Week 38 Stash Report

This past week has been very busy and lots of fun.  First there was a 4 day retreat where I finished two of the Sept. goals and made some progress on 2 others.  On the way home, I went shopping at Hickory Stick and they were having a great sale; so naturally I had to help out.  I came home with lots of new batiks, a couple of Bali pops (at 1/2 price how could one say no?), two panels, 20 batik FQ and a few one yard cuts of interesting fabrics to add to my stash.  A total of 11 yards was added to my shelves.

I almost fell back into red numbers, but made it by the skin of my teeth to stay in the black.
Fabric Added  - 11 yards
Fabric Added YTD - 84.95 yds
Fabric Used last week - 7 yds - top to challenge quilt, backing and binding
Fabric Used YTD - 85.23 yds
Fabric Busted for 2013 - 0.28 - not much in the black.   Whew, that was close!

One of my projects at retreat was to finish the challenge "brown bag" quilt from one of my guilds.  I blindly drew from a brown paper sack, a fat quarter of Japanese doll fabric.  After spending hours trying to come up with some cute design using small blocks but not really wanting to cut the fat quarters into smaller pieces, I came up with the idea to make a more modern style of stripy baby quilt, and I used the whole fat quarter since the fabric was so cute. The colors are not normally what you might choose for a baby quilt, but these are the colors in the fabric.  I think after it's quilted with some interesting designs in the bigger horizontal lines, it will be cute enough for a charity quilt.  I hope so.  The back is pieced using some of the fabric from the front. I'll show more after I quilt it.

I also finished my Easy Street top - yes!

It measures 100" x 100" before quilting

And the binding on my string quilt. You'll notice the binding is scrappy too.

Sorry about the shadows.

After getting home from retreat, I went to the Round Bobbin Expo for a day.  They had some name teachers - Irena Bluhm, Toby Lischko, Cindy Losekamp (Sew Artfully Yours), Linda McGehee, Anne St. Clair (Needle Nook Fabrics), Pam Damour (The Decorating Diva) and others.  There were lots of other great vendors too.  I bought more toys for my quilting adventures, but stayed away from the fabric vendors because of my purchases above.  Today, we had the pleasure of hosting Irena Bluhm for the day at our local long arm group.  She shared her knowledge and skills and gave us a trunk show of her award winning quilts.  Now I'm all inspired to get back to quilting!!

Stop on by Judy's at Patchwork Times to see what everyone else did last week. 

Stash Report - Week 37

There was nothing added to my stash last week, and I finally got out of red figures in my used column. I had forgotten to count the backing on the string quilt after it was quilted, so I'm counting that this week (binding was counted last week).  Also counted is the fabric that was used for 20 QOV blocks that I made for Alycia's block drive.

Fabric Added last week - 0
Fabric Added YTD - 73.95 yds
Fabric Used this week - 10.45 yds
Fabric Used  YTD - 78.23 yds
Net reduced from stash this year - 4.28 yds.

It's not a very big reduction in my stash levels, but now I'm headed in the right direction -- Gee, it only took me 9 months to USE more fabric than I've brought in this year. lol.  Now if I can only resist buying more fabric.  It's going to take a lot of will power. This coming week I am going on retreat and I know temptation will be strong when we stop in The Hickory Stick in Hannibal. It's very hard to get out of there without buying something.  It is such a great shop.  

Visit Judy's Patchwork Times to see what everyone else did last week.

On The Needles 9/13/13

As Teresa says, "it's all about Dreambird" these days; but I am starting my first ever dish cloth! I'm learning on something very simple and hope to work my way up to some of the beautiful projects that I see on Judy's linky each week.  My edges are a bit rough, but hopefully that will smooth out with more practice. The color is not very true in this picture-it's more of a sea foam green.

Since I'm not as skilled as most of my friends are when it comes to knitting, it will probably never happen that I will make a Dreambird.  But my friend Linda is a very good knitter and she doesn't have a blog.  I'm sure you will agree that her Dreambird is just too beautiful not to be seen.  She's given me permission to show it to you on my blog. If I could knit one of these, this would be the perfect colors for my wardrobe.  I love it!!

I can't wait to see how this is going to look finished.  I can just visualize it worn over a black or fushia turtleneck sweater and a pair of black pants or long fitted skirt.  I think it will look stunning.

What are you kniting on this Friday the 13th?   Check out all the other projects OTN over at Judy's.

Design Wall Sept. 9, 2013

Here's what my design wall looks like today.  There are 20 flag blocks made for Alycia's Big Block Blowout for QOV.  You can find out more by looking at Alycia Quilts and Judy's extra incentive here. There are 2 different blocks you can choose from.  I chose to do the Flag block and it was so much fun.

I'm off to a good start for my September goals.   One down and only 5 more to go. This was the easiest of them all though.  To see more design walls, go HERE at Patchwork Times.

QOV Presentation of Quilts and Stash Report #36

I haven't been finishing many of my projects, so my stash has not changed much.  Boring isn't it?. But I'm getting close enough to count some fabric that I'm using for binding on a UFO.  I also made blocks last week for 2 block exchange groups, so that's a little bit out of my stash.

Fabric Added - 0
Fabric Added YTD - 73.95
Fabric Used - 0.625
Fabric Used YTD - 67.78
Net Fabric Added  - 6.17 yds

You can see what others did this week over at Patchwork Times.

On another subject.  Saturday was a special day for our Eastern Missouri QOV group.  We were present to help welcome back the 1138th Engineer Company (Sapper) from Missouri and to present them each with a Quilt of Valor.  Our trailer loaded with the quilts were escorted from Warrenton, MO by the Patriot Guards riding motorcycles all the way to the Centene Center in Farmington for the ceremony (approximately 90 miles.)

Here they are coming into the street in front of the Center, preceding the trailer.

Patriot Guards 

The trailer loaded with quilts

After they arrived and were unloading the trailer

The troops were welcomed and there were distinguished guests on the program who had a few words or a presentation to make. 
Here are two soldiers with their quilts and the leaders of our QOV Chapter responsible for getting all the quilts ready for this occasion.  They did not take time to display all the quilts that were given out.

Another soldier was kind enough to open his quilt for us too.

Our Mo. Chapter has presented over 1,250 quilts since it started 8 years ago.  We have over 100 ladies and now 2 men who help make these one-of-a-kind quilts meeting twice a month for 10 months of the year.

Get It Done -Results for August and new for September

Since I was a bit over confident in making out and finishing my August Get It Done goals, I'm being a little less aggressive in setting goals for September.  What I didn't finish on August's list, I'll roll over to September.  Here was my progress on August goals.

August Goals
1. Quilt String quilt - Done
2. Piece blocks for Autumn Plume - not done
3. Finish Easy Street top - needs 1 more border
4. Get liturgical quilt done - nope, did work on it though
5. Quilt RWB baby quilt - not done

Now for September Goals
1. Put binding on String quilt
2. Piece blocks for Autumn Plume
3. Work on applique on liturgical quilt
4. Quilt RWB baby quilt
5. Piece 20 QOV flag blocks for Alycia's block drive - New goal added to the rollovers.  It has a deadline, so I know this will get finished.

I have much more success with my goals when they involve other people.  When they are just for my benefit, I tend to procrastinate more often and they get done when they get done.  I guess because there is no penalty if they don't get finished. When others are expecting an end result, we don't want to disappoint.  Oh well, que sera sera.

You can see what what others are working on for their September goals over at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall 9/2/13

Here's what my design wall looks like today.

Blocks that will be leaving my house

The 3 blocks to the left are optional blocks for one of my quilting guilds that will be added to many others in the group.  We were given the pattern and told to use Fall colors. Some lucky person will win all that are donated in a drawing this week.

The 6 little blue and white 9-patches are for a friend at our block exchange group, Pieces of Friendship which meets this week too.   

My other design wall is still looking the same, except I did sew the outer row of bright blocks on the right side to the stained glass row.  Now I'm ready to start the applique in the middle, WHEN I figure out how big it needs to be.  Nothing was added to the hexies. 

Go on over to Judy's to see more design walls and be inspired.