February Stash Report

This stash busting thing is going great!  I have been so motivated since the New Year that all I want to do these days is sew.  (Ask Hubby.  He's feeling a little neglected in the area of clean shirts and home cooked meals.)

I'm also excited and looking forward to my first Project Linus Sew Day at the end of this month, so I'm getting kids' quilts ready to quilt and bind that day.  Since I made a blue kids' quilt last month,  I decided to make a pink/red one for February.  I kept it simple .....

..... and pieced the backing.

I even made the binding.

Pillowcases, quilt backs, applique, charity quilts, and working on UFO's made February a really good stash busting month.  Here's my report:

February

Fabric Added in February - 0

Fabric Used in February - 22.56 yards

Fabric Added Year to Date - 0

Fabric Used Year to Date - 35.81 yards

Net used in 2015 - 35.81 yards

February Goal -- Done!

February is a short month, but it's really not THAT much shorter.  Why then, is it so difficult to get anything done?  I was starting to think I wouldn't accomplish my goal this month, but here it is two days early, and I'm done.  I told you in this post what my goal was for ALYoF -- 12 pillowcases.   

Having a snow day helped.  We got a record 8.1" of snow here in Huntsville, Alabama so it's a good day to sew. 

I made some last week .....

..... I made some yesterday .....

..... and I made some today.

That makes twelve. 
















Not only have I made my goal for February, but I used up a lot of stash, and I have something ready way ahead of time for retreat in June. That's a first for me!

I am linking up with the Finishes Party at Fiber of All Sorts.  

January Stash Report

Blogging about my stash a few months ago has really motivated me to use it!  Sew My Stash 2015 is going to be a huge success if I can keep up this pace.

In January I was able to pull from my stash to make a backing and binding for the Blueberry Lemonade quilt, and I also used stash fabric to make the backing and binding for the baby quilt.   Then I pieced a Purple Quilt and made the backing and binding for it.  

Before the month was over I put together this baby quilt for a great-nephew coming along soon..... 

.....and pieced a backing for it.

  

I'm especially happy with this project.  I was able to use every bit of the bird fabric left from another project, and I managed to use an ombre piece.  I never know what to do with ombre.

All in all, not a bad start.  Here's my report :

January

Fabric Added in January - 0

Fabric Used in January - 13.25 yards

Fabric Added Year to Date - 0

Fabric Used Year to Date - 13.25 yds

Net used in 2015 - 13.25 yards

Purple Progress

If you've been following my blog you know that I'm determined to reduce my stash this year, and the first stash-buster is a purple project.   Starting out with 4.5" purple squares I made modified snowball blocks by stitching 1.5" ivory squares onto three of the corners and pressing them back.

I thought I had cut enough to make 120 squares for a total of 30 blocks, but I ended up with extra.  That happens to me quite often.  Either I don't know how to make hash marks while I'm cutting, or it's "the dreaded math" and I set out to cut the wrong number of pieces in the first place.  Either way, I just use the extra blocks on the back of the quilt and pretend that it's a design element.  

My original plan was to have bright yellow cornerstones.

Once I had the first row sewn together,  Hubby asked me if I didn't think green would look better, and guess what?  It did!  So, I ripped.

It still needs some yellow, though, so I think I will embroider centers into the flowers.  Or maybe find some cute yellow buttons to use there?  Hmmmmmm.

I had the quilt top finished last week so this week I focused on piecing the backing.  Ahhh, yes, time to use up some more of that stash!  I spent the past few days on it, but I wasn't really happy with the results.  

First of all, I completely forgot to put the extra two blocks in.  I most certainly did not want two leftover blocks.  That would make me feel like I have to use them, and by using them I mean turning them into another whole quilt!  So I ripped ..... again. 

I added the blocks, then ripped out that large ivory piece near the top and replaced it with a pieced strip.  NOW, I'm happy with it.  

Time for basting and quilting.  I should be able to get to that pretty quickly.  This is one project that will definitely not end up on the UFO list at the end of the year!

Purple Stash

http://www.projectleasa.com/sewmystash2015-kickoff/

Sewing my stash is going to take some serious work.  In addition to working on finishing some UFO's this year, I need to start (and complete!) some new projects in order to use some of my stash.  So this week I pulled a project -- a purple project!  I took my purples.....

.....and cut some squares.

Then I found some really pretty ivory pieces left over from a quilt I made in 2008 as a wedding gift. 

I cut the ivory pieces into strips.

Then I cut up a bunch of little ivory squares to make blocks like this --

Hmmmm, now that I look closer, I can see that I need to rip this one apart and restitch it so that center looks better. 

Anyway, with some sashing and cornerstones, I think this will make a cute quilt.  I'll have to add some borders because, so far, this quilt is only using up about 3 yards of that stash.  See what I mean about this taking some serious work?

Sew My Stash 2015

Not only is this going to be the year of finishing UFO's it is also going to be the year of using my stash.  I am joining the fun at Project: Leasa and planning to Sew My Stash this year.   (I think I need to start getting up earlier in the morning if I'm going to get all this sewing done.

First things first.  I have to show you my stash.  Gulp!  These are the cabinets in my sewing room in which I keep my stash.  Looks are deceiving, though, not every one of those cabinets has fabric in it.

I have quite a few batiks.

Actually, looks ARE deceiving.  There are two stacks on that shelf, the stack in the front and the stack in the back.

These are batiks too, just larger pieces.

The Black & Whites are normally in nice neat stacks but I have been digging through them lately, so they are just in a pile now.

I have an awful lot of novelty prints and brights.  Yes, stacks in front of stacks again.

Christmas prints and other holiday prints don't take up too much space.

Five shelves are organized by color and then there is a shelf for Asian prints, floral prints, and patriotic fabrics.

This shelf is just stacks and bundles I bought not knowing what I wanted to do with, so they just sit there ......... waiting.  I see a stack of backings I bought for baby quilts there, too.

This shelf is just ..... well ..... I'm not sure what.  Odds and ends, I guess.  There are some Loony Tunes fabrics, a few things I ordered from the Fat Quarter Shop and, Valentines fabric, super-hero stuff, and fabric from Uganda.  Yes, that's odds and ends, for sure.

These fabrics are sitting on my cutting table, pillowcase fabrics and solids.  I guess I ran out of space in the cabinets.

Now that I've taken all these photos, I realize I have a lot more stash than I thought.  Even if I pull a project once a month I won't make a dent in it. Maybe instead of getting up earlier I should figure out how to get by with no sleep at all.