Week 43 of 2018: Stitching and De-stashing

I went to bed with a headache and scratchy throat.  Woke with the same this morning.  I'm hoping it's just sinuses and not the respiratory virus that's been making the rounds at work.  This is definitely going to be a take it easy kinda of day, unless a couple cups of coffee are successful in working miracles.  

Since it's Sunday, it's metric day.  How many days did you find time to stitch this week?

I had a pretty good week on that front. 

15 minutes stitching days/week =  7/7 days
15 minutes stitching days/Oct =  26/27 days
15 minutes stitching days/2018 = 282/300 days
Success Rate = 94%


Unlike last week, I did manage to get in some stitching time every day this week.  But the stash report looks anemic compared to last week's.

Fabric used this week =  0.28 yards 
Fabric used in 2018 =  38.27 yards
More in that out for 2018

For many years I assumed fabric usage would go up as the amount of time in the sewing room goes up.  I finally did the math (or actually the graph) There's definitely a relationship, but it's not proportional.  

Same with number of finishes in a year, there's a relationship, but again its not proportional.  

So the amount of fabric out must be one of those multi-variate relationships. Hmmm.  

Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the weekly stash report.  If you want to share how much stitching you got in this week, you can link up below.   

1. Julie in GA 2. Shasta

3. Meloney 4. maggie f

5. Mary-Kay 6. Christina's Handicrafts

Powered by... Mister Linky's Magical Widgets.

Stash Stuff: Week 47

It's been a nice week of stitching, visiting and eating lots of good food.  The Scientist in Training has been home for the long weekend and we've had a lot of fun hanging out together.  She heads back to school after lunch, so I'll head to the sewing room then.  I've not had a chance to get started on Bonnie Hunter's mystery, so that will be the first order of business today.  

There was some stitching going on every day this week.  Though I reverted to hand stitching over the holiday weekend as that's both portable and more socially acceptable.  So far for 2017, I've found at least 15 minutes of stitching time 91.2% of the year.  Hopefully I can maintain that as we head into the busy holiday season.  

Fabric usage was up this week.  Those never ending 4-patch borders for En Provence probably had something to do with it.  

Used last week:  1.19 yards
Used year to date:  54.26 yards

I'm still way off my goal of using 70 yards for the year.  At this point I'm just hoping to break 60 yards out for the year.  

I've written before about my geeky spreadsheet of quilting metrics.  One of my working theories has always been the more time I spend in the sewing room, the more fabric I would use.  Here's how that looks for my sewing time versus fabric out over the years.  

There does seem to be a trend for 2014, 2015, and 2016, but the theory that more fabric is used with more time in the sewing room doesn't seem to hold for this year. And that's with 7 finishes this year versus just 4 last year.  Hmmm, obviously it's not a simple correlation. 

Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the weekly stash report.  

Stash Report - Week 33 of 2015

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stash Report - Week 20 of 2015

We made use of our storm shelter for the first time this storm season.  Thankfully, it ended up just being heavy rain, hail and some strong winds.  I don't think there was ever a confirmed rotation, but when the sirens go off you don't question, you just go. 

I was in the sewing room when the warnings went off.  It's been easier to find time to sew in the evenings lately, but you can't tell that from this week's stash report. 

Used last week:  0.48 yards
Used in May:  0.80 yards
Used year to date:  13.45 yards
Purchased year to date:  0 yards

I'm doing really well at deleting all the fabric shop emails, that's keeping my fingers off the purchase button. The nothing in has more to do with being in the black than what's going out. 

If you've followed my blog very long, you know I have a thing for data and Excel charts. After playing around with all those numbers in the stash spreadsheet, I came up with a pretty good summary of my stash management efforts.

    
I added up all the stash additions over the last 6 years, and compared to that to the amount that's gone out over the last 6 years. It's actually better than I thought it would be.  The dark blue pie piece has actually gone up by 1% since the beginning of the year.  Maybe I can manage a couple more percent by the end of the year. 

For more stash reports, check out Patchwork Times.