Week 23 of Stitching and Destasthing

The Scientist in Training headed back to college yesterday, so we are back to being empty nesters.  It was so quiet in the house after she left.  It takes a bit of getting used to.  The sewing room got quite a work out yesterday as I was adjusting back to the new normal.  Not that it's been completely neglected this week, finding time to stitch wasn't quite the challenge it has been. 

Though once I got there, 15 minutes was about all I had a couple of nights.  Still those 15 minutes add up. 

15 minute stitching days/week = 7/7 days
15 minute stitching days/June = 9/9 days
15 minute stitching days/year = 150/160 days
Success Rate = 93.75%

Scroll to the bottom of the post for this week's linky party.  Hopefully you had a great week too. 

Now the stash report is another thing all together.  Yes I made it to the sewing room and some stitching happened, but nothing made it to the point where I could count any fabric as going out.

Fabric used this week:  0 y
Fabric used in 2018:  23.23 y
Fabric added in 2018: 18.91 y
Net fabric out for 2018:  4.32 y

The local quilt shop tripped me up this week on the other side of the stash busting equation.  They had a sale on end of bolt yardage, so I took advantage and added a few neutrals to the stash. 

The red print is for this month's One Monthly Goal quilt.  There's still more fabric out than in and I'm still under my 20 yard allowance for fabric in for 2018.  Meaning, I'm still on track with the stash busting goals for this year. But I'll have to work hard to stay on track on limiting the incoming fabric.  Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the weekly stash report. 

You can link up here for this week's 15 minutes to stitch report. 

1. Meloney 2. Julie in GA 3. Shasta

4. Mary-Kay 5. MartiDIY 6. Aileen K

7. Christina's Handicrafts 8. Shasta

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Saturday Sewing?

So far Saturday has been hanging out with My Guy and a cup of coffee.  Then a second cup of coffee, laundry and a bit of quilty prep for later today.  But first, the Scientist in Training is trying to get her stuff packed and loaded up so she can head back to college for summer school. It wasn't her first choice, but she couldn't find the class she needed offered at any of the local colleges. Going this summer puts her back on sequence with her math classes, so she'll have the requirements for all her science classes next year.  I hate to see her go, so I'm sure there will be lots of sewing time this afternoon to cheer myself up.  

There's a bit of quilty prep needed this morning so I'm ready to go this afternoon.  I finished the binding for En Provence early this week, then realized I hadn't printed out and washed the label.  I've been going back and forth on a different name for En Provence and finally just decided that name is staying.  So decision made, time to print the label.  Well no it wasn't.  I've had working copies of a label made since last October, so you'd think a tweak or two and it would be ready to print.  Not so.  Here's where I left things last October. 

For whatever reason, this label wasn't working for me this morning.  Looking at what else was in the file, the very first effort drew my eye. 

This is really icons of Paris, so yes France, but not related to Provence.  That didn't work for me either.  So what now?  Start from scratch of course.  The backing provided the inspiration for the final label. 

The lighter labels do not fade as badly as the darker ones do, so I tend to be happier with those.  Plus the colors in this label will really stand out from the backing.  Now to print it, soak it in water to remove the excess ink and let it dry.  These labels dry pretty fast.  If I get it done this morning, it should be ready to use this afternoon. 

The other item on the sewing agenda today is to make an attempt to get caught up on the Squared Away blocks, this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge project.  The fabric for last month's three pink blocks is selected. 

I did get a few triangles cut from the background fabric last night.

Hopefully I can get caught up with the pink this weekend so I can get started on this month's color, teal.  

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

Weekend Stitching and June's OMG

The Scientist in Training is all moved into her dorm room now.  That ended up taking most of the weekend. Due to an inoperable toilet in her room, we ended up having to stay most of Sunday afternoon.  I was glad we found that problem before we left, the SIT would have had a very rude surprise when she showed up next weekend to start classes.  That delay meant there wasn't much stitching going on this weekend as we didn't get home till 7 PM yesterday.  But I did have lots of time on the drive home to think about what June's One Monthly Goal was going to be. 

I knew what the project was going to be as the quilt plan for 2018 was laid out back in December of last year.  The real decision is determining how much I can actually get done on this project during the month.  The plan for June is to work on my oldest UFO, the Red, White and Blue Star blocks. 

These blocks were started as part of a class on constructing them.  So there wasn't a plan at the start, I just started making them.  With no plan, it was hard to determine what the next step was for this project.  So last August I worked out a final setting. 

Turns out there are two problems with this setting.  The first is a design consideration, the star points between the two different blocks do not match up and that bugs me.  Second, there's not enough blue fabric left to make this layout. I had planned to cut off two rows and make a square quilt, but I really prefer my quilts to be longer than they are wide. So while sitting around waiting for the maintenance guy to show up to the SIT's dorm, I played around in EQ and came up with this version.

  
I've got enough of the blue background fabric to finish this layout and only five more star blocks need to be constructed.  That should be no problem. Before we left on Saturday, I selected the fabrics to make another seven blocks.

Now to pick my favorite five from the set and make those blocks.  All that's left to decide on is what's the goal for June. I've been struggling with making my goals this year. Work has been crazy and life seems to have other plans for me than spending time in the sewing room.  As much as I'd love to get this project to finished flimsy stage, the goal this month is to just finish the five blocks needed for the new layout. If more gets done, then all the better. 

Linking up with the:
One Monthly Goal
Monday Making
Main Crush Monday
Monday Design Wall

Week 22 of Stitching and De-Stashing

Hard to believe it's already June and almost half way through 2018.  Finding time to stitch has gotten harder for me as the year has progressed.  I'm hoping that that situation gets better soon.  It's amazing how hard it can be some days to find both the time and the energy to get in my 15 minutes of stitching.  

I didn't quite manage it this week.  

15 minute stitching days/week  = 6/7 days
15 minute stitching days/May = 29/31 days
15 minute stitching days/June = 2/2 days
15 minutes stitching days/year = 143/153 days
Success rate = 93.46%

There was one day I couldn't find the energy to climb the stairs to the sewing room after a long day at work.  Still, I'm maintaining a better than 90% success rate. That's the goal for the year, so I'm still on track. How are you doing at finding time to stitch most days?  You can share your success by linking up below.

The stash busting has been a bit slow.  The main goal in May was to get Christmas Angels assembled.  The fabric for those blocks has all been counted.  I did get one of the pieced borders attached to the quilt so that's all I got to count as going out this week. 

Fabric used this week:  0.23 y
Fabric used in 2018:  23.23 y
Fabric added in 2018: 7.25 y
Net fabric out for 2018: 15.98 y

I'm track to use more than I've purchased.  That's the goal for this year, so things are going in the right direction. 

I'm spending the weekend helping the Scientist in Training move into her dorm for the summer semester.  None of her roommates are doing summer classes, so she opted for a dorm room for one. The girls she roomed with during the fall/spring semesters did a great job of dividing up who brought what for the bathrooms and common areas.  So there were a few things we had to pick up for her summer accommodation.  She'll be moving into an apartment with 3 other girls for the fall, so she's tried to think ahead to what will work in that space as well.  I'm hoping to get in some sewing time this afternoon.  We've got one last thing to pick up today and then we'll head back home.  I'm hoping to get some stitching time in this evening.  

Have a great week.  Link you below if to share how well you did at finding time to stitch last week. (I'm still massively behind on emails and blog reading, I hope to catch up on last week's linky party before the SIT is up and around this morning).  

1. Melissa G 2. MartiDIY 3. Aileen K

4. Shasta 5. Mary-Kay 6. Christina's Handicrafts

7. Deana

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May 2018 Wrap Up

Hooray for Friday!  The week back to work after vacation is always a bit of a madhouse, so I'm glad this one is over.  I've had a nice little nap in the recliner this evening.  So hopefully that means I'll have enough energy to go stitch for a bit once I finish this blog post. 

In addition to being the end of the week, it's the start of a new month.  So how did things go in the sewing room last month?   I didn't reach my One Monthly Goal for May.  

So that's a bit of a disappointment.  I really shouldn't be, there was a lot of progress for a month where work took over my evenings one week and we took a family vacation for another week.  The May OMG was to get this stack of blocks into a finished flimsy.

The flimsy not's finished, but all the blocks got sewn together. 

Christmas Angels Pattern by Kate

Plus the one of the pieced border strips is attached and almost all the blocks are made for the rest of the pieced border.  I'm just missing 4. There are two more borders after the pieced one. So the quilt isn't as far along as I had hoped, but it's definitely farther along than at the beginning of the month.  Progress is good.  

There was progress on Vintage Dresses too.

 Vintage Dresses by Charise Randell

All the rows are sewn together. Now that borders have been worked out, it's time to audition some fabrics.  

The last bit of progress was getting the yellow blocks for the Squared Away Sampler finished. 

 Squared Away Sampler designed by Mari (The Academic Quilter) and Angela of Soscrappy

But there's been no progress on the pink blocks for May.  The color for June is teal and turquoise, so now I'm two months behind on this project.  

Considering how crazy May was, it's amazing that anything got moved along.  I'm hoping that June is a lot calmer and provides the opportunity for more stitching time.  Have a great weekend.  I'm off to figure out what's the priority list for June.