Cutting, cutting . . . and more cutting

It seems like this pile of scraps is never-ending!  If it weren't for audio books I think I would have gone nuts!  I hope to finish today - at least that is my goal.  I was planning to sew blocks in between cutting sessions, but decided I needed more dark pieces to choose from.  I've filled the cutting table as much as possible without covering my cutting space, so I've moved on to pizza boxes.  Hopefully I'll run out of scraps before I run out of pizza boxes LOL!

Cutting table

Box 1

Box 2

Remaining scraps

When I folded back the scrap pile to get an idea of how many are left I realized there really aren't that many.  Thus my goal to finish today.

I've run out of books in the series I was listening to, but have another plan today.  Last Wednesday the four Tangled Threads that aren't out of town for the summer went to see "The Wolverine".  Two of the four had seen the other movies. The third and I had never seen any of them.  We thoroughly enjoyed the movie - so much that the next day I went over to my kids' house and borrowed the first 5 movies from my SIL.  I can watch at least two and maybe three while I cut scraps today, which should keep me sane and entertained.

Ever so often I had to sit down for awhile to give my back a rest.  That's when I finished the "Frosty and Friends" top - all but the snowman's face.  I'm not going to applique 1/4" ovals - even made out of ultra suede, so I've been thinking about how I want to do his face.  French knots would be too small.  I could do satin stitch, but don't want to spend the time that would take.  Last night while cutting I remembered that I probably have a bunch of tiny black buttons in the button drawer.  That will do the trick - buttons make good eyes and mouths, even on real snowmen!

Multiple hobbies or can I spread myself this much?

I've always been monogamous when it comes to hobbies.  One at a time for me - that's how my brain works.  It has worked that way for almost 60 years.  I fall in love with something, and that's it - I don't want to do anything else.  There is only one problem with this - my other tendency.

No matter what hobby I'm doing I always go overboard.  Somewhere in the distant past I must have been fearful of running out of something in the middle of a project.  Totally silly - but that's me.  Those of you who have been reading my blog for some time know I have a SABLE fabric stash.  Well, that's not my only SABLE stash.  I have one for each hobby I've enjoyed.

When I did embroidery and then cross stitch, I saved my money and bought at least one hank of every DMC embroidery thread color made at the time.  I also have a spool of every existing DMC machine embroidery thread color for hand and machine applique.  I have a large box full of Aida cloth just waiting for cross stitching, as well as a two foot stack of cross stitch books and patterns.  I have several tubs of fabric in the attic from when I sewed all of our clothes.


Well, here's what I've accumulated since 2010, while I've been spinning and knitting:

My SABLE fiber stash, including dyed top and roving as well as 30 or so sheep and alpaca fleeces.

Sock yarn

More yarn where my plaid collection used to be.

Bins, drawers and baskets full of yarn.

Looking into the "Black Hole of Calcutta" that is my closet under the stairs.  Yarn in drawers and four huge bins (which you can't really see) of fabric - all my felted wool, my 30's fabric and all my plaids.  This isn't good - I need to get my plaids back on the shelves as I want to use them now.

More yarn, including a bin of my handspun.  I've spun a lot of yarn, but have knit very little of it.

My organized scrap collection - you may remember all those drawers and boxes of strips, squares, logs, and strings -  is gone.  I gave it to a charity group.  I decided I'd never use all my fabric if I stayed focused on scraps.  Something had to go to make room for the new!  You can see the bathroom upstairs is almost completely given over to fleece and fiber storage.

Yes, I know - I must live several lifetimes to use all of this.  Which is why I can no longer focus on one hobby at a time.  I must keep spinning and knitting as well as quilting.  This is a small house and we are almost overrun by my accumulating.

So now I publicly state the following:

I pledge to buy no more fabric or fiber items of any kind, other than what might be necessary to finish a current project.

No more fabric!

No more yarn!

No more fiber!

No more fleeces!

No more pattern books unless I'm going to make something from them immediately!

No more fiber magazines!

I must do this.  And I must try to split my time between all three hobbies.  I must change my almost 60 year old patterns of behavior.  

I can do this - I will do this - I must do this!

Now back to working on my quilts in progress, my current spinning projects (one on each wheel!) and my 14 unfinished knitting projects.  Stay tuned . . . .

Stash Report - Week 5

I'm beginning to think this isn't the right time for me to be stashbusting. Not because my buying is out of control, but because the quilting I'm doing in the next few months won't do anything for stashbusting. All the quilts that need quilting already have backs. I will be cutting some fabric for applique, but not enough that it will pay to count it. If I start anything new it will be from either my scrap drawers or from a kit I already have. I know I won't cut buying out entirely - I've cut WAY down with that - but there is no point to report "no stash busted" every week. At the end of this year, if I've quilted as many flimsies as I want to quilt, and I've busted a bunch of my scraps, it will be time to start thinking of stashbusting. As Judy says, everyone will know when it's the right time to stash bust - and for me it isn't now.

So - I'll still stick with my goal of using more fabric this year than I buy, but I won't be doing weekly stash reports. Today's will be the last report.

Fabric in - one kit with about a yard of fabric from my Jan Patek Mini-Quilt club - auto shipped

Fabric out - nada

The good news is I visited Momma Made It - my favorite shop - on Thursday, and Friday I went to two quilt shops - one of which was new to me and positively wonderful! - and a quilt show and I didn't buy any fabric! It was certainly hard to resist.

(Shhh. . . don't tell Judy . . . I did ask Sharon at Momma Made It to put together a kit for the Kennesaw Mountain Quilt using the new Pink Chocolate line by Windham that she just got in as well as other fabrics. It'll be awhile before I pick up that fabric so it doesn't count until I do!)

Stash report - Week 4

I lost a bit of ground this week, but not enough that I can't make it up with one weekend of sewing madly.

In - late 1800's large print (4 yards) and some new Jo Morton fat quarters (3 1/2 yards).

Rick and Rebecca gave me a gift certificate to Z&S Fabrics for Christmas. I've been checking to see whether they've received any new fabric that I liked. Found some last Friday, spent the gift certificate, and received the fabric on Tuesday. Even though it was a gift I'm still counting it as it went into my stash.

Out - 4 1/4 yards for pillowcases and approximately 1 yard used in the PINS round robin, for a total of 5 1/4 yards used.

YTD - 38.5 yards in 13 yards out

Stash report - Week 3

This week was easy: fabric in - none
fabric out - 1 yard

I finished the Peace on Earth top, which I estimated to be a yard.

YTD: fabric in - 31 yards
fabric out - 7 3/4 yard

Sunday Stash Report - week 2

Oh my - I'm sure not doing very well with stashbusting so far this year! I didn't have much time to sew, but I sure found time to shop LOL!

Used - 3/4 yard for binding the two quilts I finished today

Bought - 18 3/4 yards plus one Fat Quarter Shop Jelly Cake

Wednesday was an unexpected Joseph day - but I followed my original plan of heading to Battle Ground to The Primitive Thimble - a marvelous shop for those of us who like homespuns and reproductions. This time I was looking for light homespuns to use as backgrounds on applique blocks. I knew they would have what I needed - and they did. Joseph helped me choose bolts of fabric to purchase. By the time we left I'd bought 25, 3/4 yard pieces. Many quilts are now calling for 20" finished applique blocks, so half yards wouldn't do.

I have always loved red and black together, so I couldn't resist when I saw this Jelly cake online at the Fat Quarter shop. A jelly cake consists of a Jelly Roll, a Charm Pack, and a Layer Cake. The collection includes other colors also, but it was the red and black that kept drawing my eye back to it. I'm really looking forward to making something with these fabrics. I don't know the total yardage here, and I'm not going to figure it out.

So - for the second week in a row I've bought way more than I've used. The good news is I think I'm done buying for some time now LOL!

Stash report - Week 1

This week was a wash when it comes to stashbusting. I used 6 yards of fabric constructing the double four patch top. Even though the blocks were made last year I didn't count any of the fabric until the top was finished at the beginning of this week.

I also added six yards to my stash, though I paid for less than half that amount. I really wanted to do a BOM this year but couldn't find one that appealed to me. So I signed up for Jan Patek's mini quilt club instead. By doing this instead of buying the kits individually I saved 15%. I also received a bundle of 8 fat eights for free, as well as a bag full of nice, big scraps for free. I also bought a kit on sale for an angel quilt to make for over the piano next Christmas. That gave me a

second bundle of fat eights for free. Since both quilts are small I figure the kits include about 1 yard of fabric each.

Figuring another 2 yards for all the scraps, that totals 6 yards in.

So - nothing lost but nothing gained. That's OK for me!

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Gratitudes:

1. Fragrant hot oatmeal for breakfast.

2. A refreshing walk to Starbucks

3. A happy afternoon spent with children and grandchildren

Sunday Stash Report

This week was a "you use some, you buy some" sort of week. I did OK, considering that I didn't sew all week until yesterday. The package I ordered the week before arrived, however, so if I'd not sewn yesterday I would have moved considerably backwards - not the way I want to go!

I finished sewing the fabrics shown in this post into "new fabric" for quilt backs. When finished I wound it onto an empty bolt core, then counted the folds - two folds are approximately one yard. So this bolt of backing - now stored on top of one of the cabinets, used approximately 24 yards. Even though it's not yet made into a quilt I'm calling it busted because it is off the shelves and ready to become quilt backs in no time at all. By the end of the day today I'm hoping the double four patch top will be finished and I'll have constructed a backing for it from this bolt. If you have large pieces of fabric that you don't want to use for anything else, and you don't mind scrappy backs, then I suggest you do this also. Sure clears off the shelves quickly!

Once that was done I shifted the fabric left on that one shelf to other shelves, leaving me an entire empty shelf. I've not seen an empty shelf for a LONG time, so I know I'm using more fabric that I am purchasing - hooray! I was very happy to shift all the fabrics from these two baskets onto the shelf, thus freeing up space on my floor so I could move the string tub out of the closet. These are all the fabrics that Eileen Trestain OK'd for my mid-19th century album quilt, and since that's one of my longterm projects I need to keep them separate. There is more room on that shelf, so I need to take her book in hand to find other reproduction fabrics in my stash that also fit into that era. I feel so much better about the room now - one basket emptied, another basket holding the two quilts that are waiting for binding to be finished, with the string tub in it's proper place at the end of the island with the second basket on top. And I still see empty spaces on my stash shelves that weren't there before!

Good thing, however, as 22 yards of new fabric came at the beginning of the week. Thanks to Kathie I learned that Tara at Sew Unique Creations has many reproduction fabrics at $5 per yard, including an entire line I'd not seen before. There was just nothing to do but order half-yard pieces of the entire collection, plus two yard pieces of a great black, cheddar, and double pink. These will go with me to class on Tuesday - hopefully Eileen will OK all of them for my Civil War Quilt quilts.

So - net stashbusting effort for this week is another two yards used. Net stashbusting efforts for the year - I don't have any numbers, but my shelves and baskets are emptier than they were at the beginning of the year so I'm guessing I may have actually accomplished some stash busting after all. It may be that most of that fabric is hanging in the closet with the 30 flimsies waiting to be quilted - I made a back for every quilt needing to be quilted. I still consider that fabric busted even if the quilt is finished - after all, it's in use, right?

Stash report

I neglected to post a stash report last week - I was so busy making quilt backs that I just forgot. I used a whole bunch of fabric - probably at least 6-8 yards making the two quilt backs. I used lots more - or will use lots more very soon - to make "new fabric" for quilt backs. I eliminated an entire stack in my cabinet and part of another stack. The remaining "new backing fabric" will partially fill up the space, but I should have any empty spot with now stack at all - hooray!

On the other hand, I seem to be able to go only so long without bringing new fabric into the house. And the sales have been so great the past week or so! I've not bought any primitive fabrics for at least a couple years as I've been focused on 19th century reproductions. I just couldn't pass up these bargains from Fat Quarter Shop. Jelly rolls at half price and layer cakes at a great discount. So i bought 2 Jelly Rolls and three Layer Cakes of Linda Brannock's latest line - Miss Jump's Scrapbag. I bought other stuff too - but since it's not yet arrived I'm not counting it!

So - a net reduction - for this week at least!

Stashbusting and quilt backs

Making quilt backs is a great way to bust stash - as long as one doesn't care if the back of the quilt coordinates with the front, or if part of the back doesn't coordinate with the other parts. This method could of course be used with coordinating fabrics - but since my goal was to use old fabric that would most likely never find it's way into a quilt top - I went with totally random and uncoordinated. At the same time my goal was to clear out as much of a shelf in by fabric cabinet as I could. In the past I've used Bonnie's 10" square method with several quilts, but until I catch up that is just too slow for me. This way makes backs faster than you can imagine.

First I pulled out the entire stack of 'fabrics to be used for backs". Many of these had small - or large pieces (see the story of the 2" squares mentioned a few posts back) cut out of one or both ends. I straightened the ends, and stripped out the part I cut off. Then I trimmed off the selvage. Most pieces measured 21" from the fold to the edge after trimming. A few of the oldest fabrics were a bit wider, and some measured only 20". As I trimmed I stacked the pieces according to widths. Some were big pieces, and some were small - sometimes only 1/4 yard - once I straightened the edge. No matter - they all work for backs.

Once I trimmed a stack I started sewing them together along the crosswise cut. This doesn't look like much in the picture because these were pieces little more than 1/4 yard each.I sewed until all the fabrics of the same width were sewn together into a long piece of "new fabric". Then I cut the "new fabric" into the appropriate lengths needed for the quilt backs. I always put horizontal seams on my back now that I have a longarm - they roll better on the rails this way. For the two postage stamp quilts I needed 3 strips of 80" and 3 strips of 69". I cut the proper width strips, stitch them together and press the seams. The backs are quite a bit longer than needed when done this way - that's OK - I just trim off the excess after quilting and put the remainder back to become part of another quilt back in the near future. Some of the fabric combinations may look a little crazy - I don't care. These backs are for quilts that will be used up - everyday bed quilts for us or the kids and charity quilts - not for heirloom creations.

Once I made backs for the postage stamp quilts I stalled out - too many things needing done for Christmas. So the rest of the stack waits in the sewing room, where I'll prepare more "new" fabric after Christmas. When I finish the first of the two postage stamp quilts I'll post a picture of the back - that will help you visualize this better.

Charity Top Completed

After all this time I should be able to better estimate how quickly I can finish something. My goals for last weekend look really amusing right now - I sewed all weekend and still didn't finish this charity top, much less get any other tops quilted. Turning the postage stamp blocks into giant churn dashes took a LONG time. I just finished adding the borders about 30 minutes ago. I still need to piece a backing.

So - one day late - here is my weekly stash report. I bought nothing! I was tempted several times but didn't cave in. As far as usage - I estimate the fabric needed to complete this top - churn dashes, sashing and borders is approximately 3-4 yards. So this week I have a net loss - hooray!

Much to my surprise, when stitching the rows of 6, 2" squares together, I completed 24 additional blocks above the 20 needed for this quilt. So I have plenty left for a second charity quilt. I'm going to put those together in a slightly different manner - one that should - hopefully, any way - take less time that it took to finish this one.

And I still have hundreds and hundreds of 2" squares. I think this time I'll create some 4-patches while using them as leader-enders.

Reports of various kinds

Let's see . . . what should I report on first? How about my weight loss report - seeing it should have been on Wednesday. This last week was good, though I'm not sure how LOL! I lost two pounds, for a total loss of 25.8 pounds. I received my "Circle of Success" at Weight Watchers - which actually looks like a washer - to put on my 10% loss key chain. This is my first significant loss in the last few weeks - hopefully I'm moving off that plateau I've been on.

Seeing as it's Sunday, I guess the stashbusting report should come next. As usual it's pretty sketchy as I don't take the time to do any measuring of what I've used. I did purchase 26 fat quarters - I just couldn't resist the new Sturbridge Village line. I ordered it last week but didn't count it then as it hadn't arrived yet. As to how much I've used - I'm guessing a bunch of yards - certainly more than I bought. So I'm calling it a net loss and leaving it at that.

So what did I do to use up yardage? Well, I decided I felt more like doing more applique prep than actual applique. So I prepared an additional 38 blocks for my Civil War applique quilt. This includes every applique block we've received. I also cut out squares for the rest of the blocks as well as setting triangles for the entire quilt. I'm sure I used at least three or four yards of background fabric, as well as at least a couple yards of reproduction prints. While I was working with the background I decided I might as well cut more blocks for the mid-century Album quilt - that used at least another couple yards of background. I certainly won't lack for applique projects for some time to come.

Friday I felt like doing some quilting, so I loaded the blog block exchange top onto Gandalf and had it quilted by noon. Next I loaded the Civil War sampler top I pieced some time ago when I participated in a $5 monthly block program at Cottons in Battle Ground before it closed. Hopefully I'll get them bound this week so I can mark two more off my list.

By the time I finished picking up around the house today and doing five loads of laundry I decided I was too tired to put away the Thanksgiving and fall decorations. That is now on the list for tomorrow after I get home from watching Joseph. Fred put up our outside lights today - hopefully I will get the rest of the house ready for Christmas by next weekend. I hate putting away the fall things because I love how the house looks all decked out - thank goodness I'm even more eager to get out the Christmas stuff!

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Gratitudes:

1. A great Thanksgiving dinner with friends

2. A wonderful visit with our granddaughters and their parents

3. Neighborhoods full of twinkling colored lights

4. Clean, sweet smelling laundry

Stash report and more

Well, my no buy resolve certainly didn't last very long this time. Here is my report:

In - 10.5 yards plus one quilt kit

Out - Binding for Spring Trio and one applique block - maybe 1/2 yard total

So what was I thinking?

Well, first of all there are all the Dear Jane fat quarters. I resisted this line for quite a few weeks. And then I saw some Dear Jane blocks made from fabric reproduced from Jane's quilt. My resolve went out the window - my Dear Jane blocks had to include some authentic reproduction fabric! Of course none of my usual online stores had it - they'd sold out weeks ago. Quilt Shops.com to the rescue! 30 Dear Jane fat quarters arrived in my mailbox yesterday.

Then Wednesday I attended my monthly Eileen Trestain class at Primitive Thimble. I've been very proud of myself - I'd attended class for months without buying anything. But this time class was starting late due to a mix up, so I had lots of time to walk through the shop. When I spotted the cheddar I new I had to have yardage - good cheddars are just too hard to find. And then this Cheri Saffiote Payne kit grabbed my attention. The price was good for a kit containing so much hand dyed wool - so I grabbed it.

And thus I fell off the wagon - big time!

So of course I had to do something to bust some stash. The five 1 1/8 inch strips I'd cut for the Spring Trio binding sure didn't amount to much. So I prepped another Times Remembered block. Now that I look at it I think my estimate was over generous. I imagine this block took closer to 1/4 yard total. OK - change that used number at the top of the post to 3/8 yard maximum.

And this doesn't even count the Judy Rothermel collection I ordered in a weak moment that hasn't yet arrived in my mailbox! And it's a good thing I've not pledged to stop buying books, as 5 more arrived in my Checkers business order!

Monday's shopping trip

OK - here is my first stash report. We'll see how this goes . . . .

28 yards added to my stash. This is the fabric I bought last Monday at my favorite quilt shop Momma Made It. I just couldn't pass it up as these are perfect for backgrounds, borders, sashings, backings, etc. All were on sale for at least 50% to 75% off. How could I resist. The average price of these? $3.75 per yard Can't beat that! Even though I had these fabrics when I wrote my stash busting post, they weren't washed or ironed - I don't include them in the stash until they are actually on the shelves. Hopefully I can get that done in the next day or two.

1/3 yard subtracted from my stash - I finally had a chance to finish Lily Abigail's quilt. Bad Grandma - she is now 7 weeks old! She is being dedicated at church tomorrow, so I figured that was a great time to give her the quilt. I loved how it turned out - and I love crossing another project off my list. Finn - this makes five finished toward my end-of-the-year goal! I hope her parents like it as much as I do - and that she likes it too once she is old enough to care.

Stashbusting goals - one more time!

I am addicted to fabric - I truly am. I love to gaze at it, stroke and pet it, play with it, iron it, smell it, use it - you get the idea. I know many of you share the same addiction and can relate completely to what I'm saying.

I'm also addicted to buying fabric. I love nothing better than going into a quilt shop and choosing new pieces for my stash, or getting online and ordering complete fat quarter or half yard collections of new lines as they are available. I get such a rush from getting boxes of fabric in the mail - it's like Christmas every time a new one arrives.

Since I've been quilting 30 years - give or take a year - this has become a real problem. I have a small but well organized sewing room with lots of stash storage. It is full. I've gone through the stash several times in the last ten to twelve years, culling completely outdated fabric (tiny multicolored calicoes - ugh!) and giving it all to charity. In no time the shelves are full again. Last month I made backings for a couple dozen quilts. I immediately filled up the space with newly washed and ironed fabric that had been laying under my big board waiting it's turn to join the rest on the shelves. I didn't show you a picture of the fabrics stacked up on my cutting table because I was just too horrified at the quantity - probably an additional 30 to 40 yards! And I can't even say that is the end of it, as I brought a bunch more home last Monday when I went to Momma Made It in Longview. Sharon has started her moving sale. I ask you - how can I resist backgrounds, plaids and remnants marked down 50 to 75%? They are now sitting on the closet floor waiting to be washed, ironed and added to the stash.

Ever since I started setting quilting goals I've promised I'll control my shopping and start depleting my stash. It doesn't happen. I've once again grown the stash this year. When one starts buying fabric by the bolt one goes backwards very quickly. Three 15 yard bolts of Kona Cotton later - a parchment, turkey red and a cheddar - and a 50 yard bolt of applique background for my historical quilts - so much for busting stash.

However, I'm still pledging to try. Judy has already started talking about busting stash in 2009 - she didn't do any better than I did this year. I've printed her pledge and signed it - I've pinned it to my design wall right over my big board where I'll have to see it every day. And I'm going to start keeping track of my efforts again. I stopped fairly early this year because as a scrap quilter it seemed too difficult to keep track of yardage used. Yesterday I read this post by Judy. My report doesn't have to be in yards! I can report emptied drawers, totes, baskets, plastic shoe boxes, etc. I can report a fabric stash decreasing in height by an inch or two. I can report any way that makes sense for the way I use my fabric. Hooray! That will work for me!

So - I'm committing right now - for the rest of 2008 and all of 2009. My goal by the end of 2009 is to have less fabric than I have right now.(Where have I heard that before!) This doesn't mean I'll stop buying - I think that's impossible - but I will - I WILL!!!! - use more fabric than I buy. And I'll do a weekly report along with the rest of Judy's stashbusters.

So with those things in mind I'll show you what the majority of the stash looks like right now (I just did a clean-up a couple weeks ago so I could put those 30-40 yards on the shelves). From top to bottom the pictures show:

Shelves on the south side of the room

Shelves on the west side of the room

Bolts of fabric on top of the shelves (there is also one in the closet)

One partial shelf holding the latest two kits I've purchased - they don't fit into the kit bins

Two kit bins under the longarm - you can tell by the list of "HSY's" (Haven't Started Yets) on my sidebar that I'm also addicted to kits.

Two more kit bins plus a cardboard box of kits under the other end of the longarm

I've not shown you any of my scrap storage - if you are interested in seeing that you can click on the "Organization" subject in the sidebar that will take you to pictures on past posts. Wish me luck with this - maybe the fifth or sixth try will be the charm!

I've done something very rash . . . .

I may live to regret this. Right now I'm feeling quite guilty. I thought I'd feel like a weight had lifted from my shoulders, but I don't. Maybe I will eventually - I hope so!

So . . . what is this terrible thing I've done? I've thrown out my crumbs. Totally thrown them out. They are in the garbage can by the curb waiting for tomorrow's pick-up.

Let me start at the beginning. I was taking a break from quilting by standing at the ironing board pressing scraps for cutting into squares, strips, bricks. I've been pressing and cutting for quite some time now, and have drastically reduced the number of scraps that are not in usable form. While I was pressing I started thinking about all the boxes and drawers of scraps already cut waiting for me to do something with them. I can't begin to imagine how many quilt tops I could make from those scraps - enough to keep me sewing for at least a year or two without ever touching anything else in my stash. As I was ironing I was also setting aside little pieces to go in the crumb drawer. The drawer that was still more than 3/4 full even though I sewed 1016 crumb chaos blocks last year. Hundreds of crumbs waiting for me to make Bonnie-style crumb quilts. I looked at those crumbs, and looked at all the scraps waiting to be cut, and looked at all the scraps already cut, and thought to myself "This is ridiculous!" Then and there I resolved to cut nothing smaller than 1 1/2" squares and triangles about that same size. The rest I would toss. That thought was quickly followed by another extreme - at least for me - thought. If I'm not going to save any more crumbs then why save the ones I already have. I certainly have enough to do without working with those. So, before I could change my mind, I took a plastic sack from the garage and dumped all the crumbs into it and then into the garbage can. As I was doing so I noticed some were probably big enough to cut a tiny square or triangle from, but I refused to allow that. I wanted them gone - I didn't want to have to deal with any of them.

So - am I going to miss those crumbs? No. Am I going to run out of things to sew without them? Hardly. Do I have an unlimited place to store stuff? No - I've already filled that drawer with something else.

Then why do I feel so guilty? I know why - because I hate wasting things. Even when I think it was the right thing to do.

Sunday Stash Report

This week I used stash on my Crumb Chaos quilts borders - a total of 7.5 yards. I also used another yard for the backing and binding of Happy Jack.

No new fabric entered the house this week.

Let's see if I can make a fairly accurate estimate on my stash depletion progress so far this year.

In: 15 yards border fabrics for crumb, string, and postage stamp quilts
1 1/2 yards reproduction double pinks
14 3/4 yards reproduction fat quarters

Out: 1/2 yard for bindings on Christmas table runners
7 yards for backings and bindings for Spare Parts and Leftovers
24 yards flannel for Crumb Chaos quilt backings
1/2 yard for Crumb Chaos Camping Quilt binding
7 1/2 yards for Crumb Chaos quilt borders
1 yard for Happy Jack backing, binding and sleeve

2008 so far - 31.25 yards in and 40.5 yards out for a net decrease of 9 yards. Better than I thought I was doing - those reproduction prints are always my downfall!

Stash report

Sunday is stash report day - for once I'm meeting the date Judy has set us LOL!

It's been a good week as far as purchases go - there were none. As far as busting stash - the report isn't so good. I didn't bust any that I didn't mention on Wednesday. Until yesterday afternoon I was still piecing flannel into 20" squares for camping quilt backs. Since then I've been prewashing, pressing and sorting the fabric purchases - as well as fabric gifts - from the last six months or so. I'm still doing that this morning. Once I'm finished with that I must get upstairs and start quilting R&R's camping quilt, as I have another top to quilt with a midweek deadline.One thing I did figure out, however, was a much better estimate of how much flannel I busted last week. Now that it's in 20" squares plus long strips to enlarge the back to the needed size the match was pretty easy. Looks like the 15 yards that I guessed in my Wednesday report was WAY under. I'm happy to say that I actually busted over 24 yards - a much better number! I have a total of 66 20" squares plus the extra strips, which should back at least three and possibly four more quilts. And it's so nice to have all those flannels out of my stash! I'm storing the squares on hangers in the sewing room closet for now. That keeps them nice and smooth, ready to sew together into quilt backs with no more pressing.

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Gratitudes:
1. TV shows on DVD
2. A dry day for Fred's golf game
3. Tiny snowdrops blooming along our front walk
4. Daffodils shooting up through the soil
5. Healthy Choice paninis - yum!

Stash report - better late than never

I'm either very late with last week's stash report or very early with the report due next Sunday. I supposed I could wait until next Sunday, but I'm guessing by then I might forget again to make my report.

I really didn't do very well with my stash busting efforts this past week and a half. I did use a lot of fabric - I cut up all the flannels in my stash into squares for making backs for crumb chaos camping quilts. I had a lot of flannel - I have no idea how much other than to report that the stack of larger pieces was about 12" tall and the stack of fat quarters wasabout 10" tall. I used my larger square rulers and cut 20 1/2", 18 1/2" and 16 1/2" squares. I cut the smaller pieces into rectangles - 2 1/2" x 20 1/2", 4 1/2" x 20 1/2", etc. - which I sewed onto the smaller square to bring them all up to the 20 1/2" square measurement. I didn't realize just how much flannel I had until I finished piecing the back for Rick and Rebecca's camping quilt. That back hardly made a dent in the stash. I should have enough more to back several of the other crumb chaos quilts. I'm glad to use up that flannel - I bought it many years ago and never used it for the original purpose.

It's a good thing I busted that flannel for quilt backs as I also brought a considerable amount of fabric into the house. I'm such a sucker for the new reproduction collections - especially those designed by Judie Rothermel. Her Merrimack collection of fat quarters arrived at my house at the beginning of the week - love these fabrics! Then half yards of her new 19th Century Backgrounds arrived yesterday. That makes 7 yards of background prints and 7 3/4 yards of the Merrimack collection for a total of almost 15 yards.

I'm going to guess that I busted more than 15 yards of flannel - surely it was at least that much! - so that makes for a new loss. Not much of a loss however!

Stash report

No new fabric purchases - hooray!
One flimsy quilted, bound and labeled - hooray!
Stash busted - 3 yards 6"

Unfortunately not much stash busted. Just the backing for the one flimsy. It was already pieced together and waiting, but I figure I can call it part of my stash so I can say I accomplished something!

Not much of anything quilty accomplished yesterday - just one hour of hand quilting. I hope I can keep my overactive organization gene at bay long enough today to get another flimsy turned into a quilt.

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Gratitudes:

1. Frozen lasagna, lazy lettuce, and crisp bakery bread - an easy, tasty meal!
2. A warm, fuzzy robe
3. Sleeping in a little
4. A walk down memory lane looking at old slides
5. A beautiful bouquet of pink roses from friends