100 Day Challenge -- 60 days in

At the beginning of the year I set a bunch of quilty goals for myself and one of them was linking up with my friend Jen over at Quilter in the closet for her 100 days challenge where we come up with 3 goals for the first 100 days of the year. 

I set these 3 goals for myself 

1. Complete at least 2 of my carry over projects from 2015

2. Decrease my stash by 50 yards or more 

3. Make time to blog every week and link up with other bloggers. 

At 30 days in I was making good progress, So now that it's 60 days in -- how are things going? 

Goal 1 --  I have actually finished 2 things this year but neither of them were carry over projects. My latest finish was my skinny mini that I made as a part of a swap. 

I am hoping that now that I have a huge pile of all basted quilts that I will be able to complete some of the carry over projects. I surely can't baste anything else because I had to buy more pins to complete the basting for the last quilt that I added to the pile -- that's 5 quilts guys that are just waiting for quilty magic to happen. 

Getting at least one of these finished is my OMG goal this month and I'd like to have something to link up at the quarterly check in that's not a mini quilt. 

Goal 2 -- I have destashed or used 50 yards worth as of the end of February, thanks largely in part to my instagram destash where my load was lightened by 25 yards. There is still plenty of great stuff over there but I may need to regroup some things and try for another purge. 

However one of my lovely friends announced earlier this week, that her shop will be closing at the end of the month. Folks, that means I did crash pretty hard on this fabric diet with a purchase of 15 yards of fabric. 

This was not a total Katie has lost her mind purchase -- 6 yards (Joel Dewberry fans) were for backing of my husband's quilt that is being made from bee blocks currently. I have plenty of purple in my stash but noting of large amounts. The purple grunges and even the Tula stripe are to potentially use as bindings for this quilt as well. The lovely Bonnie and Camille Vintage modern (2 yards) has already been ogled by one of my dear friends and I have decided to mail that to her. So really only the Tula Tigers and the Moon Bunnies are a splurge. 

I'll more than likely be returning before the end of the month as I need background fabric for that Kate Spain Epic Christmas quilt and i didn't have any of my fabric to compare colors on with me yesterday. 

I am also planning to participate in the quilty orphan adoption later this month on the 18th so maybe things will even out by the end of the month.  

Goal 3 -- This is the goal that i am still falling short on, if I could get more things finished then I would have plenty to write about but I don't really think anyone is really wanting me to post that often about making bee blocks or being plagued with migraines. So I'll keep striving for the goals and keep working on having more to show.  I have a feeling that weekly blogging will happen more heading into the spring and now that I have been released from my doctor and am about 95% healed from my ankle break from early November.

February stash report

Sorry in advance for the font sizing -- I couldn't get it to stay all the same size when it posted 

At the start of the month I was -14 yards so far for 2014 and feeling pretty good that I would be able to destash at least 50 yards within the first 100 days and maintain this momentum throughout 2016. 

Per usual the month started with bee blocks, since I am the queen in one of my hives I only had one person to make for this month and it is my delightful friend @OneWeeBird -- who requested these lovely color blocked 3/4 log cabin blocks. (-1 yard). These were so fun that I made her several. 

I also decided that I would hive crash and make an extra block for Jacqueline in Stash Bee Hive 5 (-.5 yard)

As for my own sewing, the month started off with a marathon of basting -- 7 quilts needed basting and that meant that my 3 scrappy trip along tops needed backings (-6 yards). I put these 3 tops together at random on about an hour and a half at the end of January from blocks that had been laying around for some time. 
I also got my real partner for the Skinny Mini Swap and put together a lovely mini and fabric goodies for her (-2 yards) -- I've written a blog post about this swap and will post it up once my parcel comes in early March.  

The same weekend I managed to make the mini I did a destash on instagram and my initial sales were 25 yards of fabric purged -- I still have plenty over there to sale and some great deals. One lovely lady bought a big bulk of that 25 yards with over 4 lbs of fabric bought -- WOW. 

As a part of not going to Quilt con there was a fun challenge going on over at Instagram and I managed to finish up the rest of my tula blocks for my sampler quilt -- now it's time to lay them out and start making rows and the top. Stay tuned for that progress when I link up Mid march with Michelle. 

My OMG goal this month was to assemble the top of my scrappy crossroads quilt and that meant that I needed to complete the extra 4 blocks to make the quilt large enough (-.5 yd)

Here she is all put together

I pulled out some stashed Flea Market Fancy for the backing and added this one to the pile that needs to be basted and quilted soon. (-4.5 yards) 

I nearly made it through the month without a purchase but then I got the colors for next month's bee block and needed some dark teal and white on cream, and ended up buying a few things to finish up some other projects. (+3.5 yards but most of this will be used soon)

I also started to get in some of my Wanta Fanta Bee blocks from my hive and they are looking very lovely. 

Second month into 2016, and I added 3.5 yards to my stash, used 14.5 yards, started several projects and destashed 25 yards. These totals put me at being 50 yards lighter so far for the year -- Meaning that if I don't over spend next month I will have met one of my 100 day challenge goals. With all the quilts needing basting and quilting I am also getting closer to having multiple older UFo's finished. Now the only thing I really need to work on is blogging more -- which would also come with the finishing of projects.  

City Sampler report February

At January check in I was at 48 blocks and hadn't decided at that time how many I was really going to complete because I was looking at alternate layouts from my original plan of 70. I kinda cheated on getting blocks made this month and actually made them on Wednesday evening, but I am happy to report that I have completed 61 blocks so far and really am ready to push through the rest so that I can get this project assembled soon.

Here are the blocks that I added this month 

block 49 -- # 6

 block 50 -- # 29 (when a great scrap just needs a frame you modify the block)

block 51 -- # 37 (couldn't bear to cut this perfect image in half)

block 52 -- # 38

block 53 -- # 55

block 54 -- # 56

block 55 -- # 83

block 56 -- # 86 (might be my new favorite)

block 57 -- # 95

block 58 -- # 96 (my prized Henna Garden scrap was a little small and then my math was a little off so I added this other boarder to the block and really like the difference that made)

block 59 -- # 98 (hello Mr Turtle face)

block 60 -- # 97 (this green is one of my favorite Tula fabrics that I have never been able to get anything larger than a scrap -- I also love it in yellow and the purple red combo) 

block 61 -- # 90

Things are getting exciting around here as I now have only 9 more blocks to make to get to the goal of 70. I spent some time last night pulling the rest of the fabric combinations for these blocks and hope to knock them out within the rest of this month. 

I can't wait to start putting these together and hopefully in March you guys will get to see that in the works -- mostly because I'm not brave enough to say top assembled fully. 

100 Dayd Challenge -- 30 days in

At the beginning of the year I set a bunch of quilty goals for myself and one of them was linking up with my friend Jen over at Quilter in the closet for her 100 days challenge where we come up with 3 goals for the first 100 days of the year 

I set these 3 goals for myself 

1. Complete at least 2 of my carry over projects from 2015

2. Decrease my stash by 50 yards or more -- through destash or use in ongoing projects

3. Make time to blog every week and link up with other bloggers. 

So now that it's 30 days in -- how are things going? 

Well I haven't finished any carry over projects though I have 7 quilts currently needing basting and I have been able to complete several quilt tops in progress. 

I did manage to finish up a project that had been in my mind for some time and gifted it to another quilter that is a dear friend that had been seemingly forgotten about in a recent swap -- so one finish off my overall list. 

So with all those projects to baste and two swaps coming up I am sure to hit is not surpass this goal. 

I've also been linking up monthly with Red Letter Quilts for the OMG challenge, and this is motivating me to really focus on and potentially complete at least one project during the month. Last month it was the Honda Scout quilt -- it needed sashing and a boarder to move off my design wall and into the basting pile.

This month my goal is to complete the additional 4 blocks and assemble my scrappy crossroads quilt. 

As for the stash management, I am prepping for a big destash on instagram (the pile is behind the cat in the photo above). 

Last month I managed to decrease the stash by 14 yards and most of that was through backings so that's pretty good too. I know there will be at least 10 more yards used this month since I whipped up 3 charity tops at the end of January that also need backings. 

As for the blogging more goal -- I am really trying to be more active and have posted 5 blogs since the start of the year which for me is pretty good. I have about 15 postings in the works -- projects waiting to be completed mostly and my stash tracking postings but fingers crossed that my plans to get all that basting done is accomplished this weekend so that I can share some of those finishes soon. 

I am healing currently and had a minor setback in physical therapy about 2 weeks ago but I return to the doctor later today and am hopeful that the news will be positive. 

January Stash Report

A big goal for me for 2016 is to continue to use more than I bring in, in regards to my fabric stash. Last year I felt pretty good about the 150 yard decrease that I was able to accomplish. My husband and I are starting to change our focus more toward an actual move in the near future (I've been there for some time but he's really getting closer on this point) and the more I destash the less that would need to be moved when that time comes. I even set one of my first 100 days goals as a destash of 50 yards to get this ball rolling in the right direction. So let's see how I did this month .... 

Early January and late January are 2 local quilt shows, usually I attend the later one but this year I elected to attend the first one. To me it was a bit small and many of the vendors were not quilt related so I will be sticking to the usual one next year. This didn't stop me from finding a few pieces of loveliness that came home with me. 

In total it's only +2 yards worth and I really hope to get started on that pattern some time soon -- I'm told the top can be made in like 6 hours. Isn't that wooden bear paw delightful -- the artist is a Mennonite who lives in Virginia. 

As for the rest of the month I did get in some sewing --- 

I made my bee blocks this month -- about -2 yards used 

Stash Bee hive mate Kirsten (kirstens creations) wanted Double star blocks in a Christmas / Winter theme. 

Bee Hive Mate Sylvia (Flying parrot quilts) wanted union Jack blocks to make into a quilt for her husband. Molli Sparkles has a well written tutorial on making these blocks (and no they aren't paper pieced). 

I also managed to make 48 Tula blocks by mid month and then I completed pulling most of the fabric for the remaining blocks before month's end. 

I worked on my Honda Scout Quilt as a part of my OMG Challenge -- I finished up the top and got the backing made (-7 yards)

I completed my Cotton and Steele Pixelated Heart (-2 yards) -- this was my first finish of the year and it's already off to be in a very special new home. 

Made a little progress on making backings for Spellbound and Kaleidascope. (-6 yards)

I have an quilt top that I made from quilt cutoffs that I made a backing for and it's ready for quilting (-3 yards) 

Did a serious fabric pull for an upcoming destash. 

I did get the Cat Lady Fabric bundle from Cotton and Steele -- as a late Christmas gift. (+5 yards)

Late in January there was a snow storm in NC and this meant lots of sewing happened -- YAY!! 

I put together my sample Wanta Fanta block that I greatly altered for my bee Hive swarm to make for me next month and then the Stash bee hive 6 ladies will be making in March (-1 yard -- since I have a few more that I will make) 

I also have swaps coming up in February and March so fabric was pulled and plans have been started for both the Skinny Mini and Kitten Mini that I am very excited about making. 

First month of 2016 in the books and I added +7 yards to the stash, used -21 yards, started several projects and pulled way more that will be destashed soon. I wound up being -14 yards so far for the year -- well on my way to -50 by the end of the 100 day challenge. 

Linking up with 
Molli Sparkles