Stash Management - Week 19 of 2016

Happy Mother's Day!  Mine got off to a bit of a late start, I slept in this morning.  Not because it was Mother's Day, but because Drama Teen kept me out  way past my bedtime last night.  DT conned me into buying tickets to see Pentatonix early this year.  They are amazing live, so I'm glad we went.

My plan for today is to spend some significant time in my sewing room watching movies and stitching.  A one day solo retreat. It's my family's Mother's Day gift to me.  But before I head up to get comfortable for the day, it's time to look at last week's stash and time management progress.  

Not much going out last week.  I've been sewing Allietare together and the only fabric going out has been the setting triangles.  

Used last week:  0.43 yards
Used year to date:  25.28 yards
Purchased year to date:  17.75 yards
Net used for 2016:  7.53 yards  

The yardage going out will pick up a bit when I add the borders and make the backing for Allitare.  That should happen in the next two weeks.   

On the time management front, I did a pretty good job of getting  into the sewing room most days this week. 

Days with 15 minutes of stitching time this week:   6 days
Days in May:  6 out of 7
Days this year:  105 out of 128

It's amazing how much gets done even with just 15 minutes a night in the sewing room.  Granted usually it ends up being more than just 15 minutes.  But those short sessions of cutting fabrics, pinning pieces and stitching seams during the week really do add up.  

Wishing you an amazing Mother's Day.  Now I'm off to enjoy mine.  
Linking up with Judy over at Patchwork Times for the weekly stash report.  

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Still Playing Catch Up

It's been an interesting week full of ups and downs.  My Guy and I took a day off yesterday not so much because we wanted to, but because we really needed to.  We had squirrels in the attic.  The starlings had torn up the screens that were on one of the vents and the squirrels found their way in via that entrance.  So My Guy spent the morning crawling around the attic putting up new screens. I stayed in the walk in part of the attic and handed him tools, screening etc.  The temps here were in the 70's by mid morning, so the attic wasn't steaming hot, but it was pretty warm.  

We did get to enjoy the afternoon, which mainly consisted of a nap for both of us.  But I did eventually wander into the sewing room late in the day.  I put the final seams into the first orange Vintage Dress block. 

 Vintage Dresses by Charise Randell

I like how it turned out.  Orange is not my color, it makes be look ill, so I wouldn't be wearing this dress.  I would certainly admire it on someone else.   The central panel was fussy cut to capture the flowers in the center of the skirt.  The paper piecing is getting easier, I've got a much better idea how to line up the seams now.  The second orange dress should go fast, it's the dress with the fewest pieces.  So hopefully there will be a green dress or maybe even two finished before the end of the month.  

Linking up with Angela at Soscrappy for this week's Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  

Weekend Stitching - Allietare Progress

Weekends are never long enough it seems. I didn't do much sewing on Saturday as Drama Teen needed some help getting ready for prom and then we spent the early evening taking prom pictures of all her friends and their dates.  Everybody looked so cute, and so grown up, including Drama Teen.  I posted a picture of her dress yesterday, but this is a much better picture of her.  

So Saturday was a bit of a bust for sewing room time, but there was significant sewing time on Sunday.  Allietare is well on it's way to being a finished flimsy.

 Allietare,  Bonnie Hunter's 2015 Mystery Quilt

Blocks in the first 4 rows have been sewn together.  The blocks kept falling off the design wall, so all that's up there now is the blocks that are sewn together. I'm pretty happy with how this project is turning out.  It's my favorite Bonnie Hunter Mystery to date, well at least of the ones I've made.   

The other thing I did on Sunday was finalize the layout for the Zombies in Paris project.  

Zombies in Paris

Starting on this project is my One Monthly Goal for May.  It needs to be done by next May and since there are three other graduation quilts to make, I'd best get busy.  I just need to wash and press the pink Zombie Love fabric, then I'll be all ready to start cutting and sewing.  

Linking up with:
Main Crush Monday
Monday Making
Monday Design Wall

May One Monthly Goal

Hard to believe it's already May.  Just a few short weeks and Drama Teen is done with her junior year of high school.  Hard to believe we've only got one more year before she heads off to college.  There will be a lot of college planning to do this summer.  Thankfully, all I have to decide on at the moment is what will be my May goal for the One Monthly Goal Challenge.  Heidi at Red Letter Quilts is hosting this very helpful challenge to pick one goal each month and see it through.  

So far I'm three for three.  I'm not sure what May is going to look like.  There may be a couple of weekend trips in there. Since weekends are my prime sewing time, I don't want to be too ambitious.  Looking at what's on my quilting plan, I really need to start stitching on next year's graduation quilts.  I've got all the fabric for the planned Zombies in Paris quilt, but it's not all washed and pressed.  Plus I'm still dithering about the pattern. This month's goal will be to decide on the pattern and start making the blocks.  I should be able to handle just getting started even if I'm out of the sewing room a lot this month.  

This was the original plan.

Adapted from the pattern Bird's-Eye View, designed by Jackie Robinson of AnimasQuilts.com
Published in the December 2015 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting

But I'm not loving that plain center block. It needs something.  After playing around in EQ, this is what the project has morphed into. 

Drama Teen likes this layout.  I'm still not sure about all the fabrics and the block placement, but I think we are using this pattern as the base for the final quilt.  DT has some very unique and one of a kind friends.  She assures me that this pattern is absolutely perfect for the intended recipient.  Though we may have to change the name of the quilt to Zombie Love.

Stash Management Week 18 of 2016

I'm a bit groggy this morning having stayed up a later than normal last night waiting for Drama Teen to get home from the prom.  She certainly looked pretty last night.  

I finally went to bed after she came home to change for the after prom party.  I'm not sure what time she finally got in for the night, I do know it was pretty late. She has her first advanced placement test tomorrow morning, so prom was the last bit of fun before she has to buckle down and study for exams and finals. 

There was some late night sewing  last night while I was waiting for DT to get home.  It boosted the outgoing numbers for the week just a bit. 

Used last week: 0.95 yards
Used in April:  7.67 yards
Used year to date:  24.85 yards
Purchased year to date:  17.75 yards
Net used for 2016:  7.10 yards 

Not a stellar week for stash busting, but most of what I'm sewing are small blocks.  I'm in the process of assembling Allietare.  The borders and backing for that project should help boost the yardage going out in the coming weeks. 

I've also been keeping track of how many days each week I make it to the sewing room for at least 15 minutes.  The more of that I do, the more stitching that gets done.  Last week was a good one on that front. 

Days with 15 minutes of stitching time this week:  7 days
Days in April:  24 days out of 30
Days this year:  99 out of 121

I didn't spend much time stitching yesterday, most of the afternoon was spent working on the design for one of the graduation quilts.  The fabric placement just needs some tweaking before I can start drafting the instructions for the blocks.  That's the plan for this afternoon. 

You can find more stash management posts over at Judy's Patchwork Times.