Just Stitching Stuff

Weekends are just way too short and the weeks too busy at the moment.  But I did enjoy my afternoon/evening of stitching yesterday.  At least once I got over the nasty surprise that the thunderstorms passing through last Thursday took out my sewing room TV, which meant no watching the first race in the NASCAR playoffs.  (I did get to watch the race via the computer, after navigating our cable provider's and NBC's apps. It's amazing what you can do on the computer these days if you have the right apps). 

Once the TV dilemma was resolved there was some progress on a bit of this and that. 

The blue and yellow strips to the left are for the Sensational Summer Scrap quilt, under those are some 4 patches for the same project and the pieced borders for Storm at Sea.  In the pinned pile on the right are a stack of Wild and Goosey blocks, diamonds for the SAS pieced border and at the very top of the photo is clue 1 for the Mosaic Mystery over at Meadow Mist Designs.  I just can't work on one project at at time.  

By the end of the evening, all the SAS border pieces were finished, the bottom border needs to be assembled and the top border is ready to sew to the rest of the top. 

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

My apologies for the slightly wonky photo. The quilt is almost too big for the design wall and it's hard to get all of it in one shot.  The current plans call for two more strip borders. Those last two will go faster than the pieced borders did, so maybe SAS will be a finished flimsy by the end of the month.  

Linking up with the usual Monday linkies.

Monday Making
Design Wall Monday

Week 37 of 2019 - More Stitching and Stashing

It's been another busy week, topped with a hectic Saturday.  I'm hoping that Sunday is much more relaxed. Fitting in even just 15 minutes of stitching time each day has been challenging.

On top of the busy schedule, the autumn allergy season is here. It's a few weeks early due to the wet summer and it's miserable.  Evening naps to dissipate the sinus headaches have taken another bite out of my evening stitching time. Even with that I did manage to work in my 15 minutes every day last week.

15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
15 minute days/Sept = 14/14 days
15 minute days/2019 = 229/257 days
Success rate = 89.11% 

My success rate has been below 89% since June, hopefully I can keep up the momentum to get back to 90% in the next month and keep it there till the end of the year. 

So things are looking up on finding time to stitch, that's not the case with my stash management goals.  There was this Halloween quilt pattern that caught my eye. I had such fun making a Halloween quilt last year, I couldn't resist. Then of course I had to order fabric to make it.  So this showed up in the mail earlier this week. 

Pattern is Witches Night Out by It's Sew Emma. Top fat quarter bundle is Gone Batty
 by Wilmington Prints. Bottom bundle is Raven's Claw from Northcott.

Unfortunately, my current project slate and limited stitching time isn't using a lot of fabric, so the outgoing numbers are still a bit anemic. 

Fabric out this week = 0.32 yards
Fabric out for 2019 = 36.66 yards
More fabric in than out

That was my stitching and stashing week. How did yours go? 

Bordering Storms and Colorful Flying Geese

The weekend was both productive and relaxing.  We didn't go anywhere, but did get to some yard work and deep house cleaning.  But with the chores limited to the morning hours, that still left some afternoon time for stitching.  

Storm at Sea now has two of the pieced borders attached. 

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

I'm happy with the pieced borders so far.  I've gotten a reasonable start on the top pieced border.  So this project is definitely moving along. 

Some time was spent trimming up scraps to use for the Wild and Goosey blocks. 

I've been working adding to the blue, yellow and green triangles for the last week.  Purple scraps were added to the list as that's this month color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I'm going to need to go in search of more orange and teal scraps soon.  The Wild and Goosey blocks are small, but they sure use up a lot of pieces per block. 

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

Here's the set of blocks currently under construction.  I need to start a green one and a purple one.  But more paper piecing templates need to be printed before that can happen.  

That was how I spent my stitching time this weekend. Hopefully I'll have time to work on Storm at Sea and be able to finish off those pieced borders this week. 

Linking up with the Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making.  

Week 36 of 2019: Stitching and De-Stashing

The week was fast, but thankfully the weekend has allowed for a slower pace.  Sometimes I find that it's harder to make my way to the sewing room when there's no time pressure.  I can spend another hour on the computer or reading or whatever.  Then before I know it it's bedtime and I haven't even walked into the sewing room.  When the schedule is full, it forces me to consciously allocate my sewing time.  How about you? If you have lots of time do you have problems directing yourself to the sewing room to get in at least your 15 minutes for the day?

Even with the busy week and the attack of the lazies yesterday, I still managed to work in at least 15 minutes of stitching stuff every day this week.

15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
15 minute days/Sept = 7/7 days
15 minute days/2019 = 222/250 days
Success rate = 88.8%

The de-stashing rate went up for this week.

Fabric out this week = 0.36 yards
Fabric out for 2019 = 36.34 yards
More fabric in than out

I'm hoping to hit 60 yards out for the year. I need to get busy to meet that unofficial objective. 

How had did your stitchy stuff go this week?  Did you get an attack of the lazies or did you burn the midnight oil working on a few projects? 

1. Julie in GA 2. Chrisknits 3. MaryR @ UrbanQuilter

4. Meloney 5. DawnyK 6. Amanda

7. Shasta @ High Road Quilter 8. Christina's Handicrafts

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

September To Do List

It's September, so only 4 months left in the year.  It's definitely time to decide what might possibly get finished this year. The first step in that process is to decide what's going to be this month's One Monthly Goal. 

Vintage Dresses is ready to go out for quilting, but it likely won't come back for a few weeks, so finishing that project will likely wait till next month.  Looking at my 2019 quilt plan, the Red, White and Blue Stars quilt is up next. 

Red, White and Blue Stars

But I promised the Scientist in Training two quilts for her writing group buddies that are finishing up college this year.  In that case, I really should bump the Twinkle Stars project up to the top of the list. 

Twinkle Stars

Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

It would be faster to finish anyway as the blocks don't need sashing they just need to be sewn together.  So that's going to be the September One Monthly goal, get all the blocks sewn together and then decide if it needs a border or two.  

What else is on the to do list for September?  

Get Storm at Sea to the finished flimsy stage
Finish Clue 1 for the Mosaic Mystery Quilt
Make the 4-patches for the Simple Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt
Make more Wild and Goosey blocks (adding in purple)
Use On Ringo Lake as my leaders and enders project

That's a pretty good list for this month.  If I stick with this plan, there's a good possibility I'll finish at least 3 more quilts before the end of the year.  That would be nice as my PhD in 2019 program has pretty much stalled out. 

No changes noted in August. There is some good news there, at least there are no new starts on the list. Fingers crossed I can make at least half my goal before the end of the year. 

Good luck with your quilty plans for the month.