Stash Busting 2009 - Week 22

I finally worked out the color chart for my Dear Jane quilt. Because I will not be making the blocks in any particular order, I needed to know what color each block will be before I start. For some reason this has really been a road block for me. People have been asking me how the quilt is going and it was getting pretty embarrassing to say that I hadn't even started yet. But now I'm all set and have the first few patterns printed as well. There is a wonderful blog called "That Quilt" that gives incredible instructions on how to make each block, with step by step instructions and pictures too. She features two blocks a week. If I had been following along, I'd have half the quilt done already!

Below is the bolt of background fabric that I got for this project. It's the first bolt of fabric I have ever bought! Now I need to crack it open and start using it. Let's see how long it takes me to do that! It's so nice and pristine right now...

On the stashbusting front, still no busts. I have so many things from stash that are partially finished, but I can't count them out until the tops are done. So, same old story from me -- nothing out, nothing in. At least I'm not going backwards in these "non-productive" weeks. For now, anyway.

Fabric in this week: 0 yards
Fabric out this week: 0 yards

Fabric in this year: 13.00 yards
Fabric out this year: 11.75 yards

Stash Busting 2009 - Week 20

We celebrated Mother's Day this weekend because last weekend was too busy for us. Today my Mom, sister and I had a wonderful sewing day and we all got very far on our respective projects. A fun time was had by all. We had a tasty lunch including mimosa's. Yum! Above, my mom is working away on a challenge project, while my sister Cindy is doing the hand work on the binding of a small wall hanging she finished today -- the finished product is shown below. Nice job!!

I'm still working on the same projects with no finishes, so I can't count any stash out yet. Work is still busy, so I don't get a lot of sewing time in during the week. But I did get half of the blocks done on the project that I'm currently working on for class, which is a lot farther than I thought I'd get!

Fabric in this week: 0 yards

Fabric out this week: 0 yards

Fabric in this year: 13.00 yards

Fabric out this year: 11.75 yards

Stash Busting 2009 - Week 19

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom, Sister and all the other mothers out there! I was finally able to get some good sewing time this weekend. Yay me! It is a secret project, but I can say that I was able to bust out my 30's repro stash.

My old job is finally winding down. I'll be working there a few hours here and there, but no more 12 hour days for me. I need to focus my full attention on my new job now. And have time for myself. This weekend was wonderful. I got to sew, go on a hike and see a movie. All I can say is, Star Trek is an AWESOME movie!! No spoilers from me, except to say that it was great and well worth the crowd on opening weekend!

Nothing out, nothing in again, but I have several projects in the works. Once I start finishing those, I hope to see my numbers skyrocket!

Fabric in this week: 0 yards
Fabric out this week: 0 yards

Fabric in this year: 13.00 yards
Fabric out this year: 11.75 yards

Stash Busting 2009 - Week 18

This is not the laptop I need to make a blog post!! There is always a war for my lap, and Bear usually wins.


This past week was another busy one for me -- this was the busiest yet. I start out at my old job for about an hour in the early morning, then full day training everyday at my new job, then back over to my old job to finish up some things. The majority of the company has been laid off now, so there should only be another couple weeks of tying up loose ends. This work schedule is killing me, though. I'll be happy when I can finally settle into my new job once and for all.

No sewing for me other than a little in class last Monday, and one block today. I've been making lots and lots of half-square triangles for a quilt I am going to present in the fall. I have over 150 and a bunch more to go. It's easy to work on them little by little and they are all coming from stash!!

However, nothing has been completed. But nothing bought either!

Fabric in this week: 0 yards
Fabric out this week: 0 yards

Fabric in this year: 13.00 yards
Fabric out this year: 11.75 yards

Amador Valley Quilt Show

Here's the slideshow I made from the pictures I took at the Amador Valley Quilt Show this weekend:

Stash Busting 2009 - Week 17

Okay, I missed last week's Stash Busting report again. Life is still really hectic for me, but I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! My old job finally hit the transition of all operations being outsourced to another company. This finally happened yesterday. I was there for a good part of the day today processing the layoff checks. There are still a number of employees who will remain there for a while. I'll be helping out here and there with accounting and paroll duties for a while. I hope to be more at my new job and less at my old job from now on. Next week I have all day training everyday at my new job on their computer system. I'm looking forward to this because I'm really trodding through my duties slowly not knowing the computer system.

On a more fun note, my sister, mom and I went to the Amador Valley Quilter's Quilt show yesterday. It was a really nice show and they had some great activities for kids, so my nephews had a good time, too. I took a lot of pictures, which I'm putting into a slide show.

I didn't buy too much. I picked up a few fat quarters of neutral prints because I found myself getting low while pulling together fabrics for my current project. I bought a couple of items for door prizes for my class, and one redwork pattern. No stash out for this week, and just a little bit in from the show.

Fabric in this week: 1.25 yards
Fabric out this week: 0 yards

Fabric in this year: 13.00 yards
Fabric out this year: 11.75 yards

Stash Busting 2009 - Week 15

Looks like I missed a post last week. Things are still very hectic for me. My old job is still hanging in there. The "transition" date keeps getting pushed out further and further. Meanwhile I'm working at my new job as much as I can. My brief training is over and I am trying to hold my own as best as I can. I had another dentist appointment this week -- five shots of Novocain and three hours later, my two crowns were in. I had to go back yesterday for an adjustment, but now I'm free and clear of the dental work! I don't think I've talked about how difficult these appointments have been, but let's just say it's a major relief to be done with them. Lastly (boy this sure sounds like a complaining session!) I was called in to jury duty on Friday. I was very surprised. I thought for sure they wouldn't need anyone on Good Friday, but I was sure wrong about that! There were about 100 of us that had to show up, and right away 80 of us were called into a court room for the beginnings of jury selection. They told us it would be a two and a half week trial. About half of the prospetive jurors were excused due to hardship. I told them about all of the things I've got going on right now, and so rather than being excused, they had me reschedule for another date. So hello jury duty in July!

My life is usually pretty mellow, so all of this action is different for me. I'm looking forward to a few months from now when I can finally relax again. Needless to say, I did not get much sewing done. I actually did put together the block shown above for the Block Lottery in my class. This weekend I wrote all of my patterns and made the block, so I feel like I got quite a lot accomplished.

I never counted out the fabric (all stash) that I used for one of my class projects, so I'm going to count that out this week (gotta keep motivated!).

Fabric in this week: 0 yards

Fabric out this week: 2 yards

Fabric in this year: 11.75 yards

Fabric out this year: 11.75 yards

Oh look! I'm even!!

Stash Busting 2009 - Week 13

Things have been rather hectic in my life lately. I found out a few weeks ago that I would be losing my job, which was quite a shock to me. The company that I work for is completely restructuring, and all of the operational and most administrative jobs are going away next month. I did have some time to look for a new job while still working, so I put out some feelers. Also, my boss told me about an opening at his friend's company. After a couple of interviews, I did get the job at this company. However, my other job hasn't ended yet. So we worked it out that I would work both jobs until the original one ended. On top of two jobs, I've had extensive dental work and an ear infection! Needless to say, no sewing has gone on for a while. But then, no buying either!

Here's a picture of my nephew Max with my dad from this weekend. They were busy reading (and apparently writing in) a magazine and it was very cute!

Fabric in this week: 0 yards
Fabric out this week: 0 yards

Fabric in this year: 11.75 yards
Fabric out this year: 9.75 yards

Stash Busting 2009 - Week 12

Lots going on in my life right now, but that news is for another post. Right now I only have the energy for a quick stash busting report. I must have been busy -- I totally forgot that it was National Quilting Day yesterday! I was finally able to finish a quilt in class that came completely from my stash!!! So exciting. I counted out some of the fabric a week or two ago even thought it didn't have borders then. So I'll count the borders out this week. I was able to get that done in class on Monday night, but I didn't do any other sewing for the rest of the week. I'm hoping to get some done this week, but this things don't really look any lighter for me, so we'll see...

Fabric in this week: 0 yards
Fabric out this week: 1 yard

Fabric in this year: 11.75 yards
Fabric out this year: 9.75 yards

Stash Busting 2009 - Week 11

Well if the spring flowers don't want to come out, I'll just have to make some of my own! I finished a small quilt that I designed for the next class, which has a bunch of these fused applique flowers. It is a very happy and springy quilt and I really like how it turned out, however, I'm thinking I want to add some borders now. We'll let it lie right now and I'll decide later. Really, it will probably come down to how much time I have before class starts. I think I only have three weeks left!

On the stashbusting front, despite all of the sewing I did, I didn't buy any fabric this week (yay!). I did finish the flower quilt, but I might still add borders. I think I'll count it out later -- mainly because it's late and I haven't calculated how much fabric I used. So we'll say no fabric in, no fabric out.

Fabric in this week: 0 yards
Fabric out this week: 0 yards

Fabric in this year: 11.75 yards
Fabric out this year: 8.75 yards

Stash Busting 2009 - Week 10

This weekend my mom, sister and I went to the San Francisco Quilt Guild's quilt show. The featured guest was the incredibly talented Judy Mathieson. She was there, as well as a wonderful showing of her quilts. Below are two of the ones featured (click to enlarge). It's always great to see famous quilts that you've only seen in pictures in person. We had a really nice day, and I only bought one fat quarter! (I had to -- it had monkeys on it!)

I also got a scrap/stash quilt top finished (minus the borders) this week. I'm estimating the amount of stash used, because a lot of it was smaller scraps that I had cut up into squares. I'm counting out the yardage this week, and I'll count out the borders (from stash) next week, as I'll be putting those on tomorrow night in class. I've got others in progress right now, so hopefully I'll be counting that out soon.

Fabric in this week: .25 yards

Fabric out this week: 5 yards

Fabric in this year: 11.75 yards

Fabric out this year: 8.75 yards

Stash Busting 2009 - Week 9

Above is the sewing area that I have set up in the dining room. We finally had a break in the rain this week, so I was able to get a little sunny sewing time.

Of course today I stood up for just a moment, and my chair became instantly occupied. He always wants the best seat in the house!

Yesterday I took my "know how" class on how to use my new Bernina. It was a long day (6 hours), but I did learn quite a lot of the finer points of the Bernina. And as a bonus, Annie Smith was teaching in the classroom next to ours. Annie is a wonderful quilt teacher and designer from San Jose. She is also the creator of the Quilting Stash, first podcast for quilters. I listen to all of her shows and am a big fan. I popped in after the two classes had ended and introduced myself. It was reallly great to meet her in person -- I feel like I know her already through her podcasts!

I am on the verge of finishing three different projects, but none are completed yet, so I can't count out the stash. So frustrating!! Hopefully this week! When they are finally done, I will hopefully have more out than in for the year so far. Also, I am very proud of myself, because this week I went to THREE quilt shops for various reasons, and did not buy one bit of fabric! Yay me!!! I had my eye on some Simpsons fabric that I had never seen before, but I was strong and didn't buy it. However, I did end up with a store credit at Eddie's Quilting Bee, so it may come home with me yet.

Fabric in this week: 0 yards
Fabric out this week: 0 yards

Fabric in this year: 11.5 yards
Fabric out this year: 3.75 yard

Stash Busting 2009 - Week 8

Okay, I finally busted some stash!! Unfortunately, I added some, too. But how can you pass up a gift of fabric? I may not have bought it, but it did get added to my stash, so it must be counted. I finished one quilt top today for the next class session, which used the fabric that I bought last week. Yesterday my mom and sister and I had lunch together at a little restaurant which just happened to be near two quilt shops. I picked up some fabric for my Dear Jane project -- which I promise I will be starting soon!

Fabric in this week: 2.5 yards
Fabric out this week: 2.75 yards

Fabric in this year: 11.5 yards
Fabric out this year: 3.75 yard

Mini-Dear Jane completed!

Here's my completed mini-Jane. I got it done last night, just in time for Lance to bring it to his work today. The pieceing was difficult, but do-able. One of the hardest parts was squeezing the whole top out of the small piece of fabric I had left. I really didn't think I'd get the binding done. It has the absolute narrowest binding I've ever made! I cut it 1" wide and made it single fold. There was not a single scrap left! Anywho, it's done and now I can get started on the "real thing"!

Stash Busting 2009 - Week 7

Oops! I took today (Monday) off work, and because yesterday didn't feel like a Sunday, I forgot to make my Stash Busting report. I went backwards just a little, because I need to get my projects done for the next class session, and I couldn't pull the fabrics I needed from my stash :). But I surely did try!! I went through a lot of fabric, but I just couldn't work it out.

Lance and I also worked really hard on re-organizing our dining room area, which seems to have become my permanent sewing area. I had all kinds of sewing "stuff" overflowing the whole area. We had to make way for a table I bought for my new sewing machine, so we dug in and cleared the whole area out. I'm not good at organizing things (I'm good at paperwork and such, but not "things"), so it was somewhat painful for me to have so many things that didn't have places for them. But we made it through and my table was delivered today (it's nice to work for a courier company!!). It was already assembled, so we just had to juggle the tables and I think I'm finally set. Whew! Can I sew now, please???

Fabric in this week: 3 yards
Fabric out this week: 0 yards

Fabric in this year: 9 yards
Fabric out this year: 1 yard