Monthly Archives: December 2015

2015 Year End Stash Report

Sunday Stash

Well, I was not quite as productive as I’d hoped the last few days, but I did finish the Quilt of Valor Disappearing Nine Patch quilt I was working on. The Harry Potter bookshelf quilt is still under the needle - all the books and tidbits are quilted, and I’m working on the black background of the bookshelf and then the green outer background. It’s doable with another couple hours of work, but ultimately not doable tonight!

  • Used since last report: 7.25 yards
    • 7.25 for QoV N9P
  • Used year to Date: 297.5 yards
  • Net Used for 2015: 141.75 yards
  • YTD Used for Charity: 152 yards (51% of total used)

Graphs!

2015 Net Used

Compared to prior years, my 2015 net used yardage (the green line), is below prior years.  I’m okay with that- having knocked out an average of 200 yards each of the three prior years, it was time to restock the stash a bit.  That, coupled with 30 weeks of slow productivity due to the focus on the Harry Potter bookshelf quilt and some extra work travel, means that I simply didn’t do as much sewing. Oh well.

What is interesting is the charitable portion of my total yards used.

2015 Charitable

2015 numbers are WAY up.  This is actually tied to the first graph, actually - having not done a lot of big quilt projects between travel and intense paper piecing, I focused on accomplishing some “quick hits” of charitable donation quilts which drove up that portion of my usage.  While I’m glad these benefit the community, there’s some personal gain as well since donated quilts in my guild equate to raffle tickets for a variety of gift certificates to local quilt shops.  For the third time in a row, I won a gift certificate to a local shop! Conveniently it’s even one that a friend of mine is a part owner of.

I expect some quick hits in January for usage- the Harry Potter quilt, the king-size Christmas quilt (which is super early for next year’s holidays!), Allietare, and a number of others I’ve been working on as leaders and enders for pattern designs. For now, I’m okay with where I’ve ended up.

Sunday Stash - Closing In

Sunday Stash

Lots of sewing going on this week since I’ve been gloriously off work and spending time with family and Christmasing and watching movies.

But enough of all those feelings and such - let’s get to the fibers!  I’m all caught up on the Allietare Mystery, and here are all my pieces together, waiting for the next clue on Friday.  You can see other’s progress on Bonnie’s blog.

Today, in between undecorating Christmas bits, I finished a comfort quilt for someone (pics after they receive it), and whipped up a new cover for the piece of plywood we use to set the Christmas tree on.  We do that so the train track lays smoothly, and then put a mini tree skirt on the base of the actual tree stand.  My Christmas fabric is pretty well decimated after this last project, which is just as well since I’ve made a conscious effort to use to up the past few years.

I’ve got another Quilt of Valor to sandwich and finish, and then the Harry Potter bookshelf quilt this week.  In between quilting things, I’ve got an overflowing scrap basket needing to be addressed.  That should keep me busy until I post a final “year in review” Stash Report- with graphs!

  • Used this Week: 9 yards
    • 5.5 yd for comfort quilt
    • 2 yd for new Christmas tree base & miniskirt
    • 1.25 yd for storage bag
    • 0.25 yd for zip pouch
  • Used year to Date: 290.25 yards
  • Added this Week: 0 yards
    • Woohoo!
  • Net Used for 2015: 134.5 yards
  • YTD Used for Charity: 144.75 yards (50% of total used)

HtbaS - Episode 257

This week I talk about cookie exchanges, small gift sewing, working on the king size quilt, and a bit of everything else! Merry Christmas, and don’t forget play along on the Boxing Day Sew-In with #BDSI on twitter, Facebook, and Instagram on December 26th!

Don’t forget to watch the latest episode of The Stitch, also out on December 25th!

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WIP Wednesday: The Stuffing of Grievances

WIP Wednesdays,

I’m not sure what the opposite of the great Festivus tradition of Airing of Grievances is, but I have the opposite of it this week. I have a glorious two weeks off of work, my wrist is feeling better, and my sewing machine was serviced and ready the following day.  And it is sounding and sewing much better.

So much so that I’ve finished the top and back for my king sized Christmas quilt!  Here is the top, folded up since there’s nowhere in my house big enough to lay it out, and it’s raining outside.

The outer border is a “bold choice”.  In retrospect perhaps I should have gone with a softer print, more akin to the piano key border.  The back of the quilt looks more like the piano key border so if I don’t like the front I suppose I can just turn it over!

I’m also almost done with the nine-patches for the next Quilt of Valor, which it will soon be time to cut up and sew back together.  I’ve also got three smaller quilts to plan for in addition to the pattern writing I’ve got on tap for this week, so no shortage of fun stuff going for my machine.  But first, I’m quilting some of the Harry Potter bookshelf quilt!

Allietare In the Midst of Mayhem

State of the Sewing Room

I’ve had a number of challenges in the past week that go beyond the basic “super busy at holiday time” stuff.  My left wrist (and I’m left-handed) started hosting a familiar sharp pain on Wednesday or so last week.  I gave it a few days to see if it would heal itself, but alas, the tendinitis meant that I need to put my brace on.  Although it’s feeling better after 3 days in the brace now, it’s difficult to rotary cut and press at the proper angle.

On top of that, my regular sewing machine has developed a horrendous squeak.  It’s not in the bobbin area so there’s no real oiling I can do that would fix it.  Time to send her off to the spa during the exact two weeks I wanted to really finish up some projects since I have off from work. Sigh.

I do have my back-up Featherweight, though, so she’s on my table and working to finish up Step 4 of the Allietare Mystery from Bonnie Hunter.  I’m about half done given all the speed bumps I’ve had, and hope to finish them up later on Monday.

Go see other colorways on Bonnie’s blog!

Sunday Stash - C is for Cookie

Sunday Stash

Just a couple small finishes this week- two tablerunner/tabletopper things for various cookie swaps. The first I did some thread painting on to make rough sketches of three types of cookies with bites taken out.

If you look closely at each of them, you’ll see I quilted the words “bite me” on each.

Alas, I did not win Best Cookie with the salted caramel chocolate chip cookies, but they were good anyway.

The second is a simple foundation piece tree to make a giant Cookie/Mug Rug especially for Santa’s visit. No covert messages on this one, though!

  • Used this Week: 1.25 yards
    • 0.5 yd for tree mini-quilt
    • 0.75 yd for cookie tablerunner
  • Used year to Date: 281.25 yards
  • Added this Week: 1 yards
    • 1 yd of teal houndstooth
  • Net Used for 2015: 125.5 yards
  • YTD Used for Charity: 144.75 yards (51% of total used)

See more Stash Reports at Patchwork Times!

HtbaS - Episode 256

This week, I talk about sewing my Christmas quilt, Quilts of Valor, several examples of me being bad at math, and why I’m not going to see Star Wars this weekend.

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WIP Wednesday - Festive

WIP Wednesdays

Still trucking along at the end of the year!  I have all 25 blocks done for the Christmas quilt, and sashing and setting triangles are cut and ready to assemble. I’ve still got a piano key border to assemble, and some small inner borders and the larger outer one as well.  Here’s one of the blocks - it’s 12″ finished:

All of that piecing will get worked on over the next few days as I make another Quilt of Valor with disappearing nine patches as leaders and enders.  There is not shortage of sewing going on!

Sunday Stash - Red, White, and Done

Sunday Stash,

I am putting the final touches on the Quilt of Valor currently, so I’m going to go ahead and count it in this week’s numbers! I also remembered that I forgot to post the picture of the Sparkling Gems Saturday Sampler block last week.

And, of course, this week, I kept working on the Allietare Mystery from Quiltville!  You can see more works in progress from the Quiltville crew on Bonnie’s link up here.  I finally got to bust out some orange to complement last week’s teal.

  • Used this Week: 8 yards
    • 0.5 yd for labels
    • 7.5 yd for Quilt of Valor
  • Used year to Date: 280 yards
  • Added this Week: 0 yards
    • Woohoo!
  • Net Used for 2015: 125.25 yards
  • YTD Used for Charity: 144.75 yards (52% of total used)

See more Stash Reports at Patchwork Times!

HtbaS - Episode 255

Short and sweet this week since I have a cold and my voice is not behaving.  I run through feedback, and remind everyone of the Stitch In tonight on Google Hangouts!  Watch it on YouTube here, or get the join links on The Stitch TV Show Facebook page (or the Twilter group on Facebook- I’ll try to remember to post them there as well).

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