Sunday, March 26, 2017

A Finished Top and Stash Report

This was a very busy week with tax preparations, QoV quilting day, several quilt meetings and Springtime garden cleanup. But here it is Sunday and I'm still kicking.!  I'm happy with all the chores I finished even though not all of them involved sewing and quilting. I did finished the top for our rail fence challenge project for Kevin's Scrap Club.  This is a very simple pattern (from the free patterns at www.maryquilts.com) and I used mostly what I already had cut in my string drawers.  That was the motivation why I chose to use this pattern. The stars at the top are orphan blocks leftover from a project about 4 years ago.  I was so glad to get them out of the drawer and into another quilt. The rest of the stars will find their way to the back of the quilt and they will be all gone. yay.  This coming week I hope to find time to work on piecing a backing and getting it quilted.  We'll see how that goes.

2017 Rail Fence Challenge - 60" x 78"
I will be donating this as a finished quilt to our local QOV Eastern Missouri group.

I'm still working toward hitting my goal this year of 200 yards used from my stash.  So a little over 5 1/2 yards used for this top.!

Stash Report

No Fabric Added this week  
YTD Added - 0.25

Fabric Used this week =  5.62 yards  
YTD Used in 2017 =  65.55 yards  

I'm linking up to Judy's Patchwork Times,

Monday, March 20, 2017

Design Wall and Fabric Stash Report


Since I'm late with reporting the Stash Report, I'm going to include it here along with what's on the Design Wall. First, here's what is on my design wall. We have been given a challenge at our Scraps Club from Kevin, to make a quilt using a rail fence block in any way we want and a choice of two sizes. I decided to make a red, white, and blue large quilt with a simple setting and will donate the finished quilt to Quilts of Valor, Eastern MO. Here's what I've gotten done so far and they are all scraps from my scrappy patriotic bins.


I was busy in the sewing room this week and I made one of those bowl shaped potholders for a gift, pieced two blocks for our block exchange group, and more rail fence blocks in gray and maroon for a donation quilt to a church as a thank you.  I got a big boost from gifting a big pile of juvenile fabrics to a blogger friend to help her add more variety to her stash for making charity baby quilts and gave a yard to another friend for making a binding on her last quilt. So my numbers look pretty good this week.

Stash Report - 3-19-17
Fabric Added this week - none
YTD Added - 0.25

Fabric Used this week -  11.25 yards  
YTD Used in 2017  - 59.93 yards  

I had received one of these bowl potholder from a friend, and I use all the time. The bowl sits snuggly down in it and you can pick it up with the two opposite corners.
Potholder for handling hot bowls
Double Pinwheels for block exchange

Rail Fence blocks for group donation quilt


I am linking up with Patchwork Times Stash Report and DSM.

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Stash Fabric Report

In looking over my numbers on the spreadsheet that I use for keeping track of what fabric I use during the year, I discovered that I entered a couple things twice. I made the adjustments and now am going backwards! And it isn't because I went on a wild shopping spree. lol

However, I did get  2 pillowcases and 2 bindings made for the Honor Flight flimsies. I also  pulled backings for these. Now when they get quilted, I have to remember that I've already counted their backings.  Maybe that is what is getting me into trouble--counting it before it is totally finished. :)

Stash Report - 3-12-17

Fabric Added this week - none
YTD Added - 0.25

Fabric Used this week -  5.0 yards  
YTD Used in 2017  - 48.68 yards * corrections made from last week

I am linking to Patchwork TImes.

Friday, March 10, 2017

On the Needles

I started another pair of socks and this time I'm learning to use a bamboo 9" circular for socks.  It is a 2.25mm and seems smaller than the same size as my dpns I normally use. Has anyone else used this circular 9" needle and if so, how did you like it?  I'm not sure my hand will be able to last knitting two socks using it.  My left hand starts to feel a little crampy after 3 or 4 rounds.  Maybe my hands are too large for holding something this small.  I do like how you don't have to worry about the needles falling out (as with dpns), but it is still to early to make a decision yet.


This yarn is a Premier yarn by Deborah Norville.  It is 50 % superwash Merino, 25% bamboo and 25% nylon.  The label color is Purple Spice.

Take a look at more knitting projects over on Judy's Patchwork Times.


Sunday, March 5, 2017

Stash Report and a Finish

This week found me in my sewing room at least 4 or 5 hours every day.  I was able to finish up the quilting on this chevron quilt. It is big at 94" x 112".  I did a simple echo of the design with matching thread colors.  This proved to be a bit slow  because I had to change and rethread after every three passes, but I didn't want an overall and I couldn't decide what color thread would not distract from the design.  I'm happy with it and the recipient, a young teenager hopefully will like it.
 



I also did a fair amount of busting the stash.  I made 5 pillowcases and 5 bindings to go with the already complete QOV tops.  This helped to lighten the weight on the shelves but I really can't see any difference in the height of the stacks. But it does give my numbers a big boost ! lol



I also added a border to Ann's pieced top.  Here it is with a border.



Stash Report - 3-5-17

Fabric Added this week - none
YTD Added - 0.25

Fabric Used this week -  14.5 yards  - more borders, bindings and pillowcases
YTD Used in 2017  - 49.37 yards