Stitching Storms

You know it's spring in Oklahoma when the breakfast conversation is all about which car to leave in the garage and what to remember to unplug before we head out to work.  The forecast is for potentially monster tornado producing storms in the west of the state, with the additional potential for large hail and lots of lightening.  There probably won't be much stitching this evening, so it's a good thing I got lots of stitching time over the weekend.  

There are lot of projects on the active list at the moment, Christmas Angels, Vintage Dresses, Wild and Goosey, On Ringo Lake, Storm at Sea and the Daisy Chain Mystery.  Usually I work on all the active projects at once, just chain piece what ever pieces are needed for each project. That way I make a bit of progress on all of them.  But this weekend I decided to focus on just two projects, Storms at Sea and the Daisy Chain Mystery.  Getting the blocks completed for Storms at Sea is this month's one monthly goal, so I want to be sure that happens.  Alison releases the last clue for the Daisy Chain Mystery today, so I wanted to be all caught up for that.   

I made really good progress on the Storm at Sea blocks.

Storm at Sea
Paper Piecing Class by Carrie Randell (Quilter's Hideaway)

  
All that's left is three large economy blocks and one last diamond block.  I should be able to get those all done and up on the design wall this weekend. Hopefully I'll get a good start on stitching the blocks together. I'd like to get this off the design wall so there's room to play with the next quilt on the to be finished list.  

Fingers crossed that I'll be able to check out some of the other links over at Monday Making, Main Crush Monday and the Monday Design Wall linky parties when I get home from work.  The weather guys often overestimate the storm threat, but the Weather Channel guys are hanging out in Oklahoma City, so it's likely going to be a wild afternoon/evening.

Week 20 of Stitching and De-stashing

It's spring in Oklahoma.  Which means the weather alternates from cold, wet and dangerous to hot, sunny and glorious.  Yesterday was thunderstorms, today is sunshine.  You can stitch in both, though I've been known to unplug the sewing machine during some of the stronger lightening storms.  The storms didn't keep me from getting in my 15 minutes of stitching time each day this week. How did you do at fitting in some fun and game time with fabric and thread?

The biggest challenge this week was fitting in some stitching time on the day I had the stomach bug. Thankfully it was just a 24 hour bug type of thing.  I was able to play with quilt labels rather than go up to the sewing room when I didn't feel too great. 

15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
15 minute days/May = 18/18 days
15 minute days/2019 = 126/138 days
Success rate = 91.30%

My percentage of stitching days is back over 90%, so I'm still on track with that goal. 

It was a good week on the de-stashing front as well. 

Fabric out this week = 1.39 yards
Fabric out for 2019 = 22.41 yards
More out than in for 2019 

I've done well with my fabric diet so far this year.  Even so, working fabric out of the stash takes significantly longer than it takes to push a few buttons and add fabric to the stash.  Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for this week's stash report. 

My one 15 minute stitching spent not with fabric and thread was spent working on the label for my Vintage Dresses quilt. There was a comment from last week noting that the dresses in the fashion plates were quite a bit more vintage than the dresses in the quilt.  Here's that first label. 

I went looking for some clip art that was a bit less vintage.  There was some cool stuff on line, but then I remembered my dress patterns. When I was in high school and college, I made a lot of my own clothes. In those days it really was cheaper to buy the fabric and make something versus having store bought. So I hauled out the box of dress patterns and though they aren't from the 1950's, the style of several were pretty close that in some of the blocks.  So I grabbed the camera, spent a little time with clean up in Photoshop Elements and then ended up with this. 

I'm not sure I like the frames around the pattern fronts, but I think these dresses match better with the ones in the blocks.  I'm also wondering if it would be better to remove the white backgrounds and replace that with something else.  That takes a bit of time, but I may try it with one to see if how that works out. 

So how did you spend your stitching time this week? 

Not Much Stitching Going On

It was nice to sleep in my own bed last night after a long weekend of packing, moving, graduation parties and hanging out with the family.  There wasn't a lot of time for stitching with all of that going on. Before I headed out Thursday morning to help the SIT move, I finished off one more Wild and Goosey block for a total of 14 so far this year.

These little blocks take a lot of stitching to finish off just one, so it's been slow going.  I've been following along with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge colors, the first orange block is sitting on the sewing machine partially finished.  This is definitely going to be a longer term project so it's good I like how these blocks are turning out. 

I took some hand stitching to work on during the trip, but never had a chance to haul it all out.  It was easier to work on the computer this trip, so I spent my "stitching time" working on the labels for the next two quilts on the to be finished list.  My justification for calling it stitching time is that I can't finish the projects without the labels, so getting them done helps move a project along the road to completion. 

The Christmas Angels quilt is back from being quilted, so getting that label finished was the priority.  

This label is close to finished. It needs the final message added for the intended recipient and may need some tweaking at the top. 

The next quilt on the to be finished list is Vintage Dresses. I've been struggling with the label for that one.  

This is my favorite version so far. but I'm far from done tweaking on this one. 

So not a lot of playing with fabric this week, but there was progress on some of the things that have to be done before the binding goes on.  Hope your week was more productive than mine.  Linking up with Main Crush Monday, Monday Making and the Monday Design Wall.   

Week 19 of Stitching and De-Stashing

It's been a busy week and even busier weekend.  One of those weeks where working in some stitching time has been a challenge.  

Stitching time has been getting done either right when I get up or right before I go to bed this week. 

15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
15 minute days/May = 11/11 days
15 minute days/2019 =  119/131 days
Success rate = 90.84%

Most days were only 15 minutes, but that was enough for me to keep my sanity intact.  Next week will slow down a little bit and hopefully I can get in some good stitching time each day.  You can share how your efforts went to find time to do quitly/stitchy stuff at the end of the post.

Considering how little time there's been to sew, the stash report doesn't look too bad.

Fabric out this week = 1.56  yards
Fabric out for 2019 = 21.02 yards
More out than in for 2019

More than a yard out is pretty good for my stash busting efforts.  I finally have more than 20 yards out for the year.  If I keep up this pace, hopefully I'll make it to more than 50 yards out for the year.  Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the weekly stash update. 

You can link up below to share how you did on finding time to stitch. 

1. Pack Rat With a Plan 2. Chrisknits 3. Meloney

4. Marti 5. Angie in SoCal 6. DawnyK

7. Amanda 8. Christina's Handicrafts

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Daisy Chain Mystery - Block Construction

Alison (Little Bunny Quilts) has released the first step in quilt assembly process for the Daisy Chain Mystery quilt.  

I didn't get very far, but here's what's made it to the design wall so far. 

 Daisy Chain Mystery
2019 Little Bunny Quilts Mystery
by Alison of Honey, Bunny & Doll Designs

The fabrics used in this mystery were all left overs from other projects and they worked out pretty well. I'm happy with my star chains. That's part of the fun in a mystery quilt is seeing how your fabric choices worked out.  Just 10 more to make and I'll be ready for the big reveal with the next clue.