WIPS - Catching Up

Last week's business trip must have wrecked havoc with my sleep schedule, I've been pretty tired ever since.  So much so that the computer has been a wonderful sleeping aid this week, I turn it on and I go out.  So I'm way behind on email and following up on blogs.  But I did manage to eek out some time in the sewing room before my early bedtimes this week.  All of the teal stars that were the June blocks for this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge have been finished. 

I can't decide if the red and teal or the yellow and teal block is my favorite from this set.  They all turned out nicely.  

I couldn't resist pulling out all the other Twinkle Star blocks and putting all of them up on the design wall. 

Twinkle Stars, Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

It's going to be a really bright quilt.  I've started on the red blocks for July.  Angela has announced that the color for August is indigo, but you can substitute black if you prefer.  Now that all the business travel is done and I'm finishing up all my reports, hopefully I can get back on track in the sewing room and catch up with these blocks over the next month.   

I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced, Esther's Quilt Blog and My Quilt Infatuation.   

Wordless Wednesday - Splash!

Stash Report- Week 30 of 2015

It's definitely summer in Oklahoma, heat indexes have been hovering around 110 F since Thursday.  You don't want to do anything outside, it's too hot. You'd think that would promote a lot of stitching, but I had a business trip this week, so getting into the sewing room wasn't an option.  Plus I had to clean up my mess after selecting the fabric for the Midnight Mystery quilt.  

I didn't really have any thought as to color scheme when I started selecting fabrics, so pretty much anything got pulled out of the stash closet.  I played with combinations of red, white and blue 1930s prints, yellow and red fabrics, plus orange and teal. The red and black tulip fabric finally became the front runner focus fabric and I ended up with red, black and gray as the color scheme.  

After putting away all that fabric, I did get a little sewing done before my trip.  The second borders got put on Grand Illusion which really helped with the stash numbers this week. 

Used last week:  0.42 yards
Used in July: 1.04 yards
Used year to date:  17.39 yards
Purchased year to date:  10.25 yards
Net used:  7.14 yards

Looking back at last July, I've used more yardage this year than last.  So that's good.  I've definitely bought less fabric this year.  My only goal this year was to buy less than I used, so far I'm on track with that.  

For more stories of the stash, check out the links over at Patchwork Times.  

Weekend Progress

There wasn't a lot of stitching going on this weekend due to the shoulder issue.  By Sunday evening it was feeling much better and I was able to get in a bit of time in the sewing room.  Just enough time to get border number two on Grand Illusion.

Grand Illusion, A Bonnie Hunter Mystery

The narrow teal border is kinda hard to see, but it's there.  The last border will be more of the green.  Hopefully by the end of next weekend Grand Illusion will be a finished flimsy.  I've got the backing fabric picked out.  It's already ironed, so I'll just have to cut and piece.  That probably won't happen till August, but the end is definitely in sight for this project.  

I'm a bit late for Design Wall Monday, but I'll link up anyway.  I'm also linking up with Main Crush Monday over at Cooking up Quilts and Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt.  

Stash Report - Week 29 of 2015

It's been a slow weekend, which is good.  Not much got done yesterday on the computer, in the sewing room or around the house.  I spent most of the day with a hot pad on my shoulder.  They changed out my computer at work and the new set up aggravated an old shoulder injury.  I had the ergonomic expert in my office on Friday, but apparently we still didn't get everything lined up as I woke up yesterday feeling pretty miserable.  When it gets that bad, I have to limit my computer time at home until the swelling goes down.  It's feeling a lot better this morning, but I'll still have to limit my computer time today as that shoulder is not quite back to normal. 

I did spend some time in the sewing room earlier this week. And managed to use a little fabric in the borders for Grand Illusion.

Used last week:  0.29 yards
Used in July:  0.62 yards
Used year to date:  16.97 yards
Purchased year to date:  10.25 yards
Net used:  6.72 yards

I didn't have a goal for net used this year other than to use more than I buy.  So far so good on that front. 

In an effort to use more fabric (which is the best excuse I can think of for a case of startitis), I started a new project this week.  Meadow Mist Designs posted the fabric requirement for Midnight Mystery in June and this month the cutting instructions.  I made my fabric selections on Thursday, tweaked them yesterday and then starting cutting (which was one of the few sewing room activities that didn't make my shoulder ache).

This uses up some of my older stash. I've been pretty good this year about not starting anything new.  This one promises to be pretty easy, as the pieces are large.  As much as I want to finish off UFOs, adding in something new keeps it fun.  

That's it for my stash report this week.  You will find other reports over at Patchwork Times.   

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - As Far as the Fabric

Happy Saturday!  Last week was my first full week at work after a 2 week vacation, I was more than ready for Saturday to get here.  That first full week back after vacation always seems to drag.  Even My Guy was ready for the weekend.  It doesn't usually bother him as much as it does me.  Probably because he doesn't deal with the accrued laundry.  But to be fair he did have to deal with the overgrown lawn last week.  It wasn't pretty.  Now with both of us having tamed our respective areas of household support, we are looking forward to the weekend.  

I did make it back to the sewing room this week.  Though two of the evenings were spent cleaning up the fabric/supply closet.  It had gotten so bad in there that I couldn't get to anything, much less actually find anything.  So there wasn't a lot of stitching going on. There are still 3 teal Twinkle Stars to finish up before I start the red ones for this month.  But I did get as far as selecting the red fabrics last night.  

I don't have a lot of red scraps, but there was enough to make 6 red blocks for this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Hopefully there will be enough time for me to get at least one of the red blocks made before the last Saturday in July (Which is next weekend!  Where did July go?). There's a business trip on my calendar for next week that will eat up a lot of the week, so there won't  be much time for stitching. 

That's it for me this week.  I'm going to start a load of laundry, then start my second cup of coffee and check out what's going on over at Soscrappy.

WIPS - Back to the Stars

It's been a while since I've posted anything about my works in progress (WIPs).  Work deadlines and a two week vacation will do that to you.  It was really nice to get back into the sewing room last weekend and play with some fabric.  Being out of pocket most of June meant that I didn't finish the teal twinkle stars for this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Only three of the six blocks for planned for June are up on the design wall.  

Twinkle Stars, Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

The star points on the first star look black, but are really a very dark red-violet.  They just didn't photograph that way.  The last three stars will be teal with teal star points.  Hopefully I can get the last three done and then start on this month's color which is red. 

You can check out more WIPS over at:

WIPs on Wednesday
WIP Wednesday
and Needle and Thread Thursday

Wordless Wednesday - Beach Vacation Sunrise

Design Wall Monday - Grand Illusion Progress

It's been almost a month since I last posted any progress from the sewing room.  Work and vacation pretty effectively conspired to keep me away the machine for most of that time.  This weekend I was able to get back into the groove a bit, at least when I wasn't ferrying clothes to and from the laundry room.  Two weeks on the road produces a lot of dirty clothes!  

The first of three borders has been added to Grand Illusion. 

Grand Illusion, A Bonnie Hunter Mystery

I think the green border really helps calm down the business of the quilt.  Just two borders left before I can call this one good.  I did a quick scan of the stash closet and found a couple of possible backing fabrics.  I'm hoping to have this one ready for quilting by the end of the month.  

That's it for me this week.  Check out the other links over at Patchwork Times, Love, Laugh, Quilt and Cooking up Quilts.    

Week 28: Some Slow Stitching and a Stash Report

I haven't posted a stash report since week 24.  To be honest, there really hasn't been much to report.  Between work and vacation, stitching has been on the back burner for several weeks.  My embroidery did fit in the suitcase, so it came along for the vacation trip.   It didn't make it out of the suitcase a lot, but it came out a few times.   
  

I managed to finish up the leaf grouping on the left of the butterfly and made a start on the leaf group on the right.  I need to be more diligent about working on this piece if I ever want to see it all finished.  Usually I only work on it when we are on the road and I can't sew.  We only travel a couple of times a year, so if I ever want to get it done, I need to figure out when to work on it at home.  

Moving on to the stash report.  After Drama Teen and I played around in Florida for a week, we said goodbye to DT's friends and flew to Maine to meet up with My Guy for a family vacation.  Compared to Oklahoma, the weather was definitely cool.  DT got a good laugh when one of the waitresses came in from serving some people outside complaining how hot it was.  It was 69 F outside.  All three of us were walking around with jeans and jackets, while the locals were in shorts.    

I didn't really have the opportunity to check out any quilt shops when we were in Florida, but My Guy decided he needed to get on my good side after the 4 mile hike we did the first day we visited Acadia National Park.  (This is the hike he told me was a mile and a half when we started it).  Since it rained the next day and we couldn't hike, he was more than happy to drive me around to the quilt shops near the park.  We stopped at two, Sewing by the Sea in Trenton and Fabricate in Bar Harbor.  My plan was to pick up a few regionally themed fat quarters during this trip and limit the additions to just a couple of yards.   Well that plan pretty much went out the window once we got to Fabricate. 

  
I ended up with 6 fat quarters between both shops, which was fine.  But then I found the coffee cup fabric.  I have a whole set of coffee cup blocks that need to be set and that coffee cup fabric was exactly what I was looking for.  So it's hard to feel too badly about buying that yardage.  But  Fabricate is one of the shops that is really dangerous to those on a fabric diet.  I should have stopped looking once I found the coffee cups, but I turned one more corner and found this.  

My fabric habit is funded by my job as a research chemist, so there was no way I could just walk away from these two fabrics.  Even My Guy said that I couldn't leave without a bit of each.  

We stopped in Belfast, Maine on our way back to Portland and our flight out.  I wasn't going to stop at any other shops, but DT and My Guy so helpfully pointed out Fiddlehead Artisan Supply.  I was back on plan, selecting only a few fat quarters till DT brought me a bolt of fabric saying she absolutely had to have it.  So much for good intentions. 

I've promised to make three quilts for DT's best friends before high school graduation.  The blue with the arrows is just perfect for one of those friends. I love the chicken fabric and the others will freshen up my fat quarter piles with some fun new things to play with. 

So how bad is the damage?  

Used last week: 0.33 yards
Used in July: 0.33 yards
Used year to date: 16.88 yards
Purchased year to date:  10.25 yards 
Net used: 6.43 yards 

Well it could be worse, at least I'm still in the black. I managed to stay on my fabric diet for 6 months.  That's the longest I've gone without buying fabric in the six years I've been tracking fabric usage.  So it's still a good year for me.    

That's it for me this week.  I'm linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday and with Patchwork Times for the weekly stash report. 

Back and Not Back

Hard to believe it's been 3 weeks plus since I last posted.  I'm hoping to get back to normal for at least a couple of weeks before the work madness starts up again.  There's been pretty much no progress at all in the sewing room since my last post.  Deadlines at work had me going in early and working late, so there wasn't any time to stitch.  

The reason for all the overtime was so I could take some vacation time.  I did take vacation, but still ended up working about half the first week we were gone.  That actually wasn't so bad because the first week of vacation was for Drama Teen.  She and I went to Florida so she could take part in a creative writing class. While she was in class, I was taking care of work stuff. 

The class was hosted by one of girls that DT met when she took an online creative writing class through Duke University back in the summer of 2012.  There were 6 of them from the class that got along so well, that they found a way to meet up online a couple of times a month (Yes, after 4 years, they still meet regularly).  Not all the girls were able to make the class, but she got to meet and spend time with two of the girls during this trip.  

It wasn't all work and no play.  Even I put up my paperwork and computer for a couple of days of fun in the sun. 

My tootsies made a few tentative steps into the ocean. DT went the total immersion approach.  

She had the best time hanging out with her writing buddies and playing in the ocean.  

That was week one of vacation.  From Florida, DT and I flew to Maine to meet up with My Guy for a family vacation.  I'm still going through all the pictures from that part of vacation.  I'll have some to share later this week when I hope to also have some stitching stuff to share as well.  I did find a few quilt shops in Maine.  Did I break my 6 month fabric fast? You'll have to read tomorrow's stash report to find out.  

I've been slowly catching up on everyone's blog.  As of this morning, I'm just a week behind.  I've been reading but not commenting on the older posts. Hopefully I'll be all caught up on that front  by the end of the weekend.