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Sunday Stash - Catmaflauge

I powered through two quilts this week; the first a Christmas gift and the second a sample for an upcoming pattern.  Nina, of course, needed to help, which means I get go to go through tedious de-hairing exercise and then hermetically sealing it into… something to keep the cats off of it. Sigh.

  • Used this past week: 13 yard
    • 4.25 yd for Narwhal quilt
    • 8.5 yd for Into the Groove sample quilt
    • 0.25 yd for block testing
  • Total Used Year to Date: 243.25 yards
  • YTD Used for Charity: 69.5 yards (29% of total used)
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WIP Wednesday - No Longer Hunkered Down

I’m looking forward to neither using nor hearing the phrase “hunker down” for a couple weeks; Hurricane Irma passed through my area, and we lucked out and only had a steady rain with minimal wind gusts at my house. School was cancelled for a couple days to prepare for the worst, so I’m quite happy that the kids are back in school today.

Since we never lost power, I’ve made some progress on other donation quilts.  First up is the rainbow unicorn one:

And also the pastel floral one:

I should point out that while Irma didn’t wreak much havoc, Hurricat Nina did sweep through.

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Sunday Stash - Gross

As expected, a low key sewing week as I didn’t bring any hand projects with me on our family trip, although I’ve made progress in pattern design and some other quilting-related areas. Just as well since there’s a lot of helper cats at my parents house who might be too interested in them! Well, maybe only Angus (below) would actually helper as the other two stay hidden under the bed when anyone else is around.

I did finish one quilt before we left, though, so that makes it in the used column. That brings my total used for the year up to a gross!

  • Used this week:  9 yard
    • 9 yd for Emilio pattern sample
  • Total Used Year to Date: 144 yards
  • Added this week: 0 yard
    • Woohoo!
  • YTD Used for Charity: 21.75 yards (15% of total used)
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WIP Wednesday: Defuzzing

This week has felt like an uphill slog to get anything done. It is the last week of school, and that usually means a frajillion things happening in the evenings so the time at the sewing machine has been limited since Sunday.

I’m also trying to keep my cutting table clean and moving projects along, but frankly, there’s a been a lot of fuzz gathered on it!

I’m about to start cutting into some delicious fabric from Ink & Arrow, however, so I promise more eye candy soon!

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Sunday Stash - Wishful

This week I managed to finish one last quilt before vacation. No pictures of it since it was of a personal nature, however. This is the “get well” quilt for a co-worker that had messages and names written all over it, so just imagine it looks good!

In the absence of  picture of a quilt, here is Nina, practicing her “cubicle face”. #ThatsJustHerFace.

I also managed to hold off on buying fabric this week so I’ve finally crossed back over into the light on the net used statistic this week!

  • Used this week:  8.75 yards
    • 8.75 yd for the “get well” quilt
  • Used Year to Date: 60 yards
  • Added this week: 0 yard
    • Woohoo!
  • Net Used YTD: 2.75 yards
  • YTD Used for Charity: 11 yards (25% of total used)

You can see more stash reports at Patchwork Times!

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Sunday Stash - Miscount

Remember how I freaked out a bit at having to make 3 quilt samples for the pattern I’m writing? Joke’s on me, I actually needed 5!  The additional two were truly samples, though, and only showcased part of it, but still, 5 quilts. Hooo boy.

The good news is, I got FOUR of them finished this week, and the last top is just about put together and will get quilted this week. While putting that last top together, I did finish up this top. At least, I think it’s finished; I’m rather out of the white fabric so any additions to it will be without the white fabric. Or the colored batiks, because I’m out of those too. So… yeah, I think it’s done.

I also found out that I officially got the kit to participate in the latest MQG challenge with Riley Blake. I have a vague idea that I’m not sure will work with these fabrics, and I’ve put Lynn under strict orders not to let me sign up for anything else.  In her defense, I have large swaths of unsupervised time and she probably can’t stop me.

 

  • Used this week: 4 yards
    • 4 yds from personal stash for pattern samples
  • Used Year to Date: 18.75 yards
  • Added this week: 1.5 yard
    • 1.5 yd for Riley Blake MQG challenge
  • Net Used YTD: 14.25 yards
  • YTD Used for Charity: 4 yards (21% of total used)

You can see more stash reports at Patchwork Times!

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WIP Wednesday - Pure Adrenaline

We had a little planning meeting (read: group text) about what pattern is coming out next from The Stitch, and one that really only bubbled up to the consideration list late last year is now at the very top of the list and, guess what, it’s one of my designs! And then we decided on a launch date and then I realized I needed to make 3 (finished!) samples for it by next Thursday.

And then I passed out.

While I’m good and fast, and not always in that order or at the same time, I decided that it might be a bit unrealistic, especially since we have a family birthday and my wedding anniversary this weekend, and there’s only so much distraction the Atlanta Falcons playoff game can provide my husband on our actual anniversary.

Eventually I opted to ask for some grace and changed publication date to give me two more weeks, but it’s actually going pretty well and I’ve got most of the pattern written at this point. Having lighting tent set up on the cutting table, however, makes things a tight squeeze.

I will say, however, that the adrenaline from leaping into making 3 quilts in a week is nothing to compared to the adrenaline from hearing a cat start to barf while inside my light tent.

And I’m totally gonna point fingers here, since I was successful is grabbing him and moving him off anything sewing related before the actual barfing happened. This guy…… is on the naughty list.

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Sunday Stash - Impetus

Earlier this week I wrapped up the En Provence mystery quilt, which is roughly twin size.  Because I broke it up in two quilts, I ended up with some mismatched bits, so I put the all into a single placemat which will get donated to Meals on Wheels.

I did buy fabric this week, but it was solely for sample making for The Stitch, which means it doesn’t go into “personal accounting”. If there are leftovers from the two samples, then I’ll check those into my stash at that time!  Of course, those two samples also have to be done in a week and a half, so it’s pedal to the metal time around here, and it’s birthday weekend for my daughter and anniversary for us next weekend, so we’ll see how that goes!

In the mean time, I worked on some handquilting on the last Virtual Stitch-In. Nina also decided to be a helper cat and contribute, so check it out!

  • Used this week: 10.5 yards
    • 10 yd for En Provence
    • 0.5 yd for donation placemat
  • Used Year to Date: 14.75 yards
  • Added this week: 0 yard
    • Woohoo!
  • Net Used YTD: 14.75 yards
  • YTD Used for Charity: 4 yards (27% of total used)

You can see more stash reports at Patchwork Times!

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Sunday Stash - 2016 Wrap Up

2016 Net Yardage

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A bang-up finish to 2016 with the finish of my shop sample of The Nope! Quilt!  I wanted to use a print for the center panel instead of a solid (mostly to get away with less intricate quilting, but also to see what it would look like). I need to edit the images a bit and will get them posted over on The Stitch TV Show site.

The work I’ve been doing in paper piecing and the En Provence Mystery don’t quite count yet towards stash usage, so that Nope! sample plus my Glow Stick Mini and a cover for my HQ Sweet Sixteen were my last official finishes for the year.  Here is Nina demonstrating that the new cover, while helpful for keeping dust out, isn’t exactly cat proof.

So, here’s the net of all of that, including some acquisition this week:

  • Used this week: 11.25 yards
    • 3 yd for HQ Sweet 16 cover
    • 1.25 yd for Glow Stick mini
    • 7 yd for Nope 2.0 shop sample
  • Used Year to Date: 357.75 yards
  • Added this week: 11 yard
    • 5 yd for upcoming pattern sample
    • 6 yd for Giant cat quilt
  • Net Used YTD: 203 yards
  • YTD Used for Charity: 141.75 yards (36% of total used)

So, woohoo, I surpassed 200 yards net used this year, despite some serious acquisition to support making these samples for patterns for The Stitch. So how does that compare to previous years? Since I’ve been tracking since 2012 now, that’s a lot of lines on the graph so I simplified my historical view with minimum, maximum, and average net yardage for the particular week of the year.  2016 is the red line below:

2016 Net Yardage

My 4Q finishes for this year were above average despite a slow-ish summer. Not too bad.

For charitable usage, I’m a little below average, but finished the year with more than a third of my fabric usage going to community service projects. Not too shabby!

2016 Charitable Yardage

As always, see more stash reports on Patchwork Times!

 

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Sunday Stash - Just a Few

The En Provence Mystery marches on!  I finished up the four patches for step 3, swapping in a teal for the lavender.

You can see more progress from other quilters on Bonnie’s linky!

In terms of finishes, I did finish up the 1st of 2 donation quilts in the queue, and the “My Favorite Things” block of the month from Sew Hooked. Better pictures coming when I get the sleeve attached, for now know that the stitched passed Helper Cat inspection, including the label on the yarn!

  • Used this week: 7.25 yards
    • 4.5 yd for the Squirrely quilt
    • 2.75 for My Favorite Things BOM
  • Used Year to Date: 337 yards
  • Added this week: 1.5 yard
    • 1.5 yd in FQs
  • Net Used YTD: 193.25 yards
  • YTD Used for Charity: 126.5 yards (38% of total used)

See more stash reports at Patchwork Times!