Stash Report Week 5

Used this Week: 1 yard
Used year to Date: 9.5 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 1.4 yards
Net Used for 2011: 8.1 yards

"Used" again means tossed. I went through another box of my MIL's stuff and threw away the unusable.

Snow day

This is what we woke up to this morning:

That's a big piece of cedar tree that fell across the path we normally use to get from the house to the drive. So we shoveled around it. Only four or five smaller branches down from the pine trees across the driveway.

Lots of shoveling - so the kids (i.e., The Lovely Daughter and TMOTH) made a big pile and turned it into a huge snowman. This is the building phase:


The Lovely Daughter with "Vincent van Snow":


The boys mostly threw snowballs and ate snow:


Anyway, we're now shoveled out and ready to go to work/school tomorrow - assuming there is school.

Stash Report Week 4

Used this Week: 6.6 yards
Used year to Date: 8.5 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 1.4 yards
Net Used for 2011: 7,1 yards

YAY for mom's 9-patch. The quilt has odd measurements - 51 x 82 inches - and by my calculations (rounding up for seam allowances!) it's 5.6 yards, plus a yard used for binding.

Mom's 9-patch

FINISHED! First UFO of 2011 is DONE!


You can see the sashing (blue and white seersucker!) in this photo a little better. I used an 80s-vintage small calico for the binding, and plain cream cotton sheeting for the back.


I cranked out most of the final trimming and machine sewing of binding for the Friday Night Sew-In, then finished about half of the binding while waiting for the Lovely Daughter at art class on Saturday, then finished up the rest this morning. YAY!

PIGS stats

How do I keep track? I have lists, and more lists, and even more lists.

I did keep them on the blog sidebar (and they're probably still hanging out there) but don't update them well. I joined a couple of UFO challenges this year, and made the list (as best I could) in my journal, then posted them/e-mailed them, etc.

I don't buy kits, so I think I only have one that a secret sister gave me.

I DO have a bunch of "going to do that project" material, but I have no issues with using it for other projects and eventually making a substitution for the original project.

My oldest UFO is either a dancing ladies applique that I bought at a quilt show (my guess is 40s, but it could be a little earlier or later) OR my mom's 9-patch, which is now QUILTED and the binding material is in the wash! Oldest UFO that I started? maybe a flying geese quilt from the mid-80s which is likely to never get finished :)

Stash Report Week 3

I went to the Quilt Club at the local fabric store, and they had a scrap bag available! It's really more strips that scraps, but it works for me. I figured about 1.4 yards, and since I had a coupon, a grant total of $1.47.





I've also been going through boxes of stuff that DH brought home from his parents' house. Some of the material is usable, but some of it is NOT, and that's just going in the trash. I'm calling it "used" since I had to deal with it, and it used to be part of the stash. Maybe half a yard got tossed.

EDIT: The biggest thing was what I DIDN'T buy this week. I thought about buying some wide backing for Mom's quilt, and even fondled the sheeting at Hancock's last week, but decided to wait until (1) I had the new coupon, and (2) I was ready for the backing. Well, after waiting, I decided that I'd piece the back, dang it. When I went up to the stash to look for backing material, what do I see? A HUGE chunk of nice cream sheeting. And what's this? It's extra-wide? SCORE!!!

Used this Week: .5 yards
Used year to Date: 1.9 yards
Added this Week: 1.4 yards
Added Year to Date: 1.4 yards
Net Used for 2011: .5 yards

I'm hoping for much better numbers next week - I finished the top of my Mom's quilt, and will sandwich it later tonight, and hopefully get it quilted in the next week. I may or may not get my friend Kim's quilt sandwiched and quilted, since I have to work on a guild challenge piece due in early February.

Stash Report Week 2

2 FQ out of stash for guild secret sister gift; 1 FQ from stash for guild FQ raffle (which I didn't win!)

I also made a small quilt from stash for a challenge: 9" x 12" front and back, plus a little bit of applique and binding, so I'm going to call it 0.15 yards :)

Used this Week: .9 yards
Used year to Date: 1.4 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 0 yards
Net Used for 2011: 1.4 yards

I DID stop at Hancock's on Thursday, for 50% off thread and batting. Once the quilts the batting is destined for are done, I should be able to bump up the "net used" a little bit.

Haiku Art Group

I'm participating in a Haiku Art Group this year:
http://haikuart.blogspot.com/

Our challenge word for January was "Beginning."

My little quiltlet (9" x 12") is called "START":


Detail of alphabet beads and root:


Detail of leaves:


Overall, I'm happy, and I learned some new things.

PIGS

a.k.a. Projects In Grocery Sacks.

Jill's first questions is how do we store our PIGS?

Why, in grocery sacks, of course!

Seriously, I have a sad obsession with those reusable grocery sacks. If I see one I don't have, I usually buy it. I have them in all sizes and colors. While I DO use them for groceries when I remember to pull them out of the trunk, I also use them for projects in the craft room.

Crafty goals for 2011

1. Shop the stash - I've put my first post in for Judy L.'s Sunday stash report; this should at the very least keep me honest.

2. Haiku art quilt group - commit to doing the best work I can do, but be willing to go out on a limb

3. UFOs - Three challenges combined should give me some progress in this area :)

4. Try something new - I have a gift cert. from Dharma so I think surface design supplies might be on my wish list

5. Organize, organize, organize. I think I'm better off than last year, but not by much. At a minimum, I want to:
a. find all of the UFOs and put their parts in separate bins
b. figure out where the material needs to live. I'd like to have it all in one spot, but I'm not sure that's possible.
c. spend some time every weekend in the craft room working on stash management.

6. Draw more.

Stash Report Week 1

This is easy :) I've been working on this month's UFO, which unfortunately starts with lots of ripping. BUT, I packaged up two FQ to mail off for the stashbusters UFO challenge.

Used this Week: 0 yards
Used year to Date: 0.5 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 0 yards
Net Used for 2011: 0.5 yards

First UFO - and it's Mom's 9-patch!

There's the one big part, and one strip. I need to rip out a couple of the vertical sashings that have holes or tears, and I think only one of the horizonal ones. There are two or three blocks that will need to be replaced.



I may have enough of Mom's original fabric to do the replacement blocks, but if not, I have suitable material that's of the right vintage.

At my house, if you leave things lying around for more than a minute, stuff like this happens:



Don't they look comfy?