May Stashing and Sewing

So the goal in May is to see if I can lighten the load another 19 yards of fabric and bring my lightened load into the triple digits for the year, since April ended with me being 81 yards lighter. 

So how does one go about this goal -- by purchasing fabric of course. I needed backing for my Tula Pink Quilt and had a coupon from Stash Bash for an awesome shop Stash Fabrics and I had been eyeing that Free Fall Wide backing for some time and after feeling how it quilts up I knew this was the way to go. This 3 yards was destine to be the backing of my Tula City Sampler and went straight to the long armer. 

I made the backing for my Wanta Fanta quilt (-8 yards) in time to send it off to Cotton Farm Fabrics for long arming -- she was doing an awesome special on quilting for stash bash attendees and this big monster was way to much for me to think about trying to quilt. 

The beginning of the month brings bee blocks and the ladies had some fun ones this month. My required blocks were for Carolyn in the stash bee group, who wanted Migration bee blocks

and Courtney in the Bee Hive who asked for Hounds tooth blocks 

Again, I elected to make extra blocks for other stash bee ladies and I whipped up a lovely granny square. (-1.5 yards) 

My OMG goal this month was to complete my Tessellation blocks -- I have been stalled on these for some time because of all the other paper piecing that I have been doing and the fact that these blocks require some concentration to complete because of the angles. While I didn't get them finished I did make some progress on them and decreased my to finish blocks to about 15-20 from 45. Looks like this quilt gets to hang around a little longer in the UFO pile. 

I did make up the bindings for my Tula Pink City Sampler and Wanta Fanta quilts in anticipation for them to return from the long armers (-2 yards) 

I spent the majority of the rest of the month completing the bindings on my Tula Pink and Wanta Fanta quilts 

I also started planning for some upcoming swap and traveling quilt projects.  (don't we all really want to be like Nugget? and roll around in our favorite fabrics) 

Memorial day finished out the month and this meant a trip to the in laws for the weekend and no sewing for me. 

April ended with me being 81 yards lighter for the year, this month I added 3 yards (and promptly used them) and used 14.5 yards meaning that the yearly total is now 92.5 yards lighter. I have several new things lined up for June and really hope to have more completions as the 2nd quarter winds down. 

April Stashing and Sewing

April will be a month of recovery from all the stash additions from last month and hopefully I can get this stash game back on track. I have many goals that I set for the quarter and it looks like I have most of the things on hand to make most of them happen. 

Since the month started on a Friday that gave me a jump start on getting the bee blocks taken care of and on their way to new homes. Helen wanted red cross blocks and my stash really paid off this time because  I was sure that I would need to buy red fabric to make these happen but I found enough in the charm box to send these 3 lovelies to her. (-.5 yd) 

In the Bee Hive Swarm, Cindy wanted these fun checker blocks that are super simple and come together really quick but have a great impact -- Four blocks heading her way. (-.5 yard) 

I did manage my first finish for the quarter with my huge and awesome tote that was my Stash Bash Revamp project. This was mostly scraps from the retreats but I did pull the lining and the linen from my stash to pull it all together (-2.5 yards) 

My 2nd finish for the month was getting my Spellbound quilt finished (-10 yards) 

April also brought the deadline for the Kitten Mini Swap -- I had finished the mini last month but this was a 2 item swap so I put together a mini sew together bag for my partner and got it all shipped off. (-2 yards) 

I'm really loving to hive jump and I made a few more this month -- and apparently I forgot to photograph them all. (-1 yard) 

My niece is a dog groomer and needed some fabric for bandannas and bow ties that she makes for extras for her clients and to sell on the side. I really wanted some of that destashable fabric to go to a good cause so I sent her a huge bundle of assorted fabrics to help her have a better variety. (-12 yards) 

There was a call for some blocks for a special project for a fellow quilter that has cancer and I pitched in some fabric for backing (-5 yards) since I wasn't sure I'd have enough time to make the blocks. 

After a weekend of catching up on projects and all that cutting for my City sampler project I decided it was time to start planning for some new projects. 

because in the 11th hour I had made up my mind that I would be attending Stash Bash for my own mental health -- medical bills and dwelling work leave be damned. 

I made a few gift items for ladies at the bash (-6 yards) 

One of the awesome ladies at Stash Bash was collecting donation fabric for impoverished women and refugees to be able to make clothing and gain skills to be more self sustaining -- so I also took her a bundle of fabrics (-10 yards)

While at the retreat I worked on several projects but I also indulged a little at a few local shops. (+ 20 yards -- see that Kate Spain Christmas fabric, it's going to be the backing on my epic KS Christmas quilt) 

Received the rest of my Wana Fanta blocks and put mine with it to have 35 blocks completed. I needed 56 for the queen size quilt that I wanted to make so that meant lots of extra blocks needed to be made and I set out on this and I made the other 21 over once i got to stash bash. (only to realize when I got home that I need 8 more to make the quilt square so it will really fit the bed well)

I made a few hour baskets (-3 yards) 

completed the top of my Tula Pink quilt and won long arming while at retreat so I went ahead and sent her off to Florida for some time in the spa with Kira (http://kirabell.blogspot.com/)

 After the retreat I was left with one more week in the month and most of this was sent recuperating and unpacking. I got back into the sewing room a little on Saturday but mostly to organize and start on those other 8 Wanta Fanta blocks. 

April seemed like a very productive month overall to me and I am feeling pretty good about the numbers. I started the month with a YTD fabric decrease of -48.5 yards, I used/ gifted 52.5 yards this month and brought in 20 yards -- bringing the YTD total to 81 yards decreased from my stash, and I'm pretty happy about that. 

March City Sampler check in

For the February linky I kinda cheated a little and whipped up 13 blocks in one evening -- after the link up went live but before the end of the week. I had the blocks precut and ready but other things were taking away my focus. My goal heading into the next month was to complete the 9 remaining blocks and start to assemble the rows. I was thinking that a completed quilt top might be aiming a little high with the other goals and things in the works. So, how did it all work out? 

block 62 -- # 84

block 63 -- # 89

block 64 -- # 92

block 65 -- # 8

block 66 -- # 15

block 67 -- # 45

block 68 -- # 51

block 69 -- # 64

block 70 -- # 54

So my goal of all 70 was obtained as a part of #quiltnon16 a super fun online group of people not going to quilt con. That left me with another 3.5 weeks to see what I could manage as far as rows.

I finally pulled all the blocks out of my book and all the sticky tabs so that I could renumber the block layout and discovered that I actually made 71 blocks some how so I guess that's better than being short. 

I decided to try laying them out in book order and think I generally like the color balance and flow but I haven't yet decided if I will be moving any of them around or really what I am going to do about the extra block. 

(sorry for this poor photo I laid them out on the floor of my office one afternoon at lunch time). 

I have my background fabric ready and want to start making rows very soon. 

Can't wait to see what all you other creative ladies have accomplished this month, who knows maybe next month I will have rows or a quilt top but I think that this one may be heading out to the longarmer. 

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.