Sunday Stash Report

I still haven't finished my placemats that we made at Kay's a couple of Sundays ago, but I did finish my other pillowcase, and it looks great. Thanks so much to everyone for all the nice compliments on the pillowcases. You know, I wasn't sure about this blogging thing when I started in January. Truthfully, I didn't think I would stick with it; but now I'm as addicted to posting as I am to reading them. I just love seeing what everyone else is doing--it's like Show and Tell every day, and I learn a lot. I hope someone might find something useful on my blog now and then too.

Friday was our regular bimonthly meeting at Kay's, and we had a double theme for the meeting--apples and tote bags. Everyone was asked to bring an apple dish, and we had quite a variety. Kay always makes a lovely supper for us, and we had a nice roast with potatoes, carrots, and apples. As accompaniments we also had three different salads with apples in them, some jello with apples, and a couple of desserts with apples. It's always a lot of fun when we do this, and next month we'll have a Pumpkinfest. Last year I made the most horrible pumpkin and black bean soup. Basically it consisted of a can of pumpkin, a can of black beans, some broth, and a few spices, and you heated it up for about 10 minutes, and it was done. I got the recipe from a well-known tv cooking show host, who shall remain nameless. Oh, it was so awful! This year I'll stick with pumpkin bread or something I know how to cook!

Janice had this tote bag with her a couple of meetings ago, and we liked it so much we decided we'd get together and learn how to make them. The tote uses one of those charm packs that are so popular now, and I happened to have one that I won from Becky the Quilting Booklady's birthday giveaway a while back. The tote used 35 of the 50 squares I had in the pack plus another yard of fabric for the handles and lining, which I found in my stash. Besides the pocket on the front, there are a couple more pockets inside the tote. I really liked this pattern because you could come up with a number of variations to make each one a little different. There's supposed to be a button on that front pocket; but I hate sewing on buttons, so I might let it just flap around for a while.

I got most of it finished on Friday, and tonight after I got home from work I finished the topstitching. While I was sitting there admiring my handiwork, I thought about putting up a hook or something somewhere in my sewing room to hang up my totes. I'm beginning to accumulate more of them, and I've been folding them up inside a cabinet. Then I remembered this coat rack that was upstairs on our closed-in back porch. I think it must have belonged to my grandmother. Over my husband's strenuous objections, I commandeered it and brought it down to my sewing room, and it will work perfectly! After a while my husband even offered to clean it up for me. What a good man!

Well, anyway, here's the Stash Manager's Report:

Fabric used this week: 1-3/4 yards
Fabric used year to date: 133-3/4 yards
Fabric added this week: 0 yards
Fabric added year to date: 246-1/8 yards
Net year to date: - 112-3/8 yards

I've really been behaving myself pretty well lately, haven't I?

Credit where credit is due:
Charm Party Tote design by Penny Sturges, Quilts Illustrated