A Bit of This and That

We had a family wedding to attend last weekend.  We hit the road Thursday afternoon, so there wasn't a lot of time in the sewing room last week.  I did get the binding made and attached to Rhododendron (Bonnie Hunter).  That was my only sewing time over the weekend. With all the activities, I didn't get very far, just one corner turned at this point. 

I should make better progress with this now that we are home. You can really see the quilting Trudy did in the dark purple part of the backing.  It's lovely.  

The wedding we attended was for My Guy's older sister.  She's been a widow for about seven years, so it was good to see that she's found someone so she's not alone anymore. The wedding was in Kansas City, KS.  Since My Guy has some vacation to burn, I asked to go up a day earlier than necessary so we could make a side trip. 

Hamilton, Mo was only about an hour from where we were staying.  So we made a day trip to the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  My Guy thought this was just a quilt shop, he was surprised to see a whole quilt town!  I wasn't really paying any attention to the company schedule, but we arrived during the Sweet 16 birthday celebration.  The town was pretty packed, but you could still shop.  You can see my haul above.  The Christmas and Batik fat quarter bundles are gifts, only the white on white fat quarters are mine.  Those will go into a scrap quilt I have on my to be made list.  My Guy did some of his own Christmas shopping for various family members.  Once he finished that, he begged off to the Tap Room so I could finish visiting all the shops. He'd had enough of all things quilty at that point.  

He texted me this photo about 15 minutes after he left me, with the message "You may have to drive".  He was almost done with the flight when I showed up.  He'd made friends with several other enabler husbands and was having a pretty good time on his own. Yes, I did drive back to where we were staying.  

It was a fun weekend with our extra excursion and seeing My Guy's twin sisters along with a few nephew's and nieces, plus one great nephew. It was fun to just hang out and catch up. Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts.

Stitching Stuff: Week 17 of 2024

It's not been one of my better weeks.  Thank goodness for handwork.  I'm off the pain medication and can handle the stairs without a crutch.  So definite improvement.  It's still a bit uncomfortable to use the foot pedal on the sewing machine for very long, but I've been able to sew for hour long stretches the last couple of days. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/April = 27/27 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 118/118 days
• Success rate = 100%

With the handwork sessions, I've been able to keep my stitching time at 100% for the year so far.  Not sure I'm going to be able to keep that up, but it's fun to challenge myself on that front.  

I did discover that knee surgery doesn't prevent one from fabric shopping. I need to walk more and the weather here has been iffy so I took a trip to the local quilt store just to walk a bit and get out of the house.  Of course in my weakened state, I just couldn't resist the lure of some pretty fabrics to pet.  

My favorite is the rainbow mandala fabric on the bottom. It would make a very fun border for a rainbow scrap quilt.  No plans for any of these three, I just liked them.  Now to get some projects finished so I can start some new stuff. 

Did you have time to play with needle and thread last week? 

1. Gretchen 2. Frédérique 3. maggie f 4. Julie in GA

5. Karen 6. Deb in Canada 7. DonnaleeQ 8. Quilting Gail

9. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 10. Bonnie in Va 11. Janice - Jannimary

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A Bit of Spring in Autumn

It's been a couple of weeks since I've written a Monday post.  Vacation was fun, but it was nice to be back home and spend most of the weekend in the sewing room.  Saturday afternoon Scrappy Butterflies (self designed) had the last of the border strips attached. It's now a finished quilt top. 

The butterfly blocks were started in 2013 as my second Rainbow Scrap project.  I couldn't decide on a setting, that's why these blocks have languished on the UFO list for so long.  It feels really good to get them into a finished top.  Scrappy Butterflies will be the next project to go out for quilting after Melodic Mystery.  I need to raid the stash for an appropriate backing fabric. That probably won't happen till next month.  

In yesterday's post I shared photos of the hiking parts of our trip. There were a couple of quilt shop stops during our trip as well.  I had to really watch my purchases as it all had to fit in the suitcases for the trip home. There is a wonderful quilt shop in Bend, OR,  The Quilt Basket.  I didn't take any photos of the shop, but it was well stocked with lots of fabrics not common in the shops around home.  I don't normally buy kits, but the fabrics in this one really appealed to me. 

The fabrics are from the fabric line Astra by Janet Clare for Moda.  My Guy has a minor in astronomy, so the fabrics seemed fitting.  I'm not sure if I'll use the fabrics to make the Taylored Stars or if I'll do something else with them.  

We drove back to Portland over the mountains and drove through Sisters, OR where we stopped at the Stitchin' Post.  Again, no pictures of the shop. They didn't have a lot of fabrics, but did have lots of patterns.  Considering how much fabric was in the kit and how much room it was going to take up in the suitcase, I contented myself with a fat quarter bundle. 

These are from the Vintage Garden line by Rifle Paper Co. for Cotton and Steel.  The deep greens and botanical prints were a great reminder of our hikes along the Columbia River gorge. 

Thankfully the house we stayed out had a very nice washer and dryer, so we didn't come home with a lot of dirty laundry, but I do need to go deal with a few loads of that this morning and a few other household chores.  Then the plan is to get back to the sewing room and decide on what is going on the to do list for next week.  

Linking up with Monday Design Wall, Patchwork & Quilts, and Oh Scrap.   

Stitching Stuff: Week 33 of 2023

This was the last full week of August. September starts in just 4 days!  I'm ready for cooler weather, but definitely not ready for it to be so far along in the year.  It just seems the last half of the year really flies compared to the first half.  So getting in my stitching time is really important the next couple of months.  I did pretty well on that front this week. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/August = 24/26 days
• 15 minute days/2023 = 203/236 days
• Success rate = 86.02%

My goal for the year is to stitch 75% of the time. I'm definitely on track for that.  I'm not on track with my finishes.  So hopefully I've got time to get a few of those in before we hit the end of the year.  

There are so many projects I'd like to play with in 2024.  Our photo challenge for this week was "Feminine".  One of my potential subjects was some of the floral fabrics that have been in my stash for awhile.  

I've stopped buying these big florals because I'm not sure what to do with them. This is just a small sample, I have a whole stack of 1 to 2 yard pieces.  As I was pulling these out for photos and petting them a bit, I was thinking how much I'd like to play with these.  Hopefully that will motivate me to finish a few quilts so I can add in another new start for next year.  

How are doing on your stitching goals for the year?  Are you stitching enough to meet your expectations for 2023?  

1. Gretchen 2. Julie in GA 3. maggie f 4. Karen

5. DonnaleeQ 6. Frédérique 7. katie z. 8. Andrée

9. Quilting Gail 10. Deb in Canada

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Stitching Stuff: Week 15 of 2023

Yesterday was Earth Day.  One of the companies here in town celebrates that by hosting a clean up party where you can dispose of some chemicals (oil based paints, fertilizers, pesticides etc), electronics and old appliances.  I spent my decluttering efforts this week in the garage (old paints and finishes) plus the attic and office (old electronics).  It was nice to remove a carload of items from the house. But boy I've been paying for it, my thighs still haven't forgiven me for the stair steps it took to get the stuff out of the attic. My reward for all the manual labor (and dealing with the spiders) is a nothing but sewing day today.  But before I head towards the sewing room, I should review how last week's stitching efforts went.

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/April =  21/22 days
• 15 minute days/2023 =  91/112 days
• Success rate = 81.25%

My decluttering efforts didn't interfere with my stitching efforts, so it was a good week on both fronts.

I'm still navigating this retirement gig and figuring out what works for me and what doesn't. One long time goal has been to actually join a quilting guild.  I didn't know that there are actually two here in town. The first one I went to met during the day and it just wasn't my cup of tea. Nothing really wrong, but it just didn't make me excited to join.  But the second one I went to was a lot more welcoming and fun, so I've joined that one. There is a retreat next weekend and the cost is 8 donation blocks, 4 with patriotic fabrics for veterans quilts and 4 with children's prints that go to 2 or 3 local charities (I should have taken notes, they went over that really fast).  The patriotic fabrics weren't a problem, but the children's prints aren't something I have a lot of. After a deep, deep dive in the fabric closet, I came up with my four, including this one. 

  

Note the copyright date.  Definitely vintage stash. Grad Girl would have been 5.  Along with this piece there was a blue print with teal moons and stars along with a pink/purple unicorn print.  I sorta remember buying these fabrics to make her a quilt when I first started making quilts. Obviously it never happened.  She did give me permission to use them elsewhere.

Now that I've joined a guild, I need to make a name tag. If you have any favorite tutorials on that subject, please add the link to your comment. 

So how did your stitching week go? 

1. maggie f 2. Julie in GA 3. Karen 4. Ivani 5. DonnaleeQ

6. Quilting Gail 7. Marti 8. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 9. Deb in Canada 10. Frederique

11. Andre 12. Carol Andrews 13. Amanda

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Contemplating a New Start

Last year and this year the focus has been on getting quilts off the UFO list.  A total of 9 quilts have been finished since January of 2020.  So the focus is working.  There were only three new starts last year with none so far this year, so the UFO list is down 6 quilts. There is such a sense of accomplishment with each project that comes off the list. But trying to work only on UFOs can get boring and demotivating.  To combat that the 2021 quilting plan allows me four new starts. 

The first new project on the 2021 allowed list is the Meadow Mist Designs mystery quilt along, Macaron Mystery. 

Cheryl's mystery started this month with the fabric requirements.  Next month she'll put out the cutting instructions.  One clue a month is a good speed for me.  This will be the 6th Meadow Mist Designs mystery quilt along for me. 

One of my favorite things about mystery quilt alongs is playing in the stash to find the fabrics.  I did some of that before the holiday weekend kicked off.  This year's mystery uses less than a yard of focus fabrics, so I can really scour the stash for left overs.  My goal this year is to use a color palette that's not blue, green and purple, which seems to be my go to color palette lately.  Here's the three fabric pulls I've accumulated so far. 

I think the black, gray, red and white would make a pretty dramatic quilt.  The red is the only left over fabric in this palette. 

The red, white, and gray would make a pretty vivid quilt.  There are three left over fabrics in this fabric pull, the red and white print, the light gray x's and the darkest red.  

I've made mostly pink quilts before, but its been a while. Left over fabrics in this pull include the white on white, the lightest pink and the gray stars.   

So that's the first three fabric pulls.  I'm also contemplating the brown/gold, blue/yellow, blue/green stash. Blue makes up the largest part of my stash and it's my favorite color.  So in spite of trying to avoid blue, I may well end up going that direction.  I have till August 5th to decide on the final fabric pull. It's fun pulling together the different palettes so I'll be playing around with different combinations right down to the wire. 

Linking up Monday Making and Design Wall Monday.   

Post script: Replacing Feedburner for email subscriptions to the blog has been a bit error prone. I hope the bugs are worked out now. Fingers crossed you get two emails from the blog today.  If that works out, I'll turn off Feedburner. Assuming I can get that right, today should be the only day with two emails.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 47 of 2020

It was one of those weeks for me.  Deadlines unfortunately are real things and I spent a lot of time this last week working to meet mine. That cut into my stitching (and blogging) time this last week.  How about you?  Was this an excellent week for you or did life have other plans for your stitching time? You can link up at the bottom of the post to share how the stitching went this week.  

I stayed late at work several nights last week and went in early a couple of days to stay on top of looming deadlines.  That cut into my stitching time this week.  

• 15 minute days/week = 5/7 days
• 15 minute days/Nov = 17/21 days
• 15 minute days/2020 = 291/326 days
• Success rate = 89.26%

So not a perfect week.  A couple days all I managed to fit in was 15 minutes. This was a week that I really needed those 15 minutes of sanity when I could get them in.  Thankfully I'm off all this week, though I'm on call Wednesday if they need a supervisor on site.

One of the things on the to do list for this next week is to make some Christmas themed face masks.  I ordered some fun novelty Christmas fabrics from Spoonflower when they had their half off fat quarters sale last month. 

I think my favorite is the elves (gnomes?)   The characters on the Nutcracker fabric may be too big for a mask. I may have to cut off a few legs. 

That was my stitchy week. I'm hoping for a lot more stitching time this week.  My Guy and the Scientist in Training have put their heads together on Thanksgiving dinner. It will just be the three of us this year. And we are thankful we can do that much this year. The SIT has been especially careful about contact with others so she could come home this week. Campus is closed for the whole week, which is nice. She'll have a chance to recoup a bit before she ends back for dead week and finals.   

How was your stitching week?  

1. Julie in GA 2. karen 3. Chrisknits

4. Meloney 5. Shasta @ High Road 6. DawnyK

7. Amanda 8. Quilting Gail

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Stitching Stuff: Week 33 of 2020

 It was a very long work week.  I spent Saturday recovering. No housework, no laundry, but there was a bit of retail therapy (more on that later).  I've finally gotten into a rhythm in the evenings and that's been working well in getting me into the sewing room on a regular basis. Have you been able to work in 15 minutes a day of stitching time this last week?  

It was a good week for getting in some regular sewing room time. 

• 15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
• 15 minute days/August = 13/15 days
• 15 minute days/2020 = 201/228 days
• Success rate = 88.16%

I didn't get any stitching time in Friday night.  I ended the work week with sniffles and a nasty sinus headache. I spent the evening with a good book and then called it a day just a bit early. 

I woke up Saturday not feeling any better. The headache finally backed off about 9 AM, so I decided to make a quick trip to the local quilt shop. Petting fabric sounded like a nice way to recover from a stressful week.  If you go early on Saturday, the shop is usually pretty dead.  I was the first customer and for the next 30 minutes, the only customer.  I came home with just a couple of new stash additions.

Top Fabric: Timeless Treasures Colorful Math Doodles on Grid
Bottom Fabric:  Clothworks Sunday Afternoon by Jim Ishikawa

My Guy really likes his science face masks, the top fabric really fits that style.  The floral on the bottom I thought would make a beautiful background fabric for a RSC project.  I don't have anything in the works right now, but I'm sure it will work for something later. 

So how was your stitchy week?  Link up below and share how you did at finding some time to spend with needle and thread.  

1. Julie in GA 2. maggie f 3. Chrisknits 4. karen

5. Meloney 6. Shasta @ High Road 7. Nanette 8. Nanette Chopin Cook

9. Amanda 10. Quilting Gail 11. DawnyK 12. Deana

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Week 18 of 2020: Stitching Stuff

It was a long week, working from home has its own challenges. Plus work was just really busy this week. That cut into my stitching time more than usual. How are you doing at fitting in at least 15 minutes of stitching time each day during this time of working from home and social distancing? 

It wasn't a bad week, it just wasn't a great week on the stitching front.  

15 minute days/week = 7/7days

15 minute days/April = 29/30 days

15 minute days/May = 2/2 days

15 minute days/2020 = 113/123 days

Success rate = 91.87%

A couple of evenings, my sewing time was just 15 minutes as I did have to work late a few nights. But I'm doing well with my consistency at finding time to sew even if I don't have as much time for stitching as I'd like.  

Since we've changed over the calendar to a new month, it's time for an update on the stash report.  

Fabric used in April = 6.85 yards

Fabric used year to date = 22.27 yards

Fabric in for 2020 = 2.5 yards

So how did a few yards sneak into my stash? In my effort to support small businesses, I ended up ordering a few fat quarters from the Spoonflower sale last month.  Aren't these  really cool chemistry fabrics? 

Not sure where I'm going to use these, but they were too fun to pass up.  Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the regular stash report. I'm definitely using up some of the stash. Now if I can just keep the purchases to a minimum the year should end with much more out than in.  

There was a bit of progress on my slow stitching project this week too. 

I moved the hoop so I could get to the lower wing.  Hopefully I'll get an evening next week to make some additional progress.  Linking up with Slow Stitching Sunday. 

A bit of fabric in, a bit out and some slow stitching, not a bad April on the stitching front.  How did your stitchy week work out?

1. Chrisknits 2. Marti 3. karen 4. Meloney 5. Jennifer in Indy

6. Sherrie 7. di 8. DawnyK 9. Deana 10. Loulee (Manxgirl)

11. Amanda 12. Quilting Gail 13. Carol Andrews 14. Andree at Quilting & Learning

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Week 37 of 2019 - More Stitching and Stashing

It's been another busy week, topped with a hectic Saturday.  I'm hoping that Sunday is much more relaxed. Fitting in even just 15 minutes of stitching time each day has been challenging.

On top of the busy schedule, the autumn allergy season is here. It's a few weeks early due to the wet summer and it's miserable.  Evening naps to dissipate the sinus headaches have taken another bite out of my evening stitching time. Even with that I did manage to work in my 15 minutes every day last week.

15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
15 minute days/Sept = 14/14 days
15 minute days/2019 = 229/257 days
Success rate = 89.11% 

My success rate has been below 89% since June, hopefully I can keep up the momentum to get back to 90% in the next month and keep it there till the end of the year. 

So things are looking up on finding time to stitch, that's not the case with my stash management goals.  There was this Halloween quilt pattern that caught my eye. I had such fun making a Halloween quilt last year, I couldn't resist. Then of course I had to order fabric to make it.  So this showed up in the mail earlier this week. 

Pattern is Witches Night Out by It's Sew Emma. Top fat quarter bundle is Gone Batty
 by Wilmington Prints. Bottom bundle is Raven's Claw from Northcott.

Unfortunately, my current project slate and limited stitching time isn't using a lot of fabric, so the outgoing numbers are still a bit anemic. 

Fabric out this week = 0.32 yards
Fabric out for 2019 = 36.66 yards
More fabric in than out

That was my stitching and stashing week. How did yours go? 

1. Chrisknits 2. Meloney

3. Julie in GA 4. Shasta @ High Road Quilter

5. DawnyK 6. Amanda

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Week 35 of Stitching and Stashing

If you live in the US, I hope you are enjoying your three day holiday weekend.  Ours got off to a rocky start with a text Friday afternoon that the Scientist in Training's car wouldn't start.  So My Guy coached her and her roommate over the phone on how to jump start a vehicle. Then yesterday the poor girl had to make another trip to urgent care for a very nasty bug bite that looked to be getting infected. It was looking much better when she went to bed last night.  Hopefully the rest of the weekend will be smooth sailing with lots of hang out time with the SIT and some good stitching time as well.  How did your efforts go to fit in 15 minutes of stitching time each day this week of August? 

In spite of the end of the week drama, I did manage to get in some stitching time every day this last week. 

15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
15 minute days/August = 29/31 days
15 minute days/2019 = 215/243
Success rate = 88.48%

I've been hovering right around 88% for most of the summer. My goal for the year is 90%, so I'm going to need to work on my consistency.  

The stash end of things hasn't gone to plan either.  I won a gift certificate from The Fat Quarter Shop from the 2019 Finish Along back in April and decided it was about time to use it. I've noticed that I'm really, really deficient in teals, so I added a fat quarter stack of that color. 

   
Then also added a fat quarter bundle of Butterfly Blooms (Lunn Studios for Robert Kaufman Fabrics)

No plans for this stack as yet. The teals are going to be used for my Wild and Goosey project.  

Unfortunately there's not nearly as much going out as there has been coming in.

Fabric out this week = 0.09 yards
Fabric out for 2019 = 35.98
More fabric in than out  

The sewing room time this week was spent getting Vintage Dresses ready for quilting.  Which means there wasn't much time spent actually stitching seams. I'm hoping to do much better on the stash busting front in September.  

Did you manage to fit in 15 minutes of stitching time each day?  

1. Chrisknits 2. Meloney 3. Julie in GA

4. Mary-kay 5. karen 6. Jennifer in Indy

7. Shasta @ High Road Quilter

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Week 34 of 2019 - Stitching and Destashing

Week 34 of 2019 wasn't one of the smoothest we've ever had.  Health issues took center stage, one of which landed the Scientist in Training in the emergency room.  Poor girl caught a stomach bug the weekend before classes started back up. By Wednesday she was dehydrated and had a bad case of the shakes because she wasn't able to eat.  Thankfully after 48 hours on clear liquids, probiotics, and some sleep without the shakes she's just about back to normal.  So my stitchy week didn't really go to plan.  How about yours?

The emergency trip to see the SIT took one stitchy evening, but it wasn't too bad to find those 15 minutes the during the rest of the week.

15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
15 minute days/August = 22/24 days
15 minute days/2019 = 208/236 days
Success rate = 88.14%

So not a bad week for finding time to stitch every day.  Some of what I'm counting as stitching time is being spent on the sewing room reorganization.  Last week I partially emptied my "to be pressed pile" of washed fabrics, this week I refilled the bin with some teals that are needed to fill out that color in the fabric closet. 

Some of these fabrics are recent purchases, some have been sitting in the "to wash" pile for a while.  None were purchased this week, I actually managed to not add anything new.

Fabric out this week = 0.33 yards
Fabric out for 2019 = 35.89 yards
More fabric in than out

That's how my stitchy week went. How did your's go?

1. Julie in GA 2. Chrisknits 3. karen

4. Meloney 5. Angie in SoCal 6. Amanda

7. Busy Nana 8. Christina's Handicrafts

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Week 29 of 2019: Stitching and De-Stashing

With all the heat advisories, this was a perfect weekend to just stay in and stitch.  Unfortunately, that hasn't been my plan for the weekend, well really not for the whole week.  It's been another challenging one on the finding 15 minutes to stitch most days.  Hopefully it's been easier to find time to play in your sewing room this week.

Work took up several evenings this week.  It was hard to make the trek up the stairs to the sewing room a couple of nights, but I did manage to eek out 15 minutes each night. 

15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
15 minute days/July = 19/20 days
15 minute days/2019 = 177/201 days
Success rate = 88.06%

Lack of sewing machine time makes for an anemic stash report. 

Fabric out this week = 0.38 yards
Fabric out for 2019 = 29.54 yards
More fabric in than out

At least there is a bit out, that beats the nothing out from last week. 

There's a new mystery quilt along starting up this month, the Mosaic Mystery Quilt along over at Meadow Mist Designs.

This will be the 4th Meadow Mist Designs mystery quilt along I've done.  It's one clue a month, so that works in my schedule.  Cheryl's directions are always so clear and she makes it easy to pick a good fabric combination.  Here's my fabric selection for the quilt along.

The neutral on the left is the background and the purple will be the border (unless I have enough of the butterfly fabric).  The gold at the top is a left over from a previous project. The butterfly print and the dark purple are from the stash.  I have no idea how old either is. It will be good to get both out of the stash and into a project. If Cheryl follows past practice, August's clue will be the cutting instructions. So there's plenty of time to play along if you are looking for a project to use up some stash.    

I'm off on a business trip this week, thankfully it's only two days. That should be it for work related travel this year.  I'm ready for things to slow down a bit. I'm hoping for a nothing but sewing day next Sunday.  We'll see how that goes. 

So how well did you manage your stitching time this week? 

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

4. Meloney 5. Chrisknits 6. Amanda

7. Shasta 8. Deana 9. Christina's Handicrafts

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Week 28 of 2019: Stitching Stuff

It's been a busy week that went incredibly fast.  Unfortunately there was enough going on that getting into my sewing room didn't go so smoothly.  Finding 15 minutes to stitch each day was definitely a challenge. Hopefully your week was more productive on that front. 

Work came home one night, so it was hard to work in some stitching time while working to meet a deadline.  Consequently, it wasn't a perfect week on the sewing front. 

15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
15 minute days/July = 12/13 days
15 minute days/2019 = 170/194 days
Success rate = 87.63%

Not a bad week, but not a stellar one either.  There was no fabric usage this week, I did lots of cutting and playing in the stash closet, but nothing made it into a finished block, so I'm passing on the stash report this week.  I promised a photo of the fabrics that came home with me last week, so here's that:  

Really cool and pretty fabrics for a chemistry person don't you think?  I love the periodic table fabric, but the colorful beakers and flasks are a really close second. When the Scientist in Training got a glimpse, her response was, "So when do I get this quilt?".  I didn't even think to look which fabric line(s) these were from , so if you want to know the source, leave a comment and I'll email you that info.  

One other reason for the poor showing on the fabric usage front is that this week was our 27th wedding anniversary.  My Guy and I took each other out for a 7 course dinner on Friday coupled with an overnight stay in a new hotel that's opened in downtown Tulsa.  (The dinner featured wine pairings with each course, needless to say that hour drive home just wasn't wise).  To top that off, I got flowers.  Which of course meant that I had to play with the new macro lens.  

Here's a better view of the bouquet. 

Yellow roses are my favorite and were in my bridal bouquet. My Guy did well didn't he?  

That was how my 28th week of 2019 went. How did your stitchy week go?  You can link up below and share adventures with needle, thread and fabric.

1. Chrisknits 2. Pack Rat With a Plan 3. karen

4. Meloney 5. Shasta 6. Amanda

7. Christina's Handicrafts 8. Deana

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Week 12 of 2019: Stitching and Stashing

This is the last day of spring break.  We took a few days off early in the week and headed over to Eureka Springs, AR.  Our little rental cottage was within walking distance of downtown, so we walked a lot, ate some excellent meals and did our share of shopping. It was a fun and relaxing trip for all of us.  The Scientist in Training heads back to school this afternoon. We are all a little sad to see her week off come to an end.  

It's always a challenge to fit in 15 minutes of stitching time each day when we are on the road. 

That's why I keep a road ready hand stitching project prepped and ready to go.  

I was able to finish off the middle "body" and then make a good start on the upper wing while we were gone.  At some point I really need to work on this project when I'm home, at the rate I'm going it's going to take forever to finish up.  You can check out some other handy work over at Slow Stitching Sunday. 

Even with a portable hand project, I didn't quite manage to stitch every day this week.  

15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
15 minute days/Mar = 22/23 days
15 minute days/2019 = 78/82 days
Success rate = 95.12%

Still not a bad week.  My goal is to stitch at least 90% of the time.  So far, so good on that front.  Mr. Linky is waiting at the end of the post for you to link up and share how your stitching time worked out this week.   

Being on the road means there's an opportunity to check out a few quilt shops.  We stopped on the way home from Eureka Springs so we could stretch our legs and I found a place where I could pet some fabric. There were just a couple of pieces that had to come home with. 

I loved this butterfly panel. There are some rainbow scrap challenge butterfly blocks that need a setting. This might be one option to do something a bit different with those blocks. 

This floral border print was also irresistible.  Not sure where I'm going to use this, but I'm sure something will come along at some point. It's too pretty to just let it set in the stash.  

The stash report took a bit of a hit, but there is still more going out of than coming into the stash.     

Fabric out this week = 0.54 yards
Fabric out in 2019 = 17. 45 yards
More out than in for 2019

Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the weekly stash report. 

So overall not a bad week on the stitching front.  How did your week go?  

1. Meloney F 2. maggie f 3. Chrisknits 4. Marti

5. di 6. Mary-Kay 7. Angie in SoCal 8. amanda

9. Deana 10. Shasta 11. Christina's Handicrafts

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