WIPs - Progress on a New Project

It's been awhile since there's been a post to link up with the mid week "Works in Progress" posts.  Generally, there's just not that much progress in my sewing room to write another post after Monday's. But I finally got started on a new project this month.  The blocks are 12.5", so they go together fairly quickly.  Here's the progress so far:

The hearts are a really dark purple and all three are the same color.  The lighting in my sewing room is really bad for capturing dark colors.  These are the first three blocks for the Zombies in Paris quilt.

This is the first of four graduation quilts that has to be finished before May of 2017.  Thankfully, this one should go pretty quickly since the blocks are so large.  All the fabric has been purchased for the second graduation quilt, but I'm hoping to finish this one before I start on another new project.  

Linking up this week to

Let's Bee Social
WIPs on Wednesday
Needle and Thread Thursday

Weekend Stitching: Ready for Borders

Drama Teen and I had a very nice weekend.  Since the Pentatonix concert kept us from visiting my Mom last weekend, we went this weekend.  We shopped till we dropped, plus had fun visiting with my Mom, my sister and my niece.  We tried Pho for the first time, and managed to fit in a visit to Krispy Kreme and IHop.  Two of DT's most favorite places to eat.  My Guy stayed home to ensure the attic was indeed squirrel free. He was very glad to see us pull into the driveway late yesterday morning.  So far so good on being squirrel free.  

Not a lot of stitching this weekend, but I did get in enough stitching time to get the two halves of Allietare sewn together, the corners added and corners of the setting triangles trimmed up.  It's now ready for borders. 

  Allietare,  Bonnie Hunter's 2015 Mystery Quilt

 I've got the first set of border strips cut, they just need to sewn together and fit to the quilt.  I'm hoping to have this to the finished flimsy stage by the end of next weekend.  It would be nice to get this Bonnie Hunter mystery finished before the next one starts in November.  

Linking up with:

Monday Making
Main Crush Monday
Monday Design Wall  

Stash Management - Week 20 of 2016

Drama Teen and I shopped till we dropped, literally.  We both laid down and took a 3 hour nap after lunch.  We didn't really make up any on the sleep front as we stayed up till midnight hanging out with family.  It's back home today, where I hope to get in some time in the sewing room before it's time to go to bed and start another work week.  DT is lucky, she's got Monday off.  

A couple of fun packages arrived this week. The Midnight Mystery quilt came back from Trudy, all quilted and ready to bind.  So that's on tap for this week.  A much smaller package arrived from Sharon of Vroomans Quilts.  

I won last month's give away for the Let's Book It Challenge.  I love the little charm and the road trip beetle. Thank you Sharon.  

Now for this week's stash report.  I did buy fabric.  It's the background fabric for one of the graduation quilts that needs to be done by next May.  I just didn't have any gray in the stash that would work.  Here's the damage:

Used last week:  0.35 yards
Used year to date:  25.63 yards
Purchased this week:  8 yards
Purchased this year:  25.75 yards
Net stashed for 2016:  0.12 yards

I'm in the red for the first time since 2014.  But it's not so bad that I can't dig out this week with just a little time spent in the sewing room. I knew there would be fabric purchases this year to make these quilts and I'm OK with that.  The fabric for the graduation quilts should back out this year.  There are two mystery quilts in my plans for this year that I plan to use only stash fabrics for.   

It wasn't a bad week for finding time to stitch at least 15 minutes each day. 

Days with 15 minutes of stitching time this week:  5 days
Days in May:  11 out of 14 days
Days this year:  110 out of 135

It's just unrealistic with my schedule to expect to get into the sewing room every day.  I'm happy with how it's going this year. 

That's it on the stash management front.  There's more about stash management over at Judy's Patchwork Times.  

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Vintage Dresses - How I Paper Piece

It's cold and overcast here this morning.  Drama Teen and I are in the big city to do some shopping today, so no stitching for me till tomorrow.  Though I do get Krispy Kreme donuts for breakfast this morning, so it's not all bad.  

I don't have much progress on the Vintage Dresses to post for today, but a couple of weeks ago Diane, who blogs at Quilting is Blissful, asked me to show how I was prepping my fabric pieces for paper piecing.  She thought it looked different than how she's seen it done before.  I've never taken a class in paper piecing, so my methods are taken from a hodgepodge of quilting books and YouTube videos.  I have no idea if it's proper or not, but the system works for me.  

Here's the starting point for orange dress number 2:

Moving left to right, the fabric for the dress, the paper piecing pattern, and "templates" cut from a "sacrificial" copy of the paper piecing pattern. I keep the colored fabric templates separate from the white background pieces using Ziploc bags.  It just makes it easier for me to be sure I get all the pieces on the right fabric. Some of the pieces for these dresses are very tiny.  

I'll lay out all the pieces that need to be cut close to the fabric I'm using.  I place the fabric right side down and then lay the templates facing up, so that I'm cutting the pieces so the right side of the fabric faces away from the front of the paper pattern pieces.  

The background fabric might not have been the best choice to show this, but it's what I've got pictures of.  You'll note that some of my templates have a seam allowance included and some don't.  I'm too lazy to retrace all these pieces (there are 4 dresses and I'd much rather sew).  So to cut each piece, I'll add 1/8" to a side with the seam marked and cut there.  

 If it is a side that doesn't include the seam allowance, I move the ruler out 3/8" inch.  

I add the extra 1/8" to be sure I've got a little extra to work with when assembling the pattern. My pieces aren't always exactly cut to the shape, it depends on the scrap of fabric I'm working on, I'm not above taking cutting off the odd chunk of fabric for one of the smaller pieces without cutting each side to fit the piece. Ensuring that the piece is big enough to cover all the seam allowances is really all I worry about.  Once all my pieces are cut, I pile them in one of my white baskets so they don't get lost on my sewing table. I keep the template with the piece until it's been added to the paper pattern.  Then the templates go back into the Ziploc bag.  

When it's time to start sewing each section of the paper pattern, I center the fabric piece on the pattern, ensuring that the fabric overlaps each seam by at least a 1/4" and then pin it in place.  Then I'll turn back the pattern along the seam to be sewn and trim the seam allowance to 1/4".  

Then I line up the next piece along the cut edge, right sides together, then fold the pattern over the new piece to be sure that there is enough fabric sticking out on each edge to cover the seam allowances.  I forgot to get a picture of that step, but I think you can get the idea.  Once I'm sure the piece is aligned properly, I pin and stitch. 

Unfortunately there hasn't been much stitching on Vintage Dresses this week.  Hopefully, I'll have a finished dress to show off next week.  I will get to sew tomorrow.  But for now I need to get Drama Teen moving so we can go get our sugar high before we head off to the mall.  

You can find lots of green scrappy goodness over at Soscrappy.  Hopefully I'll actually have some green scrap dresses to show off before we hit the end of the month. 

Weekend Stitching: Just Two Pieces

Even with Friday off the weekend just isn't long enough.  Yesterday was relaxing as most of the day was spent stitching.  It rained in the morning and looked like we'd get more all afternoon.  So a perfect day in the sewing room. The only downer was the discovery that My Guy didn't drive all the squirrels out of the attic before he re-screened all the vents.  We didn't find that out till Sunday morning when the straggler made quite a racket in the ceiling during breakfast.  So it was off to Tractor Supply for a trap.  He's a smart little thing, he's not taken the bait yet.  Though he's been up there since Friday morning with no food or water, not sure how much longer he can survive.  Our biggest concern is the electrical wiring, they'd already nibbled a good length of it over our entry way.  But we can't get that fixed till we get the last one out.

On the sewing front, Allietare has been sewn into two halves. 

 Allietare,  Bonnie Hunter's 2015 Mystery Quilt

 It should be a whole top by the end of next weekend.  Not sure I'll get the borders on it though.  Drama Teen and I have shopping plans next weekend.  She has a writing camp, a journalism workshop and a journalism conference to attend in June.  She'll need professional looking attire for the conference, plus she'll probably need shorts and such as well.  So we are making plans for a fun girls day in the city.  

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