WITB December 31, Basket #6

This was another case of nesting!!

The blue plastic basket is a very handy tote when it's not stuffed with other stuff (gratuitous sleeping dog in the picture).

 On top are the wonder clips TMOTH got me for Christmas, my office-in-a-bag-in-progress, and the first of two backpacks.

On the bottom of the stack were two books, two magazines, and two sheets of wrapping paper.

In the two backpacks (combined) I found:
1. Five crochet hooks
2. Two spools of thread
3. Two tubes of lip balm
4. A tube of mascara (I don't even remember the last time I wore mascara)
5. Tickets to two separate concerts (FarmAid and Idina Menzel)
6. Crocheted moccasin parts, and the pattern
7. Patterns for a shawl and a hat (both completed)
8. An infinity cowl I made at FarmAid, with the little bit of yarn left over
9. 14 pens
10. Assorted professional meeting paraphernalia
11. Assorted affinity cards
12. A nail file and buffer
13. A couple of dollars in change
14. The start to a red hat
15. about 5 bags of stuffed animal eyes
16. Starbucks napkins
17. A couple of zippers
18. A bottle of baby aspirin and a baggie with ibuprofen
19. Two tins of mints, plus a couple of after-dinner mint packages
20. A bag of cough drops
21. A baggie of sparkly embellishments
22.small scrap of fabric
23. pair of compression stockings
24. Flyer from the Peacock Room show we went to about a year ago

Book It!

The latest Stashbuster challenge is called Book It and is being hosted by Meloney over on Mel's quilting blog.

The book I chose was "Big Book of Small Quilts" by Mary Hickey, and I'm going to make the Stellar Jays quilt.

WITB December 31, Box 2, 3, 4, and 5

Box #2 is a fabric bin TMOTH got me last Christmas. They're handy, but hide stuff.

In this box:

1. Another box! (a Krispy Kreme bucket, that will be #4)
2. Various strings and scraps of fabric
3. A large-ish piece of leftover backing that's probably big enough for another small quilt
4. Two magnets with a pin stuck to them
5. A project bag with: a spool of thread and really tiny cheap useless scissors)
6. A bag of embroidery supplies from a friend's downsizing sale
7. A WIP Christmas tree
8. Papers to be filed
9. an all-light 9 patch
10. a ruler
11. A pair of Fiskars
12. A scrap of batting

Box #3 was a project box, but will be repurposed for strips.

In this box:
1. a monogrammed pincushion from a friend in last year's Secret Santa swap (cleverly photographed from the back so you can't see the monogram)
2. A pair of scissors!
3. Two spools of black thread and one empty spool
4. a package of needles
5. One lonely safety pin




Box #4 - Krispy Kreme Bucket.

In this bucket:
1. some disgusting balls of yarn, promptly thrown away
2. A couple of measuring tapes
3. A spool of thread
4. A scissors charm
5. three binder clips
6. a few arts and crafts supplies
7. the BEST lip balm
8. a box of pins
9. school photo of the youngest from a couple of years ago
10. a strip for black-and-white 9-patches
11. tweezers and more safety pins and buttons


Box #5 is an overflowing strip bin; I got enough out of those into the new strip bin to get it closed if I can find that lid. There were also some non-strip scraps and one orphan block hiding in there!

WITB - December 31 Bag 1

This bag was in my dining room - the first phase of the great reorganization project. It's a cool Star Wars bag my brother got me for my birthday- and it's full.

These are the contents all laid out:

1. Four skeins of thread
2. Two pillowcases stamped for embroidery, and embroidery thread
3. Two pairs of scissors - one for kids, one good embroidery scissors
4. A packet of good needles, and one random floating needle
5. A pressed penny from National Geographic
6. Random quilt squares and triangles
7. Flannel squares
8. Four vintage cross stitch mini-kits
9. A bag of pincushions ready to be stuffed\
10. Art supplies - colored pencils, markers, drawing pencils, Zentangle kit
11. A nice journal my ex-boss got me as his retirement gift to me
12. A single large binder clip and a couple of safety pins
13. Six professional meeting pins
14. A broken necklace
15. A pair of socks
16. Black elastic
17. A plastic fork
18. A Knit-Pro ruler
19. A couple of random game pieces

Solstice Challenge

Pat Sloan is hosting a Solstice Challenge on her blog - one block per week, for about 26 weeks. These are my first two blocks:

The yellow is a solid (that I have a couple of yards of); the other fabrics will be scrappy purples and teals/turquoises.

What's in the box?

This is a new challenge for the new year for my Stashbusters Yahoo group. We're officially starting January 1 - every Sunday, go through a stash container and DEAL WITH IT. I have not just boxes, but LOTS of tote bags.

I'm getting an early start, since my Christmas vacation mission is to conquer my hallway to the basement. I'm tired of stepping over stuff! This bag was one of the things on the floor:

It's quite a nice bag- it was a prize from Prairie Moon Quilts sometime the past year.

The view from the top:

And here are the contents, all laid out on my dining room table:

1. A pattern (back in the bag)
2. A pocket mirror (broken, so into the trash)
3. An empty battery container (trash)
4. Half of a shoe polishing kit (on a shelf in the hallway, until I find the other half)
5. A green fabric circle, for a fabric Christmas tree that never happened (trash)
6. Paper scissors (the scissors box)
7. My reading glasses (my new purse)
8. Thistle Farm lotion (my new purse)
9. Flashlight (my new purse)
10. Thread (set aside to donate to the guild's raffle basket box)
11. Oil pastels (set aside until I find the art supplies)
12. T Rex kit (missing parts, so trash)
13. Small red zipper container (my new purse)
14. Jar of buttons (with the other buttons)
15. Glue stick (school supply box)
16. Frisbee (sporting equipment)
17. Tape measure (drawer of the antique sewing machine in the dining room)
18. Sticky notes (my new purse)

If I finish here, there's another bag in the bedroom I keep tripping over that's next on the list.

Last-minute Christmas gifts

My middle kid asked for the Flaafy stuffie for Christmas quite a while ago, but I didn't get started until Dec. 23. Nothing like procrastination!

The youngest provided me with a long list of Pokemon that he wanted HEADS - not the entire Pokemon - made from. One got made for Christmas - I picked the easiest one :)

Catnip Pokeball

I made a present for the grand-cat, Ralph:

The scissors and spool of thread give some idea of how big it is.

And a close-up:

September 18 stash report

Yards in: 0
Yards out: 3.2
Cumulative yards in: 14
Cumulative yards out:  15.7
Net gain/use: 1.7 OUT

Three yards out for the challenge quilt that got turned in on Monday.

I also finished the mini feedsack 9-patch:

It's 9.5 x 9.5, so lots of tiny pieces. I'm estimating 0.2 yards.

Challenge quilt done!

Challenge quilt for donation, 44 x 43.

1.25 yards of backing
1.5 yards total for the front? kind of big pieces.
0.25 yards for binding.
3.0 yards total used

Quilted in kind of a loop-do-loop, but done!

September 4 Stash Report

No change in the stash this week.

Yards in: 0
Yards out: 0
Cumulative yards in: 14
Cumulative yards out:  12.5
Net gain/use: 1.5 ADDED

I'm sewing down the binding on a challenge donation quilt, so should have some in the out column next week.

A tiny bit of spending this week: Two spools of thread and a project box from Jo-Ann, total damage 11.68.

Block finishes for August

Nine tiny nine-patches, plus one bonus patch I discovered after I put the top together:

Four blocks so far on a quilt started to use up the grey I used in the background of the red quilt:

At least 3 blocks to finish up this red quilt in time for the fair:

And 22 split 9-patches sewn as leader-enders and mindless sewing.

The total for August: 39 blocks completed

OMG - September

This month's goal is an easy one - finish the challenge quilt! My guild sponsored a black + white + color from your stash challenge for our service projects.

Six fat quarters of black and white were provided; we were to add at least one color from our stash. Mine is obviously green :)

I wound up using only four of the FQ in the body of the quilt - one more I could use is a kind of black and white tiger stripe, and I may still be able to use it in the binding.

Finished quilts are due at our September 12 guild meeting.

Stash Report ~ August 28

Since it turns out my last official stash report was back in January, this isn't particularly accurate :)

Yards in: 13.8 
Yards out: 11.3
Cumulative yards in: 14
Cumulative yards out:  12.5
Net gain/use: 1.5 ADDED

That is over the past month, when I've been blogging - better than just quitting keeping track, I think.

THIS week's additions to the stash are:

$22.24 at JoAnn's for backing and needles.
2 yards of wide backing = 4.9 yards total

$13.77 for a bucket of buttons at the Goodwill. 68 full cards, 14 partial cards, and quite a few loose buttons.

thinking about designs

So, I have the leftover grey. I have a lot of pink. I have a lot of black-and-white.

The first idea was the economy block. But the directions in Maggie Malone's block book are template-based, and I'm not doing that for straight lines!

SO...working on an angled cut I wound up with two different versions- since it's not a symmetrical cut, there are two blocks that can be made. And then there's the rotations!

After all that, none of them resemble the economy block because I misjudged the angle :/

If I was using the *same* pink and same black-and-white...it wouldn't make such a difference, because the secondary designs would be stronger.

And a split pinwheel, just to try symmetry.

New-to-me books and magazines and such

I stopped by my local used bookstore during lunch Friday. A break from the office, a few $$ to the Friends of the Library, and some inspiration for me. Goodness all around. for only $11.75.

1. Stitch magazine. I mostly bought this one because it has a full-size bucket hat pattern included.

2. An appointment book. It's not dated, so I can start at any time. My plan is to use this to keep track of things for the upcoming fair year.

3. This is fun, since Lois is a local quilter, and some of the quilts in her book were made by other local quilters.

4. Mainly, I like the owl on the cover.

5. I think this is mostly intended for decorative painting, but I'm thinking of tracing the letters for embroidery.

6. This has some really interesting blocks- a lot of curved designs.

7. This might be the push I need to make a quilted jacket. Lots of simple patterns are included.

Some finishes!

It's fair week here, so that's a nudge to finish anything close so I can enter it. I only have bad photos of these, since I misplaced the camera before I had to take them in to enter them!

1. This little heart wallhanging. It's fairly simply quilted with big stitches, with a button in the middle of each heart. About 12 x 22, and 600 square inches used:

2. My miniature trip around the world - total size is 10 by 10, so 300 square inches (I can do math, y'all - that's factoring in seam allowances and binding!).

3. The Road to California quilt for my niece. Quilted, bound, and ready to mail off once I show it off at the September guild meeting. About 85 x 85; let's say 1600 inches,

By my math, about 11.3 yards for all three finishes!

More fabric in :)

I bought a wide backing for my niece's quilt - the top was finished early Sunday afternoon, so I made the trek to Jo-Ann's for backing. 3 yards, which is equal to 7.4 yards of regular fabric.

Six fat quarters also came home with me from quilt guild last week, to make a quilt for Service Projects, so that shouldn't stay in the stash very long - finished quilts are due in September.

Some fabric comes in...

Yesterday was the meeting of our mini-mini group. I'd done NOTHING, but it's always fun to visit with people.

One of our members brought a bag of short, thin strips of feed sack a guild speaker had given her YEARS ago. I took a handful with the promise that I'd make something out of it by the next meeting.

The first (tiny) block is done:

I also stopped at Jo-Ann and bought another 2.5 yards of Kona PFD that I use for backing/borders on a quilt-in-progress. Ralph is not impressed.

Long time not blogging

Now that my course of antibiotics for Lyme disease is almost finished, I'm feeling almost human again.

It was HOT HOT HOT this weekend - the Montgomery County Farm Tour was this weekend, but I just couldn't face it in the heat, with other stuff to do. The only stop we did was at Rock Hill Orchard.

We got un-homogenized milk so TMOTH can try making cheese, and lovely peaches, and a few other things. But mainly we went because I'd heard they had delicious ice cream, and I wasn't led wrong - it was wonderful.

I made blueberry-lime jam from some uninspired blueberries and bought strawberries on the grocery run for strawberry jam.

And I'm working on a UFO - a Valentine's wallhanging.