Carpenter Star for Baby CW is Finished

Little Baby CW is the first grandson of my cousin.  Our grandfather was called CW.  It turns out Baby CW's initials being the same is a coincidence.  He was born premature at just over 1 pound and has been in the hospital gaining weight.  I can't begin to imagine how difficult that must be.

My sister asked me to make the Carpenter Star that I had made previously for her.  I am not really a fan of repeating a design so I found this design that is also called Carpenter Star, but is different.

I loved making this one.  This was all fabrics from the stash.  The top went together so quickly.

Then the quilting slowed the process down.  I have to get better at quilting since sending them out to be quilted is not in the budget.

I am very happy with how it turned out and I think maybe I really would make another of this design.  I can envision it in brights or pinks or just about anything!

My goal was December 1st since Baby CW was expected to go home in December.  I got it done by my date, but he went home early, which was very good news!!

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict to share finishes.

Happy Easter

We are having a lazy Easter afternoon.  Good Friday we drove to Savannah to visit College E since she did not get the day off and had commitments on Saturday and Sunday with church and studies.  We had lunch with her and brought back a load of things she doesn't need for the next few weeks in preparation for moving out of the dorm for the summer.  Yesterday was a major quilt finish and a walk to the beach to photograph it.  Today we had lunch with my sisters after church.  I took carrot souffle which got rave reviews -but no photos - so I'll try to post the recipe in the near future.

Three people have commented in the last two weeks about there being no blog activity for months.  Hmm.  I guess all work and no play makes Melissa a dull girl.  Or something like that!  

The new job, traveling at Christmas and Spring Break, and a surprise requirement of 120 hours of training that had to be done in 6 weeks just weren't conducive to sewing much less blogging about it.

I have had a few finishes - prior commitments that there was no backing out of and a few mending jobs for people, but mostly there has been not much sewing at all.

Now the end of the school year is approaching and I have just had a major quilt finish and a finish on the in-service hours.  I would like to catch up on the blog backlog before summer starts.

The next post should be a Friday Finish report from back in December.  I had it all written but it is missing a photo so I should be able to remedy that without too much difficulty.  

May the Blessings of Easter be with you all year!

Two Months Worth of Catching Up

I was so excited to get the new job - and I still am.  But the learning curve has been steep and has seriously cut into my sewing time!  For 3 whole weeks I didn't step foot into the sewing room or touch fabric.  Slowly I am working sewing back into my schedule.  Now to get blogging back into the schedule.

I am working backwards to catch up on fabric in and fabric out.  Not sure if I have photos of things or not.  At least I am taking the first step of getting things reported.  Later I'll get details of the specific projects.

Fabric Out -

tropical hexagon quilt top finished - 4.38 yds

CWM commissioned baby quilt top - finished  3.24 yds

11 lined Halloween bags for craft fair - 2.2 yds

6 pincushion projects for October library class - 0.70 yds

mini basket for business cards - 0.3 yds

starter stash scraps given to student - 1.47

giveaway hexies - 0.5 yds

2 pillowcases Senor G took as hostess gift to Poland - 2.2 yds

striped flannel baby blanket w/ crochet edge - 1.35 yds

mother/daughter apron set for craft fair - 1 yd


Fabric In -

Hospice Thrift - 10.3 yds $10 - solid white, Christmas stripe, Christmas ornaments on green background, geometric Christmas trees

BEAM Thrift - bag misc scraps $1 - 1.5 yd



Fabric Purchased since last report: 11.8 yards
Fabric Purchased YTD: 106.81 yards

Fabric Acquired since last report: 0 yards

Fabric Acquired YTD: 22.65 yards

Fabric Used since last report: 17.34 yards
Fabric Used YTD: 153.9 yards

Total: 24.44 yards destashed

Linking up to QuiltPaintCreate to keep accountable.

Chevron Pillows

Back when I recovered the little stool I also cut the fabric to recover a pair of  pillows.  I finally got them sewn.  I had to think on it a bit because I wanted a flange edge.  Is that the right name for it?  

I figured it out and it worked on the first try.  Love it when that happens.  Then I was kicking myself for having put if off for so long.

They came out great.  I love the look with the new couch.

Now to move on to getting things on the walls.  I am trying to work all/some/any of the things we collected when living and traveling overseas into our decor instead of just storing it in boxes.

Weighted Lap Pads & Hot Pads

No fabric in this week.  None at all.  Whew!

Fabric out:

2 frog & turtle weighted lap pads for Craft Fair - 0.63 yds

I love this fabric!

2 ocean weighted lap pads for Craft Fair - 0.76 yds

The perfect use for a large print.

4 cloth napkins with mitered corners for Craft Fair - 0.71 yds

Before they were sewn.

24 signature squares for carnival auction quilt - 0.71 yds
(no photo - you know what a white square looks like - right?!)

6 quilted hot pads for Library sewing class - 0.72 yds

4 of the 6 finished hot pads.  Nice job, ladies!

Fabric Purchased since last report: 0 yards
Fabric Purchased YTD: 95.01 yards

Fabric Acquired since last report: 0 yards

Fabric Acquired YTD: 22.65 yards

Fabric Used since last report: 3.53 yards
Fabric Used YTD: 136.56 yards

Total: 4.65 yards destashed

This week I was in a kind of limbo not knowing from day to day when I would start the new job.  Since I didn't start the new job I started some new projects.  Thankfully they were little and got finished.  Now if I could just settle down and get some of the big projects done.

The Library class yesterday went great.  Quilted hot pads.  The ladies are all excited about setting up additional classes outside of the library, so that is encouraging.  I had my first sale on Etsy this week which was exciting as well.

Kate over at Life In Pieces has challenged us to try to stitch 15 minutes each day.  I was able to sew at least 15 minutes most days.  Some days more.  I am happy for that.  Labor Day I even got Little S sewing!

Days stitched since last report: 6/7
Days stitched this year: 236/258
Success Rate: 91%

Linking up to QuiltPaintCreate and Life in Pieces to keep accountable.

August Giveaway Winner

The winner of the leftover hexagons is...

Renee G who said:

 

"I haven't been very adventurous. I have only worked with hexagons."

Well, Renee, here are some more to work with. Have fun with them.  Let us know what you make.

Lots of potential!

Send me your address so I can get these sent off to you.

Monthly Goals - September

Today I am at a "pre-employment briefing" that is scheduled to be 5 hours long.  Not sure how that qualifies as a "brief"ing, but ...  If it means the start of the new job I am all for it!!

Since this is the beginning of the new normal for me I figured I'd better catch up on reports on the quilting/sewing front.  So from this point forward I am current.

I have not been good at reporting on monthly goals at all.  Granted it was a strange and hectic year, but I'm not giving up yet.

FINISHES

Alligator Baby Quilt - FINISHED in January & donated to Little Lambs through Hands 2 Help

Bright Hexagons - Finished in August

Carnival Quilt for Ms. D - FINISHED in February and auctioned off in March

Boxy Stars - DONE DONE DONE

Commissioned Carpenter Star - Finished in July

Commissioned Chinese Coins - FINISHED in May

Handprint Quilt - FINISHED in March
  
Scraps from a Friend Baby Quilt - FINISHED in January & sold 


Thrift Store Baby Quilt - FINISHED in January & donated to Little Lambs through Hands 2 Help

WORKS IN PROGRESS

BOM Challenge with Jo - I'm keeping up so far  


Commissioned Carpenter Star #2 - ordered, but not started

Cowboy Quilt - ready to be quilted

Curtain Quilt - flimsy is finished, backing is ready

Little Monkey - flimsy finished in June.  It is destined for our new niece. who we won't see until December, so not too much pressure, but I do need to get going on it.

Quinceanos Quilt - needs borders

Red White & Blue - went to the long-armer because it was too big for me to wrangle and is back, needs binding

Scrappy Mountains Majesty- needs borders and quilting

Spider Web - needs to be quilted

Strips That Sizzle - still trying to figure out what is wrong with the machine I use for quilting, since this is partway quilted and I don't want to unsew it

X Marks the Spot - needs to be quilted
 

Hmmm.  None of the older stuff was finished.  No surprise there.  I did make a lot of smaller product for the craft fair in October.  The cowboy quilt was a complete surprise.

Thanks for stopping by.