Quilted Diversion: January 2016

Sunday, January 31, 2016

Cutting Up My Stash

I held on to this for a year without cutting into it. I picked this up last year at QuiltCon and didn't know what I needed it for but I needed it. This is hand dyed Cherrywood Cotton Fabric. It looks like suede.

I think I should have put black in middle also instead of the white. I notice the white more than the colors

ENJOY

This week's Stash Report is unchanged:

Used last week: 0 yards

Used in January: 5.75 yards

Used year to date: 5.75 yards

Purchased last week: 0 yards

Purchased year to date: 2 yards

Weekly Stitch Minutes:

15 minute stitching days this week: 5 days

15 minute stitching days in January: 28days

15 minute stitching days in 2016: 28 days

Sunday, January 24, 2016

The Farmers Wife Sampler Quilt

One of my goals for this year it to try to sew something for at least 15 minuets a day. The other day I read in someone's blog that there is a group that has the paper pieced patterns for all the blocks in The Farmers Wife Sampler Quilt book.

I had bought The Farmers Wife Sampler Quilt book a few years ago. I only managed to get one block finished and then lost interest. It was very difficult to print the template, then cut them out and then sew them together. Each template was a different size and it was lots of work. I can't imagine what it must have been like to quilt before rotary cutters. I remember garment sewing before the rotary cutters but I can't imaging quilting without them.

I joined The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt Along. It's a restricted Yahoo group, so you have to request to join and once you do you all the paper pieced patterns fare available for you to download and print. This makes it so much easier than the templates.

Here are two of the blocks I have finished

Block #1 Attic Windows

Block #2 Autumn Tints

I will keep updating the blocks as I finish them. As you can see I am using bright modern fabrics.

ENJOY!!

This week's Stash Report is unchanged:

Used last week: 0 yards

Used in January: 5.75 yards

Used year to date: 5.75 yards

Purchased last week: 0 yards

Purchased year to date: 2 yards

Weekly Stitch Minutes:

15 minute stitching days this week: 6 days

15 minute stitching days in January: 23 days

15 minute stitching days in 2016: 23 days

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Off to a Wonky Start

I have Wonky Stars on my design wall today. I have been working on this all week. I was planning on doing this block as a block of the month for March. I got a call Friday night that they have changed the schedule and will not be doing these for while. I decided to sew them together and make it a baby quilt. So this adds a quilt to my to be quilted list and eventually to my etsy store.

No Finishes this week. I did get my Charm Pack Cherry Quilt pinned and ready to quilt. I will be able to work on this during the week. Hopefully it will be a finish by next weekend.

Quilt pinned and ready for quilting.

Still trying to photograph the completed quilts from the last post. We have had bad weather all week and I have been under the weather this weekend. Hoping for more success this week.

Enjoy!!

This week's Stash Report is unchanged:

Used last week: 0 yards

Used in January: 5.75 yards

Used year to date: 5.75 yards

Purchased last week: 0 yards

Purchased year to date: 2 yards

I have a better report on my Stitch Minutes:

15 minute stitching days this week: 7 days

15 minute stitching days in January: 17 days

15 minute stitching days in 2016: 17 days

This year I'm tracking my Stash and how many days I manage to make it to the sewing room for at least 15 minutes. The more I'm in the sewing room, the better chance of having a reduction in the stash and the UFO pile. I started with 500 yards of Stash in 2016. I can count it as used when the project is complete and ready to gift, sell or use.

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Welcome 2016

My Word for the Year------Purpose

My 2016 quilty plans and goals

Open my Etsy Store
Get one of my quilts into a quilt show
Be more active in the guild.
Design a quilt to put in Quilt Con in 2017
Do better with this blog and possibly change platforms
I would love to teach.
Use 100 yards of my stash.

I realize that I did not meet the goals I set in October to get nine quilts quilted by the end of the year, but I did get two of them done by the end of the year and two more of them were completed this weekend. That only leaves five waiting to be quilted and I am very happy about that.

I listen to a podcast that I really enjoy called Hip To Be A Square. hiptobeasquarepodcast.com She records about twice a week and talks mostly about quilting and she has helper cats. Very fun to listen to and a great sense of humor. She is very active in her guild and always has a project going. She reports what she adds and uses and updates her totals once a week. At first I couldn't understand why she did this and the more I thought about it I thought it would be interesting to know how much fabric I use. So it has been in the back of my mind to do this since last year. I had a few days off over the holidays and decided to count the yardage I have. Of course I estimated it but I think I am pretty close. I almost fell over when I realized that I have at least 500 yards of quilting fabric in my sewing closet. I will be keeping track and trying to use up some of that stash.

Used last week: 5.25 yards
Used in January: 5.75 yards
Used year to date: 5.75 yards
Purchased year to date: 2 yards

This year I'm also tracking how many days I manage to make it to the sewing room for at least 15 minutes. The more I'm in the sewing room, the better chance of having a reduction in the stash and the UFO pile. It was a good week on that front too.

15 minute stitching days this week: 7 days
15 minute stitching days in January:10 days
15 minute stitching days in 2016: 10 days

I will post pictures of the quilts in a few days. I need to take some good pictures of them first. I will include some of things I was working on this past week.