Design Wall Monday, Dec. 31, 2012

Another Monday, another blank design wall. I'm making good progress in getting all my fabric bits and odds and ends sorted and cut into regular sized pieces, with the leftovers going into either string or crumb containers. I really want to start life in the new apartment with a fresh and organized approach to all my fabrics, both stash and scraps and crumbs. It's a lot of work, and quite tedious, but I think I'll be glad to have it done. The only problem... I'm starting to have sewing machine withdrawal. I have all these gorgeous strips and bits, and now I want to sew something with them. LOL!! But I have promised myself that I will persevere, and get it all done.
However, I do have a picture of a finish that I can share. Nathan's quilt is done.
This is a pattern from Judy Martin's book Patchwork Among Friends. The pattern itself is called "Forever Friends". This one was so much fun to do, with all the bright colours, and the novelty prints at the center of each of the stars. It was doubly fun, because I started this at a Quilt-til-you-wilt day, sponsored by the guild back in November. I had so much fun sewing in a group, rather than by myself as I usually do. And Gail helped with the pairing of the fabric colours for the star points, the backgrounds and the center print.
I especially like this one.For the backing, I used up the last of the fish themed fat quarters that I had that were simply too cute to cut up. All three of Lisa's boys have backings made out of fabrics from this collection.Here's a close up of some of those fishy fabrics.
 
I'm Linking up to Judys' Design wall Monday at Patchwork Times.  I'm working the next 3 evenings at the hospital, but I might be able to get more ironing and sorting and cutting done before going in to work. I am determined to get that chore done, and to never let it get this bad again.
Edit: Here it is, Friday already, and I haven't had a chance to write another post. But, I'm going to kink this one to Crazy Mom Quilts, where every Friday there is a link up to celebrate our finishes. 

Stash Report # 52

The last stash report of the year, wow. How did that year fly by so fast? For that matter, how did this past week fly by so fast? I can't even blame it on lots of family busy-ness over the holidays. We had a very quiet Christmas day over at Matt and Becca's We were supposed to go to Lisa's yesterday, to celebrate Christmas with her and her husband and their 3 boys, but she had to cancel due to the flu coming to visit at their house. So, we'll have to reschedule that one, once they all get over it.
Matt and Becca were very generous with me this year, and put together a fun collection of fat quarters as my Christmas gift, so that will get added to the finial year numbers. 

Used this week:                                  .6 yards
Used this year:                                 130.8 yards 
In/purchased  this week                       5.25 yards
In/purchased this year:                    164.75 yards
Balance:                                             33.95 more yards in than out.

At this time last year I had used 154 yards and added 162.5 yards, and so ended the year with a balance of 8 more yards in than out. My in numbers were actually very close to the same, which I find rather surprising. I thought I'd bought a lot more this year than last. I'm going to continue with stash reports next year. I find I enjoy the exercise. I don't have a particular goal in mind. I don't feel a need to control my intake, or minimize it. I've actually found, since I've had to organize it in order to move it, that my stash is not all that large. I have, however. found that there is a lot of stuff that I have had for years that has remained unused, languishing buried on the fabric shelves. One fabric has a copyright date on the salvage of 2002. And there are likely some that are older than that without dates on the salvages. I think that might be one of my focuses for the coming year - to use up some of that older fabric, even if it only goes into pieced backings.
I've been spending the last couple of days cutting up the odd shaped pieces of fabric, and small leftover pieces of yardages that have been cluttering up the sewing room. I had all kinds of ends of fabrics, that needed to be cut into usable sizes, So I now have even more 2 1/2 inch strips to add to the collection, using that fabulous invention, the Go cutter. I've separated them out into lights, mediums and darks. I think I'm going to go through the other 2 1/2 inch strips that I already have, and do the same thing. The pieces that were too short to actually count as strips, I've cut into squares.I have a couple of projects on my Pinterest want-to-do list that use 2 1/2 inch squares. One project, from the Moda Bake Shop, need 5 squares of the same fabric, so I've been making sets of 5 and pinning them together. Another project that I want to do, I saw here, and it will require 9 squares of the same fabric, so I've been pinning together sets of nine, if I have that much of one fabric. When I get enough sets for either of these quilts, I'll start putting them together. Then, I'm also doing sets of fours, although I'm not sure just yet what they will turn into. The rest are going into the 2 1/2 inch bin to be used as leaders and enders. It is slow going, but no where near as slow as if I had to do it by hand, rather than with the Go Cutter. I've been doing a few 2 1/2 inch half square triangles as well, in lights and darks, although I have no idea at this point what I'll do with them. But they are there for when inspiration strikes. The remainders, if big enough, are going into string and crumbs boxes, so not very much at all is going to waste.
I'm linking up to Judy's Stash Report at Patchwork Times.

Stash and Sunday Stitching Report Dec. 23, 2012

I managed a little stitching this week, but not much. There is a little bit to show on the Grandchildren stitchery.
I got stalled on some feather stitching down in that bottom rose triangle. I miscounted, and now have to take it out. And it is such a pale green, I'm wondering if I should change out the colour to something that will show more. It seems an awful lot of effort to go through for something that will barely even show.

For the stash report, there is some usage this week. The backing for Nate's quilt got made, and the quilt is now loaded on the machine. Here's a sneak peak,
I decided to do something fun and fast and easy on it. There are a lot of dots fabrics in this quilt, so I decided on loopy bubbles all over it.

Used this week:                                              4.5 yards
Used this year:                                              130.2 yards
Added this week:                                               0 yards
Added this year:                                            159.5 yards
Balance:                                                           29.3 yards more in than out.

I've ended my fabric diet, and caved in and ordered a whole pile of stuff from Thousands of Bolts, who are having their huge end of the year sale. I don't know exactly how much I ordered, but it was a lot. However, I'm not going to count it until after we move and unpack it. For now, once it gets here, it will stay in the box. I'm linking up to Judy's Patchwork times for the Stash report, and Kathy's Quilts for the stitching report.

Think Inside the Box finished

It's Friday, and I have another finish.
"Think Inside the Box" is finished. It is from the book Geometric Gems by Cathy Wierzbicki. This one was a lot of fun to put together, choosing all the fun fabrics for the boxes, and the colours for the edges of the boxes, as well.
The binding is done with a really bright diagonal stripe, with a narrow piping fabric of a yellow, with red dots. This one is for our grandson Lucas for Christmas. I hope he has fun looking at all the fun things in the boxes. He's 2, so he can learn all kinds of words and colours as he grows, and learns to play the game I Spy.
I'm linking this finish to Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts

Living space progress

There has been progress in our new living space. The ceilings are all up, and a coat of primer on them. And that black thing along the wall is the new fireplace.









The kitchen area is all roughed in and ready to receive cupboards and sink and appliances.

                      












And the tiling has begun in the bathroom.
There is going to be a workman in over the next week to do the refinishing of the floor. So, come the beginning of the new year, the tile in the bathroom will get finished, and the kitchen put in. It's getting closer to being a reality.

Stash and Sunday Stitching Report, Dec. 16, 2012

The stash report is easy...... nothing in or out this week. Too many hours spent working at the hospital, and the rest of it was spent trying to make order out of chaos in my sewing room. It is slowly starting to happen. I'm going to spend some more time working at it today, and hopefully get the remaining 3 yards and under pieces all bolted up. Then there are the longer yardages to do, and lastly, sorting through all the smaller pieces, and get them cut into either strips or squares.

The hand stitching has been going well this week. The last of the stockings is finished, this one is Noel's, and ready to stuff, with 9 days to spare. Whew!! Now all we have to do is figure out what to put in them. and then go out and do the shopping for it. That's on the agenda for tomorrow.

Then I spent last evening stitching on a project that I had originally bought as a Christmas gift for my Mum, years ago. Her eye sight and her health failed, and she was never able to start it. But it somehow seems appropriate, now the we have grandchildren, to work on it, and get it finished. I can't find the picture of it, at the moment, but eventually it ends up as a sampler of different stitches, with the grandchildrens' names in the corners of the outer edges. This is going to be a very long term project. In fact, the grandchildren might be adults by the time it is finished. LOL!!

I'm linking up to Judy's Stash Report and Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching

Saturday news

I had a wonderful afternoon with Becca today. Matt and Scott were over at the house priming all the drywall that is now finished, so she came over and helped me with the seemingly endless job of sorting out and organizing my fabric stash. She sorted through my fat quarter drawer, and ironed and refolded so that they are all the same size. Then she put them into some IKEA containers that fit into the drawers. I want to eventually refinish the dresser that acts as my cutting surface, and also some fabric storage. With the fabrics all in easily removable containers,
it will be really easy to take stuff out of the drawers before refinishing it.
While Becca was working on the fat quarters, I continued with making the mini bolts out of my yardage. It's almost done.I think they look rather pretty all lined up in rows on the shelves. And it's amazing how much less space the fabrics take up this way. I've been putting everything under 3 yards onto these mini bolts. Everything over 3 yards is going to go onto regular sized bolts, also made out of the foam core boards. But, that's for another day. For the rest of the evening, I'm going to sit with my feet up, and stitch.