the 12th of this month. I don't know if we'll make it by then, or not. It sure doesn't look like it right now. *sigh* I suspect you are going to be a relieved as I am when this is all done, and you won't have to hear about it any more, and I won't have to write about it any more.
I'm linking up to Judy's Stash report.