Week 34 of 2019 - Stitching and Destashing

Week 34 of 2019 wasn't one of the smoothest we've ever had.  Health issues took center stage, one of which landed the Scientist in Training in the emergency room.  Poor girl caught a stomach bug the weekend before classes started back up. By Wednesday she was dehydrated and had a bad case of the shakes because she wasn't able to eat.  Thankfully after 48 hours on clear liquids, probiotics, and some sleep without the shakes she's just about back to normal.  So my stitchy week didn't really go to plan.  How about yours?

The emergency trip to see the SIT took one stitchy evening, but it wasn't too bad to find those 15 minutes the during the rest of the week.

15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
15 minute days/August = 22/24 days
15 minute days/2019 = 208/236 days
Success rate = 88.14%

So not a bad week for finding time to stitch every day.  Some of what I'm counting as stitching time is being spent on the sewing room reorganization.  Last week I partially emptied my "to be pressed pile" of washed fabrics, this week I refilled the bin with some teals that are needed to fill out that color in the fabric closet. 

Some of these fabrics are recent purchases, some have been sitting in the "to wash" pile for a while.  None were purchased this week, I actually managed to not add anything new.

Fabric out this week = 0.33 yards
Fabric out for 2019 = 35.89 yards
More fabric in than out

That's how my stitchy week went. How did your's go?

1. Julie in GA 2. Chrisknits 3. karen

4. Meloney 5. Angie in SoCal 6. Amanda

7. Busy Nana 8. Christina's Handicrafts

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A Bit of This and That

It was a get through it week and weekend.  The Scientist in Training headed back to college to sign a new lease on her apartment and help her roommate move in. Then she promptly came down with what appears to have been a nasty stomach virus. Poor girl, she was finally able to eat without feeling miserable last night.  She should be able to get to all her classes today (fingers crossed on that). On my end it was a weekend of texting her home remedies and commiserating on just how miserable it is to be sick when you are not home.  

The reorg of the sewing room continued this weekend.  Step one was to deal with the purchased patterns.  Last weekend they all got stuck one binder just to get them off my desk, but they weren't organized.  After organizing by general project type, it took two binders to contain that collection. 

Now a pattern can be located without flipping through a whole notebook to locate it.  I really do need to finish up a few UFOs, there are some really fun patterns I'd like to make. 

A marathon ironing session moved some of the washed fabrics out of the to be pressed bin and into the fabric closet so they can be readily used. 

I prewash my fabrics, so there's always a stack that needs pressing before they can be put away.  This pile is about half of what was in the bin. 

There was a bit of stitching this weekend.  The third round of borders have been added to Storm at Sea. 

Storm at Sea
Paper Piecing Class by Carrie Randell (Quilter's Hideaway)

The fourth border will be pieced. I'm still working on stitching the big blue diamonds, all the green square in a square blocks are ready.  So construction on this project will slow down for now. 

I still need to prep Vintage Dresses, that's my August One Monthly goal. Good thing there is still one full weekend and one partial weekend in August.  There is still time for me to get it done.  

Linking up with the usual Monday linky parties. 

Monday Making
Design Wall Monday
Main Crush Monday 

Week 33 of 2019 - Stitching and Stashing

Hot, humid and heat advisory are pretty descriptive of this last week's weather.  That will be the pattern till at least mid-week.  Definitely a good reason to spend more than 15 minutes in the sewing room each day. 

It wasn't hard to stay in and sew this week. 

15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
15 minute days/August = 16/17 days
15 minute days/2019 = 202/229 days
Success rate = 88.21%

You can link up below to share how your stitchy week went. 

As far as the stash report, well, it's not as good. I gave into temptation and shopped the Connecting Threads backing sale. That did significant damage to the balance of fabric in versus out. 

Fabric out this week = 0.08 yards
Fabric out for 2019 = 35.56 yards
More fabric in than out. 

Not much fabric under the needle this week as decluttering the sewing room was the activity for the week. All the patterns are now organized with the extra's ready for donation. The next step is to look at all the quilting books and decide if any of those can go to a new home.  I'm hoping to clear off some bookshelf space so I can get the overflow pile off the floor.  

So how did you do at finding time to stitch this week?  

1. karen 2. Julie in GA 3. Chrisknits 4. Meloney

5. Shasta @ High Road Quilter 6. Angie in SoCal 7. Amanda 8. Mary-Kay

9. CJ 10. Christina's Handicrafts

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Not a Stitch

I walked into my sewing room Saturday with the intent of prepping Vintage Dresses for quilting.  That means vacuuming to minimize the possibility of contamination from stray threads on the floor and the cutting table. After dragging the vacuum up the stairs and plugging it in. I looked around and realized just how much of a mess the sewing room really was.  There's a lot of clutter and every available nook and cranny is stuffed with something.  There are bags of scraps on the floor because the scrap drawers are full, along with books because there is no shelf space left on the book cases. 

To deal with this mess, means finding space on the other bookcases.  So rather than prepping the quilt, I started decluttering.  What you don't see in this picture (cause I always forget to take "before" shots) is the double stack of magazine patterns that were piled up on the top of this book case. Those piles were not quite a foot tall.  That seemed like a good place to start.  By the end of the day yesterday I'd gotten this far. 

I emptied five binders while whittling down the stack to the patterns I really wanted to keep (tastes change).  That freed up a whole bunch of plastic sleeves.  So a bunch of patterns are going to the recycle place. 

The filed patterns fit in three binders. 

It will probably take four binders to hold these and what's not filed yet.  Still, that means four binders are coming off the book shelf, leaving room for a few more books. I've also started going through my quilting books and have decided that there's a few that should just go.  So those will get boxed up and taken to the library at some point.  

I spent all weekend on dealing with just the purchased and magazine patterns.  I'll try to finish that up this week and start scheduling time to work on some of the other clutter.  It's amazing what dragging a vacuum cleaner into a room can prompt!   

So no stitching to show off this week, there's not even a clean sewing room to show off, but at least I've made a start on making it better.  Linking up with the Monday Design Wall. 

Week 32 of 2019: Stitching and Stashing

You can tell it's August in Oklahoma, the storm warnings have been replaced with heat advisories on the weather app. It's been miserably hot and humid.  Definitely a good week to spend more than 15 minutes in the sewing room each evening. 

Having said that, I didn't quite manage that every night this week. 

15 minute days/week = 6/7 days

15 minute days/August = 9/10 days

15 minute days/2019 = 195/222 days

Success rate = 87.84%

Not a bad week on the stitching front. The one night I didn't sew, I read a book.  I had intended to go stitch, but got caught up in the book and just couldn't put it down.  

On the stash front, I've been stashing more than using.  We visited a quilt shop on Friday and the owner is going to retire in the near future, so she's begun putting all her fabric on sale.  I didn't go wild, but there was a bit that came home with me.

Fabric out this week = 0.26 yards

Fabric out for 2019 = 35.48 yards

More fabric in than out

There's still a chance that I'll end the year with more out than in, but that chance is dwindling.  I'm OK with that, I've at least cut way back on stash enhancements compared with last year.  

In addition to stitching this week, I've been playing with my new camera lens.  My Guy brought home flowers from the farmers market.  They were very bright and pretty. 

That was my week.  So how did your stitchy week work out? 

1. karen 2. Meloney

3. Julie in GA 4. Amanda

5. Christina's Handicrafts

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