Week 28 of 2020: Stitching Stuff

Today is the last day of our summer staycation.  It's been a good week. I didn't get in as much stitching time as I had hoped. We did get a few things done around the house, hiked a bit and hung out with the Scientist in Training.  We celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary yesterday with a special take out dinner.  The evening plans for an evening hike got rained out. Oh well, we still had a nice evening hanging out and hearing from family. 

It was relatively easy to work in 15 minutes of stitching time each day with our relaxed staycation schedule. 

It was a good week, I just didn't get in the hours of stitching time I was hoping for, but I did manage more than the minimum of 15 minutes every day this week. 

15 minute days/week = 7/7 days

15 minute days/July = 11/11 days

15 minute days/2020 = 170/193 days

Success rate = 88%

I should get in a solid afternoon of stitching.  Then it's back to work on Monday.  You can link up with how your stitchy week went below. 

We really did have a staycation other than the trip to see the SIT. We ventured out only one other morning to a park we didn't know existed for a morning of hiking. It ended up being a nice walk, though it was definitely warm by the time we got done. 

Thankfully most of the hike was in the shade.  The bees were definitely out in force. 

There was just this one yellow wildflower on the trail, but it was popular.  

And this is a button bush, though it looks a lot like those pictures you see on articles about corona virus.  

That was pretty much the extent of our wandering this week.  We were the only ones on the trails. A family showed up for a walk just as we were leaving, so social distancing wasn't an issue. 

How's your stitchy mojo holding up with the heat, humidity and  the other crazy stuff going on this summer.  

1. Chrisknits 2. Julie in GA 3. karen 4. katie z.

5. Meloney 6. Shasta @ High Road 7. Sherrie 8. DawnyK

9. Angie in SoCal 10. Amanda 11. Quilting Gail 12. Deana

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Week 27 of 2020: Stitching Stuff

Hope everyone in the USA had a wonderful 4th of July.  Ours was very low key, but it was enjoyable.  We are hanging out at the Scientist in Training's place this weekend. We'll head home in a bit, so I should get in a good afternoon of stitching.  How did your stitchy week go?  How often did you get to play with needle and thread the last week? 

My mojo seems to be hanging around, it was a good week in the sewing room. 

15 minute days/week = 7/7 days

15 minute days/June  = 23/30 days

15 minute days/July = 4/4/ days

15 minute days/2020 = 163/186

Success rate = 87.63%

We are off work the rest of this week.  No plans, other than to do some things around the house, maybe get out for a hike or two.  So I'm hoping to work in a good amount of stitching time this week. You can link up and share how well your week went at the end of the post.  

June is over and July has gotten started so it's time for a report on the stash.  

Fabric used in June  = 4.15 yards

Fabric used year to date = 29.35 yards

More fabric in than out for 2020

I gave in during the Blueprint closure and ordered several 6 yard cuts of fabric.  The put me at the more in that out point, but it's not so bad that I can't recover and end the year with more out than in.  Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the regular stash report.  

The basket flowers are blooming.  

The name comes from the "basket" at the base of the flower.

Fully opened they have lacy look to them.  These are one of my favorite wild flowers. 

That's it for this week. Stay cool and stitch on!  (Oh and link up below to share how your stitchy week went.)

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

5. Andree at Quilting & Learning 6. Sherrie 7. Jennifer in Indy 8. di

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

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Week 25 of 2020: Stitching Stuff

It was a long work week, very stressful. It's been hard to maintain a positive attitude some days and I get home just completely worn out. That's not been the best conditions for maintaining the stitching mojo.  How are you doing in finding time to work in at least 15 minutes of stitching time each day? 

 

This week was at least better than last week on the stitching front. 

15 minute days/ week = 5/7 days

15 minute days/June = 13/20 days

15 minute days/2020 = 149/172

Success rate = 86.63%

I definitely need to do better next week if I want to meet this year's stitching time goal of 85%.  

The Black Eyed Susans continue to bloom. The wind was still enough yesterday to try to get some shots with my macro lens and I completely lucked into this shot. 

That made my day.  

How are things going in your sewing room.  Link up and share if you've been able to get in some stitching time each day.  

1. karen 2. Julie in GA 3. Chris 4. Meloney

5. Sherrie 6. DawnyK 7. Amanda 8. Angie in SoCal

9. Deana 10. Quilting Gail

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Week 2 of 2020: Stitching Stuff

The first full week back at work was challenging. Lots of meetings.  I was ready for the weekend and spending more than 15 minutes playing in the sewing room. Was your first full week of 2020 a bit challenging?  

Being off work for two weeks over the holidays disrupted my typical schedule. It was hard to get back in the groove of working in stitching time in the evening. 

15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
15 minute days/January = 11/11 days
15 minute days/2020 = 11/11 days
Success rate = 100%

I did find my 15 minutes each evening, though not much more than that.  It was just a nutty week with stuff going on after work most evenings.  I'm hoping next week is calmer. Yesterday was nice. It snowed after a bit of freezing rain overnight. It was a good day to stay in and stitch while watching at the white stuff fall.

So how did your stitchy week work out?  

1. Marti 2. karen 3. Julie in GA 4. Chrisknits 5. Mary-Kay

6. Shasta @ High Road Quilter 7. Loulee (Manxgirl) 8. Meloney 9. katie z. 10. Amanda

11. Rachel 12. Another Stitching Nana 13. Quilting Gail 14. Deana 15. Christina's Handicrafts

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Week 43 of Stitching Stuff

It seemed like our autumn only lasted a week.  Beautiful weather for a week and then wet, cold rain.  There's a possibility of snow flurries next week.  November starts at the end of this week, so I suppose it's time for winter to start creeping in.  Is this the time of year you do more or less stitching?  I find it harder to get in my 15 minutes each day, not due to the weather, but due to wind up activities at work. End of year means lots of reports, end of year closing meetings and meetings to talk about objectives for next year, which translates to lot of overtime.  How well do you do at fitting in your 15 minutes with what ever changes happen in life with the end of the year creeping closer? 

   
I did OK this week on the stitching front, but several nights my 15 minutes happened just before bedtime. 

15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
15 minute days/October = 23/25 days
15 minute days/2019 = 268/298 days
Success rate = 89.93%

My goal for 2019 was to manage at least 15 minutes of stitching time 90% of the time. If you round, I'm there.  Now can I keep it there with end of year stuff at work and the holidays?  That's going to be a challenge. 

Because I'm working on projects where I've either counted the fabric out already or aren't ready to count the fabric used, the stash report looks really anemic.  So I'm just going to wait and give a report for the whole month of October.  

Our fall colors this year are going to be kinda shabby.  We had a hard freeze seemingly out of nowhere after weeks of warm weather. Most of the leaves are just turning brown and falling off the trees. So my fall foliage photos are going to be pretty lean this year.  I did get one nice shot last weekend. 

I'll probably get out for a walk with My Guy this afternoon.  Hopefully I'll find a bit more color when we get out and about.  

So how did your stitchy week work out?  

1. Julie in GA 2. karen 3. Meloney

4. Chrisknits 5. MaryR @Urban Quilter 6. DawnyK

7. Amanda 8. Shasta @ High Road Quilter 9. Christina's Handicrafts

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Week 42 of 2019: Stitching Stuff

The tenth month of the year is winding down.  I seem to be winding down a bit with it. As the daylight ends earlier and earlier, it's harder and harder to get myself moving to the sewing room to work in even just 15 minutes of sewing time.  How about you, does the decrease in sunlight make you feel like hibernating and not stitching? 

I didn't have a stellar week on the stitching front. Life occasionally throws you curve balls and that's been the case for us this year.  My Guy has been dealing with a pretty serious medical issue for the last two months.  He had surgery last Monday and was in the hospital for a few days, part of the time in ICU. So there were a few days that stitching just didn't happen and that's OK.  In the overall scheme of things missing stitching time is pretty minor, though getting back to the sewing room has helped work off the residual stress.

15 minute days/week = 4/7 days

15 minute days/October = 16/19 days

15 minute days/2019  = 261/292 days

Success rate = 89.38%

Stitching time has been pretty limited.  There's been quite a few errands and chores on my list with My Guy on the disabled list.  I think we've taken care of most of the immediate stuff. Thankfully the cooler temps seemed to have put the grass into dormancy, so I won't have to mow again.

Though I've been getting in my 15 minutes, there's really not much to report on the stash report. So I'm going to skip that this week. 

My Guy's supposed to take long walks as part of his rehabilitation plan. Thankfully the weather has been good and we've taken the opportunity to go walk in places we normally don't.

We came across some female deer grazing along the path. They knew we are there and took off not long after I took this shot. 

There are still lots of Gulf Fritillary butterflies around, taking advantage of the last of the autumn blooms to store up a bit of nectar.

So how did your stitchy week work out? 

1. Libby in TN 2. karen 3. Julie in GA

4. Chrisknits 5. Jennifer in Indy 6. DawnyK

7. Christina's Handicrafts

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Weekend Stitching: A Sewing Room Break

I'm very lucky that My Guy is very supportive of my quilting obession hobby, but he's been wistfully noting that we've not gone anywhere in awhile (he has what his mother called itchy feet).  So we tested our empty nester wings, took a couple of days off work, rented a cabin and ventured out to the Beaver's Bend Folk Festival  and Craft Show over the weekend.  The music was really good and the park was beautiful.  

It was very close to peak color, with the cold that seeped in overnight, what's left of the leaves will be gone.  But the leaves were gorgeous over the weekend.  Here are a few of my favorites. 

And my most favorite shot of the weekend.  

Now that I've got that out of my system, lets talk quilty stuff.  There's not much on that front.  We were gone all weekend, so there wasn't a lot of time in the sewing room.  I'm still stitching down the second wreath for the Christmas Mystery Quilt.  I did finish off last week's block before we left. 

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

After messing with Ruldophs antlers, this block was a breeze.  Here's all the blocks we've done so far.

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

This is going to be a fun quilt when it's all together.  I did make it back to town just in time to stop by the LQS on our way home to get the two blocks for this week.  I hope to make a start on those tonight.  

The only other sewing related thing that happened before we left town was selecting my fabrics for Bonnie Hunter's Good Fortune mystery quilt along that starts a week from this Friday. 

I wasn't a fan of the red and orange, so I changed those out for magenta and black.  I'm going scrappy with the neutrals.  Hopefully these will all play well together.  

Linking up with the usual Monday parties, you can check those out here:

Monday Making
Main Crush Monday
Monday Design Wall

Weekend Stitching - Odd Blocks and Near Ends

It was a beautiful weekend, too pretty to stay in the whole weekend, so I ventured out for a walk to take in the fall color.  It was pretty. 

There is still plenty of green around, but there are bright pockets of color starting to show up.  What usually happens when we have this late of a autumn, the leaves start to turn, but then it freezes and the leaves fall off the trees before they ever get to peak color. 


So now for the quilty stuff.  Since I was off work on Friday, there was plenty of stitching time this weekend.  The second block for the Christmas Mystery Quilt was finished. 

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

Isn't he fun?  Lots of pieces, but still fun to make.  It seems I forgot to include the first block in last week's post.

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

He's fun too.  I'm not very fond of applique, but this mystery quilt along sponsored by the local quilt shop is forcing me to do just a bit.  There are two wreaths that go with Santa. I've got the Dresden Plates done, but am hand appliqueing them to the background squares.  Hopefully I can show those off later this week.  I'm using the miscellaneous Christmas fat quarter stash and scraps for these blocks.  

The last sawtooth star border has been sewn to the Inverted Star project. 

Inverted Star block by Jessica Boschem of Common Threads
available from Craftsy as a free download, setting by Kate

    
Sorry for the wonky picture, the quilt is really too big to photograph on the design wall.  The dancing star border worked out really well.  The final border will be 2.5" strips of the white background. One strip has been added, but that's as far as I got before my weekend stitching time ran out.  This should make finished flimsy stage by next weekend.  

Happy stitching this week.  Linking up with the usual Monday show and tell posts.  
Monday Making
Monday Design Wall

Week 15: Stitching and De-Stashing (Happy Tax Day, US)

Is it really April 15th?  The weather here sure isn't spring-like.  We woke up to sub-freezing temperatures, strong winds and dreary skies.  The strong winds and dreary skies aren't atypical of the season, but the low temp isn't typical.  Though I'm sure this weather reflects the moods of those in the United States who don't have their taxes done.  My Guy has reviewed ours, so all that's left is to write the checks and address the envelopes for mailing. That will take all of 5 minutes. Otherwise my plan for today is to play in the sewing room.  It's too cold to do much else.

It's the fifteenth week of 2018.  A third of the year is almost over!  Wow, how did that happen?  But I'm getting off topic, it's end of the 15th week so it's time to stop and take stock of how much sewing room time we were able to fit in this week. 

I did well this week at finding time to stitch for at least 15 minutes each day.  Here's how the all the stats look as of this week:

Days with stitching time this week:  7 out of 7 days
Days with stitching time this month:  14 out of 14 days
Days with stitching time this year:  96 out of 104 days
Success rate: 92.3%

Having time to stitch has been nice.  The backing for En Provence has been prepped for quilting. The plan is to do the same for the flimsy today.  Since bending over the cutting table takes a toll on my back, I took a break last night from all the prepping and finished the binding in Geek Chic.  I hope to get pictures for tomorrow's post this afternoon if the sun comes out.  You can link up your stitching report at the bottom of the post. 

It was a successful week on the de-stashing front as well. 

Fabric used this week:  5.19 yards  
Fabric used in 2018: 5.58 yards
Fabric purchased this week: 2 yards
Fabric purchased in 2018:  6 yards
Net Fabric out for 2018:  15.77 yards

The incoming fabric is intended to be the border for Vintage Dresses.  Nothing in the stash worked well and I didn't want to just settle.  I did allow myself an incoming stash budget of 20 yards for the year, so I'm still on track with my stash busting goals even with the addition.  Hopefully most of it will be going right back out. Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for this week's stash report.  

I'll close with a sign of spring in Oklahoma that's typical; the brilliant sunsets we get due to the smoke from all the farmers burning off their fields. 

At least there is something colorful to look at since the flowers haven't really been doing much as yet.  Hopefully we will start to see more signs of spring in the US this week.   

Here's the weekly link up for those tracking their stitching time: 

1. Melissa G 2. maggie f 3. Julie in GA 4. Meloney

5. MartiDIY 6. Aileen K 7. di 8. Susanne

9. Mary-Kay 10. Shasta 11. Christina's Handicrafts 12. Deana

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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.  

Wordless Wednesday - Autumn Afternoon Walk

Wordless Wednesday - Give Me the Greens of Summer

Wordless Wednesday - Splash!

Wordless Wednesday - Beach Vacation Sunrise

Wordless Wednesday - Rainy Rose

A Soggy Stash Report - the 21st Week of 2015

It's stopped raining for the moment anyway.  They claim there is  more on the way.  We didn't get the worst of the rain, that happened south of us. There are places in the state that saw in excess of 7 inches of rain in the last 24 hours.  Roads flooded badly last night during the height of the downpour.  But once the rain died down a bit, most roads were passable, at least where we are. That wasn't true for other places in the state.  

It wasn't a bad week for stitching.  Though I didn't get to sew much yesterday as we spent the day visiting a museum and catching up with a couple of family members.  Here's the numbers:

Used last week:  0.98 yards
Used in May:  1.78 yards
Used year to date:  14.43 yards
Purchased year to date:  0 yards

I'm still avoiding all the quilt shops and deleting their emails. The Excel file shows more used this year than used at the same time last year, so that counts as a nice improvement.  Hopefully I can keep that up the rest of the year.  

We have more rain on tap for today.  I'm hoping to spend some long hours in my sewing room this afternoon since we aren't going to be able to do much of anything else.

To read more stash reports, check out Patchwork Times.