Smunday Stash - Puttering
Not a ton of finished objects this week due to holiday travel (for reference, my #FamilyRoadTrip hashtag on my Instagram is full of gems), but I managed to squeeze in Clue 4 for the En Provence mystery quilt! You can see other people’s progress on Bonnie’s linky!
- Used this week: 0.75 yards
- 0.75 yd for Mom’s Snowman pillow (tutorial up on TheStitchTVShow.com tomorrow!)
- Used Year to Date: 337.75 yards
- Added this week: 0 yard
- Woohoo!
- Net Used YTD: 194 yards
- YTD Used for Charity: 126.5 yards (38% of total used)
WIP Whoopsday - Handy
Progress this week has been on finishing a couple charity projects - one for Quilts of Valor and another for DFACs (Dept of Family & Children’s Services) through one of my guilds. I also finally got my Diamonds in the Sky quilt basted and started hand quilting on it.
I’m doing some big stitch quilting on it with Perle cotton and other thick threads from my thread stash. With the wool batting, it’s quite plushy and squashy. It’s also between a twin and full sized quilt, so quite warm as well when I’m working on it!
I started quilting it yesterday and have 5 stars and 10 hexies quilted on it. I think there are 117 stars total, but at least I should make decent progress on it during the Christmas road trip to visit my family in December!
I also finally got my colors picked for the En Provence mystery from Bonnie Hunter! I’m using a pinky/coral in lieu of the magenta constant and an aqua/blue in lieu of the lavender.
Dirty Chicken (At Long Last) - Finished!
Well, I finished this quilt over a month ago, but because it’s such hard work to drag the camera upstairs after taking photos and then to plug the cord into the computer, clearly it’s taken a month for me to gather the strength to make all those connections.
HA! Nope. Just forgot about it. Oh well. But we have had two picnics on it in the backyard since I finished it.
Neither of these involved chicken, however, despite the name and the poultry ledger background fabric. I believe one was pizza and the other was hamburgers. Fred got in on the hamburger picnic after getting the short end of the stick for pizza (pork isn’t good for dogs, so no pepperoni for pups around here).
I did get a comment on Instagram that people love that I use my quilts. There are some that I hold precious and don’t fling out into the yard (*ahem* Harry Potter Bookshelf), but for the most part, I know I can always make more quilts, so why not use them? And they make me happy to look at, whereas I find quilts in my house that I loved and finished and put up and they aren’t making anyone happy that way.
Getting back on track, this was a Bonnie Hunter pattern, the Allietare! Mystery Quilt. The beauty of scrap quilts is that all sorts of fun fabrics make their way in, and you end up with a Smug Giraffe next to Star Wars.
I did my border a tad different than the pattern. I used 6 1/2″ wide strips of the back fabrics from the center to make a scrappy border, and I didn’t scallop the edge.
I think you can see my quilting here - each big square got a swirl in the middle of it, and I meandered to travel from center to center. The borders got straight line quilting in either orange or teal thread to make it more interesting.
We’ve got this one queued up to got to family movie night at the school next week, along with a couple other quilts since it usually ends up colder than we think for an April evening!
Sunday Stash - Momentus
This week was pretty epic in terms of “getting back to normal”, which is to say I resolved some of the quilt top pile-up that I had going. Two of the three quilts I finished are donation quilts, AND I even took pictures of them which I will post this week.
The third finish is my Allietare Mystery Quilt from Bonnie Hunter. I took the plunge and just quilted it on my home machine, having tried a few tips from Sue Nickels who does all her quilts regardless of size on her home machine. Not sure the tips did much since I pretty much devolved back into a lot of tugging and sweating by the time it was all done, but there you are.
I did buy some fat quarters this week in advance of a class I’m taking on Friday at the Atlanta Sewing & Quilt Expo with Cristy FIncher. More on that project later!
I did also pick up the latest Saturday Sampler blocks:
- Used this Week: 20 yard
- 4.75 yd for Gyleen Fitzgerald mystery quilt
- 3 yd for Lorax baby quilt
- 12.25 yd for Dirty Chicken mystery quilt
- Used Year to Date: 83.75 yards
- Added this Week: 2.25 yard
- 2.25 yd for 9 FQs
- Net Used YTD: 34 yards
- YTD Used for Charity: 37 yards (44% of total used)
See more stash reports at Patchwork Times!
WIP Whoopsday - Dirty Seattle Chicken
I was very smug about remembering to take the picture, but missed the crucial step of actually posting it!
I’ve got four rows left to sew into the center, and ideally will get of them done tonight and finish off the top tomorrow. I did manage to finish the back and binding so it’s ready to go when it’s time to baste!
The gray-ish tone of the neutral fabric I went with makes it look a little dirty and grungy, like my flannel phase in college with a soundtrack of Nirvana and Red Hot Chili Peppers. The Seattle grunge music scene has made it into this quilt name: Dirty Seattle Chicken.
Sunday Stash - New Year, Old Finish
This week, I’ve just about finished the Harry Potter bookshelf quilt, which I am counting because I only have about 30 minutes worth of binding left on it and I’m pretty confident I can knock it out tonight. I’ll take pictures of it this week, I think, since the weather should be clear if cold. You can see my Instagram feed from this week for detail shots of some of the quilting. Fair warning - I sewed through my fingernail this weekend, and while there’s no pictures of it, there is a picture of the bent needle, which is quite impressive!
I also had block pick up for Saturday Sampler this weekend, so here’s the latest Sparkling Gems (with bonus Morelli toes as he was walking into the shot) and the first block in the new program, which I am doing in a 30’s fabric selection:
The serendipity of scrap projects is the hidden gems you get when you’re piecing blocks together:
I should have the Allietare top put together this week - all the borders and binding are cut, and the blocks and borders are pieced, and the back is designed. I’m also working in EQ7 quite a bit on another project that I hope to make some progress on as well.
I did have a little bit of intake this week as I picked up backing for another quilt near completion and a Edyta Sitar layer cake that was on sale 50% off, so I couldn’t pass it up!
- Used this Week: 13.5 yards
- 11.5 yd for Harry Potter Project of Doom
- 2 yd for storage bags
- Used Year to Date: 13.5 yards
- Added this Week: 8 yards
- Backing fabric and layer cake
- Net Used YTD: 5.5 yards
- YTD Used for Charity: 2 yards (15% of total used)
See more Stash Reports at Patchwork Times!
Sunday Stash - Closing In
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)
Allietare In the Midst of Mayhem
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 - Red, White, and Done
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!