A Stash Report and Some Slow Stitching for Week 22

It's been a dreary weekend so far, cold and cloudy.  But at least there hasn't been any rain since early yesterday morning.  It's the kind of weather where you want to just stay snuggled under the covers or curled up on the couch with a good book.  I did sleep in for a few hours yesterday, but only managed an extra hour this morning. I stayed up late last night putting the final stitches on the binding for Flame Test (previously know as the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler).  I'm hoping to get some pictures of the finished quilt today.  It's supposed to be cloudy all day so that may not happen. I forgot to snap a shot of the slow stitching on the binding, but did get picture of the label being sewn in place. 

The hand stitching took a couple of days, so there wasn't much progress on my other projects.  Most of the outgoing on the stash report is the binding and framing strips for the label.

Used last week:  0.69 yards
Used in May:  2.47 yards
Used year to date:  15.12 yards
Purchased year to date:  0 yards  

So still more out than in so far this year.  I'm doing well on keeping the incoming way down, but I would like to up the outgoing a bit.  Hopefully I'll be making a backing for Grand Illusion next month and that will give a nice boost to the outgoing numbers.  

I'm going to grab a second cup of coffee then check out all the stash reports over at Patchwork Times and the slow stitching going on over at Kathy's Quilts. 

WIPs - Switching Gears for a Finish

The last few weeks I've been showing my progress on the Twinkle Star blocks.  No progress on that front this week because the 2014 Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler came back from being quilted last week.  The binding has been made for several days, but it's not been attached because the quilt needs a label. To finish the label the quilt needed a name.  I put some possible names on Monday's Design Wall post.  The thought was to stick with a name containing "rainbow" or something the referred to the rainbow of colors.  Some of the favorites from the comments included Scrappy Skittles, Cuddle the Rainbow, Color Splash and using the abbreviations of some chemical elements that produce unique colors in a chemical flame test (Cu, Cd, Co, C).  DT wasn't thrilled with any of those choices (she's claimed this quilt as her couch cuddle quilt).  She suggested rather than limit the colors to just a few, why not name the quilt "Flame Test" as the range of elements in the periodic table produce a rainbow of colors when subjected to a flame.  

Drama Teen took chemistry this year and is really considering pursuing a chemistry degree in college, so I bowed to her wish and named the quilt Flame Test.  Now that the name was decided on, I could have fun coming up with the label.  

It's definitely a bit geeky, but Drama Teen loves it.  She and I spent a lot of time bonding over chemistry this last school year while I was making the quilt, so the name will bring back a lot of memories for both of us.  

Unfortunately with the holiday weekend and my quilt naming diversion, nothing else got done on the other WIPs in the sewing room.  But that's OK, it won't be long before I have my first finish for 2015. 

You can check out other WIPs over at Esther's Quilt Blog, Freshly Pieced and My Quilt Infatuation.   

Wordless Wednesday - Rainy Rose

Design Wall Monday - The Last Row

It was a wet weekend, which made it hard to do much of anything except visit with family and stitch a bit.  My Guy and Drama Teen wanted to visit a museum this weekend as something to do since we couldn't get out and do anything else.  DT wanted to visit the Oklahoma City National Memorial that honors the victims of the Oklahoma City Bombing since they had studied the media coverage extensively in her journalism class.   The Memorial and associated museum are amazing places and worth the visit.  I left with a renewed vow to appreciate my family every day.  

There was some stitching going on this weekend as well.  Grand Illusion is moving along.

Grand Illusion, A Bonnie Hunter Mystery

  
Just 3 more blocks and a couple rows of sashing blocks left to make.  I don't know if I'll get GI to the finished flimsy stage by the end of the week, but it will be close.  

The binding for last year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler also got made.  Before I can sew it on, I need to come up with a name for this quilt so the label can be sewn into the binding.  

  Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler, By Angela Feldbush of Soscrappy

Here's some possibilities that are rolling around in my head:

Cuddle the Rainbow (DT has claimed this quilt for cuddling on the couch)
Scrappy Skittles
Rainbow Scraps
Prism
Scrappy Spectrum
Copper, Cadmium, Cobalt, Carbon (roughly green, yellow, blue and black in "chemical colors", DT thinks she wants to be a chemist when she grows up)

Any other suggestions?

There are more design walls posted over at Patchwork Times. 

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.