Stash Report Week 17, 2010

Wow! This was a fairly eventful week! I shopped at a fairly good sale at Best Friends and picked up a boat load of fabric. Over 22 yards of fabric!

BUT! A bit of the fabric was for the Judy Martin quilt and I started cutting it up this week! I have been cutting a lot of 1.5" squares, but I think that I am almost done!

And since I am on a cutting streak, I am going to get some more kits together. I NEED to get back in the black! lol

Fabric added this week: 22.67
Fabric added year-to-date: 75.81

Fabric used this week: 5.12
Fabric used year-to-date: 54.81

Net Fabric Used: -21.00

Hopefully, it won't look this bad for long! :)

Maxie says...

"You better get busy, Momma!"

Sale at a quilt shop

Yesterday was Jan's birthday sale at Best Friends Quilt Shop. Everything was 22% off and I had a few things in mind to pick up.

I realized last week that I was 3 FQs short of what was needed for the Judy Martin Log cabin quilt and that I was ready to pick the light and dark backgrounds. I looked through my stash and found a couple of fabrics that could work and I went to the shop last week and got KT and Barb's opinions of what would work. So I had to go and pick it up yesterday.

I found a few other neutrals that would be great for scrap quilts and a fabric for a backing that was 60% off!! I decided that for the SIS swap quilt, I will use greens, so I picked up a few of those, too.



Maisy says...

"No bones? Again?"

Stash Report Week 52A

I decided on Sunday that I was going to do a stash report in the middle of the week for the last few days of 2009. I didn't want to start 2010 with a big red number and I remembered that I did the same with 2009 - I didn't report the very end of 2008 on the first 2009 report.

So.... Sunday, I went shopping at the sale at Best Friends. I spent the gift certificate from the shop and the Christmas check from my granpa and granma. I still had to spend a little from my own account, but that was fine by me! I bought 30 yards of mostly neutrals! All were at least 20% off and most were 40 or 50% off! Woo hoo!



I have plans for scrap quilts, but realized that I needed more neutrals to help with the backgrounds. Quilts must have a place to rest the eye after all!

I also cut up some fabric for a couple of new quilts that I wanted to start before the end of the year. That used 3.8 yards.

Fabric added this week: 30.90
Fabric added year-to-date: 383.65

Fabric used this week: 3.80
Fabric used year-to-date: 205.44

Net Fabric Used: -178.21 - Next year, this number will be +100 at least!!

Now, I'm off to bed!

Morning Has Broken

This pattern is from the Radiant Sunshine and Shadow book by Helen Frost and Catherine Show. It is the Morning Has Broken pattern without the borders. I have to take it to the shop tonight for them to pick the borders and then I can put those on and finish it up.

Just for the stats ... This quilt center has 263 3 1/2" squares and 262 9 patches. This was a lot of sewing! I think that I went through at least 3 bobbins of Masterpiece thread.



And my points totally rock! I will have to get a close up to show them off!

Some productive evening....

I got so much done last night and before I knew it, it was midnight! I have been working on a Radiant Star top for the shop and it has been very monotonous. Lots of 9 patches that I was able to finish sewing Thursday night. Last night, I pressed them, cut the opposite squares and started laying out the top.

Here are the squares before I started laying them out.




And the start of the layout.



I was super excited when I finally got the rows into piles so that I could start working on sewing the rows together.



I will be very happy when the center is assembled and I can move onto something else. Preferably without 9 patches!

A small finish!

A baby quilt! :)

It's for the quilt shop. The pattern is Over the Rainbow and it is from Warm Welcome by Mary Hickey.

Wasted evening?

I had to run up to the shop tonight. I ended up spending the whole evening up there and it was a very unproductive evening as far as quilting goes. On the plus side, I was able to unload a bunch of stamping items to Barb. I think that she is pretty happy about the deal and I am very happy about getting some things cleaned out of the basement!!

When I got close to the shop, there was a traffic light off. At the shop, they were on half power - some of the lights were off and the registers were not on. About 10 minutes after I got there, the lights went off again. They were off long enough for everyone to start packing up. There wasn't a storm so I am thinking it was traffic related, but I haven't seen anything on the news.

I didn't end up getting home until after 9. :(

On a good note, I figured out how to use the Library's eBook system through their website. I had a book that was available and was next in line for the Women's Murder Club series that I am reading. It will be nice to be able to have it ready in the car for the way to work tomorrow! And I spent way too much time looking through the available titles for down the road.

Tomorrow, I am hoping to get some piecing done on this baby quilt and some more binding. My deadlines are looming!!

Week 40 Stash Report

This past week, I worked on a lot of hand sewing. I have 2 hanging sleeves to get on quilts and binding to finish on one of them. I made the sleeves on Monday night and spent some evenings working on stitching them down. I am almost done with one! This only used up a half yard of fabric.

Yesterday, I worked at the shop. I had been making a mental list of fabric that I would need to start and finish some projects. I worked with Barb and discussed options for a commission quilt that I have coming up and we decided on the sashing, cornerstones, border and backing so I picked all of that up along with a couple of fabrics to use in the blocks. Now, I just have to pick the blocks and start making them!



I also picked up the last quarter of fabric for the 2009 Thimbleberries quilt and the backing fabric. Now, I will have everything that I need to finish the top when I find the time.



But all of this made for a lousy week for the stash report....

Fabric added this week: 17.44
Fabric added year-to-date: 288.70

Fabric used this week: 0.50
Fabric used year-to-date: 161.05

Net Fabric Used: -127.65

I just don't know what to say. 12 more weeks. That's 3 months left in the year. I wonder if I can at least end at a negative 50 yards. That would mean just 50 more yards purchased than used. I could live with that since this is the first year I've reported. Yeah, that just might be doable... Or not....

It's a top!!!

Today was the Open House at the quilt shop and, man, was it a long day!! We were very busy for most of the day so it went by pretty quickly!

Once I got home, I had a bowl of cereal and rest and unwound for a couple of hours. Then, I decided that I just had to sew! I had to work on the stash numbers. I think I did pretty well!!!

Presenting .... On the Way to Oz!!!



I took the class for this One Block Wonder quilt in October of last year. Once I got the center together, I set the whole thing aside. I haven't touched the quilt since December.

Now, it's been doggie approved.




And here is a picture of the original panel that I used for the One Block Wonder technique.



I think that it looks really cool now that the borders are on. I started working on the backing and I am about halfway down with it. I am putting the panel on the back as a record of what the original fabric was.

I'm going to take it to the quilter next week. I have a deadline for finishing this one!!

Wallet Pattern

Thank you to everyone who commented on the wallets! They are very cute and easy to make! The pattern is one that I got from my LQS, Best Friends, but I think that it would be available in other areas, too. Although the designer is not one that I have seen anywhere else.

The pattern is Carry-All Wallet and the designer is Stitcher Sisters. Unfortunately, it is not available on the Best Friends website. I have no idea why.

Storm at Sea

I think that this quilt top was the third one that I assembled when I started quilting in January 2007. I started taking a lot of classes at Best Friends, my local quilt shop, and I had an idea in my mind that there were things that I wanted to learn and things that I just had no interest in doing. Applique and anything with templates were high on the 'no interest' list.

When I signed up for the Storm at Sea class, this list never even crossed my mind. When I showed up for the first night of class, I still hadn't even opened the book to look at the pattern. When Cheryl mentioned acrylic templates, I'm sure that my eyes popped out of my head and my jaw dropped and my palms started sweating as I was looking for the exit! Cheryl talked me into staying for the class and attempting the pattern and I am so glad that she did! This is one of my favorite quilts EVER!!

I've had the backing since the quilt was finished, but I didn't want to attempt the quilting on my Brother machine. Once I got the quilting frame and machine, I still wasn't too sure about quilting it myself on that either. The space is just so limited! After quilting the Milky Way on the frame, I just knew that my only option was to have it quilted at the shop.

I think it just looks fantastic!!





And some close ups of the quilting.





I got the binding made and attached on Sunday. Now, I just have to make/find the time to stitch it down! Then, I can admire it!!

Some minor updates

There have been a few things going on so I thought that I would just take a little time and update everything all at once.

Weather ... and allergies

Last weekend, the weather here turned very cool - the high was in the low to mid-70's. It was wonderful! I threw the windows open and slept in the night air Friday night. It was wonderful! And then, when I woke up on Saturday, I felt like I was in a bit of a fog. Work was not good on Saturday. When I came home, I opened the doors and windows and the breeze was lovely! But ... I had no energy. I ended up going to bed at 10:15 with a migraine.

Sunday, I was semi-productive ironing scraps until about 1:30 and I realized that I couldn't see anything and I was having a retinal migraine. **Side note - I have retinal migraines on a somewhat regular basis. I have been to doctors for them and no one can give a definite answer on what causes them. Each one individually lasts for roughly 45 minutes and I can only see spots of what appears to be TV fuzz. End note** The odd thing about this migraine was that it was like instantly not being able to see anything. So I got a large drink of water and laid on the couch with the dogs. They were tickled pink!

Around 5, I woke up and was still having issues with my vision, but I was also starving. I got some easy dinner and a cold compress and sat back down with the dogs and listened to the TV. It took until 6:30 for me to be able to see anything without feeling dizzy. I was worn out, but I finished the pile of scraps and got everything sorted. And I was still wide awake at 11.

I slept fitfully Sunday night since I had all of the sleep during the day. When my alarms went off, I called into work and let my boss know that I needed the day off. When I went in the bathroom, I was shocked at the large dark circles under my eyes. I had to think about whether I had accidentally run into something and given myself shiners! I went back to bed and felt a ton better when I woke back up, but I stayed home from work the rest of the day because my head was still pounding an throbbing from the sinus pressure.

I'm much better today and actually went into work today.

Cable/Internet connection

The last 4-6 weeks, I have been having severe connectivity issues with my cable modem. When I kept my laptop up in my bedroom most of the time, I wasn't having any issues so it may have been as long ago as May. Wow! Anyway, I have had to unplug and then plug back in the modem each time my laptop lost the connection. It got to the point that it was up to 5 times in an evening before I would get sick of getting up to unplug it. And I wasn't even downloading tons of data when this would happen. I'd be chatting with Regina on Facebook or reading blogs - not anything like downloading a TV show's episode on iTunes. It was very frustrating!!

On Monday, I had finally had enough! I figured that the very least that I could do on my allergy induced sick day was call the cable company and demand service! Or ... you know... ask what they could do for me. :)

The first part of my call was spent talking listening to a man with a slight accent talk very fast and mix my number up like 3 times. Then, he asked for my email address. I debated hanging up and calling back. I told him pass on the email and what my issue was with my service. He told me like 3 times that it was a connectivity issue and he would send me back to a customer service representative from my cable company. Now, this new guy I liked! He ran some tests while I was online and told me that the issue would either be with my modem or the wireless component which I own. He tried to tell me to just watch what lights were on when I was having my issues. I said OK. We sat silently on the line for about 3 minutes. Seriously - 3 minutes. I jumped when I saw that the lights on the modem went out. I said, "Something just happened." He said, "It looks like it is the modem."

Luckily, my cable company has an office in one of the local malls that is very close and I was able to stop by there on my way home from work today. They swapped out the old modem and gave me the newest one that they are using and it has the Turbo Power Boost that they are promoting. Woo! They guy also asked if he could review my bill to try and save me money. Uh, YEAH! So after a few minutes of chit chat and him tapping away on his keyboard, he told me that he saved me $4 a month and gave me Showtime and Starz and all of their extra channels. Woo hoo!! I remember when Starz came out and that they always had very cool movies on their channels. This is awesome!! I also get the On Demand that goes with those, too! Score!!!

Dogs and sneezing

Or rather, reverse sneezing. Maisy developed this annoying habit a few months ago. Some days, she does really well without having a single episode and, some days, we can't be outside without her gagging for breath. Basically, when a dog is pulling air in through their nose in a manner that makes them sound like a duck. Actually, Maisy sort of resembles a duck in the way she flounders around when she is having an attack.

In June, the vet told me that it sometimes occurs in overweight dogs and it is normal and there is nothing that they can do for her. We just have to suffer. *sigh*

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Indianapolis. I took a couple of classes from a teacher. You may have heard? Bonnie Hunter? You already knew that? Hmmm... Well, when I went to Indy, I boarded the dogs. Can you see where this is going?

I now have TWO DOGS THAT ARE SUFFERING FROM REVERSE SNEEZING!!! This is very frustrating. Extremely frustrating. It is very loud and obnoxious and there is nothing that they can do to keep from doing this. I feel so bad for them! I hope it is just a passing thing. For every one's sake!

Weekend off

This weekend, I am not working at the shop at all! I am very pumped about this! It will be my first weekend in town that I am not working all month. And Becca is coming up to quilt on my frame. I still have to clean the house up a bit and get some things ready for me to work on, but I am very pumped about having the whole weekend to sew! It will be nice preparation for Labor Day weekend with another 2 days off from both jobs! Woo hoo!! I ought to be able to bust some stash! :)

OK, I think that is all of the updates that I have. Last week, I sent out 7 packages and they have started arriving. Two were received yesterday and at least one so far today. I can't wait to hear if everyone likes their prizes!

Sorry about the long, not very quilty post!

Finished!

Once a quarter, I have to make shop samples for the quilt shop where I work. These usually end up being classes that I teach. Right now, samples are being made for the holidays. This time, I made a table runner.



It is from the Confetti in the Corner book by Atkinson Designs. It was a very easy pattern and went together very quickly this afternoon with the cutting included.

Tomorrow night, I will drop it off at the shop when I go to teach a class.

I also got a runaround bag and 4 wallets cut out while I was watching some TV. I should be able to get the wallets done before this weekend!

Exciting Day

Today, I worked at the shop. We were pretty busy for most of the day, but at one point when there was no one in the shop, Linda and I threw up my Jitterbug blocks.



I can't wait to start sewing them into rows!

We also got some very, very cute fabric in from Robert Kaufman!!



Those strips will make awesome bindings!



And it has turtles!

We got a new outlet store right down the street from my house. A little birdie (Cathy) told me this morning at IHOP that this place had $10 Crocs. I just had to check it out on my way home. I hit pay dirt!



And then, when I got home, my Amazon.com order was waiting for me! Two new quilt books! I am very excited about the Judy Martin book. Even more so after seeing the patterns in the book! It's awesome!



So far, it has been a very eventful day! :)

A contest from last year

We are gearing up at Best Friends, my LQS that I work at, for the 2009 Shop Hop. Since I am working at the shop, I can't participate this year. I have seen part of the Official Shop Hop quilt and I think it looks fantastic! I can't wait to see it finished!

I have experienced a certain amount of nostalgia the last couple of weeks remembering the last two years that I was able to do the Hop with some quilting friends. We always had a blast!

Last year, almost immediately after the Hop, I left for a Florida vacation to see my folks. I had posted about the quilts that were made by each shop and had a contest to see who could decide which one was my favorite and that I would duplicate. The ones who guessed my favorite would be entered for a drawing.

I enjoyed seeing the comments as they started coming in. To me, it was a no brainer which was the favorite. I believe that my mom even picked it out while I was showing her the pictures. And yet, I was shocked by how many people would read my blog on a regular basis and were fairly close friends, yet had no idea about my taste! Oh well!

As the week in Florida passed, I visited new quilt shops and picked up a couple of fabrics for the winner, but I held off 'closing' the contest thinking that someone else would vote and possibly vote correctly. It didn't happen. I left Florida, came home, shipped off the fabrics, but never mentioned the contest again.

This morning, I got an email about my post (Hi, Gloria!!) and a request for a file of the picture of one of the other quilts. I realized that I had never 'closed' the contest.

So, this is me 'closing' the contest. The quilt below is my favorite quilt of the bunch! I fell in love with it! I bought the fat eighths that the shop was selling in order to finish the quilt. I couldn't wait to get started! And right now, all of the block patterns and fabrics and the fat eighths are stored together in a box waiting for attention!



So of all of the responses, Regina was right on the money! Linda, you were very close! I was pleased to know that you put so much thought into your selection! And for how short of a time that we had known each other then, I was happy that you were as close as you were!

Regina - there has been plenty of turtle fabric that has been passed along to you, but I do have another special something that will be on it's way with the fabric that is being held for you.

Linda - I'm thinking that you deserve an honorable mention prize and it should be ready by the time we go to Bonnie's classes!

And to everyone else .... a promise that I will never wait this long to reveal a contest winner! :) This will be important when I do my 750th post giveaway or my 800th post giveaway. Stay tuned!

July Accomplishments

With a three day weekend at the beginning of the month, I had a great start to a productive month! Although, some of the productivity involved purchasing a bit of fabric!

Quilty accomplishments

1. Bound the fairy quilt for the shop
2. Assembled a green and brown yellow brick road top for the shop (Both 1 and 2 can be seen here.)
3. Made the June Thimbleberries blocks - 4 total
4. Made 2 blocks for the the Guild's Sew to Win (Both 3 and 4 can be seen here.)
5. Spent a lot of time cutting and organizing scraps
6. Pieced a backing and turned a quilt into the shop to be quilted. I can't wait to see what they do with it!
7. Finished my Jitterbug blocks!
8. Won a giveaway!
9. Went shopping with a peep!
10. Assembled the 2008 quilt shop BOM top
11. Quilted the Milky Way quilt!!!

Non-quilty Accomplishments

1. Saw "Up" in the theater with some great company!
2. Got flowers from a co-worker that brightened up my office for a week!
3. Got my new crocs and happy feet!
4. Watched the first 4 Harry Potter movies - very enjoyable!!

Books read

1. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer - very enjoyable!
2. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult - made me cry
3. Where are You Now? by Mary Higgins Clark - very quick read and good like all of her books
4. Wesley the Owl by Stacey O'Brien - awesome! Very interesting look into an owl's life. I liked this one as much as A Lion Called Christian by Anthony Bourke and John Rendall!
5. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith and
6. Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith - I am enjoying the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series! I am almost done with the next one, too!

Now, I need to work on my August Goals. And get some sleep!

It's a quilt top!!

I got it done!! I got it done! I'm so excited to have this top behind me now so that I can concentrate on something else. The outer border is a tad bacon-y, but I know that it will quilt out.





And of course, Max had to inspect and he agrees that it looks awesome!

The quilt is a Block of the Month that Best Friends Quilt Shoppe, my LQS, did for 2008. The blocks are 12" stars made with Thangles. And the border is from The Border Workbook by Janet Kime.

Now, I can make the binding and backing and kill some stash! At last!! :)

Sunday Purchases

After breakfast on Sunday, I finally got a chance to shop the sale at the shop.

I got some of this fabric. I'm thinking placemats and possibly a wallet...



I got some yardage just because it was on sale and pretty.



And I got two 4 yard cuts of this fabric that was 70% off for backings for my 2009 BOM quilts. It came out to just over $7 for each piece!!!



I think I did pretty good!

Grand Re-opening at the shop

I took my camera to the shop with me yesterday with the intention of getting a few pictures of the shop before the customers came in. Since they were still putting the finishing touches on the shop up until the doors opened, it didn't happen. I got a shot of part of the crowd waiting to come in.



And a shot of Linda, me and Barb while we were waiting to open the doors.



We were so busy all day, but the day went by really fast! I didn't get time to do any shopping, but I did get to look at the items that a Checker's Distributor rep brought. She had a table set up and gave some demonstrations. She had some items to sell and anyone who ordered anything got a 10% discount. I ordered a thimble and a Lazy Girl pattern.

I also had a couple of peeps come by to shop. Cathy stopped, shopped and ran! And Becca came in with her mom and they took their time. We were slow enough that I was able to help them shop. Becca is going to attend a retreat in November with me and Cathy. I'm very excited about that!

Big day today!

It's the grand re-opening at the shop today! I haven't been in to see what they've done, but I'm excited to see how we will utilize the new space. And since it is a sale day, I'm sure that I will be seeing lots of my quilting pals!

I know that I have a few things that I need to pick up fabric for. I have a couple of wallets to make, my Pay It Forward prizes, and a few little somethings for some special peeps. And depending what is on sale, I may need a little more...

So if you aren't busy and will be in the neighborhood, stop into Best Friends and say hello! Or if you won't be in the neighborhood, go to the website and shop because the prices should be the same!