Weekend Stitching: Back to the Fun Stuff

It was bitterly cold all weekend.  Perfect weather to just hang out around the house.  Once a few household chores were out of the way, I migrated to the sewing room for the rest of the weekend.  

First on the list was to finish the not fun stuff from last weekend: prepping Inverted Star for quilting.  ✔

It took a couple of hours to finish off the prep work.  I found the right size box in the left over pile from Christmas. The box needs to be taped shut and a label added then it will be ready to mail to Trudy.  Getting Inverted Star shipped out for quilting was my January one monthly goal.  It should go out in the mail tomorrow.  It's nice to get that one checked off before the end of the month. 

Looking at the project plan for this year, next on the list to finish is the Christmas Mystery quilt.  It's not a year old yet, so it's not on the UFO list, but getting it finished will keep it off the list. Since the plan this year is to get in a few finishes, no reason not to pull this project out and figure out what's next for it.   First step was to address the creepy blank face of the nutcracker (which really bugged My Guy). 

Ho Ho Ho (Christmas Mystery)
designed by Carrie Randall (Quilter's Hideaway)

I used dark gray embroidery thread to stitch in a few facial features. I'm happy with how it came out, so is My Guy.  No more creepy, faceless Nutcracker.  

Next step was to figure out the backing fabric and get that pieced.  Most of the quilt was made from scraps and fat quarters, so there wasn't any left over yardage to pick from there. After staring at the various piles in the fabric closet, I came across a green and gold print.  Not a Christmas print, but I think it will work for the back. 

It's got the same green tones as the print used for one of the Dresden Plate blocks.  I'm planning to bind this in either red or dark green.  That backing would work with either.  It didn't take long to piece the backing, this quilt isn't a very large just 52" X 64".  Next step is to give both the flimsy and the back a good press, then clean up the loose threads on both.  I'll probably wait till next weekend to get started on that.  Since this project used a medium gray, I won't have to worry to much about the threads showing through, except in the blocks that use white fabrics.  So hopefully that process will go faster with than it did with Inverted Star.   

That's it for me this week.  Linking up with the usual Monday linky parties:

Main Crush Monday
Monday Making
Monday Design Wall

Week 3 of 2019: Stitching and De-Stashing

We didn't get any of the snow or ice, but we did get the bitter cold and the the high winds with the weather system that came through on Friday.  Perfect weather to just hang out in the sewing room and tick off day seven of finding at least 15 minutes to stitch this week.  

Finding those 15 minutes each evening was easier this week than it was last week.  

15 minutes stitching days/week = 7/7 days
15 minutes stitching days/Jan = 17/19 days
15 minutes stitching days/2019 = 17/19 days
Success rate = 89.74%

My target success rate is 90% for the year, I'm back on track to make that for January.   How are you doing on finding time to stitch?  You can link up at the bottom of the post to share how your week went. 

Since most of my stitching time was devoted to prepping Inverted Star, there wasn't any action over at the sewing machine, so my fabric out for the year hasn't changed any.  

Fabric out this week = 0 yards
Fabric out in 2019 = 4.78 yards

Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the weekly stash report.

There should be a bit more stash going out next week as the plan for today is to get started on piecing the backing for the Christmas Mystery quilt.  That project needed one last detail added before it was actually finished.  My Guy didn't like the blank face on the nutcracker.  That's been remedied.  

I found a coloring page on line and combined the faces from two different nutcrackers to create one that fit the space better.  I'm pretty happy with how that turned out.  Linking up with Slow Stitching Sunday.  

So how did you do at fitting in those 15 minutes of stitching time each day? After you link up, please try to visit at least one of the other participants and cheer them on in their stitching efforts. 

Weekend Stitching - The Not Fun Stuff

We didn't get the snow, but we certainly got the cold and wet this weekend.  It was a good weekend to not have any place to go. I made good use of the home time this weekend. Mount laundry was scaled, the top of my "business" desk is clear and the floor of the sewing room is thread free. 

I did spend a good amount of time in the sewing room, but there wasn't a lot of stitching going on.  My One Monthly Goal for January is to get Inverted Star ready for quilting and shipped out to Trudy.  That was the reason to get the threads off the floor, to avoid getting any (more) stray threads on either the back or the finished flimsy.  I start by prepping the back (it's easier and faster). A lint roller was used to pick up any stray threads and the back was given a good final press. 

Now it's all folded up, bagged and ready for shipping.  

Then it was time for the Inverted Star flimsy to get the same treatment.

I work from the back, first using the lint roller to remove any loose threads, then pressing the seams and blocks.  The final step is to neaten up the seams by removing any threads that could possibly show through the white background once the project is quilted.  I only managed to press and de-thread half of the flimsy yesterday.  There was a lot of fraying on the back, there was quite a pile of excess thread just from going over the first half.  

And that doesn't include what the lint roller picked up.  

I had hoped to have it ready to ship out today, but it's going to take another hour or so to finish off the last two rows.  This is my least favorite step of the quilting process, so I tend to put it off.  At least I've gotten started. Since the process requires my cutting table, which doubles as my pressing station, I'll have to finish the clean up before I can get back to my other projects.  Not fun, but necessary. 

Hope your weekend of stitching was loads more fun than mine. Linking up with the normal Monday crowd. 

Monday Making
Main Crush Monday
Monday Design Wall

Week 2 of 2019: Stitching and De-Stashing

It's been a good weekend to stay home.  We started the weekend with the rain, the wind and the cold.  Not as cold as it was up north, but wet and cold enough to be really miserable if you were out in it.  It did finally get cold enough to snow.  So it was definitely a good weekend to stay in and play catch up on my sewing time for the week. 

The second week of January wasn't one of my best for getting into the sewing room.  We celebrated the Scientist in Training's 20th birthday last week with a dinner out to her favorite fancy restaurant in Tulsa.  So it was late when we got home.  A second night, I came home from work with a migraine, so no sewing that evening.  So here's the damage.  

15 minutes stitching days/week = 5/7 days
15 minutes stitching days/Jan = 10/12 days
15 minutes stitching days/2019 = 10/12 days
Success rate = 83.33%

Some weeks are just that way, more to do then you can realistically get to or you just feel lousy.  It really is an achievement to find time to stitch every day.  If I don't miss any more days this month, I'll be back over 90% by the end of the month, which is my goal for the year.  Mr. Linky is waiting at the end of the post if you'd like to share how your stitching week went.  

The stash report is going better.  Nothing new in and just a bit out. 

Fabric this week = 0.81 yards
Fabric this year = 4.78 yards

So I'm off to a good start on that front.  Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the weekly stash report.  

I said we had snow yesterday.  It was really pretty coming down, but it didn't amount to much.

It wasn't even enough to coat the grass.  We have family in St. Louis.  They posted some pretty impressive photos on Facebook from yesterday.  Hope no one had to spend 8 hours on the highways getting home on Friday and that you are all dug out today.  

That's it for me today. I'm hoping for some good stitching time this afternoon.  Here's Mr. Linky if you'd like to share how well you did at finding time to stitch this week. 

1. Chrisknits 2. Julie in GA 3. MaryR @ Urban Quilter 4. Meloney

5. Connie 6. maggie f 7. di 8. Mary-Kay

9. Marti 10. Deana 11. DesertSky Quilting 12. Christina's Handicrafts

Powered by... Mister Linky's Magical Widgets.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Radiant Red Stitching

What a week!  The first full week of work after the holidays is always rough for some reason.  It was nice to get home last night and head to the sewing room for some in depth stitching therapy.   I was in the mood for some mindless stitching, this year's Rainbow Scrap Project seemed to be just the thing to work on. 

I was able to finish off the first two blocks last night. 

 Modified Wild and Goosey
Based on Bonnie Hunter's pattern in Addicted to Scraps

These blocks are 3.5" squares, that's relatively tiny for me. Each block has 13 pieces, so it takes a bit to finish off one square.  Even with all the tiny pieces, these two were a lot of fun to make.  The planned layout needs 320 blocks.  In addition to the red, the plan is to make pink, magenta, purple, blue, turquoise, green, yellow and orange blocks.  So with 320 blocks in 9 different colors, that's about 36 blocks of each color.  With those kind of stats, this project is likely to take a couple of years. We'll see if I can move it along a bit faster, but even if I can't, it's using up some of those little scraps, so how can that be a bad thing? 

Linking up with Angela over at Soscrappy today and linking up with Cynthia for Oh Scrap on Sunday.