Stash Report 012515

Grandma's Scrappy Mountain Majesties

I've been working on this as Leaders & Enders.  Not much effort involved really and voila it's a quilt.  You can read more about the process here.

My rules say that I can count fabric as out if all of a specific step is finished.  This is what works best for me.   You can read about my reasoning here.   My blog, my stash report, my rules! 

Fabric Used This Week: 6.31 yards  for Grandma's Scrappy Mountain Majesties center

Fabric In This Week: 0 yards 

Total In 2015: 0  yards
Net Used 2015:  14.41 yards

Linking up to Patchwork Times  to show how we are doing on busting the stash this year! 

Friday Finish 012315

Grandma's Scrappy Mountain Majesties

This started back in September as an attempt to make a dent in my mothers stash and test Bonnie Hunter's theory that if it is still ugly you didn't cut it small enough!  I used her free pattern for Scrappy Mountain Majesties.

Little S helped me choose colors.  She ironed. I cut and sewed the initial HST.  Then little by little I cut the HST into 4 strips each and pinned each set together.  That was when I discovered that sewing the 4 strips together was a great leader & ender project.   

When I got low on strips for L&Es I would cut more HSTs into strips.  They even went with me to the out of town regional swim meet with Middle E.  Mindless cutting in the hotel - perfect.

When I had a big pile done I ironed them and separated into lefts and rights.  

Before I knew it I was done.  I wasn't sure how many I really had or if the lefts and rights were correct so I laid them out.  I don't usually follow pattern exactly, but I really really like Bonnie's layout on this one, so I tried it.

Amazingly close considering I had not planned how many of each color or lefts and rights at all.  I had 7 extra blues that didn't fit and I needed 7 more greens - 4 lefts and 3 rights.  That was pretty good.  I will work those extras into the back. 

Using Bonnie Hunter's webbing technique I got them sewn together correctly in no time at all.  Now on to borders.

I love this quilt.  Even Senor G was impressed.  I might have to keep it for us!

Linking up with  Crazy Mom Quilts   and Confessions of a fabric addict  to show off finishes.

Spinning Octagons - Back at 'Em

Design Wall Monday 011914

I got to the end of my Leaders & Enders so had to get another leader & ender project.  This was actually my L&E project  a while back .  I got a few done  but then it got pushed aside for some reason. Now it is back on the front burner.  Since I just yesterday finished sewing my previous L&Es into a quilt top I am now at a lull between big projects.  So I just worked an these for a bit by themselves.

You can see a few of my Dear Jane blocks on the far right around the corner.

I am trying to decide whether to make the entire block which next has 3 rounds of pineapple strips surrounding the star or leave them as is.  Then there is the question of how many.  The quilt in the book uses 42 blocks with no borders.  I'm not sure I have 42 blocks in me - and that is a huge quilt.  For now I think I will make 12 stars and then think on the pineapple step.  I have plenty of 1.5" strips to work with/use up so that step does have some appeal.

 Head on over to Patchwork Times to see what others are working on.

Stash Report 011815

Bindings done on the playmat and College R's quilt from Mama Cristy.

Binding done on College R's quilt from her Mama Cristy

Fabric Used This Week:  0.66 yards  for bindings for Bible Play mat & Pink Heart Quilt

Fabric In (Bought/Received) This Week: 0 yards 

Total In 2015: 0  yards
Net Used 2015:  8.1 yards

Linking up to Patchwork Times  to show how we are doing on busting the stash this year!

Finish it up Friday

Got this top done last weekend.  It is the Spring Carnival Auction Quilt for Little S 's class.

Got the new student's block sewn in and the teacher's block will now go on the back.

You can see the story behind it  here  and  here.   Hope to get it quilted this weekend. 

Also got Little S's cow quilt bound and finished.  

I am really, really trying hard to finish up old things before I start something else new. So far I'm doing great but I think it is the busy-ness of life and work rather than a great amount of will power! Whatever works, right? 

Linking up with  Crazy Mom Quilts   and Confessions of a fabric addict  to show off finishes.

Stash Report 011115

Working on the carnival auction quilt for Little S's class.   They got a new student after I had the center sewn together, so I need to take out the teacher's square and move it to the back and add in the new square when I get it.  The borders are not sewn down in that corner yet.

Sorry - it's a little yellowy since the pic was taken inside at night.

Last year I made the carnival auction quilt for the same teacher through funny circumstances .  When we found out that Little S had that teacher this year I had to laugh at the coincidence.  I told her right away that I would make the quilt and we planned a quilt "trunk show" for the class.   The kids got to touch, sit on, feel different battings, and compare quilting techniques.  Then they got to lay out their own designs with fabric squares.  They loved it.

The kids used fabric markers to draw a design on a block for the auction quilt.  I am using up stash and decided to go with the gingham.  (Last year I used solids, but this year I just don't have enough brights.)  At first I thought maybe it was too babyish for 3rd grade, but with the stronger colors in there also I think it is fine.  To be quite honest I know that - unfortunately, based on last year's experience - it will not make enough $ to make an added investment worthwhile.  The general public does not know what quilts are really worth.

I am happy with it.  It was a challenge to myself to try a different border treatment than what  I usually go with.  In my mind I knew it would work with this quilt and these fabrics.  I had to get the measurements of the inner and pieced borders right.  I wanted to see if I could do it without too much trouble and I did.  I like math which is maybe why I like the piecing aspect of quilting so much.

Anyways, here's the bottom line on the quilt top:

Fabric Used This Week:  2.44 yards  for auction quilt

Fabric In (Bought/Received) This Week: 0 yards 

Total In 2015: 0  yards
Net Used 2015:  7.44 yards

Linking up to Patchwork Times  to show how we are doing on busting the stash this year! 

Stash Report #1 for 2015

2014 was my first year as a blogger.  I started so that I could have a bit of accountability in using up the stash.  I am not a shopper by nature, so there was not a lot coming in, but I needed to make more of an effort to get it moving out.  It worked and I had a tad over 100 yards net used for 2014 - and I cannot even notice a difference on the shelves.   Maybe I had used that much in 2013 or 2012 also, but actually seeing the numbers made a big difference in me feeling productive. 

My personal rules were/are that I can report fabric as used if I complete all of a single step of a project - all the A blocks, B blocks, sashings, borders, pieced back, etc.  You get the idea.  Between work and life I usually only get to sew in short spurts with an occasional Saturday morning thrown in.  Reporting this way allowed me to have little bits of progress more often rather than wait forever for a complete finish/accounting.   It was motivating and worked for me, so for 2015 I am going to do it that way again.

I took advantage of the time off and worked hard between Christmas and New Year.  I really wanted to finish up some things and I succeeded -  partially.  Three smallish quilts quilted, but not bound.  Some of the fabric was already reported, but some not!  Fabric moving out to start the year makes me happy.

Funny Christmas Story:  Sr. G gave me a gift card to Joann's for Christmas.  Since I am trying not to enhance the stash I was not as happy as he thought I would be.  I did figure I could use it to get batting to actually finish some quilts!


Fabric Used This Week:  3 yards  backing for College R's quilt + 2 yards for Bible Playmat
Total Used 2015:   5 yards

Fabric In (Bought/Received) This Week: 0 yards 

Total In 2015: 0  yards
Net Used 2015:  5 yards

Linking up to Patchwork Times  for the first Stash Report of the year. 

My Clever Daughter

College R had several craft projects in mind to do while she was home. 

One project was a chalkboard with an ornate frame for her dorm room door.  Ornate frame was not in the college budget, but we found a nice ornate wooden cut out frame for crafting not framing. Not sure if that makes sense. It was in the wood aisle, not the frame aisle. She and Little S gave it 2 coats of bright yellow from my craft stash. For the chalkboard part she covered foam core with chalkboard contact paper both of which  I had access to at work.  Then hot glued the back to the frame and done! The effect she wanted for a fraction of the cost   Less than $3 since the only thing she had to buy was the frame.   The hard part was finding chalk.  She had to go to more than 5 stores before she found regular stick chalk.  Chalkboard crafts seem to be in so why is it so hard to find chalk?!?! 

The other project was 3 round mirrors in frames covered with artificial flowers.  She asked me to be looking for round frames at thrift stores but I had only found one. I was willing to give up 2 round frames I had in use.  But turns out you can buy lightweight round wooden frames in a variety of sizes in the wreath aisle. This was better for the dorms since it has to hang from command strips and can't be too heavy. Flowers were on clearance.  Got mirrors also.  At the next store found cheaper mirrors so at the third store returned the mirrors.   It was a LONG day!

Before the evening was done she had the flowers glued down nicely and the mirrors glued onto the back. Ribbon from my stash for hangars for everything.  The 3 decorated mirrors were about $15 all together. Not bad. 

Getting Them Done at Last

Motivated by quilting Dakota's Quilt  and getting it done and the idea that I CANNOT start something new I set out to get some of the tops I have quilted.

This one was really just a panel that turned up in the cleaning/organizing.  My boss says she will use it for Sunday School lessons.  I didn't use any batting since it does not need to be warm or fluffy or anything at all.

I backed it in flannel with clouds and it is kind of reversible.  She can use the 3D figures on one side and flannel forms on the other side.

Then there was the Cow Quilt that Mama Cristy made for Little S and gave her when we were in Guatemala back in June.  Little S made the  cow quilt backing   and that is as far as we got.  I used a variegated green thread on the top and back and I think it worked fine.

Mama Cristy sent back a  pink heart quilt top   for College R.  She had me help her finish it while we were in Guatemala and not until the very end told me who it was for.  Sneaky.

College R picked the backing.  Used up that piece almost completely - yeah!  I used white thread on this so as not to distract from the design.

This used a Frankenbatting that I worked on one day while the girls were out.  It was kind of a personal challenge to see if I could use up all the batting scraps and if it would be big enough for this quilt.  Yes!!  and Yes!!

But then the girls gave me the Dear Jane book for  Christmas and all bets are off on me coming up for air to do anything productive again!  Those little blocks are addictive.  I definitely need to do some rearranging so I can actually reach the design wall now!

Linking up with  Crazy Mom Quilts   and Confessions of a fabric addict  to show off the first finishes of 2015 - or maybe the last finishes of 2014!