Week 14 of 2018: Stitching and De-stashing

Other than the stress that comes with doing the taxes, it's been a very nice weekend.  It's also been a very cold weekend. We woke up to snow yesterday morning.  That's pretty unusual for our neck of the woods.  But it was really nice not to have to go anywhere in that cold.  There's nothing on the agenda for today, well except to finish the taxes.  But before I get back to that, it's more fun to look back at how things went in the sewing room this week.  

Finding time to stitch was on track since there were no pesky business trips to tire me out.

Days with stitching this week:  7 out of 7 days
Days with stitching this month:  7 out of 7 days
Days with stitching this year:  89 out of 97 days
Success rate:  91.8%

Mr Linky is all set up below for you share how well you did at finding time to stitch this week. 

De-stashing is going slowly at the moment, but there is a bit out with nothing in for the week. 

Fabric used this week:  0.39 yards
Fabric used in 2018:  16.58 yards
Fabric purchased in 2018:  4 yards
Net fabric out for 2018:  12.58 yards

Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the stash report this week.  

Since I'm on a fabric diet, it seems I've switched my focus to patterns.  When we were in Texas last month, I picked up a few for my collection. 

I'm playing with ideas for a new quilt for my bed. Urban Cabin is in contention for that project.  The Tulip Fields jumped in my basket I think because we'd seen the tulip farm the day before.  It would be a fun scrappy project for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I haven't started many new quilts the last few years as the UFO list really needs to be a bit shorter, but I'm hoping that happens this year and I can play with several new projects next year.  Keeping up with my daily stitching time will help get me there.   How successful were you at finding time to stitch this week?  

1. maggie f 2. Julie in GA 3. Melissa G 4. Sharon

5. Meloney 6. MartiDIY 7. Aileen K 8. Shasta

9. dreamworthy quilts 10. Christina's Handicrafts

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April One Monthly Goal: Backing Up

Hard to believe it's a new month and that it's already April.  Since it is a new month, it's time to decide on this month's One Monthly Goal. 

For April the plan is to move En Provence off the UFO list.  

En Provence, A Bonnie Hunter Mystery (2016)

En Provence has been a finished flimsy since December 2017.  It needs a backing so it can be sent out for quilting.  The goal for April is to piece a backing using fabric from the top and this focus fabric left over from another project. 

There are 3 to 4 yards left of this geisha fabric sitting in the stash.  It will make a pretty back for En Provence, with the added bonus of moving it out of the stash. Now to figure out a name for this quilt. The Asian themed fabrics don't match Bonnie's French inspired moniker.  

Along with the one monthly goal, I've been setting a priority list each month. Having a ranked list helps me use my sometimes limited quilting time more effectively.  So here's the April priority list:

1.  En Provence - make back, prep for quilting, send out for quilting, bind. 

2.  Geek Chic - finish binding

3.  Magnolia Mystery - prep for quilting, send out for quilting

4.  Vintage Dresses - Finish sashing

5.  Squared Away - finish green blocks, make yellow blocks

6.  Inverted Star - finish green stars, make 5 yellow stars

7.  On Ringo Lake - leaders and enders project

That's quite a list isn't it?  I won't get to all of it.  That's OK, I'm grateful for whatever progress I can make each month.  Though it would really be nice to get some finishes this quarter.  I'm still at zero on that front for 2018.  

Linking up with Patty over at Elm Street Quilts.  Good luck with your OMG and priorities for this month.  

2018 Ambitions: Successes and Failures

You had to wonder if Mother Nature decided to play along with April Fool's Day this year.  We had freezing rain most of the way home yesterday.  It wasn't heavy enough to make the roads bad, but it certainly was nerve racking wondering if conditions would get any worse.  We got home without incident and thankfully the Scientist in Training only hit one minor patch on her way back to school last night.  We are under a winter weather watch this morning for more freezing rain.   The calendar may say spring, but winter hasn't left yet. 

Speaking of things that are still hanging around, Vintage Dresses is still up on the design wall. 

 Vintage Dresses by Charise Randell

The third row of dresses is ready to be sewn together.  That leaves two rows of dresses and three more rows of sashing to finish.  The One Monthly Goal for March was to get all the sashing made have all the rows sewn together.  That didn't happen.  This is only the 4th time in the two years I've been playing along with the OMG that I didn't finish a monthly goal.  March was just really busy on both the work and family fronts.  Looking at it that way, I'm just going to be happy that there was good progress in spite of the busy month. That's pretty much it for what's going on in the sewing room for the last week.  I'm linking up with the usual suspects:

Monday Making
Design Wall Monday
Main Crush Monday

The rest of this post is a review.  Back in December, I developed a list of quilting ambitions as part of Quilting Jet Girls 2018 Planning Party.  It helps me remember to celebrate my successes and stay focused on my goals for the year if I review my progress on that list at the end of each quarter.  So here's the status of those ambitions.  

Ambition #1: Shorten the UFO List
                       No Progress

Ambition #2: Participate in select quilt along/mysteries 
                       Progress:  Squared Away quilt along is started

 Squared Away Sampler
designed by Mari (The Academic Quilter)
The 2018 Rainbow Scrap Challenge Project

Ambition #3:  Find 15 minutes to stitch each day
                        Success rate = 91%

Ambition #4:   Stash Management
                         Purchase less than 5 yards per quarter (4 yards in)
                         Organize the stash - a little progress
                         Use only stash fabrics for new projects - yes
  
Ambition #5:  Blog once a week
                        41 blog posts for 13 weeks = 3/week

I'm doing better than I expected on my ambitions for the year.  Finding time to stitch, blog and limit the amount of stash additions is going well.  The biggest disappointment is that the UFO list isn't going down.  There has been progress on several UFOs, they just haven't progressed to the point of being finished. So for second quarter, I need to work a little harder on moving those almost finished UFOs along.  

Week 13 of 2018: Stitching and De-Stashing

Hope you are enjoying a wonderful Sunday.  Happy Easter to those who celebrate the holiday.  We'll be hanging out with family today.  We've reached the point all the kids are too old for egg hunts and the new batch of grandkids aren't big enough yet. It's supposed to be cold and wet tomorrow anyway, so I imagine we'll all sit around with coffee and talk.  

Since it's Sunday, it's also time to reflect on how easy/hard it was to find stitching time this week.  

My week wasn't too bad:

Days with stitching this week:  6 out of 7 days
Days with stitching this month:  26 out of 31 days
Days with stitching this year:  82 out of 90 days
Success rate:  91.1%

The business trip to Houston meant there just wasn't time and energy to stitch one day this week.  My success rate is over 90%, which is my goal for the year.   You can share your success at finding some stitching time at the bottom of the post. 

The stash report is a bit mixed this week.    

Fabric used this week:  0.62 yards
Fabric used in 2018:  16.19 yards
Fabric purchased in 2018:  4 yards
Net fabric out for 2018:  12.19 yards

I finally have some fabric in for 2018.  I bought 16 fat quarters, mainly to use as frames for the Vintage Dress quilt or as backgrounds for the Squared Away blocks.  My goal for 2018 was to purchase no more than 5 yards of fabric a quarter.  I'm one yard under my goal for the first quarter, so I'm still on track.  Especially since the stash out is bigger than the stash in.

That's it for me this week.  How did you on finding some time to indulge in some me time in the sewing room this week?

1. Julie in GA 2. MartiDIY 3. Aileen K 4. Jennifer in Indy

5. di 6. Mary-Kay 7. Deana 8. maggie f

9. michele 10. Emily @ The Darling Dogwood 11. Christina's Handicrafts 12. Deana

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Happy Easter