Not much sewing this weekend. Kiddo had basketball and swimming. When I did finally make it to my sewing room, my sewing machine decided to crash. Looks like a trip to the repair guy is in my future as soon as the roads are clear from this winter storm that is supposed to dump 8 to 12 inches on us starting tonight. Thankfully I still have my old machine as a backup!
The blocks for the Seeing Stars BOM are sewn together and I've started sewing the pieced border on. But since you've seen pictures of that quilt for the last two weeks, I'm going to skip a picture this week. It's hard to tell there's been much progress.
The "leaders and enders" project, the purple and yellow scrap quilt has been progressing. As of this week I've completed almost half of the blocks needed.
I like the diagonal pattern with the lights and the darks. Still, I won't decide on a final layout until I finish all the blocks. I'm glad I pulled this UFO out of the closet and gave it another chance. It's nice to have something so bright on the design wall during the winter months.
I also finished up block 6 of the Moose on the Porch Layer Cake Quilt Along.
I'm not loving the quilt along blocks. Maybe because the fabrics are not my usual style. I bought them to complete a fundraising quilt for the school. I did the Layer Cake Quilt Along so I'd use them up and get them out of the stash. I'm trying to reserve judgement until all the blocks are completed. There's one or two I may have to take a second stab at if I have any fabric left after block 12.
So what's up on your design wall? Check out Judy's Patchwork Times for other quilty progress reports.
This is the last stash report for January. I'm doing OK. Not as far along on projects as I would have liked, but at least I've made progress on a number of fronts. Here are this week's numbers.
Used this week: 0.51 yards
Added this week: 0 yards
Used year to date: 2.02 yards
Added year to date: 0 yards
Net used for 2011: 2.02 yards
Fabric Budget: 10 yards for Jan to March
Bought/Budget: 0/10 yards
I've been fairly diligent in getting to my sewing room for 15 minutes every day this last week. Plus I've started working on several projects at once. One of the PhDs I need to finish is a Buck-A-Block BOM. Since the strips are cut, it's pretty quick to get all the squares cut and then sew the HST using the Thangles. So my out numbers look a bit better than they have.
Still no fabric in. Next weekend is going to be a challenge though. Two of the shops near me are having Super Bowl sales, one with 25% off all fabric, the other with 20% off fabric, books and gadgets. If I go, my plan is to go with a strategy. Focus on backing fabrics for current projects and blenders that will make my stash more flexible. Check back next week to see how well I resisted temptation.
That's it for this week. How's your stash busting going? Check out this week's Patchwork Times for other updates.
This week's Foto Finish was a hard one for me. With kiddo (and her friends) running around we don't get peace in our lives very frequently. On the other hand, without kiddo there are a number of photos I would never have taken. Like this week's Foto Finish.
For Spring Break last year we drove to Dallas, TX to visit my sister in law's family. They have two kids, one a year older than kiddo the other a year younger. In a moment of madness we decided to take all three kids to the Fort Worth Zoo. The Dallas area schools were on Spring Break as well. So the zoo was absolutely packed! In the middle of all that chaos and noise this big cat had found some inner peace and quiet.
One of these days we need to go back to the Fort Worth Zoo. It is one of the nicer zoos we've visited. From a photographer's perspective, it's one of the easiest to get reasonably good close ups of the animals if your camera has only moderate telephoto capabilities.
Jump over to Cat Patches to check out other peaceful moments.
Wow, it's already the last Friday in January. One one hand, I'm ready for spring and warmer weather. On the other, it just seems that time passes so quickly. How can we be 1/12 through the new year already? Just two months left in first quarter, which at work means I need to get busy on some projects. Tax documents have started arriving in the mail. No more on that topic, let's pretend that doesn't exist for a few more weeks at least! On that note let's move on to a more fun topic, Favorite Things Friday.
This week my favorite thing is 19/30 days.
What's a 19/30 day? If you work 8.5 hours per day for the approximately 20 work days each month you can take the a day off as a 19/30 day. So you end up working 19 out of the on average 30 days per month. On this schedule it's like getting an additional 12 days of vacation each year. What's even nicer is that you get to pick the day you take off.
Today is my 19/30 day for January. I may get some sewing in today, but probably not much. We are having a pool party to celebrate kiddo's birthday tonight. I've been sick this week so I'm behind on getting ready. So I'll be baking and making a shopping expedition for party supplies.
That's it for my Favorite Things Friday this week. Pop over to Quilting in my Pyjamas to check out all the other cool Favorite Things.
Is it Monday again already? Do you ever wonder what happens to your weekend? It seems I always have such good intentions, but little comes of it. Well this weekend I was not feeling well on Saturday. I did feel better on Sunday. Kiddo's science fair project is due in a couple of weeks, so that was the focus of yesterday afternoon.
I did get into my sewing room a bit last night. I've finished assembling the pieced border for the Seeing Stars BOM (pattern from Coun'try Junk'tion). I did start sewing the center together. Here's an updated picture of the progress (though it doesn't look much different than last week).
With only one more week in January, I realized that I hadn't done much to work on my quilts for Myra's PhD (projects half done) Challenge. So I pulled out the box with the Buck-a-Block blocks and got started on block #7 Friday night as part of FNSI. This one is almost done.
The purple and yellow scrap project is also one of my PhD challenge quilts. I've been working on this one as a leaders and enders project. Here's the block I'm working on now.
So that's it for my design wall this week. Check out all the other eye candy over at Judy's Patchwork Times.
