Stash Busting Report Week #11

I was doing real good in the stash busting effort until last Saturday rolled around! I went to two LQS and JAF. oh boy! At JAF, I brought backing for two charity quilts with that 40% off coupon...sometimes it just gets the better of me. The local Ben Franklin (and a very nice quilting store) was having a 'Meet the Authors' Day so I wanted to check out and see if anyone would be suitable to teach a workshop or give a lecture at day guild. Well...I 'needed' yardage for the border of the green/white Pineapple Blossom I'm making and DD had on her 'Sparty' green coat so I had her stand next to all the bolts of fabric while I made my choice. I also had a $5.00 off coupon for $25.00 purchase and a gift certficate for $20.00. Of course the border fabric was only about $18.00 so what's a girl to do? I 'needed' to get to the $25.00 mark to use the second coupon, right? With all that said, my report is as follows:

• fabric received in: 13.5 yards
• fabric used: 8.0 yards
• net for week: +5.5 yards

Net total for year to date: -13.5 yards (used)

What I accomplished this week:

• made 40 postcards for day guild give-away
• sewed bindings onto 'Leaves' and 'Florida' quilts (pictures of finishes to follow once I can get my quilt holder to hold :))
• pieced 20/24 green/white pineapple blossom blocks
• dropped and picked up 'Putzy' from Juli (my LA-er)

Goals for next week:

• sew binding (front and back) to Putzy
• piece green/white top to a flimsy
• piece charity quilt

I'm counting the 'Leaves' quilt in with the stash used as it is a UFO from last year but I've already counted in the yardage from 'Florida' . I hope to do better this week and need to stay away from the fabric stores!

Day Guild Goody Bags

Good News!

The day guild ladies liked the goody bags and I received 30 completed surveys! WooHoo! I think just about everyone filled one out to get the 'goody bag'! Now onto read the surveys and make sense of it all :)

Here is a picture of the stack of completed surveys and the almost empty basket of 'goody bags'. I had one 'Friendship' and two 'St. Patrick's Day' goody bags leftover.

Quilt Give-away

Hop on over to Dana's blog, Old Red Barn Company. She will be giving away a quilt to celebrate her 200th post. Today (March 12th) she was on post #198.

New Signature

Over at Passionate Quilter, Karen found a site that allows you to place a cool signature of your name at the bottom of your post. I thought I would play around with it and 'see' if I could get it to work :) Thanks! and also thanks to the commentors who explained 'how to get the siggie into the blog'.

Mom's Helper

Yesterday, DD was off school for Parent Teacher Conferences. She was looking for an activity to keep her busy so...

...she helped me by stamping the 'postcards' and

arranging the 'postcards' and seeds to go into the 'goody bags' and

here she is posing with two of the completed 'goody bags' and Paprika, her Bitty Baby. She stayed in her pj's until noon when DH called and invited 'his girls' to lunch at McDonald's.

This is a close-up of the two types of 'postcards' I made, being a Libra I couldn't decide on one motif over the other so I did half of each :) Hope the quilting ladies like them!

and finally, here is my basket full of 'goodies' and the survey I hope will be filled out.

What type of iron do you have?

Su Bee at Pieces of Time is considering buying a new iron. She was wondering what type of iron we all have and to give a summary of it's good and bad points. This is a Rowenta Powerglide 2. I't my second one...it's okay. It is heavy so it does most of the work when pressing seams and has an auto shut-off (which I like since I never remember to turn off the iron until I'm about 5 miles down the road and think 'Did I turn it off?') I don't remember how long I have it but it is starting to loose some of its heating power...just doesn't seem to get as hot as before. I haven't put water in it so I don't know if it spits when steaming. I like to use Mary Ellen's Best Spray Starch Alternative when I'm pressing before cutting. If I remember correctly, Rowenta's can be a bit on the pricey side. I most likely used a coupon to buy this one :) When it dies, I don't think I would buy another Rowenta iron but hey, this is just my opinion. What's your opinion?

Mary's Give-a-way

Hop on over to Mary's A Very Mary Designs for a cool give-a-way. She is having a week-long de-stashing give-a-way! Every day someone will *win* some of her fabric!

Go ahead and hop now...

What are you waiting for? Pigs to fly, hehe :)

Pincushions

Blueberry Lane Designs is giving away two out of print pincushion books by Lynette Anderson! All you need to do to be entered is to post a picture of your pincushions and then leave a comment on their blog...how great is that? Here are my favorite pincushions. The purple tomatoe is my 'on-the-go' and binding one. It lives in my sewing bag and travels wherever my sewing takes me. My chicken and tread catcher stay next to my machine for the pins that I'm removing as I sew. My dress form has to be my fav! I use it when I pin my borders on my tops. I like that it is a little taller than the others and I've been know to tape a 'face' on the 'neck' for my own brand of 'quilting voodoo'...how crazy is that?! DS says that I definately have 'issues' but as you can see that there is currently no one that I am 'hexing' :)

Stash Busting Report Week #10

JudyL was discussing when do you count the fabric out of your stash.

I suppose I need to pick a 'method' then stick to it, eh? I think once I've cut for a top, the fabric is pretty much committed to being in that top. I don't usually cut fabric then put it back on the self...well...maybe...but not too often. I think once I have the top pieced, I'll count the fabric as out of my stash :)

My report for this week:

• fabric received in: 5 yards
• fabric used: 16.5 yards
• total fabric year to date: -19 yards (used)

What I accomplished this week:

• finished Putzy to a flimsy
• pieced Putzy's back
• pieced Putzy's binding
• pieced a spring-y tote

Goals for next week:

• finish cutting and start sewing Rachel's MSU quilt top
• make 40 day guild participation prizes

Wow! Putzy (the black and gold quilt) was a real stash eater. I had to add up the yardages called for in the pattern twice to believe it...she was 15 yards worth!

I decided to treat myself to a 'me' sewing project since I finished Putzy and her back and made this spring-y type tote that I will use as a purse. I'm hoping to leave the snowflakes behind and see some flowers popping up soon...very soon *s* DD had brought home some of her art work so I decided to include it in the photo op. The tote pattern is from Atkinson Design's Happy Hour Booklet. I've made this pattern twice and each tote turned out a little different :) must be my sewing...

I'm conducting a survey for my day guild and want to make a little something to give out. I've already brought some seeds and was thinking about a fabric postcard. Would you like to receive a fabric postcard as a give-away? and would you want it to be 'a St. Patrick's Day' theme or a 'Friendship' theme? I'm going simple and fuse fabric on the front and back then zig-zag around the edges...

EDIT: I forgot about the 5 yards Mamaspark sent me of Sparty fabric...yikes...How could I? (12:52 pm)

Fun Mail

Lookie what Mamaspark sent to me! We have been *talking* about Big Ten quilts. I had sent her a few yards of University of Wisconsin Badger fabric for an upcoming project and she said she would send me Michigan State University Spartan fabric that I wanted for the back of Rachel's graduation quilt! Now...on to piece the front in green and white.


Yesterday, I pieced Putzy's back and even included a Western Michigan University logo from an old t-shirt from DS. I've never incorporated a t-shirt into a quilt before so I'm anxious to 'see' how it works out.


Linda, from my night guild, shared a tip she had read somewhere (maybe Fon's and Porter---I guess I wasn't really paying attention :)), that as you are making your binding you put it into a baggie. She had said that she did this and it worked well without any wrinkles and the binding comes out of the baggie pretty good when attaching to the quilt. Since I was on a roll, I decided to make Putzy's binding, place it in a baggie and test this tip myself.