Sunday Stash Report

Spring is a busy time of year for most of us, and it must have been a busy weekend for everyone as well. I saw lots of Quiltathon posts for Saturday but none for Sunday, and only a few Stash Reports. Maybe more folks will add them in a day or so.

Our yard is in terrible shape after many years of not really caring for it properly, so this spring we're trying very hard to whip it back into shape. One of the things we're having a real problem with is wild violets. They are lovely, with their tiny white blossoms, but they are incredibly invasive and fast spreading, and they crowd out the grass. Although we spent some time digging weeds out of the lawn this weekend, there are too many violets in the lawn to dig them all out by hand; and I'm not sure exactly how we can tackle the problem. If anyone knows any magic that might work to get rid of them without also killing the lawn, I'd appreciate hearing from you.

Day lilies are also incredibly hardy plants and expand in the beds every year, so we dug them all out of one bed and transplanted hostas to fill up the space. We are beginning to grass in some of the many beds in our yard from when we bought the house, as we simply don't have time for all the maintenance; but we want to keep some of the hostas, and this is a good place for them. We set out a hummingbird feeder every spring and have lots of visitors, and the hostas will continue to attract them. The hummers also seem to like the Solomon's Seal, which is clumped in the corner, and which has small cream colored blossoms.

I worked odd shifts this week, which threw my schedule way out of whack; but I did manage to accomplish a few things in the sewing room. I cut out all the pieces for JudyL's Quilt for an Hour, which used about 5-1/2 yards. Then I thought I'd try to get just one block together because I was anxious to see how it would look. Morah was commenting on her blog a couple of days ago that she was having a little trouble getting those Peaky and Spike units--the star points--to be the correct size. I tried a couple of them, and I'm having a little trouble myself. They seem to want to pull in at the top of the larger triangle, throwing off the size of the unit.

I tried paper piecing an entire block, which turned out better. I'll try a few more of the Peaky and Spike units; and if I still can't sew one the right size, I may paper piece just those units. There's really no need to paper piece the whole block, as I have no problem with the half square triangle units. Judy's method of making them slightly oversized and then squaring them up works like a charm.

I also got all the black/red half square triangle units finished for the Orange Crush mystery, which used up about a yard and a half; and I've started putting the blocks together. I want to get all of those finished this week, and I'm hoping Step 5 won't go up just yet. Nobody else in the family likes these blocks so far---thank goodness for quilters who will tell me what I want to hear!

So here's the Sunday Stash Report:

Fabric used this week: 6-3/4 yards
Fabric used year to date: 70-1/4 yards
Fabric added this week: 0 yards
Fabric added year to date: 125-5/8 yards
Net year to date: - 55-3/8 yards