Weekend Stitching - Finishing Touches

It's a good thing Saturday was such an excellent day in terms of sewing room time, Sunday was almost a complete wash out.  I had a bad case of insomnia Saturday night, which got me off to a late start on Sunday. Add in making the frosting for the cake that was going to the church picnic and my Sunday morning really got away from me.  Sunday afternoon was spent napping.  But I got in a bit of stitching Sunday evening.  Though what got done isn't up on the design wall.  The binding strips for Grand Illusion are all stitched together, pressed and wound onto a tube to keep it from tangling.

Now it's all ready to stitch on.  Hopefully I will get to that this week.

In the background is my new cutting mat. Last week, I realized that I couldn't really see the lines on my old mat anymore. Plus it had developed lots of texture.  So it was definitely time to replace it.  It's so much easier to cut accurately when you don't have preexisting lines in the cutting mat.  The old mat is probably 3 or 4 years old.  Nothing lasts forever, especially things that see as much use as this one did.  

Nothing very exciting this week, though the new mat has made it easier to trim all the HSTs for the Back to Square One quilt.  And having the binding made means Grand Illusion is one step closer to completion.  

Check out all the other project progress over at Patchwork Times, Making Monday, and Main Crush Monday.  

Stash Report - Week 35 of 2015

It's been a really strange August here in Oklahoma.  We've had rain and temps have been in the low 80s versus our typical 100 plus temps.  Lawns are still green and so are the fields.  Typically by the end of August everything is brown due to the lack of water and the high heat.  We are not complaining, but it's definitely one of the oddest summers we've had since living here.  

August has been a good month for stash busting.  I finished two quilt backs this month and that really helped bump up the stash numbers.  Now I'm back to making blocks to finish off projects, so there is not as much going out this week.  

Used last week:  0.33 yards
Used in August:  9.92 yards
Used year to date: 28.21 yards
Purchased year to date:  10.25 
Net used for 2015:  17.96 yards

Hopefully Back to Square One will need a back before the end of September and I'll get another nice bump in the used year to date numbers.  I picked up the now quilted Grand Illusion from the post office on Friday.  I started making the binding yesterday.  I've recently started sewing the labels on with the binding to make them harder to remove, so that also needed to be finalized yesterday. 

I decided to just keep the quilt name as The Grand Illusion.  Since Bonnie's inspiration was a hotel, the postcard seem to be an appropriate label format.  The label has been soaked, rinsed and left to dry overnight.  Hopefully I'll get the binding sewn on this evening so I can start the hand stitching tomorrow.  

That's it for my stash report.  You can find more stash tales over at Patchwork Times.  

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Starry Progress

So glad it's the weekend. I think the only thing on the calendar this weekend is a church picnic tomorrow.  It's been cool the last week, so my Saturday morning includes spending some much needed time in the flower beds.  But hopefully there will be some stitching time this afternoon.  

I've been spending more time in the sewing room the last few weeks.  Sometimes it's not much more than half an hour in the evenings, but even that little bit makes such a difference in what I get done each week.  Two more Twinkle Star blocks were finished up this week.  

Twinkle Stars, Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

The two on the left definitely have a Halloween vibe going on, but they will be well separated in the final quilt, so that shouldn't be a problem.  The star points on the polka dot star are actually a very dark purple, but they look black in the photo.  I've still got three more black ones to make.  Hopefully I'll get a couple more done this weekend.  

I'm wondering what color Angela is going to use for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge next month?  Maybe it will be violet or brown. We should find out soon.  But till then, you can find beautiful indigo, black and gray blocks posted over at Soscrappy.  

Creative Space Tag: My Controlled Chaos

Julie over at Pink Doxies started a creative space blog tag earlier this year, but due to everyone's crazy summer schedules, the blog tag has been on vacation since June.  I'm kicking off the heading into fall portion of the blog tag.  I'm tagging Thea at California Dreamn' to share her new sewing space next week.  

Here's the 180 degree panoramic view of the more active part of my sewing space.   

My sewing space is really more functional, than fashionable. Walking into the sewing room from the hallway, the first thing you see is the big design wall, it's pretty much the focal point for the whole room. It's one of those commercially available free standing design walls.  I love it.  

To the left of the big design wall is my cutting/pressing table with my smaller homemade design wall propped up on it.  

The smaller design wall is just a very large flattened box with an old table cloth taped to it.  It works great and it's nice to have more than one space to play in.  My rulers are on stored top of the plastic drawers on the left, which holds unsorted scraps and a few office supplies.  The tote bins hold fabric that hasn't made it into the fabric closet (more on that later).The stack of fabric under the cutting table is the fabric that's being used in my UFOs. 

Moving past the big design wall to the right, the other side of the room includes a wire rack with all my project boxes and another stack of fabrics associated with ongoing projects.  The TV is there too. I use a small secretary for my lap top.  Off to the far right is a small alcove that holds my only window and a couple of bookcases. If there's any one thing that I really wish I had, it would be more natural light.  But this is my first dedicated sewing space that I don't have to share with someone else, so I'm not going to complain too loudly about that.  

The file cabinet holds my color printer.  In the file cabinet are my half yard and fat quarter cuts. 

I use hanging folders cut in half, covered with acid free tissue paper to "hang" my smaller fabric cuts.  It makes it really easy to see what I have.

The fabric closet is next to the wire rack, you can just see the hinges of the door in the photo above.  

Fabric organization is an ongoing project.  My goal is to get all my fabrics folded and stored in these two wire racks.  I have to admit, I'd rather sew, so this project often goes months without any progress.  The plastic drawers in the far right hold stabilizers and the fat quarters/half yard cuts that haven't made it to the file cabinet yet. My batting is stored on either side of the wire rack at the back of the closet.  

The bookcase with all my quilting books stands on the last wall in my sewing room between the door to the hall and the door to the bathroom that Drama Teen graciously share's with me when I'm upstairs stitching.  The drawers to the left hold scraps sorted by size and roughly by color as well as used fat quarters that are too small to be hung in the file cabinet.  

The desk in the middle of the sewing room holds my 14 year old Bernina. Another thing I would change is the overhead lighting, I've had to supplement that with a floor lamp.  Sadly, my eyes don't see as well in the low light situations as they used to.  

That pretty much covers my sewing space.  It's not a glamorous space, but it's pretty functional.  I'd love to have a long arm, but it won't fit in this space.  The house has an unfinished attic.  Sometime before retirement, the plan is to refinish the attic and move my sewing room there.  I'd have more storage space and room for a long arm there.  But retirement is still a good 10 years away. So I'll just continue to enjoy the space I have till then.

WIPS - Old is New Again

The Layer Cake Quilt Along project is on it's way to Trudy for quilting.  Since that one is out the door, but Grand Illusion hasn't come back from being quilted yet, I needed to pull another UFO off the pile.  Drama Teen and I wanted to do something nice for the family that hosted us in Florida last June.  Of course, for me the easiest thing to do is make someone a quilt.  One of my UFOs fit the bill, so Back to Square One is up on the design wall.  

UFO: Back to Square One by Judy Laquidara (pattern available here)

The colors and style of this quilt go really well with the decor in their living room.  Plus it will be big enough for everyone to fit under.  So it will be a nice cuddle quilt for when it gets a bit cool next winter.

After checking out all the stuff in the project box, I found that all the log cabin blocks for the next border were completed but only 3 star blocks.  

So just 9 more are needed for the next round of borders.  After starting on star block number 4, I remembered why this project got put away, the star blocks take forever to make it seems.  But I want this one done, so I'll just have to power through what's left.   

I've also been working on the flying geese for the Midnight Mystery Quilt Along.  

All 36 are finished.  So I'm ready for step 2 when it comes out in September.  

Linking up with WIPS on Wednesday, WIP Wednesday and Needle and Thread Thursday.    Check out all three to see the latest WIPs in blogland.  

Wordless Wednesday - Summer Showers

Weekend Stitching - On the Way to a Finish

It was a wonderful three day weekend, which makes it so much harder to go back to work today.  Add in that I've picked up a new project at work with a tight deadline and it's doubly hard to want to go into work.  Since I have to work to support my fabric habit, I will eventually head into the office this morning, but I really don't want to.  

Having a whole day devoted to stitching made a big impact on moving one UFO closer to being off the list.  The back for the Layer Cake Quilt Along project was finished off Saturday.  

Sorry it's not a great photo.  This back and the previously finished flimsy are all de-threaded, pressed and packaged for mailing.  So the LCQA project will soon be finished and off the UFO list.  The backing used up the rest of the layer cake.  The black tone on tone used for the sashing and borders was the left overs from the back made for OSU quilt.  I think there is enough of it left to make a binding for the LCQA. So this finish moves some of the older stash fabrics into the used category.  

With LCQA headed out for quilting, I can pull another UFO from the list. The choice isn't hard.  I need a Christmas gift for a very special family that hosted Drama Teen and I for a week this summer.  Back to Square One will look great in their living room.

UFO: Back to Square One
by Judy Laquidara (pattern available here)

I haven't worked on this project since December of 2013, so it's definitely time to finish this one up.  I've got the log cabin blocks done, but need to make 9 star blocks before I can start assembling the next round of borders.  

Linking up this week with Design Wall Monday, Monday Making, and Main Crush Monday.  Check out all the fun projects posted on those three blogs.  

Stash Report - Week 34 of 2015

It's been a good weekend.  My Guy and I took Friday off.  I spent most of that day in the sewing room, though I also did a number of loads of laundry. Mainly stuff that doesn't wrinkle badly if I don't get it out when the buzzer goes off. Doing the laundry made me feel less guilty about spending my day stitching when there were so many household chores that I could have tackled.  

Having that whole day to sew did really nice things to the stash report.  It helps that I was working on a back for one of my older projects.  

Used last week: 2.61 yards
Used in August: 9.59 yards
Used year to date: 27.88 yards
Purchased year to date: 10.25 yards
Net used for 2015: 17.63 yards 

Even better, another week with nothing in.  I've been very diligent about deleting all those quilt shop emails.  My Guy keeps asking if I want to stop by the quilt shop when we go to Tulsa and I keep saying that I have no reason to go.  That has also helped keep me out of trouble this year. 

It also helps that my focus this year is on clearing out UFOs.  I got serious about reducing my UFOs back in  2009.  I was actually really successful on that front, reaching a low of 4 UFOs in 2012

In the three years since then, I've climbed up to a high of 19 UFOs. Finishing off Flame Test back in May dropped the number of UFOs to 18. Grand Illusion should be finished in a week or two.  That will keep the number at 18 (it was started less than a year ago, so it still counts as a WIP not a UFO).  I should see that number go down by one when the Layer Cake Quilt Along project is finished.  That UFO will go out for quilting next week. So it's time to pick another UFO from my 2015 Quilt Plan and see what I can do about dropping another one off the UFO list before the end of the year.   

For more stash reports, check out all the posts over at Patchwork Times.   

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - A Little Black Star

My weekend started yesterday.  My Guy and I took the day off work to just hang out at home.  Poor Drama Teen had to head off to school.  I'm still getting used to her being able to get herself to places she needs to be.  There's been no more late night drives to the high school to pick her up after an out of town volleyball game.  She drives herself home.  We (well at least one of us) still waits up for her to get home. But at least I can do that in my pjs while I'm catching up on email or blog posts. 

I spent most of my day off in the sewing room.  It was a pretty productive day.  I'm almost finished with the back for the Layer Cake Quilt Along.  And I finally finished off a Twinkle Star in this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge color.  

Twinkle Stars, Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

Very black and white, but I like it.  The black corners actually have very fine gray lines on them, but they don't show up really well in this photo.  Just 5 more left to make.  With a week left in August, I should be able to finish up a couple more before the month ends.  

You can find more indigo, black and gray blocks over at Soscrappy.  

WIPs - A Little Progress

It certainly seems like it was just yesterday that I wrote my last WIP update.  Since Drama Teen went back to school,  the days are more full.  She needs help with homework and there's been two quick shopping expeditions to pick up special school supplies for her classes.  Hopefully we'll settle back into the school year routine soon. 

My back is finally starting to feel better.  I'm behind on my blog reading because sitting has been uncomfortable.  Likewise, the stitching has been a bit slow this last week.  I did finish off the last of the red Twinkle Star blocks. 

Twinkle Stars, Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

These 6 blocks will certainly brighten up this project.  I didn't put them up with all the other blocks because the back for this month's UFO, the Layer Cake Quilt Along project, pretty much covers the big design wall. 

The Midnight Mystery project is the other WIP in progress.  I managed to double the size of the flock of flying geese over the last week.  

Just 20 more left to stitch up.  

That's all my progress for this week.  You can find more WIPs over at Freshly Pieced, Esther's Blog, and My Quilt Infatuation.  

Wordless Wednesday - Give Me the Greens of Summer

Weekend Stitching

By Sunday afternoon, my back was feeling much better so I felt it was safe to spend some time in the sewing room.  I'm still working on a back for the Moose on the Porch Layer Cake Quilt Along quilt.  The plan was to use up the rest of the 10" squares left over from the layer cake.    

All the sashing strips are sewn on.  All that's left is to sew the rows together. The first three rows have been stitched together so far.  I'll sew the bottom three, then do a final seam down the middle.  Hopefully that will all get done this week. Then next weekend I can start adding the borders.  I might just get this one out the door for quilting before the end of the month.  Then I get to pick another UFO to work on.  

You can see more works in progress over at Main Crush Monday, Making Monday and Design Wall Monday.  

Stash Report - Week 33 of 2015

I was so ready for a slow Sunday, but alas that is not to be. We have places to be and people to see today.  Hopefully I'll still get a chance to get some stitching in this afternoon. 

Not much happening in the sewing room this week.  I managed to strain my back which made sewing very uncomfortable.  By yesterday evening my back wasn't bothering me too badly, so I did get a bit of stitching in yesterday.  But most of what went out last week went out before the strained back.  

Used last week:  1.38 yards
Used in August:  6.98 yards
Used year to date: 25.27 yards
Purchased year to date:  10.25 yards
Net used for 2015: 15.02 yards 

The only goal I had for this year's stash efforts was to use more than I bought.  So far so good on that goal. Looks like I'm on track to use more stash fabric this year than I did last year.

I still have one more month to use enough fabric to exceed last year's usage for third quarter.  I'm no where near my record fabric usage, but I'll definitely take any improvement over last year.  Last year was my worst year for stash busting since I started tracking fabric out in 2010.  

Check out more stash busting/building efforts over at Patchwork Times.  

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Back to Black

Drama Teen just rushed out the door to a volleyball tournament, she's team manager this year.  As she was walking out, My Guy walked in from his morning spent working on a nature project.  Me, well I'm still nursing a sore back, which has kept me off the computer and out of the sewing room for most of this week.  I'm hoping to start feeling better any day now.  

I did make some progress on this year's Rainbow Scrap Project.  Though I'm still working on last month's red stars.

Twinkle Stars, Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

Just one more to finish up and I can move on to this month's color.  Angela selected indigo, but said we could use black if we preferred.  I've gotten as far as selecting the fabrics for this month's blocks.  

There are a couple of fabrics that appear to be more brown than black.  Those two may get changed out for something else. The pink is actually a little brighter than it shows in the photo, but I may go for something darker.   It's a bit hard to use black on black, so I ended up adding in gray for some of the star points.  

There are more rainbow scrap projects to check out over at Soscrappy.  

WIPS - Something New

Wow, it's Wednesday already.  Drama Teen goes back to school tomorrow, maybe.  She was at school all day yesterday helping her Journalism teacher move into her room in the new addition, which DT says really isn't finished yet.  Some the rooms still don't have any desks and they were still working on the wiring.  The school system is supposed to text blast us if school can't start on Thursday. It's not a problem for us since DT has long been able to stay home on her own, but a number of parents who have younger kids will not be happy with the delay. 

 I've managed to do something to my back, so there hasn't been a lot of sewing this week.  I have finished up a couple of Twinkle Stars since last week. 

Twinkle Stars, Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

Just one more red block to finish, then I can move onto making a few black stars as this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.  

There is a new WIP up on the design wall, Midnight Mystery. 

This month's clue is to make 34 flying geese.  I've got a ways to go on those yet.  Here's the fabrics I'm using for this mystery.

All but the tone on tone red have been in the stash for a while.  So I'm using this project to move some of the older stash out, so my newer stuff still will actually fit on the shelves.

What's your latest WIP?  You can find more WIPs over at Esther's Quilt Blog. On Thursday, there's Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation.  

Wordless Wednesday - A Day in the Neighborhood?

Design Wall Update - A New/Old Project

I'm not ready for another Monday.   School starts back up this week, but not till Thursday.  Hard to believe that Drama Teen is a junior this year.  My Guy is off on a business trip and I'm back to the grindstone in terms of finishing off reports.  It's a good thing I'll some time for evening stitching to keep me sane.  

I got over Saturday's stomach bug and was able to spend some time in the sewing room Sunday afternoon.  With Grand Illusion ready to go to Trudy for quilting, it was time to select another UFO from the pile.  At the beginning of the year, I put together a quilt plan for the year (it's laid out on the 2015 Quilt Plan Tab).  There are 8 quilts left on the list.  I had planned the next project to be the oldest project on the list, the Red,White and Blue Stars.  After giving it some thought, I decided to make the back for the second oldest project, the Moose on the Porch Layer Cake Quilt Along.  It's the closest to finished on the list.  While searching for the backing fabric for Grand Illusion, I came across a fabric that would play well with the left over layer cake fabrics that I wanted to get rid of use for to the back. Here's the progress after Sunday.

The horizontal sashing strips have been cut, but are not pieced.  I had planned to practice quilting on this project, but I'm not likely to find the time anytime soon to learn something new, so I'd like to get this one off the list by getting the back made and sending it on to Trudy for quilting. 

Linking up with Patchwork Times for Monday Design Wall, with Love, Laugh Quilt for Making Monday, and with Cooking Up Quilts for Main Crush Monday.   

Stash Report - Week 32 of 2015

It was a quiet weekend.  Drama Teen dealt with her case of strep by sleeping most of the Saturday, it always takes a while for those antibiotics to kick in it seems.  I came down with a stomach bug Saturday afternoon.  I spent most of the afternoon asleep as well.  Which was probably just as well, it really was too hot do much outside.  Even the wildflowers are starting to fade a bit in the heat.

There are still a lot of Black Eyed Susans blooming, but that's about it for wildflowers around here at the moment.  They'll be others that start to bloom when it begins to cool down in September. 

The hot weather has been good for the stash report.  Well actually I should attribute that to needing a back for Grand Illusion.  That really makes the stash report look good this week.  Even better, there is another quilt back in the works. That definitely didn't hurt this week's numbers.

Used last week: 5.60 yards
Used in August: 5.60 yards
Used year to date: 23.89 yards 
Purchased year to date: 10.25 yards
Net used for 2015: 13.64 yards

This is the best stash busting week yet for 2015.  Check out all the other reports of fabric in and out posted over at Patchwork Times.  

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Still A Little Behind

Yesterday was one of those days, I'm hoping that today is better.  Drama Teen woke up sick yesterday; fever, sore throat, stuffy nose, and just feeling crappy.  She was pretty convinced it was just sinus stuff, but my supermom senses kicked in telling me, no she's probably got strep.  By the time she saw the doctor yesterday afternoon, I was thinking, yeah she's right it's just sinus stuff.  Well I learned not to undervalue those supermom senses, DT has strep.

Just before I leave to take DT to the doctor, My Guy calls.  He's been in Tulsa attending some training.  He's calling to say there's something wrong with the Jeep; it's not safe to drive.  Can I come get him?  Well that explained why he hadn't responded to my texts stating that DT was sick and going to the doctor, he'd been busy dealing with that situation.  He ended up renting a car to get home.

   

I could hear the siren call of my sewing room when I finally did get home last night.  Fabric therapy was just the thing to ease the tension of the afternoon.  I didn't get a lot of stitching done, but I was able to finish off one more red Twinkle Star block to bring my total to three.  

Twinkle Stars, Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

August's Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for me is black, but I still have three more red blocks to make for last month.  I'll get caught up at some point.  Hopefully this weekend, if not, then next weekend.

I'll have to beg forgiveness for linking up with Angela's Rainbow Scrap Challenge  with red blocks and not black this week.

WIPS - Moving Towards a Finish

It was a productive weekend.  Grand Illusion is a finished flimsy as of last Friday.  The back is all pieced, pressed and ready for shipping.  I've spent the last two evenings prepping the flimsy for quilting.  Long ago and far away back when we lived in Texas, I had a quilting instructor that was very meticulous when prepping a quilt to send out for quilting.  I've spent the last two nights cleaning cleaning loose threads off the back and trying to be sure that the dark threads can't show through the lighter fabrics. Do you clean up the backs of your quilts before quilting?  

Grand Illusion, A Bonnie Hunter Mystery

  
I finished all the thread snipping tonight, so tomorrow night I can start cleaning off any loose threads from the front and then give this quit it's final pressing before it goes out for quilting. 

Since I've been so focused on finishing a quilt, there has not been a lot of progress on the Twinkle Star blocks.  I did finish one more red block while I was piecing the back for Grand Illusion.

Twinkle Stars, Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

I really like the first two red stars.  I think these are going to look great mixed in with all the other colors we've already done as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  

I'm looking forward to getting Grand Illusion off to the quilter's because then I can pick another UFO or WIP to focus on.  It will be nice to move on to something different.  

You can check out WIPs on Wednesday, WIP Wednesday or Needle and Thread Thursday to see what everyone one is working on as we head into the downhill slide to the weekend.  

Wordless Wednesday - Just a Daisy

Tuesday Archives - Two for One Sampler Quilt

This week's topic for the Tuesday Archives is "Sampler Quilts".  I've made a few sampler quilts over the years.  The first sampler quilt was made from 1930's prints and it was the subject of a previous Tuesday Archive's post on BOMs.   So it makes sense (at least to me) to post about the second and third sampler quilts out of my sewing room this time around.  

I'm including both sampler quilts because both came out of the same BOM program at the local quilt shop.  That BOM was one of the most fun and challenging I've ever participated in.  It was called the Brown Bag challenge.  The first month everyone brought in a paper bag with enough yardage to make 12 blocks and then went home with someone else's bag with instructions to make any block we wanted so long as it finished at 12".  Since these blocks were going to other quilters, many with a lot more experience than I had, I decided to pick a few of my fabrics to make "test" blocks before I made the block that had to go back in the bag.  That way I could figure out the instructions on my block and then not mess up the block that had to go back in the bag.  The plus was I'd get enough blocks from this BOM to make two quilts.  Here's what my blocks and the blocks that went back in the bag looked like.  

The block on the left of each pair is my block, the block on the right was made from the fabric in the bag I brought home each month.  It was quite a lesson in color theory.  It was a wonderful chance to work with color combinations that weren't really my style.  It was a lot of fun.  Here's the quilt made from my blocks. 

Paisley Roses finished in February 2011

I was pretty happy with how it worked out. This quilt now lives at my sister's.  

Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed when I got my brown bag back at the end of the year.  My bag was short a couple of  blocks and a couple of the blocks in the bag had significant construction problems that required some rework before they could be used.  I made another 3 blocks for a complete group of 12 and then set them together.    

The Brown Bag Quilt finished in May 2011

The Brown Bag Quilt stays up in the closet till Drama Teen has a sleep over. Then it's used for cuddling while the girls eat popcorn and watch movies.  

I didn't intend to end up with two pink and green quilts, that just sorta happened.  Both quilts were wonderful learning experiences, not just in making the blocks but in coming up with setting options. 

That's all from my archives this week.  You can see more quilty history over at Val's Quilting Studio.  

Design Wall Monday - A Finished Flimsy

It was hot this weekend, so I spent as much time as possible in my sewing room. Well at least when I could get away from report writing and laundry (Yes I'm up against another work deadline, but at least the end of this project is in sight).  The last border strip was added to Grand Illusion on Friday night.  After spending a bit picking off all the loose strings, it was finally ready to photograph. 

 Grand Illusion, A Bonnie Hunter Mystery

It still needs a good pressing, which will likely happen sometime this week.  The plain borders do a lot calm down the busyness of this quilt.  I like the bright colors, but I probably should have selected some lighter shades, as it is, it seems that the pink, green and teal are all the same intensity.  A bit of variation in that might have toned it down some more.  Though Grand Illusion is not one of my favorites, its far from being hideous.  The backing is all pieced, pressed and ready to go.   Now I just need to prep the top for quilting.  Once that's done it will go off to Trudy for quilting.  

To see what everyone else got done over the weekend, you should check out Patchwork Times; Laugh, Love, Quilt; and Cooking Up Quilts.   

Stash Report - Week 31 of 2015

It was a pretty successful week in the sewing room.  Grand Illusion is a finished flimsy.  I promise there will be picture in tomorrow's design wall post.  Enough Twinkle Star blocks got completed so that I'm just one month behind.  It's been slow and steady progress all week, which is about as good as it gets for me.  

Used last week: 0.90 yards
Used in July:  1.94 yards
Used in August: 0 yards
Used year to date:  18.29 yards
Purchased year to date: 10.25 yards
Net used for 2015: 8.04 yards 

I was looking back at my progress this year and remembered that back on February 1st, I posted these photos of all the yardage that's tied up in my UFOs and WIPs.

Well it's been 6 months, so it's time for an update.  

Pretty much the same fabrics, though fabrics have been added to the stack for the Midnight Mystery quilt and the backing For Grand Illusion.  So if you look closely, the stack has actually grown an inch since February.

I'm not sure that's so bad, it means that at some point the fabric will go out of the stash as it has a designated place to go.  As of this morning the stack is already a little lower because I've started cutting out the back for Grand Illusion.  I've only pulled one fabric out of the stack since February and that was the black background fabric I used for Flame Test. But I have been cutting from other fabrics in the stack.  If you take off the backing fabric for Grand Illusion that I added on Friday, it looks like the stack has dropped by about 0.5 inch so far this year.  It's not really a great measure of fabric out because any left overs go back into the stash, but is another way to assess progress on the 20 plus UFOs and WIPs in progress. 

You can check out other stash reports over at Patchwork Times.   

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - No Black, but a Little Red

It was a good week in the sewing room.  Grand Illusion is a finished flimsy, finally.  No pictures yet, but I'll fix that once the sun is up today.  The plan is to get the backing made this weekend, then it can go off to Trudy for quilting.  I'll be happy to get that one off the WIP list before it becomes a UFO.  

In spite of the productive week, I'm still a month behind on my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.  I finished off June's teal Twinkle Star blocks earlier this week. 

Twinkle Stars, Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

There is only one star completed using July's color red.

So I'm still a month behind with the challenge.  Hopefully now that all the vacation and business travel is over, I'll have a chance to get caught up this month.  August's color is indigo for the sampler quilt, but Angela gave the option to use black as this month's color. My plan is to use black and gray for August's Twinkle Star blocks.  

But first there's laundry and a work report to finish up this morning.  Hopefully there will be some time this evening to at least pick out the fabrics for August's Twinkle Star blocks. 

Check out more scrappy fun over at Soscrappy.