Stitching Stuff: Week 26 of 2021

I can honestly say it hasn't been a bad week.  There's still lots going on at work, but the worst of it is done.  I'm hoping by the end of this week, that part of my life is mostly back to normal.  Since I was home on time most nights this week, I actually worked in some stitching time each day. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/June = 23/26 days
• 15 minute days/2021 = 151/177
• Success rate = 85.31%

A few more weeks like this and I'll get my success rate moving in the right direction, hopefully for the rest of the year.

Last week I shared photos of the Black Eyed Susans that are blooming in abundance right now.  Apparently the birds really like them too. 

 

How did you do this week at hiding from the heat and getting in a few stitches at the same time?  

1. Julie in GA 2. Chrisknits 3. maggie f 4. Ivani 5. karen

6. DonnaleeQ 7. Shasta @ High Road 8. Meloney 9. Sherrie 10. DawnyK

11. amanda 12. Quilting Gail 13. Nanette 14. Carol @ Quilt Schmilt

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Week 24 of 2020: Stitching Stuff

June is almost half over. It's not been the best month on a number of fronts. We are very lucky to all be well (mostly anyway) and employed.  But my heart hurts for those who haven't been able to stay well, those that are worried about their employment situation and those due to the color of their skin aren't treated with respect and compassion. I don't often talk about the current state of the world on this blog. This blog is one of my happy places where I can just focus on the stitchy stuff that's such a sanity saver for me.  Wouldn't it be nice if a quilt fixed all? Quilters would definitely be able to save the world if that was true. But since it's not, it's still a comfort to know there are others struggling to make their part of the world a better place. 

Stitching has been a nice reprieve from the news the last few months. Though I'm not doing so well at getting into the sewing room lately.  Have you had better luck at finding a few minutes of stitchy sanity each day? 

 

My week wasn't so hot on the stitchy front.  

15 minute days/week = 4/7 days

15 minute days/June = 8/13 days

15 minute days/2020 = 144/165 days

Success rate = 87.27%

We've gotten home from work late several times this week. That coupled with some pretty nasty sinus headaches have made it harder for me to find both the energy and the "want to" to get myself into the sewing room. I'm hoping to do much better on getting in some stitching every day this next week. 

On the happier end of the spectrum, the Black Eyed Susan's are blooming again. 

So it must be summer.

Another sign of summer is that mom and dad barn swallow have another nest of babies to feed. 

We've had barn swallows in the back yard for the last several years. We also have a mommy and daddy robin who just started feeding their newborns.  So we are greeted with lots of  hungry chirping when we step out onto the back porch.  

So how are things going in your happy stitchy place?

1. karen 2. Chris Behme 3. Meloney

4. Julie in GA 5. Sherrie 6. di

7. Quilting Gail 8. Amanda 9. Deana

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Week 11 of 2019: Stitching and Destashing

Weekends at the end of rush around weeks are so nice.  My big work project for the year had things due this week, those got checked off the list on Friday.  My Guy spent his week overseeing the 5th grade science demos for 16 elementary schools (850 students).  I worked both the morning and afternoon sessions on Thursday, then helped with break down and clean up. The demos are a lot of fun, but it was a mental work out keeping the larger groups engaged and out of trouble during my demonstration. How the teachers handle a class of 26 kids every day is beyond me.  

With all that going on last week, it would have been easy to completely give up on finding just 15 minutes to stitch each day. 

I got home late a couple of nights due to project work and running errands for My Guy.  It would have been so easy to just collapse in the recliner each night, but knowing I have to post my success/failure on this front is usually enough motivation for me to get up to the sewing room for at least a few minutes. It was actually a decent week on that front. 

15 minute days/week = 7/7 days

15 minute days/Mar = 16/16 days

15 minute days/2019 = 72/75 days

Success rate = 96%

So definitely not a bad week, though there were a couple of nights where I just barely made my 15 minutes.  Still I was able to see progress on a couple of projects.  You can share how your stitching went this week by linking up at the bottom of the post.

The stash report doesn't look too bad this week. 

Fabric out this week = 0.71 yards

Fabric out in 2019 = 16.91 yards

More out than in for 2019

I'm doing better on using fabric this year then I did last year. So I'm happy with that.  Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the weekly stash report. 

On a completely unrelated note, the weather is slowly starting to improve.  It's been nice enough a couple of evenings for some short walks. I took the camera with me on my first walk of the spring and found this guy hanging out down the road.  

My Guy is the birder in the family.  He's identified this bird in flight as a Red Tailed Hawk. This one is half of the pair of hawks that have taken up residence in the open fields east of our house.  It's still pretty brown so there wasn't much else to photograph.  I'm hoping to see more green and a few wild flowers start to pop up on my walks as spring finally takes hold.   

So how did you stitchy week go?  You can share how you did at finding time to move a few projects forward. 

1. Chrisknits 2. Julie in GA 3. maggie f 4. MaryR @UrbanQuilter

5. Marti 6. DesertSky Quilting 7. amanda 8. Shasta

9. Deana 10. Christina's Handicrafts

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WIPS: Uh Oh, A Whoops

The weather here has been beautiful the last couple of days. Warm, sunny and not too windy.  It's hard to stay in and sew when it's that nice, so I took a walk last night and was rewarded with this beauty as company. 

A Tiger Swallowtail butterfly

Even with the walk there was some time to make a bit more  progress on The First Amendment Quilt.  

The side borders are sewn on.  The top and bottom borders are ready to sew to the stars.  It wasn't till I was editing this photo that my "whoops" became clear.  The corner squares of the stars were supposed to be red, not the newsprint fabric.  

So I'll have to remake the 4 corner square blocks.  The "whoops" stars will probably get used on the back.  At least I caught it before the stars were attached to the top and bottom borders.  It won't take long to get back on track.  

Linking up with:
Lets Bee Social hosted by Sew Fresh Quilts
Sew, Stitch, Snap, Share hosted by Kokaquilts
Needle and Thread Thursday hosted by My Quilt Infatuation

Stash Report for Week 45 of 2016

It's been one of those weeks.  Between the evenings we had something going on and the evenings I went to bed early, not a lot got done in the sewing room.  Some weeks are just that way and it's OK.  I sew to maintain some sanity, it's insane to beat myself up because it's not working for me.  But even though the sewing room only saw me for three days this week, there's still a bit of fabric going out. 

Used last week:  0.79 yards
Used year to date: 51.41 yards
Added year to date:  47.59 yards
Net used in 2016: 3.82 yards

My net used will take a hit next week.  I had to order some fabrics to finish up a few projects and couldn't resist the temptation to add to my background fabric stash.  I'm OK with that too.  Even if the added is more than the used, the incoming to the stash is way down from where it was a couple of years ago.  It's about maintaining balance while still having the right fabrics in the stash closet.    

The weather here has been pretty spectacular.  Unfortunately, the leaves aren't changing much, too warm I guess.  But the sunrises have been pretty. 

And it's been nice walking at sunset.  You can get a different set of back lit images then. 

Have a great week.  You can see more stash reports over at Patchwork Times.  

Stash Management - Week 25 of 2016

Yesterday was a very long day.  Drama Teen had to be at the airport by 4 AM in order to catch her 5:10 flight to Washington, DC.  We decided to stay in Tulsa as it's about an hour drive to the airport from here and we weren't in the mood to have to be up at 2:30 AM.  It was bad enough getting up at 3:30 AM.  We didn't make the flight arrangements for this trip.  DT was fortunate enough to win a scholastic award that included this trip, so we were  at the mercy of the organizers on the flight arrangements. 

So while I did get in some stitching on Saturday, a 3 hour nap ended up taking up a lot of my stitching time.  That was a pretty significant theme this week, stuff taking up stitching time.  Tuesday was a work dinner, Thursday was spent on last minute shopping for DT's trip and and we left after work to spend the night in Tulsa.  So not a stellar report.

Days with 15 minutes of stitching time this week:  4 out of 7 days
Days in June:  13 out of 18 days
Days this year:  140 out of 170 days.

I'll make up for the lack of stitching time later this week, I'll have next Friday off. 

Even with fewer days in the sewing room the steady progress did result in the finish of a few Zombie blocks, so there is a bit going out.  

Used last week:  0.62 yards
Used year to date:  33.63 yards
Purchased year to date:  25.75 yards
Net used for 2016:  5.53 yards

Not as good as last week, but the amount going out is going up.  It may be slow, but it's been pretty steady.  

I'll close with a sign of the wet spring we've had here in Oklahoma.  

A fat and happy dragonfly.  This guy was running from the lawn mower one house over.  

Have a great Sunday.  Check out all the other stash management stories posted over at Patchwork Times.  

Wordless Wednesday - Fall Flutters

Wordless Wednesday - Bee Spring

Wordless Wednesday - A Colorful Pair

Stash Report - Week 9 of 2015

It snowed most of Saturday.  Very unusual weather for the end of February in Oklahoma.  Usually by this time the early blooming wildflowers have started showing up.  This year it's still brown everywhere.  The snow was pretty, with big fluffy flakes falling most of the day.  The sparrows don't seem to mind the snow.  

They just fluff up more.  We had a male and female cardinal visit along with the sparrows, but they were both camera shy.

It was a good week in the sewing room, the borders got added to the 2014 Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler, which helped a lot with the outgoing numbers.  The back is all cut out, but didn't get stitched together because by late Saturday afternoon I wasn't feeling so hot.  I woke up this morning with the same scratchy throat and low grade fever that I went to bed with.  

Getting back on topic, as they say on NPR's Marketplace, "lets do the numbers":

Used last week:  1.23 yards
Used in February:  3.18 yards
Used year to date:  5.8 yards

The 5.8 yards out may not seem like much, but it's more than I had used by this time last year.  Even better, there's been no fabric in yet this year.  So I've managed to maintain the fabric diet for two months.  Since the plan is to finish up a number of UFOs that have all the fabrics they need, I don't have a reason to be looking for new fabrics.  That has helped me keep the acquisition mode turned off.  The back for the 2014 Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler should add a nice boost to next week's numbers.  Hopefully I'll feel well enough this afternoon to spend some time in the sewing room.  

That's it for me this week.  For more stash reports, check out the links over at Judy's Patchwork Times.   

Wordless Wednesday - A Little Birdie Told Me

First Stash Report of 2015

We live in a small town.  It's a company town, most of our neighbors either work for the same company we do or the other big company in town.  For the most part we're pretty urban, it's not a farming community which is more typical in rural Oklahoma.  So it was rather surprising when one day Drama Teen stated that she'd seen a chicken running down the street.  We gave her grief for the next week or so, till we saw a group of neighborhood men chasing something through the neighborhood with a net.

There really was a rooster running the streets.  Animal Control came out and we thought that was the end of it.  But the rooster is back.  He likes our rose bushes and can often be found hiding out in them during the day.  Drama Teen has dubbed him Roger.   Not sure where he came from, but the neighborhood seems to have adapted to his presence.  His crowing is the first thing we hear in the morning.  Adds a unique ambiance to the neighborhood.

Moving on to the real topic of this post, I do have a stash report this week. The outgoing and incoming was reset to zero on January 1, so this week I've only got 3 days of stash usage to report.

Used year to date:  0.72 yards

I'm going to stick with just reporting the outgoing as I did the end of last year.  I way over did on the incoming last year, so I'm on a strict fabric diet this year, so there should be nothing to report on the incoming anyway.   Besides with 22 quilts on my "in progress" list, it's time to finish off a few quilts. So there aren't plans to start many quilts this year.   

I'm linking up with Patchwork Times weekly stash report.  Check out all the links there to see how happy everyone is that the stash meter has been reset for 2015.