STASHBUSTING - WEEK 4

I haven't done well this past week,,, I've been really busy sewing on my version of the Double Delight. But for my stash busting I need to add the fabric that I have cut for this quilt..

Fabric added this week -- ZERO !! Isn't that wonderful!!! It has been a whole 4 weeks since I have bought any fabric! I am so very proud of myself!
Fabric added year to date - ZERO !! I don't care so much what I use,, just that I haven't added anything is a win for me! ( besides a boost to the pocketbook! LOL )
Fabric used this week - 4 yards ( for the Double Delight blocks I'm working on, not the whole quilt )
Fabric used year to date - 16 yards -- guess that's not so bad, I'm happy!

I think I'm liking this idea of using what I have. It has been like breaking a bad habit, usually on the weekends I was out shopping - for fabric that I really didn't NEED but sure did like. Now I have more time to do other things and maybe get some sewing done!

I've been a very good girl - and I get a great big gold star!

UPDATE ON DOUBLE DELIGHT

I was hoping to get alot more done on my version of Bonnie Hunter's Double Delight Mystery quilt. I just didn't know there were SO MANY square - in - a - square blocks in this quilt!!! ARRRGGGHHH !! I'm really tired of sewing HST pieces to the squares.
I need 200 complete S-I-A-S pieces,,, will they never end!!

I thought I had all the right red squares cut out,, re-did the math and (( can you see me pulling my hair!?! )) I need 200 and had 179 !! #&*%$$*%,,, so I cut the rest ( thank goodness I had enough fabric! ) and sewed them up.

I have the LAST HST to sew on,,, then press, then (( oh I hate to do this part )) square them up...Don't ask me why I find that step so much a pain,, but I do. But I know that if I don't, I'll have wonky S-I-A-S's..

See my 200 blocks !!! all in nice neat groups of 10. gee, I'm organized! LOL !!

So, tirane,,, how far have you gotten??? I checked your blog.. come on, fess up,,, how far along are you?

DOUBLE DELIGHT - TAG YOUR IT!

I'm a cheater! couldn't help myself,,, I had to see the outcome of the latest Quiltville Mystery Quilt. I didn't have the time to start the quilt when the mystery started so I waited.. and I LOVE the quilt that Bonnie Hunter designed. So I asked my Saturday sewing buddy, tirane, if she wanted to work on the pattern together.
She worked it out on EQ6 and we swapped the file back and forth a bunch,,, coming up with different colors and layouts - I just love EQ for being able to do this.. better visualzation of what is to come ( grin ) and this just MIGHT stop a big OOPS..

I think we ended up with about 47 different variations!

This is the fabric I'm going to use

The apple fabric is the focus fabric and will be the border . The red plaid will be the squares in one of the blocks and the setting triangles.
The dark red will be the red in the 9 patches. The white is actually a cream and that is the background fabric. The green is the main square in the other block and there is a dark green hiding in the corner that will be an accent border and in a center 9-patch of one of the blocks.

This sounds very confusing! but I'm thinking it will come out looking great. All this fabric was in my stash ( thank you Judy Laquidara for keeping me on track for stash busting! ). I just love the apple fabric -- LOL I have a whole bolt of it!!! one of those "good deals" that I just could pass up !!

Well, tirane has already posted about her progress in the piecing,,, she's ahead of me. Oh well,,

One of the first blocks the directions say to start with is a square in a square... here is my progress... .......... ........
hhmm wonder what my camera settings where? that is probably why my pictures are different colors.
I'm finishing up the other two sides of the square in a square, then press, then trim ( ick ).. Yes, I will square all these up cause I know if I don't I will have a big mess.

Go look at the Quiltville.com site and see if you can figure out how my colors are going to work. My quilt will be the same,,, but different. tirane's will be different from mine and from the original too.

That's the Fun!



just had to show you my little guy who stays right by my side - everywhere! Helping Mom sew is such a HARD! job!

BORDERS, BORDERS EVERYWHERE

With the top of the Quilters Trail being finished,, now I have to decided how I'm going to do the borders. I just don't like the top then the main border,, I always like to have something (!) to define the stopping of the quilt and the start of the border...

The kit came with the flowered fabric for the border. The directions say to make a 6 inch border, no inner border... aaahhh I think it needs something else.

OK, here is the quilt again ( just to refresh your memory and you don't have to scroll down the page ( giggle )) The kit came with this floral fabric for the border and the blue for the binding This is good,,, I like these two. But the binding blue is a little bright to be used in the border. The red fabric on the right is 7 inches wide x 42 that I have left from the quilt and this is all there is -- I'm thinking ... ( ouch! it's late and I don't want to think too much ) I measured the quilt edges and there is JUST enough to get around - JUST enough.

Here are my choices for borders... of course the floral will be the big one, and I might still go 6 inches wide or not - depends on how it frames the top..... I also think that I would like to work the red in, but since I only have 7 inches wide, it will have to be 1 inch strips, which mean just 1/2 inch finished,, that could be ok. Then I have a cream and a batik blue that will fit in nicely.



I know these pictures are small but you can click on them to see better...

So, wise reader,,, what should I do??

STASHBUSTING - Week 3

I think I can finally post something here that isn't a big ZERO! I decided that since my Turning Twenty quilt was not something counted against last year,, I'm going to use that fabric to count towards my stash usage... Hey! I can count it anyway I darn well please - it's my game, my marbles, my rules - (( grin ))!

Fabric Added This Week --- ZERO !! That is a good zero!
Fabric Added Year to Date --- ZERO !! Another good zero!

Fabric Used This Week -- 12 yards for the Turning Twenty, 5 yards for top, 2 yards for the borders and 5 yards for the backing/binding

Fabric Used Year To Date -- 12 yards... YIPEE!! I'm on a roll!

I'm not going to count the fabric from the kit for the Quilter's Trail... it was a kit,, and not really from my stash.. my marbles,, right?

So how did you do?

THIS WEEKEND

This was a great weekend! It was our monthly Sit and Sew ( as Babs calls it ) at Tirane's house. I think each of us always looks forward to our Saturday... we can spend time with friends, show off our accomplishments, talk about family and enjoy just being together. I brought the Turning Twenty quilt to show, Babs had her Scatterd Scraps, Swooze was setting the Quilt of Valor quilt she had just finished and Tirane was -- gee, what were you doing???

Tirane and I have decided to make Double Delight from Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville Mystery. It's not a mystery any longer, since the end result is published on the web,,, but check it out! It's a great pattern! Tirane put the pattern into EQ6 and sent me the file to play with the colorings. I had some fabric that I really have been wanting to use and this is going to be the perfect vehicle for it. I'll save all this for another posting.

Anyway, I brought my FW with me and started sewing the patches for the Double Delight quilt. This is such a great machine to take to things like this... it's not heavy, it's not big and it sews such a nice straight stitch! I have named her The Tar Baby... ( you know,, she's little like a baby machine and she's black just like tar, and like in the story your fingers just sorta stick to her -- so she is The Tar Baby)

I had all the good intentions of taking my camera and taking pictures of all of our activities... LOL, you guessed it,,, no camera. - Maybe next time ??

Today I got the whole day to sew -- it was wonderful! DH was watching the football games and even took me out to eat tonite - YIPEE! While watching The MALTESE FALCON ( with Bogie! )I worked on the Quilter's Trail quilt - all the blocks are sewed together and the rows are put together so - it's all done except for the borders! We are having a great warm spell ( about 70deg ) so thought I would take the picture outside... I'm really happy with how it has come out.. Now I just need to decided on borders....

I'll leave that for another post,,, I'm sewed out for the day,, thinking a hot shower will feel good, then bed.
Have a good evening!

Turning Twenty

Turning Twenty - a great quilt to make when you want some mindless piecing and something SO easy to make! This was the first one I have done, but boy oh boy, if I need something for a gift, this is the way to go!
Joann's had fat quarters on sale for 99cents and since I belong to AQS, I get that extra 10% discount, so I figured that 90cent fat quarters would be fun to play with. 20 of them, $20.00,, not too bad! I had fun picking out colors and got lucky cause my Joann's had a good selection. (( just a word though,,, don't wash them first cause they really! shrink!! )) yea, I know, not the best quality of fabrics but I wasn't worried about that, I just wanted something very inexpensive that would be fast and fun to do.
Well, since they shrank on me, I had to revamp my cutting sizes so these blocks are probably not the exact size of the pattern -- but I'm really happy with it!
The top has been done for a little while but I needed to put on borders. I agonized over just the right colors to use (( don't ask me why this was so important,, it just was )) and kept holding up different fabrics to see what I wanted. Can you tell I really wanted to use that coppery color ,,LOL!

Well, this is the final product. A simple double border. I Like it! I think the dark outer border gives it a perfect frame. The fabric is a black background with tan/beige leaves (?) and the inner border is a light tan with white flowers/leaves. I'm thinking it needs just a general meandering for the quilting,,, nothing fancy at all!

I'll make another one!

StashBusting - Week 2

Well, I'm a little late with posting but (( ok, get out the violins and play the sad songs )) , I've been really sick - with ALLERGIES! I have NEVER had allergies like this before - couldn't breath and all I could do was cough. I coughed so much that my back and chest hurt to even move. I managed to get thru last week at work but I just couldn't go anymore and over the weekend I spent it mostly in bed. And you know, when you can't breath but you can cough,, it makes it tough to sleep...((are the violins still playing??))
Well, I went back to the doctor today and she gave me prescriptions for really strong cough meds, steroids for the allergies and some codine cough stuff so I can sleep. Guess I'm going to have to go back to work tomorrow! ICK!

Stashbusting,,,
No yards purchased, no yards used,,, I'm still even with last week.

BUT,,, my very favorite fabric outlet is having their 30% off sale and I DID NOT go!! I'm pretty proud of myself, cause sick as I was,,, If I wasn't committed to using what I have, I would have drugged myself up, pulled myself from my death bed,,, and gone shopping!

I'm proud of me!

Stash Reduction Report

It's only been 5 days for this new year,,, but WHOO HOO - I got thru the weekend ( and a holiday weekend to boot! ) without,, yes WITHOUT ,,, buying any fabric!! That is a big step for me! ( yes, I am a Fabricaholic and my name is Beth )

So my stash report is pretty dismal
Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 0 yards
Fabric Used this Week: 0.0 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date: 0.0 yards

It's not that I haven't been sewing,,, but that what I have worked on is a kit,, so I'm not going to count that. I also have been working on my Judy Niemeyer quilt so I think I'll see what I have on that since I never counted it last year. Also have a Turning Twenty that wasn't counted. Hey! I can fudge on things that were started last year, right?

But my biggest accomplishment is NOT BUYING FABRIC!!!

REDUCTION

Yes, Reduction -- both in pounds and STASH!! I am determined to use up what I have, make the quilts that are in my head and stay out of the stores!! My enabler friends ( and you know who you are! LOL ) are just going to have to understand !!

So, guess I will keep a thingy on the side of my blog to keep track of it.

Judy Laquidara has a great blog for helping with this http://www.patchworktimes.com/stashbusting-in-2009/ and she even has a pledge that I printed out and will hang right next to my sexy guy picture ( we can go into THAT later! ). But, I have to use it... I have no desire to win the prize for having the most fabric! Guess I'll start thinking about what my rules are going to be --

Want to join me?

My Weekend Sewing

I hope everyone is having a great New Year's Weekend! I am enjoying the 4 days off from work - doing lots of sleeping, television watching ( husband has the remote, so there is more television surfing ! ) but not much sewing! Four days off and I'm NOT getting anything done - or at least not what I think I should get done. I was going to do a mystery quilt that was being done by one of my Yahoo groups, FabricaholicsAnonymous and also start on the Quiltville mystery. I have fabrics pulled for both of them ( and no trip to the store for anything! ) but I haven't cut a single thing. The Quiltville mystery is sort of an ongoing one, and her patterns will use up lots of stash! The Fabricaholics is a New Years Eve mystery,,, think I will print out the pattern and make it later.

All is not lost though,,, I have been working on the quilt that I started at retreat the first of December. I never showed anything that I did when there, but now all the blocks are finished ( all 120 of them ). This was a kit that I picked up at the local quilt shop by our retreat place,,, I wasn't so crazy about the pattern but loved the colors of the fabrics used. This is it laid out on the living room floor - color could be a little better in the picture - the lights are all different neutrals, its a very scrappy quilt. There is a great floral that will be the border and pulls all the colors together. You can see my Schnoodle, walking across the layout. GEE, thanks Webster!!! as I'm taking pictures, he decides that this is just the best place to roll around, LOL guess he likes the quilt already! Silly puppy,,, ( I couldn't help but laugh at him,,, he looked at me as if to say " What's the problem?"

Well, I put it all back together and the rows are all ready to be put together.

I WILL GET THIS DONE THIS WEEKEND!!! (( see my resolve??!! ))