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.