Sunday Stash Report #13

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

Because of the many QOV tops that came to me this last week, see some pics here, my stash usage is looking really good!! I pulled as many fabrics as I could find that matched the tops for backings, bindings and pillowcases.  But to tell you the truth, I really can't see any difference in the shelves!  lol

Fabric Bought - zero
Fabric Added YTD - 49.7 yds

Fabric Used -  22.33 yds !!
Fabric Used YTD - 39.83 yds.
Net Used for 2013 -  - 9.87 -- getting closer to being in the black

To see what others have done to reduce or enhance their stashes, check out Judy's Patchwork Times.

A Parade of Quilts

Last month at the Bits 'n Pieces Quilt Guild, I made mention of the troops from Missouri that will be returning home this summer and that we wanted to give each member of the unit a quilt.  That we would be needing 100 quilts.   During the weeks that followed, I got a couple of emails from members saying they would make a top and bring it to the next meeting.

Well at this weeks' meeting, I was shocked by the response.  Thinking that a couple people would be giving me tops, we asked for those with QOV donations to come up to show them.  It looked like half of the room stood up and came forward for show and tell!  There were 22 quilt tops and 1 finished quilt donated to QOV.  I was speechless (and that is saying a lot if you know me!)  Here are a few that were donated.

from Carol S. - used the BQ2 pattern

close up of block fabric - perfect because this is an Army unit.

from Mary W.

                               from Carol S.

from Susan C.

 

close up 

a completely finished quilt from Nancy H.
What an angel!!!

This week has kept me busy pulling backings, making bindings and pillowcases for all the tops that did not have them.  This will certainly help with my Sunday stash report.

I want to thank all the ladies that took the time and effort to make these beautiful tops and I'll share more pictures when I get time to take them.

Stash Report #12 & A Surprise Visitor

This was the view from my front door this morning when I looked out.

Yesterday we were enjoying 60 degree weather and a light jacket.
Surprise, surprise.  There was about 4 to 5 inches when I took this picture.

It was so beautiful and quiet and reminded me of a Christmas card scene where a horse drawn sleigh is coming down the drive.

This was the perfect day to work on hand stitching the bindings for two QOV quilts.  Here is a picture of one of them.  The other one deserves it's own post later on in the week.

Hand quilted by QOV Eastern MO ladies

My stash report has not changed much since last week.  I did receive some fabric from a friend to be used for the charity pillowcases, but I didn't get them finished yet.

My numbers for the week:

Fabric Added - 4 yards 

Fabric Used -  1/2 yd for binding

Fabric Added YTD - 49.7

Fabric Used  YTD -  17.5

Net for 2013  -  32.2  in the red

To see what others have done this week, stop by Patchwork Times. 

I'll leave you with another shot of our beautiful snow -- this time from the back porch.  It's about 8 or 9 inches here, (I'm guessing).  Heard that we got 12 - 14 inches in our area.

Stash Report/Enhancements - Week 11

This week I found myself enhancing my stash again!!  When will it stop and start going in the other direction???  Only time will tell.  The LQS where I worked is closing and I can't pass up a good sale.  I picked up these fun fabrics - Peace & Love symbols circa 60's, and Save the Planet to use in pillowcases and the bright orange actually goes with both for accents.

Also saw this cute sunflowers border fabric that would make a cute table runner for my kitchen island. Now to just find the time to sew all these into finished projects.! 

With these purchases, my stash is still going in the wrong direction, but hey, it's so much fun to bring in new fabric to add to the mix!

Mumbers for this week:

Fabric added            - 7 yards

Fabric Added in 2013 - 45.7 yds

Fabric used this week - 1 yd  (borders on my D9P, almost a finished top)

Fabric used YTD     -  17 yds

Check out what others did this week over at Patchwork Times, here.

On the Needles and QOV

I've been slow in getting anything new on the knitting needles, but I still have a couple balls of yarn that I wanted to use up.  Since my knitting expertise is very limited, I am still having fun with scarves. This one is a pretty variegated teal blue and will be a gift to a friend.

This week has also found me working on more QOV quilts.  I recently received quilted ones that need bindings attached.  This one is now ready for hand stitching the binding to the back.

And not to forget about the kids pillowcases, here's one more to add to the growing stack.  This is #20 so far.

There is a quilt show this weekend that I plan to check out and the warmer weather is calling me to play in the dirt. There are just too many temptations to distract me, which is not hard to do -- but I need to focus on getting some quilting finished.  It's a good thing I'm a night owl, cause when I play all day, I have to "catch up" at night while others sleep.  So what have you been up to this week?  

To see what others have been doing on the knitting front, go to Judy's here.

Breakfast Made Easier

Last month Judy from Patchwork Times mentioned eating steel cut oats and preparing them more quickly. Perhaps the title should have been "Teaching an old dog new tricks". Since I eat these several times a week, especially in cold weather, I thought I'd give it a try. I followed the directions on the box for 6 servings.  Measured the water, added the oats and cooked it for 35 to 40 mins.  Then poured the oats into individual servings in an old muffin tin that my mother always used for corn muffins.  It only holds 9 muffins, but they are quite large.  I kept out enough for my current days' breakfast.  Then the tray went into the freezer for a few hours.

When they were frozen like hockey pucks, I took them out and wrapped them individually in plastic wrap, like Judy suggested and put them all in a zip lock freezer bag.  

Here they are all wrapped and sitting on my Valentine table topper.

The next morning, I took one out of the freezer bag, put it in a microwaveable bowl and heated it for 2 mins. added a little milk and heated it another minute or two. 

I like cinnamon and honey or raisins or fresh fruit in it -- whatever I have on had.  It only takes 5 mins. instead of 35 mins. now to enjoy a delicious, hot breakfast.  I love it!  Thanks so much Judy for making my life easier in the mornings.  

Stash Report & Enhancements - Week 10

After being gone at a retreat this last week, I finally have a little change in the right direction in my stash numbers.  I made 3 more pillowcases, pieced a backing on my Winter Friendship Stars UFO, made progress on 2 more UFOs, and made 20 more string blocks.  But I have to confess, I was not all good.  Since we were near Hickory Stick Quilt Shop in Hannibal, MO (one of my favorite shops), I had to do a little enhancing too.  I brought home 4 yards of light background batiks, which are so hard to find, and they were on sale.  

So my stash report for this week, looks like this.

Fabric Added -   4 yards

Fabric Used -   10.5 yards

Fabric Added YTD - 38.7 yds.

Fabric Used YTD -   16 yds.

Net for 2013 - added more than used  - 22.7 yds

Here's the pillowcases.  1 for QOV, 2 for St.Louis Children's Hospital to add to my stack.  I'll take a picture of the pieced backing when I get it quilted - hopefully before the end of 2013!!

To see what others did for the week, go over to Judy's. 

Update on QOV & Stash Report

My stash has not changed much from last week.  I used some more scraps from the string bin, but they don't count, and I made a couple exchange blocks for friends, but the fabric used there was not enough to count either. So basically my numbers remain the same as last week -- Nothing in or out.
YTD Added - 34.7 yds     YTD  USED -  5.5 yds
I'm still in the red, but there is always next week. I'm going on a retreat next week and just maybe I'll get a top all put together so I'll have some fabric I can count.

To see other stash reports for the week, stop by Judy's.

Some good QOV news!! Look what has come in this week since we announced our drive for 100 quilts for our Missouri troops coming back from Afghanistan in May or June.   First off a totally finished (yay!!) QOV from Cindy.

from Cindy L.

and a quilt top with backing and binding also from Cindy.  In her goody bag were extra fabrics to make more blocks, bindings or backings and some some beautiful pieced blocks ready to be put together for a top or two.  Cindy you are just the best.!  Thanks so much for all these beautiful gifts of fabric and for caring.

from Cindy L.

I  also received  a quilt top with backing and binding from Judy H at my guild meeting.  Thank you Judy.  This top is beautiful and some lucky man or woman will treasure the sentiment behind it.

from Judy H.

Thank you all so much for your generous donations.  We will have these tops quilted, labeled and coordinated pillowcases made to hold them for presenting to our returning troops.   I have received several other commitments from friends and bloggers who are willing to help in this effort too.  I will try to keep you posted on our total numbers as they become available to me.

To see other stash reports for the week, stop by Judy's.

Get it Done

Well, here it is the last day in February and time to take a look at my GID list for February and how did I do?   You can see my specific list for February here.

I finished 3 of the five listed,  made some progress on two and one went untouched.  My Easy Street blocks are all finished, but didn't quite get them all into rows for a completed top.  I finished up my string blocks from January (needed 5 more) and did 10 more for Feb. I'm making 10 string blocks/month.  

Here are my 10 for February.








This is what a stack of 70 string blocks looks like.  With the 10 from above, I'm now at 80 total.  Only 40 more to go for this quilt.  You would think my string bins would be getting somewhat empty, wouldn't you.  Not even close.  I do believe they multiply at night!





Here's my GID list for March

1.       Assemble Easy Street into a top with borders

2.       Cut sashing & cornerstones for Joan’s stars – from Jan.

3.       Quilt 1or 2 QOV

4.       Make 4 pillowcases for St.Louis Children's Hospital

5.       Make 10 more string blocks

6.    Finish prep on applique block

7.    Put together D9P blocks into a top

Check out Judy's GID to see how others did in February.

Week 8 Stash Enhancements

Another week has flown by and it's time to confess  show my stash report.  I did it again -- drove passed the quilt shop having closeout sales and my car headed right into the parking lot!!  I really had no control of it.  I tried to reason that I didn't need any more fabric, but it wouldn't listen.  So I gave in. I may need an intervention when it comes to sales in fabric shops.  Here's what I left the shop with to add to my stash. In all honesty, I hope to be able to use most of these with my Brown Sugar bali pop shown on a previous post.

Here's a few close-up shots

beautiful daisy-like flowers

ginko leaves

And now for the results of all this fun,

Fabric Added this week - 6 yards

Fabric Added YTD - 34.7 yards

Fabric Used this week - .5 - binding on a quilt

Fabric Used YTD - 5.5 yards 

Net used for 2013 - minus 29.2 yds

Just wait, soon I'll be able to add the yardage from Easy Street and head this report in a different direction.  It's getting real close to being a flimsey. Keep watching.

You can check out other stash reports at Judy's.  

QOV finishes and Thanking the Troops

On Monday, President's Day, our QOV group met at Sacred Heart in Troy, MO to hand quilt donated tops.  Here are a few that I took pictures of as they were shown to the group.  We had almost 100 ladies quilting today.

top pieced by Denise M.

I didn't get very good pictures of this one because my battery decided to die after 2 pics. It was quilted in red thread and has eagles and flags on parts of the inner white borders. The white outer top and bottom border is quilted with big block letters USA.  (details can be seen below).

top pieced by Cindy L.

Our organizer told us about a local troop from Farmington, MO who have been in Afghanistan for 9 months doing one of the most dangerous jobs (disarming IEDs).  They will be returning home in May this year and we want to present each member of that unit with a quilt to show them they are appreciated and thank them for their service.  That means we are on a push to get 100 quilts made and quilted so they can presented at a special event when they return home by Memorial Day.

If anyone has any unwanted tops or finished quilts that you don't have a home for and would like to give them to our troops, just let me know.  I have volunteered to quilt some of them on my long arm to accomplish our goal more quickly. We hand quilt over 95% of our quilts, but in this case, we need them completed faster. They should measure close to 60" x 75" give or take a few inches and they can be any color, not necessarily red, white, and blue, as you can see above. All fabrics should be cotton and with no sparkly or metallic fabrics on them.

Design Wall - Feb. 18

I'm still working on Easy Street, but getting closer to the end. My design wall is not big enough to spread this large quilt out fully. All that I have left to make are a few empty spots (B blocks) then I will start sewing the blocks into rows.  My goal is to have the top done by the end of February, complete with borders.   

I had two of these boxes full of the pieces for this quilt.  Now these are the only units left to make those last 7 blocks.  It sure looks like a lot more than 7 blocks, doesn't it?  Sure hope I counted right.   

I am anxious to get this off my design wall and put up something else. Actually I've been working on several other projects while doing Easy Street and they are patiently waiting their turn on the design wall.  

I'm linking up with Patchwork TImes, so stop over there and check out lots more design walls.