Sunday Stash Report

Okay, let me just put it right out there--I bought 36 yards of fabric this week. I'm glad that's over with!

Three of us carpooled up to Bangor yesterday for a machine quilters meeting, and after the meeting we visited both the Marden's in Brewer and the Marden's in Ellsworth. Some folks already know about Marden's; and for those that don't, Marden's is a salvage company that buys all sorts of things from all sorts of places. Most stores have a fabric department where quilting cottons usually sell for either $2.99 or $3.99 a yard. The Ellsworth store has a particularly good fabric department. If you're ever up in our neck of the woods, make sure you plan a trip to Marden's.

Four of us are going to start working on a project together, a quilt called September Sun by Jinny Beyer. All of us are making the same pattern, but each quilter will choose her own fabrics and make her own quilt, so a shopping trip was in order. I've been a Jinny Beyer junkie for years; and as it happened, Marden's recently got in a whole bunch of Jinny Beyer prints. So, hey, I went shopping and stocked up! Who could resist at $2.99 a yard? Some of the fabrics I got will be for the September Sun project. I love these colors!

I didn't do much sewing this week, but I did get the Butterfly strippy completely finished, and I got the binding machine stitched to my Springtime Stars quilt. Still have to hand stitch it down.

So here's the Stash Manager's Report:

Fabric used this week: 3/4 yard
Fabric used year to date: 45-1/2 yards
Fabric added this week: 36 yards
Fabric added year to date: 161 yards
Net used year to date: -115-1/2 yards

I'll do better next month. Really.

Other than paying some bills and a little bit of reading, I have stayed off the computer as much as I could the last week, and my arm is feeling better. Just need to keep taking it easy for a little while longer.

Last I heard, the month of June was the sixth rainiest on record here in Maine. That was before we had another week of rain. In the last week and a half, I'll bet we've only had two days without rain. The sun actually came out one of those days. It was pouring rain off and on again today. I like rainy days usually, but I'm beginning to feel a little like Noah.

Sunday Stash Report

When I think back over this past week, I can barely remember what I did all week. For sure, I didn't do much sewing. I did finish knitting this piece. I'll bet you think it's a hat. You're close. Well, no, not really. It's a bowl. Actually it will be a felted bowl after I get it felted. The theme this month in my knitting class is felted wool, and we were offered two projects, either a set of bowls in five different sizes, or a felted tote. I'd like to make the tote next, but my teacher hasn't actually felted hers yet, and I'm waiting to see what it looks like before I start.

Next month, we will be working on miniature knitted Christmas ornaments--little tiny sweaters and hats and mittens and so on. I'm looking forward to it.

We have a block raffle at the Tacoma Lakes quilting group once a month, and the theme for June was Patriotic. I didn't get my block done in time for the drawing, but my good friend Koleen won, so I made her this block. It's called Fireworks from Kim Brackett's new book, Scrap Basket Surprises, and I love it! Eventually I'll make a quilt with this block. I found this great background fabric too, that looks like fireworks.

I went to Carolee's on Thursday for our machine embroidery group. Three of us who all have Berninas try to get together a couple times a month to learn more about our embroidery modules. Pauline is the brains of the group, but each of us has something to contribute, and we have fun. This time I learned how to quilt this small quilt sandwich, which is actually one of the blocks for my rag quilt. I think I probably blogged about starting this quilt a long time ago, but it stalled when I got to the quilting. I'm very excited about the new possibilities of quilting with my embroidery machine. Unluckily, my machine wasn't really stitching out some of the designs very well, so I took it to the shop for a tune up. I really hope I get her back in a week or less.

And I finished quilting a butterfly strippy this evening. I quilted it with, what else? a butterfly pantograph called Angel Wings from Willow Leaf.

As far as the Stash Manager's report goes, I didn't really use up enough fabric to even bother counting, and I didn't buy a thing this week, so nothing in, nothing out!

Short Takes

Take 1: I'm experiencing some pain in my right forearm again, so I've necessarily had to cut back dramatically the time I spend on the computer. It is not carpal tunnel, but it is a repetitive motion injury and is a direct result of spending too many hours on the computer. I first experienced it a few years ago; and to combat it, I bought a Wacom pad to use at home and taught myself to mouse left-handed at work, which alleviated the problem. Being retired means having more time to spend on the computer, and now I'm paying for it! Just have to ease up, do some stretching exercises, and rest my right arm.

Take 2: I'm still waiting for this crazy cactus plant to produce a flower. In the last two weeks the stem has grown from about 4 inches to 12 inches, and the bud at the end of the stem has elongated, but there's still nothing that looks like the beginning of a flower so far.

Take 3: The snowman quilt is now a top, hooray! No telling when I might get it quilted, but I'd like to get to it next week. I want to get two more strippies quilted and bound first.









Take 4: One of my quilt groups is working on this patriotic tablerunner, and we got the fabric and cutting requirements at our last meeting. These little blocks measure 4 inches square, so the tablerunner is just 24 inches long. I might have finished the top by now except that I took it over to Helen's to work on and apparently left some of my flying geese units over there. Our next group meeting is Wednesday, so I'll finish up the last little log cabin and the two star blocks and hopefully have a completed top by the end of the morning. I like this little tablerunner so much that I think I'll make a scrappy one too.

Take 5: I haven't worked on my pink and brown quilt since I last posted about it, and I'm fine with that. It's on the design wall waiting its turn, which will come soon enough.

Credit where credit is due: "Under the Stars" (snowman quilt) quilt design by The Rabbit Factory
I am trying to hunt down the credits for the tablerunner, sorry!

Sunday Stash Report

I've been shopping again, this time for backgrounds and blenders, those all-important companion fabrics necessary for so many quilt projects. I went to the quilt shop for only one fabric that I wanted to have more of on hand, a Moda light blue star on a blue background. It's one of the fabrics that Moda keeps printing, and it's available in several color ways. I'm working on a little patriotic tablerunner, and that's what prompted the trip. You know what happened after that.

I finished two more strippies and the snowman quilt top last week, but I'm only counting out the backing for one strippy. Everything else has already been accounted for.

So here's the Stash Manager's Report:

Fabric used this week: 2-3/4 yards
Fabric used year to date: 44-3/4 yards
Fabric added this week: 30 yards
Fabric added year to date: 125 yards
Net used year to date: -80-1/4 yards

Sure adds up quick, doesn't it?