Non-Allietare Stitching

Before Christmas I thought that this last week of 2015 would be full of stitching.  That hasn't happened, yet anyway.  The first few days of this week became deep cleaning days (the move furniture and clean behind it kind if cleaning).  We started the process the week of Thanksgiving.  We were having company and expecting new furniture, so in the way of people who typically clean just enough to get buy we realized that there were a few neglected areas in the house.  We targeted the master bedroom and the attic this week.  It's been worth all the effort, 4 bags of trash hauled away and 3 trash bags already delivered to Goodwill. 

There has been some time in the sewing room each day.  Most of the effort has been on getting the binding stitched down on Back to Square One.  That was finished last night.  So that will be my last finish for 2015.  No pictures yet as it was 10 PM when I finished the binding.

Like a lot of quilters, I started Bonnie Hunter's Allietare Mystery.  And of course with all the holiday prep, fell way behind.  So I've done just a bit of stitching in an effort to catch up.  Still a long way to go on that front.  

In the midst of those two projects, slow and steady progress has been made on the McCalls Mystery UFO from 2012.  

McCall's Mystery Quilt, From McCall's Quilting Magazine
Jan/Feb, April/May, June/July 2012 issues

I just need to sew the top three rows to the bottom three rows and then I can start piecing the border blocks.  I haven't decided if I like this quilt or not.  The border blocks have a lot of the dark blue, so it will change the look quite a bit.  So I'm holding judgement till I get that on.  This is a big quilt.  Guess I should have paid more attention to finished size.  My main goal with this project was to find a home for the 6 yards of the focus fabric.  It had been in the stash for a while and I wanted to use it up.  What's left will go on the back.  

My Guy has promised me a break in the deep cleaning today since it's New Year's Eve.  But that's so I can do some laundry and get the Christmas tree down.  Still I hope to have some time for stitching this afternoon and evening as we wait for the ball to drop.

Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday over at My Quilt Infatuation.  Now it's time for that second cup of coffee while I go check out what people have going on this last day of 2015. 

Have a happy New Year!   

2016 Quilting Goals

Before writing this post, I looked at last my goals for 2015.  To be honest, I haven't looked at those since I wrote them.  But, I did regularly review and generally stick with my 2015 Quilt Plan.  Stash management was also a focus in 2015, but what I worked toward wasn't really in my goal.  So I'm taking those lessons to heart in writing my 2016 quilting goals. 

1.  Follow my 2016 Quilt Plan.  
            Finish 8 UFOs/WIPs
            Start 7 new projects

2.  Use more fabric than I buy.  

To make both 1 and 2 happen, I need to get into the sewing room more.  Which leads to me goal 3.  

3.  Sew for at least 15 minutes every day.  

Here's my UFO/WIP/New Project List

The quilts listed in red are the ones to be completed next year. My basis for choosing these quilts is that they are the UFOs closest to completion or are currently WIPs.  The seven quilts at the bottom of the list are the ones I plan to start next year.   

Wish me luck, I've never completed more than 7 quilts in one year and the 2016 plan calls for 8.  I used more fabric than I bought in 2015, that the first year that's happened in the 6 years I've been tracking stash in and outs.  Can I repeat next year?  I'm going to have to keep deleting those fabric shop emails to make that goal again this year. 

I'm linking up with Val's Tuesday Archives, as she's bending the rules a bit this week to showcase future efforts rather than past achievements.  

Weekend Stitching - Not Even Close to Catching Up

Yesterday was catch up day. We stayed in a hotel over the Christmas holiday.  Not sure if it was the inability to manage the room temperature (it was either freezing or burning up) or the sheets that would slide off the bed so that you couldn't keep the covers over you.  Or if there was just something in the air.  None of us slept all that well and each morning we all woke up feeling pretty crappy.  The lack of sleep finally caught up with all of us yesterday.  There was a lot of napping going on all over the house.  

All of that just to say there wasn't a lot of progress on Allietare.  I did get in a couple of hours in the sewing room late in the evening. So I managed to get a start on clue #3 then.

Clue 1 is just about half way finished as there are now 100 HSTs up on the design wall. 

There was also some progress on Clue 2, but not enough to warrant a photo.  I started cutting the pieces for Clue 4.  Clue 5 has been downloaded, but hasn't been printed yet.  

Now that I'm all caught up on my sleep, I'm hoping to get in some significant stitching time in the sewing room today.  Assuming we keep power all day.  We are under a winter weather storm warning.  It's sleeting at the moment. Hopefully that will turn to snow soon and we won't see any flickering lights today.  

That's it for me this week.  I'm linking up with Bonnie's Part 5 post today, as well as Patchwork Times' Design Wall Monday and Love, Laugh, Quilt's Making Monday.

The Last Stash Report for 2015

Wow, week 52 already.  All the hustle and bustle of the holiday season distracts you from just how close we are to the end of another year.  At least it does me.  There hasn't been much stitching this last month, just too many other things got in the way.  Still, 2015 has been a banner year for me.  For the first time in the 6 years I've been keeping track of the in and outs of the stash, I'm going to finish the year with more out than in.  It's not as much out as I had hoped, but just to be in the black for a change is worth celebrating.  Here's the numbers.

Used last week:  0.13 yards
Used in December:  0.77 yards
Used year to date:  44.90 yards
Purchased year to date:  30.25 yards
Net used for 2015:  14.65 yards

I'm contemplating what my stash goals are for next year.  I was pretty successful with the fabric diet this year.  But, like weight loss, stash reduction takes both not adding and using to get the most benefit.  The stash diet will continue next year I'm pretty sure, I just need to figure out how to finish more quilts.  

That's it for the stash report.  Before I close this post, I wanted to share some of the beautiful light displays we saw over the holiday.  

Wishing everyone a very happy New Year.  I'm linking up with Judy's Patchwork Times Stash Report.  Now it's time for second cup of coffee and a peak at how everyone else ended up this year.  

Best of Life in Pieces for 2015

Now that Christmas is over, it's time to start thinking about the new year.  In preparation for that, Cheryl over at Meadow Mist Design suggested we look back over our blogs and decide what were the "best" posts for 2015.  

Cheryl left the definition of best up to us.  It could be the posts with the most views or comments.  If you want more of either for 2016, it's helpful to see what those posts had that others didn't.  You could highlight 5 finishes, 5 tutorials, or 5 linky parties. I decided to highlight this year's finishes and works in progress. 

Number 5.  Grand Illusion Finish

Number 4.  Poinsettia Leaders and Enders Project

Number 3:  Back to Square One Finished Flimsy

Number 2:  2015 Rainbow Scrap Project:  Twinkle Stars

Number 1:  2014 Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler Finish

I have one honorable mention that I'd like to include.  The post includes one of this year's quilts, but also has some of my favorite quilts that I've finished since starting up the blog.

Honorable Mention:  The Online Trunk Show

That's it for my "Best Of 2015".  You can find more fun reviews of 2015 over at Meadow Mist Designs.  

Merry Christmas

Tuesday Archives - Christmas Quilts

It's been awhile since I've linked up with Val for Tuesday Archives. 

Since I'm off work this week, I actually have time to write a post.  For some reason, Monday's are always manic and I just never get a post pulled together.  

This week's archive topic is Christmas Quilts.  I've only finished one Christmas quilt and I wrote a post about it when Val's Tuesday Archival linky party  #12 was for Christmas quilts.  You can click here, to see Charming Christmas Cardinals.  

There are two other Christmas quilts on the UFO list.  The first is Poinsettia's, which has been my leaders and enders project for the last couple of years.  It's also been my Let's Book It Project, a linky party hosted by Vroomans Quilts that encourages us to use all those quilting books on the shelf.  The last post showing progress is just a few weeks old. You can find it here.

The second Christmas UFO has been hanging around since July of 2013.  The most recent blog post on that project dates from November 2013.  I haven't touched it since then.  Here's the original plan for Christmas Angels:

The green and beige 4 patches are all made and the star points are all made.  I just need to finish the angel blocks.  Hopefully I'll get back to this one sometime next year.  

That's all my Ghost of Christmas UFOs has to show.  You can find more eye candy for Christmas over at Val's Quilting Studio.  

Weekend Stitching - Allietare Progress

One of the perks of being on vacation is sleeping in, which I fully indulged in this morning.  So my post is later than normal.  Though to be honest, normal has been a bit skewed the last few weeks.  I've not posted anything beyond a stash report over the last two weeks.  There's not been anything to post about.  I did make it back into the sewing room this weekend, but most of my focus has been on getting the binding finished on Back to Square One.  I did spend a bit of time at the cutting table and a few minutes at the sewing machine in an attempt to make some progress on Bonnie Hunter's Allietare mystery.  I'm up to 80 HSTs.

Allietare Part 1 of Bonnie Hunter's 2015 Mystery Quilt 

A few pieces from step 2 made it off the machine.   

Allietare Part 2 of Bonnie Hunter's 2015 Mystery Quilt

I started cutting the strips for step 3.  That's pretty much it for progress over the last two weeks.  With the holiday coming up on Friday, there won't be a much time for stitching.  But I'm off the whole week after Christmas and I hope to make a lot of progress in the sewing room then.  

I need to go check in with My Guy on what the plan is for today.  I think a trip to the post office is on the agenda, but I'm not sure if he has other plans.  If not, I have a few of my own.  

Linking up with Bonnie's Mystery Monday and Judy's Patchwork Times.  Lots of eye candy at both sites. 

Slow Stitching and Week 51 Stash Report

How can it be the Sunday before Christmas?  I'm sure there was supposed to be another week in there somewhere. It's been a bit hectic the last week and not solely due to the holiday.  There has been some shopping and gift wrapping thrown in here and there.  I spent the last couple of days at my Mom's.  She had knee surgery a few weeks ago and isn't recovering as fast as she'd like.  I went home to help her with some Christmas preparations as she's just not up to speed yet. 

Needless to say with all the extra activities, there's not been a lot of stitching going on.  I did get to spend some time playing in the sewing room last night.  I managed to get another 15 inches or so of binding stitched on Back to Square One. 

I'd hoped to do more, but the nail on my right thumb split down into the nail bed and it's amazing how much it hurts to hand stitch with it in that condition.  I'm hoping it won't hurt so much this afternoon when I'll have some more time to stitch. 

I spent some time getting the fabrics cut out for step 2 of Allietare.  Yes I'm that far behind.  I do hope to make some progress on steps 3 and 4 before the linky party tomorrow.  But as I'm not counting any of the Allietare pieces as going out till they become blocks, the stash report is a bit anemic again this week. 

Used last week:  0 yards
Used in December 0.64 yards
Used year to date:  44.77 yards
Purchased year to date:  30.25 yards
Net used for 2015:  14.52 yards

There was nothing in to go with the nothing out, so it wasn't a bad week.  With just one week to go, it's been hard to resist some of the end of year sales, but I'm keeping my eye on the prize of finishing this year with more out than in.  That makes resisting just a bit easier.  That and I'm being ruthless about deleting all those sale emails.    

You can see more slow stitching over at Kathy's Quilts and more end of year stash reports over at Judy's Patchwork Times.  

Slow Stitching and Week 50 Stash Report

How are your holiday preparations coming along?  Mine haven't gotten kicked off in any way or form.  The virus that took hold the week after Thanksgiving has not let go.  I made it to work all this last week, but not much else.  There's been no Christmas shopping, no holiday decorating, no gift wrapping, no blog reading and no stitching.  This is one nasty virus. There's been a bit of improvement the last couple of days, so I'm hopeful that by next weekend, I'll be back to normal. 

Number one on my stitching list is to finish the binding for Back to Square One. 

About 10" of the binding has been stitched, so I still have a long way to go on this one.  This quilt was supposed to be in the mail already.  The plan is to get as much done on this as possible today.  If I'm diligent maybe I can get it in the mail this week.  

I've stepped foot in the sewing room long enough to use the printer a couple of times, but the sewing machine has been untouched. The stash report shows it. 

Used last week:  0 yards
Used in December 0.64 yards
Used year to date:  44.77 yards
Purchased year to date:  30.25 yards
Net used for 2015:  14.52 yards

There's nothing in this week, so that still makes it a good stash report.  My holiday vacation starts on Friday.  I'll have a lot to do to get ready for Christmas, but I'm off the whole week after Christmas, so I'm hopeful I'll get in a lot of stitching time that last week of the year. 

Hope your holiday preparations are going well and that all your hand made gifts are done and wrapped.  I'm linking up with Kathy Quilt's for Slow Stitching Sunday and Judy's stash report over at Patchwork Times.  Hopefully I can sneak in a few peaks at what's going on in blogland today.  I've missed seeing everyone's progress. 

Stash Report - Week 49 of 2015

Wow, it's week 49.  That jars the brain a bit, just 3 more weeks in 2015.  If history is any indicator, they will go fast.  

I've not spent much time in blogland this week.  Last Sunday I starting coming down with whatever virus Drama Teen and My Guy had.  This is one nasty bug.  All I was good for on Thursday and Friday was dosing in the recliner and reading when I was awake.  I'm still not 100%, though it does appear the fever is gone.  

There was some stitching early in the week before the fever hit hard and then I managed a bit last night.  Most of the outgoing in the report is the sashing for the McCall's Mystery quilt and the binding for Back to Square One.  The fabric for the fourth graduation quilt came in this week, so it's accounted for in this week's report.  

Used last week:  1.12 yards
Used in November:  5.34 yards
Used in December:  0.64 yards
Used year to date:  44.77 yards
Purchased year to date:  30.25 yards
Net used for 2015:  14.52 yards

The last graduation quilt isn't really a graduation quilt, it's a thank you quilt for Drama Teen's journalism teacher.  This fabric is going to be the background fabric for the quilt. 

The fabric is Story Spackle Newsprint from Windham.  I don't have all the details worked out for this one.  Drama Teen wanted me to incorporate the First Amendment and the various publications that come out of the journalism department.  I've got a little time on finishing up a design, but I shouldn't wait too long on figuring out the concept and layout.  

That's it for me this week.  You can find more stash reports over at Judy's Patchwork Times.   

Weekend Stitching - Part 1 of Allietare

The crud that Drama Teen passed to My Guy landed firmly in my chest by Sunday afternoon.  I spent most of the afternoon sacked out in the recliner hoping that if I rested enough maybe I wouldn't get as sick as they did. I'm doing better this morning, but that may be due to the Tylenol cold medicine.   

I did make a start on the new Bonnie Hunter Mystery, Allietare.  We had family here till early afternoon on Friday, so I didn't get to start cutting into my fabrics for the HSTs described in Part 1 till Friday evening.  I've had the fabrics selected since last weekend.  I just don't have gold in my stash, so I decided to mix up the color scheme a bit for my version.  

I kept the white (neutrals) and black, but the dark blue is my red, the light blue is my grey and the red is my gold.  I'm going to make about 3/4 of the blocks, which should get me into a good size for a QOV.  

I didn't get a good start on the HSTs till Saturday evening and then as noted above, pretty much crashed in the recliner on Sunday.  So there are only 30 HSTs up on the design wall.  

Hopefully, this crud will pass quickly and I'll have a chance stitch a few more HSTs before the next clue comes out on Friday. I'm also hoping to have some time this evening to check out the progress at other blogs.

Linking up with
Monday Design Wall at Patchwork Times
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Mystery Monday Link Up at Quiltville's Quips and Snips

Stash Report - Week 48 of 2015

It's been a slow weekend. We've been munching on left overs from Thanksgiving.  It's been too cold and wet to venture out much, so we haven't.  One problem with not venturing out is then it's easy to spend more time on the computer where all the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales keep popping up in my email.

Someone trying hard to stay on a fabric diet doesn't need the temptation. And sure enough I did give into the temptation and ordered some fabric from the 25% sale at The Fat Quarter Shop.  Though I don't feel too badly about that purchase because it's the background fabric for one of the graduation quilts that's in the plans for next year.  I was going to need to purchase it anyway, so why not get it on sale.  

The damage done by my Black Friday weakness won't hit the stash report until next week at the earliest, so for now the report looks pretty good.  

Used last week:  0.55 yards
Used in November:  4.86 yards
Used year to date:  43.65 yards
Purchased year to date:  24.25 yards
Net Used for 2015:  19.40 yards

I'm still in the black.  I'm hoping to get one more backing made this year, so that should make up for the purchase of the background fabric.  As long as I end using more than I've bought, it will be a good year.  

For more stash management strategies, check out Patchwork Times.

Let's Book It Progress for November 2015

Sharon over at Vrooman's Quilts has been sponsoring the Let's Book It Challenge the last couple of years as one way to encourage quilters to use all those wonderful books and magazines we buy, drool over, but somehow never manage to actually make something from them.  

Sharon was going to stop the challenge after this year due to poor participation in the linky party, but then decided earlier this month to keep it going next year. I've been playing along with the Let's Book It Challenge, but the project I've been making has been my leaders and enders project so progress has been slow and I don't often link up, so one of my 2016 goals is to do better on having some type of progress to post each month.  

Thankfully, there is good progress to post this month on Poinsettias, my year long Let's Book It project.  I finished off all the block and sashing parts earlier this month. 

  

Now that all the pieces are made, I can start putting the blocks together.  

Poinsettias By Judy Blok for the December 2013 issue of
American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine

This is the top three rows of one quilt block.  The last two rows are over at the sewing machine waiting to be sewn together.  There are 25 - 4.5" blocks that go into each Poinsettia block. That makes for a lot of seam matching, so block assembly has been slow going, especially as I'm still using this project as my leader and ender project.  As soon as I clear out a couple of other projects it may get elevated to the main project on the design wall and my number one priority in terms of getting it finished.  For now, it's still progressing slowly which is better than not at all.  I have another leaders and enders project lined up, but I don't want to start something new till I finish off a couple more quilts.

Check out Vrooman's Quilts for more quilts by the book.    

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - The Final Six

It's raining for the third straight day.  However as the temps are now at 33 F, I'll take the rain and be thankful it's not ice.  We have no where we have to be today.  It's looking like a great day to stay home and stitch.  We had family here for Thanksgiving, so the house is actually pretty clean, though I still need to do some laundry.  The only downer for the holiday was the rain, every thing else went well.  Drama Teen showed how much she's learned from watching the Food Network.

She really helped a lot and it made getting it all on the table at the same time a lot easier.  

Most of last week was spent on cleaning up the house for company. But there was some stitching tossed in here and there.  I finished off all the red violet Twinkle Stars.  

Twinkle Stars
Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

There's another quilt up on the design wall at the moment, so I've not had a chance to get all the Twinkle Stars out and play with them.  I know there was a miscalculation and I'll need to add a few more blocks before I can sew up the flimsy.  I want to check the light versus dark balance before I choose the colors for those last few blocks.  But even with that I should be on track to get this one mostly assembled by the end of December.  

Have you decided on your RSC project for  2016?  There are so many choices I'm having a hard time picking just one.  It's a good thing there is still a month left in 2015. 

Now it's time for a second cup of coffee and a visit to Soscrappy to see how all the 2015 RSC projects are wrapping up.  

Happy Thanksgiving 2015

WIPS - Other Uses for Rotary Cutters and Cutting Tables

It's been a couple of weeks since I've written a progress report on my WIPs.  It's been harder the last few weeks to find time to sew during the week.  With the holidays coming up, other things have required more attention.  This week especially.  We are hosting Thanksgiving this year with My Guy's family.  That's meant spending some time doing deep cleaning in a few areas of the house.  So there hasn't been much stitching going on this week.  

Even though there's been no stitching, I did use the rotary cutter and my cutting table last night.  Our dining room set is almost 30 years old and the chairs are starting to show it. 

We use these chairs pretty much every day so it's not a big surprise that they are starting to show some wear. I've been wanting to recover them for a few months now, but My Guy and I couldn't agree on a fabric. But with family coming, we really needed to do something about the cushions that were ripping at the front. So last night Drama Teen and I went to Hobby Lobby to look.  Before we left, I was suggesting we look for brown or dark blue.  My Guy said he wanted beige again, as close as possible to what's on the chairs now. That's not what we came home with. 

We started out looking at the beige offerings, but they were either not the right weight or not in the right price range (I thought quilting fabric was expensive, it's been a while since I've had to buy home decorating fabric.)  Drama Teen picked out this gray with silver and gold.  It's a good neutral, it's not beige, it fits in with the rest of the house pretty well and it was on the lower end of the price scale, so it wasn't hard to convince me.  My Guy didn't like the fabric when I pulled it out of the bag once we got it home.  I talked him into letting me recover just one of the cushions.  I've learned over the years through discussing my quilt ideas with him that he cannot visualize how a fabric will look in the finished project.  After looking at the first finished chair he decided he liked it well enough to let me do the rest.  So though the chairs don't look brand new, they no longer look like thrift store finds.  

I did get in a few minutes in the sewing room earlier in the week.  All the pieces of the McCall's Mystery quilt got laid out on the design wall and I started sewing together the first couple of rows.  

This one may just make it to the finished flimsy stage before the end of the year and will likely be my first finish for 2016. My last finish for 2015 will be Back to Square One.  The binding is all made. Now I need to come up with a name for that one and make the label before I can start stitching down the binding.  

That's my progress for the week.  I'm linking up with

WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced

WOW:  WIPS on Wednesday over at Esther's Quilt Blog

Wishing everyone in the United States a very happy Thanksgiving.

Weekend Stitching - Salvaging an Ugly Quilt

It was a busy weekend.  Since we have family coming for the Thanksgiving holiday, we did a lot of deep cleaning yesterday.  All three of us are off work/school this week, so we'll be back at that today.  By mid afternoon yesterday we were all pretty worn out and decided it to give ourselves a break, so I did get in a nice afternoon of stitching.  

First up, all the snowball blocks for the McCall's Mystery Quilt are now done and up on the design wall.  

McCall's Mystery Quilt, From McCall's Quilting Magazine
Jan/Feb, April/May, June/July 2012 issues

The next step in the mystery is assembly into a flimsy.  I've got all the blocks laid out on the design wall.  No pictures because my camera decided to flake out when I tried to take one.  I might just get this flimsy finished before Christmas.  

The binding was finished on the Layer Cake Quilt Along project (aka Experiments in Paisley) last weekend, but I didn't get pictures till yesterday.  

Moose on the Porch Layer Cake Quilt Along by Konda Luckau
(Experiments in Paisley)  

Sometimes experiments in the lab don't come out as you'd like, but you still learn something from the process.  That's the case with this quilt.  I've never been thrilled with how this one turned out.  The rules of the quilt along were to use very minimal background fabric and use just the layer cakes.  I wished I'd broken that rule, the blocks might have come out better. The real problem I think is that there were two colorways in the layer cake and I don't think they play real well with each other.  

In finishing up this quilt, I made it a goal to use up the the rest of the layer cake.  I did that on the back. 

The back also used up a brown black tone on tone fabric that I'd had problems finding a use for.  It works great with these fabrics.  Truth be told, I like the back much better than I do the front.  This quilt will probably end up in one of the vehicles over the winter. It does get cold enough and icy enough here that it's not a bad idea to keep extra clothes or a blanket in the car during the winter months. So this will be a great utility quilt.  With my luck this will be the only one of my quilts to survive into the next century.  I hate to think what some historian would make of this one.  

That's it for me this week.  There's more stitching stuff to see over at: 

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Monday Design Wall at Patchwork Times
Main Crush Monday at Cooking up Quilts
Design Board Monday at Bits'n Bobs

Stash Report - Week 47 of 2015

Winter arrived in my part of the world this weekend. It's blustery winds heralding it's arrival.  It even snowed a bit yesterday, a definite warning that the winter coats need to come out of the closet.  Perfect stitching weather, except I spent Saturday running from the car to a store as Drama Teen had begged to start her Thanksgiving holiday with a shopping expedition.  The rest of the week wasn't any more conductive to stitching.  We have family coming for Thanksgiving and that's forced us to finally address a few things around the house that need to be repaired or replaced.  

I spent a couple of evenings running errands to get ready for the holiday this last week and that didn't leave time for a lot of stitching. But enough happened to actually have some outage to report for the week. 

Used last week:  1.04 yards
Used in November:  4.31 yards
Used year to date:  43.1 yards
Purchased year to date:  24.25 yards
Net used for 2015:  18.85 yards  

A bit out with nothing in is always a good week. I'm hoping to have the need to make one more back this year to bump up the outage to 50 yards for the year.  It just depends on how much sewing time I get in between all the Christmas preparations.  Even if not much more goes out, this will still have been a great year on the stash management front if I manage to stay in the black. 

That's it for me this week.  You can check out more stash reports over at Patchwork Times.  

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Pretty Plums and Wonderful Wines

It's been one of those weeks.  There's not been much time at home which translates to not much time on the computer or in the sewing room.  The email folder is overflowing.  I've not looked at Feedly yet to see just how far behind I am on reading blog posts.  There won't be much time for catch up today as Drama Teen has made shopping plans for us.  I'm not looking forward to getting out and about, it's cold and really windy.  We actually had a bit of snow this morning.  Winter is definitely on it's way. 

Sunday was the last time I was in the sewing room.  But I made a lot of progress that day and added three more red-violet Twinkle Star blocks to the design wall.  

Twinkle Stars
Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

The last two are over at the sewing machine.  I'm hoping to get in some stitching time this evening so I can finish off those two.  The plan then is to put all the blocks up on the design wall and figure out what blocks are needed to finish this one off.  I'm looking forward to seeing this one finished.  

That's it for me today.  There are more scrappy rainbows over at Soscrappy.  

Stash Report - Week 46 of 2015

It's cold, windy and rainy this morning.  It's nice to know we have no place we have to be today.  It's a good day to stay home and play in the sewing room.  

I had last Monday off, that was the end of my 4 day weekend to celebrate the wrap up of the big project at work.  But having having most of the day to stitch certainly helped the stash report for this week.

Used last week:  2.11 yards
Used in November:  3.27 yards
Used year to date:  42.06 yards
Purchased year to date:  24.25 yards
Net used for 2015:  17.81 yards

I've used more fabric year to date than I did all of last year.  I doubt it will be a record year for fabric usage, but I'm trying hard to end 2015 with more out than in.  Finishing up some of my older UFOs is definitely helping to move some of the older yardage out of the stash.  Part of the fabric added this year was vacation fabric, the rest has been purchased to use in four graduation quilts Drama Teen has asked me to make for her best friends.  

I've been having fun deciding on themes and patterns for the graduation quilts.  Drama Teen has blessed the three patterns I've selected so far.  Yesterday I started mocking up two of the quilts in EQ.  The first pattern needed to be made a bit bigger so it could be used on a dorm bed.  The pattern is from the December 2015 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting.  

Bird's-Eye View, designed by Jackie Robinson of AnimasQuilts.com
Published in the December 2015 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting

Here's the fabrics DT has blessed so far. 

I have no idea which fabric lines these are from, other than the gray with white star, it's from Connecting Threads' Candy Basics line. Here's how the EQ mock up looks.

This probably isn't the final version, I'll probably make some of the inset squares a bit bigger and add a bit more of the pink fabric so it's better balanced visually.  I need to shop my stash for a light and a dark purple fabric. What's in the mock up comes from the EQ palette.   The black frames will be the same dark purple that gets used for the border.  This is good enough to give me a good estimate of how much fabric is needed.  The working title for this project is "Zombies In Paris".  Drama Teen requested purple as the main theme color as it's the recipient's favorite color.   It's nice to have one of the graduation quilts pretty much scoped out.  Not sure if this will get started this year.  If it does, it's not likely to happen till after Christmas.  

That's it for me today.  You can find more stash reports posted over at Patchwork Times.  

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Red-Violets

Hard to believe the middle of November is tomorrow.  Where did the first half of the month go?  I really don't want to contemplate just how close it is to Thanksgiving.  I'm not mentioning the next holiday, I'm trying to stay in denial about it's impending approach as long as possible.  

With the end of November rapidly approaching, there will need to be some decisions made about setting together this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge project.  First I have to finish up the blocks.  Since I used up my greens back in May, I decided to make red-violet the scrap color for November.  I've got two of the six planned up on the design wall.

Twinkle Stars
Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

The  next two are sitting over by the sewing machine in varying states of assembly and the last two still need the pieces cut.  

I went back to my EQ files to look at the settings that had been worked up at the beginning of the year.  My block count was off, I'm going to be four blocks short for the planned 7 x 9 setting.  No problem, I can just pull a few scraps and finish those off pretty quickly.  Then comes the final decision on to sashing and borders.  I'm really looking forward to seeing this quilt come together.   

That's it for me this week.  You can find more scrappy fun over at Soscrappy.  

An Online Quilt Trunk Show

There's a fun linky party going on over at Whims and Fancies.  I wasn't going to link up, there just hasn't been time to write a post.  But after reading a few of the posts, I got to wondering what my trunk show would look like.  So it's time to write the post to figure that out.  So here's my entry to:

I've been quilting regularly since about 2001, so where to start? Definitely not at the beginning.  The blog started in 2010 and that seems like a much better place to start the show.  

1.  Seeing Stars

Pattern by Amy Heaton, pattern available here

This is the result of my first online quilt along. It was such a fun experience that I've done many more since.  The pattern is available on Electric Quilt My EQ Boutique and if you look close at the catalog page you'll see this quilt in the inspiration section.  More details here.    

2.  And Kiss Me Jack

Pattern by Judy Turner and Margaret Rolf
From the Book "Successful Scrap Quilts"

This is my quilt that almost wasn't.  I hated the first 3 blocks so much they put it way for a few years and then I decided to finish it. I'm so glad I did. There's a purple and yellow flower known as Johnny Junp Ups, which includes a variety called Kiss Me Jack.  That's where the name comes from.  You can find a more detailed post here.  

3. Elements

                               Elements (aka Sweet Treats), Pattern by Judy Laquidara

This was one of those serendipity quilts.  Judy posted the pattern and while I was cleaning up the stash closet I found a pile of 1930's fabrics. The temptation was just too great.  More details here.  

4.  Pieces of a Rainbow

          Pieces of a Rainbow, Pattern is Jigsaw by Alyssa Clancy for Lehmann Quilting

Of all the quilts I've made, this is my favorite.  It was made for Drama Teen.  The color placement isn't perfect, but she doesn't care.  More about this one here.  

And last but not least:

5.  Flame Test

                 Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler, By Angela Feldbush of Soscrappy

Of all the Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts I've started over the years, this is the first one that's made it to the finish line. It's another of Drama Teen's favorites. More about it here.  

That's it for my trunk show. I've made a lot of other quilts, but it appears my bright scrappy ones are the favorites from the lot.  Hope you enjoyed this trunk show.  You can see many more over at Whims and Fancies.