Week 39 of Stashing and Stitching

I am very glad to see the end of the last week.  It was definitely not one to repeat. It's a good thing there was lots of hand work on the menu or this week's 15 minutes to stitch report would be pretty dismal. 

Week 39 stitching report:

15 minutes stitching days/week = 7/7 days
15 minutes stitching days/Sept = 29/29 days
15 minutes stitching days/2018 = 255/272 days
Success rate = 93.75%

So why only hand work?  My shoulder problems caught up with me last weekend.  I had the rare opportunity to sew for two days in a row.  I woke up Monday morning in a good deal of pain.  After 2 days of heating pads and 4 days of anti-inflammatory medication, by Friday the shoulder was back to being as good as it gets.  So why am I blaming my sewing room.  It's the computer desk we bought 18 years ago as a "temporary" place for me to sew. 

My chair is adjustable, but I can't adjust it any higher.  So when I try to sew, my shoulders are not in a neutral position.  After two days, that took it's toll.  I posted a question on Facebook looking for suggestions.  There were many about cutting down the legs of the desk, cutting out the center and using the keyboard tray to hold the machine.  After a discussion with My Guy on those options, his vote was for me to not mess with the desk and buy a dedicated sewing cabinet.  His point was that I used the desk for 18 years and it didn't appear I planned to quit quilting anytime soon, so it just made sense to get something more ergonomic that would work for the next 18 years.  So last Friday, I ordered a sewing cabinet from Sew Perfect Tables.  It's not the prettiest table out there, but it's very adjustable, hit the mid-range price point and looks very sturdy (My Guy's input).  It should show up in about 4 weeks.  I'll let you know how that goes. 

In the mean time, I've found that the sewing machine will fit on the keyboard tray of the desk.

It vibrates a bit when I sew, but this set up will work for the next few weeks till the new cabinet comes in.  I don't leave the machine sitting on the tray when I'm not using it, I'm afraid it will bend the slides.  

Since there wasn't a lot of machine stitching this week, the stash report is a bit anemic. 

Fabric used this week:  0.47 yards
Fabric used in 2018: 32.75 yards
More in than out for 2018 

Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the weekly stash report. 

You can link up here to share how well you did at finding time to stitch. 

1. maggie f 2. Julie in GA

3. Mary-Kay 4. Aileen

5. Shasta 6. Christina's Handicrafts

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Weekend Stitching - Stars and Webs

The weekend was slow paced and relaxed.  Having an extra day off was nice, though we spent most of the day in Tulsa, so not much stitching happened.  There was plenty of stitching time the rest of the weekend.  Work continues on the block parts for On Ringo Lake.  Those flying geese seem to take for ever to make.  My OMG for September was to finish all the block parts for ORL. I'm pretty sure I bit off more than I can do there.  We'll see where I'm at next weekend, but it's not looking good.  

A few Twinkle Star blocks were finished while working on all those bits and pieces of the ORL project.

Twinkle Star, Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

  
I really like these three.  Just two more left to make.  Once those are done, this project will have to go back to project box till next year.

Block two in the Halloween Mystery was to make 4 spider web blocks.  I managed to finish two before heading to the quilt shop to pick up clue 3. 

 Halloween Mystery designed by Carrie Randall (Quilter's Hideaway)

Lots of pieces and cutting, but it's a fun block to make.  Web number 3 just needs the corners added and it will be done.  Web number 4 hasn't even been cut out yet.  Clue 3 has us making 4 applique blocks with a partial Dresden Plate worked in.  Applique is my least favorite quilting technique.  But in the spirit of working outside my comfort zone, I'm trudging along there.  The applique pieces are cut and ready to go, now I'm working on the first partial Dresden Plate.  I'm trying to decide between hand stitching or machine stitching the applique.  For some reason, my machine doesn't like to applique (more likely, it's me who can't figure out how to get the machine to like it).  The plan is to try a couple of practice pieces, if those work, then the blocks will get finished on the machine. If the machine stitching doesn't work out, it will be by hand.  The applique isn't big and it's finished edge, so a simple blanket stitch will work just fine.  The goal is to just get them finished and not let this part hold up the whole quilt.  Wish me luck. 

Linking up with the typical Monday design wall posts:

Making Monday
Main Crush Monday
Monday Design Wall   

Week 38 of Stitching and Stashing

It's been a nice weekend.  We took Friday off, the plan was to go hiking and enjoy the cooler weather.  It rained. So we spent part of the day at the book store, drinking coffee and hanging out. We stopped for a very nice lunch and hit a few other places on our way home.  I did get home in time to get in my 15 minutes of stitching before bedtime. 

It actually was a very good week on the stitching front.  

15 minutes stitching days/week = 7/7 days
15 minutes stitching days/Sept = 22/22 days
15 minutes stitching days/2018 = 248/265 days
Success rate = 93.58%

The goal for this year is to stay above 90% on finding time each day to stitch. So far, so good there.

Can't say that for the stash report.  I've been giving into temptation more than I should.  Part of Friday's mess around day was trip to the quilt shop in Tulsa.  I couldn't resist adding a bit to my Halloween stash to supplement the bits and pieces that have been going into the mystery quilt. 

I really liked the ravens, but My Guy was a big fan of the Jack-O-Lanterns.  So there's been more out than in this year, but at least there is a bit going out. 

Fabric used this week:  0.99 yards
Fabric used in 2018:  32.28 yards
More in than out for 2018

Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the weekly stash report.  You can link up below to share how you did at finding time to stitch this week.  (Sorry to be so late posting this morning, the Internet has been intermittent and not at all cooperative!)

1. Julie in GA

2. Aileen

3. Christina's Handicrafts

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Weekend Stitching - A Bit of This and That

Saturday was busy, Sunday was much more relaxed. The laundry has been tamed, for this week anyway.  And I even did a bit of sewing room clean reorganization.  I opened up two more bins for my scraps, which have been taking over my sewing room.  There's a lot more that needs to be reorganized, but I'm doing it in more manageable chunks.  I'll tackle the fabric closet next weekend, or at least make a start on it.  

My One Monthly Goal for September is to get all the block pieces made for On Ringo Lake. There has been good progress on that front, but nothing photo worthy.  Three more Twinkle Star blocks are up on the design wall. 

 Twinkle Stars, Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

Only 5 blocks left to piece and then all the blocks needed for the quilt expansion will be finished.

Clue two of the Halloween Mystery quilt was released Saturday morning.  We need to make 4 spiderweb blocks.  I've gotten a good start on the first spiderweb, but those blocks have a lot of pieces so it's been slow going.  I want to work out any kinks before I cut the other three blocks, I'm a bit limited on my Halloween prints so I'm working out the process with the fabric I have the most of in case there's a redo needed.  Thankfully I just have to show there has been progress to get the next block for free.  I'm hoping to have the first spiderweb finished by next Saturday morning.  The second block from last week did get finished before the Saturday reveal. 

Halloween Mystery, designed by Carrie Randall (Quilter's Hideaway)

I'm pretty happy with how he turned out. After seeing clue two, I'm not sure how all these blocks are going to fit together, but that's part of the fun of a mystery.  

Linking up with the usual Monday show and tell sites.  

Main Crush Monday
Monday Design Wall  

Week 37: Stitching and Stashing (again)

It's been a busy weekend, I'm so ready for a day at home.  There's a bit of laundry that needs to get done, but otherwise hanging out in the sewing room is the plan for most of today.  It needs a good cleaning and reorg, I'm trying to convince myself to get started on that today, along with getting in a few stitches here and there.  How have you been using your 15 minutes to stitch each day? 

It was a good week in my sewing room. We've been able to leave work on time the last week and that's made it a lot easier to fit in about an hour of stitching time each evening. 

15 minutes stitching days/week = 7/7 days
15 minutes stitching days/Sept. = 15/15 days
15 minutes stitching days/2018 = 241/258 days
Success rate = 93.41%

Having a bit of time to sew means progress on the Halloween Mystery, On Ringo Lake and more finished Twinkle Stars.  So there should be something to show in tomorrow's design wall update. 

Unfortunately, finishing blocks doesn't make a big dent in the stash report. 

Fabric used this week:  0.88 yards
Fabric used in 2018:  31.29 yards
More fabric in than out in 2018

There is a bit out, which is always good.  Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the weekly stash report.  

A very fun package (that didn't contain fabric) showed up in the mail last week.  My Guy usually gets the mail and he came in with one envelope addressed to me that was a bit squishy.  Inside was a very pretty little card from Shasta who blogs at High Road Quilter. 

It's small, but very cute.  One of the reorg tasks on my list today is to find a spot in the sewing room for this pretty.  Thank you Shasta!  

It's been hard watching the coverage on Florence.  Fingers crossed and prayers for everyone in that part of the country that the rain totals will not be as high as forecast.  

Here's Mr. Linky if you want to share how well you did in finding time to stitch this week. 

1. maggie f 2. Julie in GA 3. Meloney

4. di 5. Patricia 6. Christina's Handicrafts

7. Aileen 8. Shasta 9. Deana

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Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Dark Neutrals and a Switch-Up

We were definitely ready for the weekend.  It was a long work week for both me and My Guy.  No better way to kick off the weekend then a marathon sewing session on Friday night. My main goal was to finish off my Halloween mystery blocks and make some head way on my Squared Away blocks for this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler.  It's the middle of the month already and there hasn't been a lot of progress on those blocks yet.

I've really enjoyed working on the Squared Away sampler this year. Mari and Angela provided such fun blocks in the sampler.  But this month's block just wasn't working for me (sorry Mari and Angela).  I played around in EQ trying to work out fabric placement that worked for me.  I finally ended up with this:

Pretty much the same, but some of the HSTs  got moved around the background pieces to changed up some .  I don't have a lot of dark blue, so I had already decided to use some dark neutral scarps for this month's block.

 Squared Away Sampler
designed by Mari (The Academic Quilter) and Angela (Soscrappy)

Both the gray background and the black floral batik came right out of the scrap basket.  It was fun playing around with this layout. Though I tripped myself up a bit by cutting the double sized gray background pieces.  I had to un-sew a couple of pieces from the rows and then restitch them in columns in order to fit all the pieces back together without using partial seams.  Now that the first block is done, I'll know better with the next two.  

Linking up with Soscrappy on Saturday and with Oh Scrap on Sunday.   

Weekend Stitching: Puzzling Out a New Mystery

We got a nice preview of fall this weekend, with lows in the 50's, highs in the 70's, overcast and rainy. It was a nice weekend to just sit and stitch, so I did a lot of that.  Getting the block parts made for On Ringo Lake is my OMG for September.  All the center patches are made, so I've been concentrating on the flying geese.  There are 8 in each block, so there is a lot of stitching and trimming going on with those.  There's been good progress, but nothing photo worthy.  

The Twinkle Star blocks are still in progress.  I would like to get all the blocks made before that project goes back into the box to finish later.  Another 4 blocks were finished up last week. 

 Twinkle Stars, Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

The teal and orange finish off what's needed for those two colors.  From here on out, the blocks will all be blue to finish the diagonal row that was added to make the quilt bigger.  My favorite in this set is the blue one made from the chemistry fabric left overs from the SITs quilt.  

The plan for 2018 was to focus on cleaning up the UFO lists, so I've tried really hard to not start anything new.  But I can't resist a good mystery and our local quilt shop is offering a Halloween Mystery quilt along over the next four weeks. The only yardage required is the background, the rest can be from scraps. Since I'm not doing the quilt along with Meadow Mist Designs this year, there is an open slot on my new project list for 2018.  So I decided to join in. The first clue came out on Saturday.  There are two blocks in clue one, you make two of one and just one of the second.  Here are my first two. 

Halloween Mystery, designed by Carrie Randall (Quilter's Hideaway)

The two witches hats were made from fat quarters that were already in my stash.  When I went looking for black, orange and gray fat quarters for the project, I found a number of Halloween prints in the black and orange.  The light gray background was used in one of the graduation quilts, so it's one of those left overs in the stash. I've gotten started on the second block in clue one, but nothing photo worthy.  I just have to show progress on my blocks from the previous clue to get the next clue for free, so I'm good on that front for next week.  I do hope to finish the second block before Saturday, but it has quite a few more pieces than these two did. I really do love a good mystery!   

Linking up with the usual suspects for Monday:

Making Monday
Main Crush Monday
Monday Design Wall

Week 36 of Stitching and De-stashing

This week's 15 minutes of stitching post is a bit late to press as the author slept in this morning (Courtesy of a dose of Bendadryl prior to bed time. The bumper crop of rag weed has not been kind to many of us).  

Finding time to stitch was a lot easier this week. 

15 minutes stitching days/week = 7/7 days
15 minutes stitching days Sept. = 8/8 days
15 minutes stitching days /2018 = 234/251 days
Success rate =93.23%

Finding time to stitch hasn't done much to help the stash report at the moment, mainly as I'm making block parts not blocks.  It will pay off later when I start assembling the blocks.  For now, the stash is going out pretty slowly.  

Fabric used this week:  0.21 yards
Fabric used this year:  30.41 yards

Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the weekly stash report.  You can link up below to share how did on finding time to stitch this week. 

The rain has been very unkind to my sinuses, but the roses are loving it. 

1. Julie in GA 2. Pack Rat With a Plan 3. maggie f

4. Meloney 5. Aileen 6. Patricia

7. Mary-Kay 8. Christina's Handicrafts

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Weekend Stitching: Magnolia Mystery Solved

It's been a low key and relaxing holiday weekend.  I'm hoping to spend the last day of the holiday in the sewing room.  We spent yesterday in Tulsa hanging out with family.  So not a lot of stitching got done yesterday.  But we were home on Saturday and I finally found time to photograph the quilt that was finished last week.  

Magnolia Mystery by Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs

The Magnolia Mystery quilt from the 2017 mystery program at Meadow Mist Designs is finally all finished.  It's definitely a very bright quilt, but I like it.  Purple and yellow is one of my favorite color combinations.  Though the purple is really closer to red-violet than it is a true purple.  Thankfully you can see the true color in these photos.  The violet always photographed as almost black when this project was on the design wall.  

The background fabric is a Connecting Threads sale acquisition that's been in the stash for a few years. There was enough of it to back the quilt as well. 

The yellow flowers in the backing reminded me of all the bright yellow wild flowers we have in Oklahoma in the summer, hence the slight change in quilt name on the label.  

Other than the background, the rest of the fabrics in this project are left over from other projects.  So the green ended up as the binding because there wasn't enough left of any of the the other fabrics.   

My Magnolia Mystery quilt is lap sized.  I love the bright colors and that floral print background (see that violet photographed as black in this image). Summer Magnolias is finish number three for 2018.  This project wasn't on the UFO list, as it wasn't a year old yet, so my UFO numbers stay unchanged.  That's OK, it's always nice to keep a project off the UFO list.  It is on my list for the third quarter of the 2018 Finish Along, so I'll be linking up there come October.  For now, I'm linking up with the usual Monday linky parties:

Making Monday
Main Crush Monday
Monday Design Wall
2018 Finish Along - Third Quarter Finishes

Week 35 of Stitching and Stashing

It's been a pretty quiet weekend so far.  Which is good as I was definitely ready for some down time to spend in the sewing room.  Finding 15 minutes here and there to hide out in the sewing room has been a bit easier this week.

Here's the tally for this week.  

15 minutes stitching days/week = 7/7 days
15 minutes stitching days/August = 24/31 days
15 minutes stitching days/September = 1/1 day
15 minutes stitching days/2018 = 227/244 days
Success Rate = 93.03%

I'm managing to find time to stitch more than 90% of the time, so I'm doing well on meeting this goal for the year. 

Wish my stash busting was going better.  I gave into another sale last week, at Craftsy this time.  So I've really, really blown my incoming stash budget.  But I've chosen to focus on the positive so I'm just reporting what went out for the week. 

Fabric used this week:  0.46 yards
Fabric used in 2018: 30.20 yards
More fabric in than out for 2018

I do hope to get at least one quilt to the finished flimsy stage this month, so there should be some backing fabric going out in September.  Fingers crossed that actually happens.  Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the weekly stash report. 

So how are you doing at finding time to stitch each week? 

1. Julie in GA 2. Pack Rat With a Plan

3. Meloney 4. Shasta

5. Patricia

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September One Monthly Goal and Priority List

It's been a slow paced Saturday. I slept in for a change and lazed my way through three cups of coffee while contemplating what to focus on for my September One Monthly Goal.

According to the 2018 quilt plan, Bonnie Hunter's 2017 mystery, On Ringo Lake is the UFO for September.  I spent some time in EQ this morning working up block settings. If I go with an on point setting I need 32 blocks, a straight setting needs 35.  As of this morning, I had 9 blocks completed and another 29 of the 9 patch centers completed. That would give me enough centers for 38 blocks, more than enough for either the straight or on point setting.  Here's what the 9 finished blocks look like on point without any sashing.

On Ringo Lake, Bonnie Hunter 2017 Mystery Quilt

I'm still playing around with sashing ideas.  If I go with the original pattern, the sashing would be yellow with black.  That makes for a very yellow quilt. I don't have to decide the layout and sashing options right away, though I would really like to have On Ringo Lake made into at least a finished flimsy before the next mystery comes out (assuming Bonnie hosts one this year).  So what's a realistic OMG for the month?

All 9-patch block centers are made, but there are no flying geese or corner HSTs to go with them.  That's a lot of block pieces to make to finish 24 blocks in a month.  With my work schedule, that's not likely. So what's a manageable goal for the month?  Each block needs 4 yellow flying geese, 4 gray flying geese and 4 HST corners. So I need 76 yellow flying geese, 76 grey flying geese and 76 HSTs to go with those centers. My goal for September is to get all those pieces made. I'll worry about block assembly in October.  

My OMG is my number one priority each month, but there are other projects in the works too.  I keep a priority list on the sewing machine with my focus on the top 3.  Once I finish one of those, I'll move on to the next project on the list.  September's priority list looks like this.

         
Just three more sawtooth star blocks need to be finished before I can start assembling the pieced border for the Inverted Star project.  Hopefully I can get Inverted Star into a finished flimsy while getting all the Ringo Lake pieces made.  I'm probably biting off more than I can stitch, but what's the fun if you don't aim for the improbable?  

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts for the September One Monthly Goal.  

August Wrap Up (One Monthly Goal Progress)

For those in the United States and Canada (as noted by Sandra of  MMM! Quilts), hope you've gotten a jump on enjoying your holiday weekend.  We don't have any firm plans for the holiday.  The Scientist in Training got home last night and is pretty much wiped out from the first two weeks of the fall semester. She feel asleep mid conversation after dinner.  Her request for the weekend was to be allowed to sleep in.  She has a two plus hour to complete chemistry quiz due tonight (assigned in class yesterday).  I really, really don't miss those parts of my college days.

Hard to believe it's the first of September, August went way to fast. The first week of August was miserable due to work deliverables, but it lined out towards the end of the month.  So it wasn't a bad month in the sewing room.  I didn't make my One Monthly Goal (OMG) for August which was to decide on a final layout and get the sashing at least made for the Twinkle Star quilt. 

Twinkle Stars
Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

I managed part of my goal for August, the layout got much better defined.  Both My Guy and the Scientist in Training both nixed the sashing plan.  A similar suggestion was made in many of the comments on the blog and on my Facebook posts, thank you for the feedback.  So no sashing.  Then the SIT asked me to lay out the blocks in a more of a "rainbow" order.  So I gave that a try.

Both the SIT and My Guy liked this layout better, so did I.  But without the sashing, this quilt is going to be a bit small for the intended use.  So how to make it bigger?  Add borders to make it bigger or add more blocks?  I wasn't completely happy with the way the colors merged, what if I added new blocks so there was enough of each color to make at least one diagonal row? 

I liked that thought.  So now the goal for August became to complete 18 more blocks.  By the time I went to bed last night, 6 more blocks had been completed, there are 6 in the works at the machine, and fabric has been selected for the last 6.  

The red and purple sections are both finished, plus one of two teal blocks is done.  Even though I didn't make my OMG for the month, I'm pretty happy with the progress on this quilt.  I didn't link up with the end of August OMG because it didn't feel right, but I did want to document that progress was made.  

There was also a finish this month, but no pictures yet.  I'll post about that on Monday.  So August was a much better month than I expected it to be.  I've already been thinking about what the plan is for September. 

Linking up with Oh Scrap on Sunday.