Stash Report: First Week of 2017

The end of our holiday season is today. It's Drama Teen's birthday. No parties today, that was yesterday.  She made it easy on me.  She decided on lunch with her friends and then a movie.  This is one of those significant birthdays, she turns 18 today.  You think they'll never grow up and then one day they just are.  

Happy birthday Kiddo.  We're really proud of her.  It's nice when you realize you'd like your kid even if they weren't your kid. 

Thanks for letting me get the proud mamma stuff off my chest.  Moving on to the quilt related content.  It's the first stash report of the 2017. I didn't start the year off with great guns, but at least there is nothing in so far.  

Net used year to date:  0.75 yards
Net added year to date:  0 yards

It's been a good week for finding the time to stitch.  I managed at least 15 minutes in the sewing room every day this week.  So I'm at least starting the year off with 100% attendance.  We'll see how long that lasts.  I managed to find time every day in January last year.  

Linking up with Patchwork Times.  

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - A New Year, New Blocks

It's the first Saturday in 2017, so it's the first Rainbow Scrap Challenge Link Up over at Soscrappy.  Angela's already posted the new button for the year.  

It's always a dilemma which block to pick for the challenge.  I've done some fun ones.  The first was coffee mugs, back in 2012.  Still not a finished quilt.  

Scrappy Coffee Cups:  Block patterns from Karen F. Srebro and Janet McCarroll
publised in Block Magic and Block Magic Too by Nancy Johnson-Srebro

The next year it was the Butterfly blocks.  Those aren't a finished quilt either.  

Scrappy Butterflies: Block is available in EQ 7 Block Library

For 2014 it was the Inverted Star blocks.  Those are still in their box waiting to be set together.

 Inverted Star by Jessica Boschem of Common Threads
available from Craftsy as a free download

Two RSC projects were started in 2015.  The first was the Twinkle Star blocks.  Not finished either. 

 Twinkle Stars Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

The second RSC quilt of 2015 was Angela's sampler quilt.  Flame Test did get finished. 

Flame Test (2014 Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler)
Pattern by Angela Feldbush of Soscrappy

And was promptly confiscated by Drama Teen. She uses it regularly as a cuddle quilt in her room.  It's going to college with her.  

Last year was probably the most challenging block I've ever tried, the Vintage Dresses.  Which as I just finished the last block, isn't a finished quilt either.  

 Vintage Dresses by Charise Randell

There's a definite trend with my RSC blocks, they don't seem to be ending up in finished quilts.  One reason is that I've had a hard time deciding on a setting once the blocks are done.  There is a plan for Vintage Dresses, so I'm hopeful that quilt will get put together this year.  

Considering my poor track record with finishing my RSC projects, I decided to try something new for 2017.  I used Electric Quilt to draft the finished quilt so I can assemble the quilt as the blocks are finished.  I'm not going to show the mock up of the quilt, but here are this year's blocks.  

The paper pieced Fan blocks are going to use the cool colors, purple, green, teal and blue.  I didn't get my background fabric washed and pressed until yesterday so I didn't get very far with my first block, but it is started. 

There will be four 7.5" fan blocks and four 3.5"  fan blocks for each cool color.  

The warm colors of red, orange, yellow and maybe red-violet are going into modified Log Cabin blocks.

There will be four or five 7.5" blocks in each of the warm colors.  

So this year there is a plan for the blocks. I'm hopeful that means I'll have at least a finished flimsy at the end of this year's challenge. I'm heading off for a second cup of coffee, them I'm going to check all the links over at Soscrappy to see past and future rainbow scrappy goodness.  

Also linking up with Oh Scrap on Sunday.  

January One Monthly Goal - The March to Graduation Finishes

It wasn't hard to decide what project to do for January's One Monthly Goal. 

The question was how much to try to get done?  I do not like to over commit on my projects, but considering that May is only 5 months away now and I have three quilts to finish by the middle of that month, pushing now is necessary in order to be ready for graduation.  So the plan is to get Bejeweled from where it is now,

to being shipped out the door for quilting.  There's only two columns of blocks left to be sewn together before the center of the quilt is assembled.  That leaves the top and bottom inner border and a final border to be cut and sewn on.  The backing will be scrappy left overs of the fabrics used in the blocks.  That will have to be assembled as well.  But I think it's all doable, January is a long month and other than DT's birthday, there's nothing likely to pull me out of the sewing room for a weekend.  

Bejeweled is number 1 on the quilt plan for this year, but I'm substituting it for my number 3 quilt for the purposes of Patchwork Times UFO-2017 Challenge.  I need to start and finish quilt #3, which is the First Amendment Quilt by May too, but it's just seems smarter to finish Bejeweled first as it's the closest to being done.  

Linking up with:
One Monthly Goal
Let's Bee Social
Needle and Thread Thrusday

Vacation Stitching: The Big Reveal

Today is the last day of our Christmas vacation.  Since New Year's came on a Sunday, the company holiday is today.  So we are off one more day. My Guy was playing with the idea of making beer today or just doing nothing but hanging out.  I'm going to do just a bit of laundry and then spend what time I can in the sewing room.  Drama Teen goes back to school today, she's not amused.  

Yesterday was the big reveal for Bonnie Hunter's 2017 mystery quilt.  I was way behind on making my blocks, but I managed to get enough together to lay out one block and a bit of the sashing. 

 En Provence, A Bonnie Hunter Mystery (2016)

I tried the gold fabric that was supposed to be my yellow and I just didn't like it.  After playing around in EQ with other options, the neutral just worked the best to my mind.  Thankfully I have enough of it to let me use it as a substitute.  Here's how the mock up looked. 

 En Provence, A Bonnie Hunter Mystery (2016)

I like this version best.  I did play with adding the border blocks but EQ wasn't real cooperative there.  That's OK, I like this well enough to proceed with my modifications.  I'm hoping there is enough of the dark blue to make 12 blocks. We'll see, I may end up with just 9.  If that's the case, I'll add some additional borders to up the size just a bit.  

Thank you Bonnie for a very fun mystery.  Hopefully I can finish this one before the 2017 mystery starts next November.  Now I want a second cup of coffee before I go look at what everyone was up to over the weekend.  

Linking up with
Main Crush Monday
Monday Making
Design Wall Monday

Stash Report and 2016 Wrap Up

Happy New Year!  Wishing every one the best for the new year that is 2017.  The older I get the faster each year goes.  This year will see one of those major life changes for us, we'll send our only kiddo off to college and be empty nesters by next fall.  We had a taste of that this last week as Drama Teen was in Florida visiting friends.  She got back yesterday to help us celebrate the new year.  Thankfully My Guy and I had a nice week together, so I think we'll make the transition gracefully once it comes time to let our little bird leave the nest.

Judy, who blogs at Patchwork Times, is going to continue the stash report for 2017.  I've been contemplating dropping this weekly post, but finally decided to keep it for now.  Having to post my numbers on the blog does add some accountability for meeting my stash management goals.  Judy is resetting her numbers to zero this week, but I'm going to take the opportunity to review how things went in the sewing room this year.   I track a number of quilting related metrics in spreadsheet (yes I am that geeky, I love spreadsheets).  

Stash Management - The 2016 goal was to use more than I buy.  

Used in 2016:  60.37 yards
Purchased in 2016:  80.27 yards
Added in 2016:  19.90 yards

I didn't meet this goal, but 20 yards to the good isn't so bad.  Most of the incoming fabric was from winning a few give aways this year.  Without that fabric, I'd have been close to break even.  Still I used over 60 yards this year, that's my second best year ever for fabric out.  If you look at my numbers from a few years ago you'll see a marked improvement in stash in versus stash out. 

You should note, that I love the graphing function in Excel too. 

15 Minutes to Stitch - Getting into the sewing room some days is a challenge, quite literally.  So I've tried hard the last several years to find just 15 minutes each day to stitch.  If I can make it to the sewing room it usually ends up being much longer, but I've got to get there first. 

Days with 15 minutes of stitching:  284 out of 366

If I was grading myself on this effort, it'd be a C (77.6%).  But this is the best year ever of finding the time to stitch, so I'm happy with the effort.  

 Follow my 2016 Quilt Plan - Drama Teen asked for 4 graduation quilts for friends and mentors.  After my disastrous attempt at completing the teacher quilts when DT was in 8th grade, I knew that I'd need to get started early.  So I drafted a quilt plan that included both finishes and my planned quilt starts so I had a reminder of what was on my plate.  I was going to complete 8 quilts and start 7.   I didn't do so hot on the finishes, there were just 4 for 2016.  

Vintage Tea Time, Midnight Tulips, Allietare, and Zombies in Paris

On the other hand I managed to start 6 of the 7 quilts on my plan, plus just one other unplanned quilt for a total of 7 new projects.  One of which, Zombies in Paris, is already finished.  

Blooms and Butterflies, Bejeweled, En Provence, Geometry,
Meadow Mist Mystery, and Vintage Dresses

So I ended 2016 with 17 quilts on the UFO list, which is unchanged from where it was at the end of 2015.  

I actually finished 2 UFOs, but two other WIPs became UFOs because they were more than a year old and unfinished.

As usual, the year was a mix of successful and not so successful efforts.  Please note that I find this type of tracking fun and motivating, but I'm not a slave to it.  Quilting is my hobby and a great stress reliever for me.  My spreadsheet is part of the fun for me (as I said before, yes I'm that geeky).  

Wishing you a very happy and succesful 2017.  

Linking up with Patchwork Times for the weekly stash report.