Stash Stuff for Week 33 of 2017

It's been an eventful week.  We became empty nesters on Wednesday.  

Drama Teen (aka Scientist in Training or the SIT), moved into her dorm room last Wednesday.  She's been keeping really busy, she's already working on her first assignment for the school's newspaper. I've been keeping busy too.  To avoid the quiet house on Thursday when My Guy went out for his bike ride, I went to the local quilt shop for some fabric petting therapy.  I did more than pet, there was a fabric line that just had to come home with me. 

Geek Chic by Studio E Fabrics was just too geeky for me to pass up. Plus the Scientist in Training is enrolled as a chemistry major and she really needs an extra long twin quilt that fits better on her dorm bed.  I am now in search of an equally geeky quilt pattern to start and hopefully finish before Christmas.  

Needless to say, I did some damage on the incoming side of the stash numbers, but those numbers are being ignored since the train has long left the station on having any success on using more than I buy this year. There was a little fabric in the out column this week.  

Fabric used this week:  0.5 yards
Fabric used year to date:  42.58 yards

I didn't do so hot on the finding time to stitch this last week.  Between helping the SIT pack, trooping through 100 F+ temps on move in day and a major bought of dizziness due to sinus issues, there were only 4 days this last week spent in the sewing room.  There are just weeks like that sometimes.  

Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the weekly stash report. 

Weekend Stitching: What goes on in the Background

It was a busy weekend.  Drama Teen and I took a road trip to see her grandmother before DT heads off the college, plus made one more mad dash to Tulsa on Sunday to finish off the dorm room shopping.  DT heads off to college on Wednesday.  There are still a few last minute things to deal with, but for the most part she is ready to go.  Not sure I am.  

With all the last minute college prep, there hasn't been as much going on in the sewing room.  At least not much worth showing on the blog.  Still working on stitching down the binding on Blooms and Butterflies.  Just two corners and the side between left to do there.  The first round of white borders has been added to the scrappy coffee cup project, but the flimsy doesn't look much different than last week.  

The leaders and enders project reached a milestone.  I've got 9 blocks done now, so threw them up on the design wall to gauge if the project was done or if one I want one more row. 

  En Provence a Bonnie Hunter Mystery (2016)

My preference is rectangular quilts, I'm not a big fan of square ones.  So I'd like to add one more row of blocks, but wasn't sure there would be enough fabric for that.  But there appears to be enough to eek out three more blocks.  So the blocks have been moved back to the project box for now.  I did find that one of the sashing strips is assembled wrong (do you see the error in the photo), so I'll fix that before putting that one back into the box.  I don't want to forget and find it again after I've put the top together.  My goal is to get En Provence finished before this year's Bonnie Hunter mystery gets going.  Hopefully I can get that far before November.  

Linking up for:
Main Crush Monday
Monday Making
Monday Design Wall

Stash Stuff For Week 32 of 2017

It's been a busy week, with not as much sewing going on as I had hoped.  Getting Drama Teen ready to head for college has been our priority the last week.  We've had a couple of marathon shopping expeditions to get stuff together for her dorm room.  Found out yesterday that the bed size in her room is different than the information we'd been sent, so that means another shopping trip this morning.  I am hoping to get in some sewing time this afternoon.

So this week there were only 4 days of stitching out of the last 7.  That puts me at a 89.7% success rate at finding time to stitch.  Still there was enough stitching to have a bit going out to report. 

Fabric used this week:  0.33 yards
Fabric used year to date:  42.08 yards

Besides finding time to sew and using fabric, one of the other long term sewing goals has been to get the fabric closet organized.  I've been tackling one shelf at a time.  The third shelf on the second shelving unit has been the focus for the last year or so.  This is what it looked like last July.

July 2016

This is what it looks like now:

August 2017

The batik, oriental and specific collection fabrics from the second shelf have been moved to the third shelf.  The fabrics sorted by color moved up to the second shelf.  There is still one stack of fabric on that shelf to be pressed and refolded, but there's been progress.  It's slow progress, but I'm OK with that.  It does make it much easier to find fabrics for projects once they are sorted into the appropriate stacks.  Plus the way the fabrics are folded makes them ready to use for a project.  I just unfold the amount I want, give it a touch up press and then cut what's needed.  It's nice to be able to pull fabric from the closet and it's more or less ready to use.

Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the weekly stash report.  

Weekend Stitching: Borders and Bindings

Definitely not ready for Monday this week.  Sunday was such a nice day as most of it was spent in the sewing room.  I did come out to finish a couple of loads of laundry and to help Drama Teen with some college prep stuff, like setting up her bursars account.  She heads to college in a little over a week. (No I'm not ready for that.) 

I did get a lot done in the sewing room, but didn't think to take any photos.  Turned one corner with the binding on Blooms and Butterflies.

The other focus for Sunday, was getting borders on the Coffee Cup blocks. 

  Scrappy Coffee Cups

Block patterns from Karen F. Srebro and Janet McCarroll published in 

Block Magic and Block Magic Too by Nancy Johnson-Srebro

The green inner border is on, plus half of the first white border.  The next two border strips are prepped, I just didn't get that far yesterday.  There is another narrow green border, another white border and finally a dark green border left to add.  Not sure this one will get done this week, but hopefully it will be close to being a finished flimsy by the weekend.  

I also did some rearranging and cleaning up of the stash closet. There is still lots to do on that front, but that's one of those long term projects in the sewing room.  For now it's time to get ready for another work week.  

Linking up with:
Main Crush Monday
Monday Making
Design Wall Monday

Slow Stitching and Stash Stuff for Week 31 of 2017

The weather the last week has been more typical of late September rather than August.  I definitely don't mind the lower temperatures and we definitely need the rain.  Still it's a bit odd for this time of year.  Rainy days are perfect for spending time in the sewing room, so that's the plan for today. 

Finally got the binding attached to Blooms and Butterflies last night and got started on the hand stitching. 

I'm really liking the plaid on the back.  No corners turned last night, but it is a small lap quilt so it shouldn't take too long to get this one to the finished column. There is definitely some slow stitching on the agenda for today. 

The stash report is another story.  I've completely blown my goal to use more fabric than I add.  After two years of not adding much of anything, my resistance to pretty fabrics and sales seems to be at an all time low.  So rather than beat myself up for my spectacular failure on stash management, I'm just going to focus on using up some fabric and will modify my weekly report accordingly.  

Fabric used this week:  1.34 yards
Fabric used year to date:  41.75 yards

So what tripped me up on my stash management goals?  Pretty fabrics on sale over at Lady Belle Fabrics.  That included some colorful fat quarters from the Flower Sugar line.

Very pretty pinks and blues.  Then there was another colorful set of Gooseberry by Moda.

No plan for either set as yet.  I'm just going to admire them for a bit. Maybe I'll find a project for them once I get a few UFOs off the list.  

Connecting Threads just released several new collections.  I couldn't resist the gingham like prints. 

That orange plaid looks a bit out of place.  I think the cooler temperatures this week made me think of flannel shirts and fall, so how could I resist?  No plans for these either.  Though with Drama Teen attending Oklahoma State this fall, there may well be another orange and black quilt in my future.  Probably sooner rather than later.  

Now that all the business travel is over, it's been easy to find 15 minutes each day to stitch.  I managed 7 out of 7 days this week. But with Drama Teen's move to college and some family engagements later this month, it will get harder to keep that up.   

Since it's going to be a dreary day and there's not anything that has to get done around the house, today seems like a great opportunity to just hang out in the sewing room. 

Linking up with Slow Stitching Sunday and the weekly stash report.