Stash Report 10.31.10

BOO! and Happy Halloween!


Not much activity in ye ole quilting room this week. I unpacked most of my retreat stuff and put it away and I made one lonely 9" quilt block.

I'm thinking not much is going to happen this next week either. I will be chief in charge of Ernie......and yes, I think this is going to be quite a week. Wish us both luck!


This week's report:
Used this Week: 0 yards
Used Year to Date: 231 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 150.25 yards
Net Used for 2010: 80.75

Go over to Judy L's and see her amazing numbers and numbers from all the other stash reporters.

Success!

Just a quick note to say that Ernie is sporting a brand new knee. His surgeon is fabulous, thank you Dr. Greene. I hope recovery is speedy and Ernie will be dancing in the streets before too long. That should be fun since he has never been one to dance much!

Good thing I have lots of knitting and crochet projects to do. 2 afghans and 1 pair of socks in progress and Judy L's Knit Along starts Monday......can't wait!!!


I am working the gusset on this pair and want to have them off the needles before Monday so I'll be taking them with me today to work on while I sit with Ernie. I am loving working both socks at the same time. I hate that I let frustration get to me while learning new things. I'm glad I decided to give 2 circular needles another try. See, you can teach an old dog..........

All I Need....

...are a few more hours in my day! I have so much to do and so many places to go that right now I am feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Thank goodness my list is in order! What if I forget to pick up Taylor. What if I forget to pick up the things Ernie asked me to get for him. What if I forget to get the groceries. What if, what if, what if...........

The library! I forgot to write the library on my list! It's there now. Thanks for reading my vent. I feel better right now......see ya later~too much to do~~~

**Afternoon edit: Everything has been marked off the list. I was early to pick up Tay, had lunch with friends, did the library and groceries. Now to mark a few things off the home list.

Hand Knit Socks Rock

WaaHoo, my socks are done! Isn't it funny how the stripes don't line up! And I love how the right sock has just the seam stitches in white.......I don't care, it's not like I'm going to wear my socks with sandals.

Judy L is hosting a Sock Knit Along starting November 1st. I plan to use this wool to make Ernie a pair of socks. I have never made him a pair so I need to earn some good wife points. I'm thinking I hope he likes them but then again if he does, he'll want more.....such a dilemma I am creating for myself.


But first I need to finish these so I can use these circular needles. These are for me. I'm thinking I need to find a new pair of shoes to wear them with.

Design Wall Monday

Here it is again, my favorite day of the week in Blogland. I have a full cup of coffee, the washer is doing it's thing and I have set the timer.

I put these blocks up on my design wall last night, I had full intentions of taking a picture of them and putting them away but got sidetracked-aka sucked into the recliner. So this is what is on my design wall this morning. These are the first 2 blocks for the BOM Quilt Addicts group and project number 4 on my retreat project list. I have a fat quarter bundle that I have been saving for a special project. I used a little of the fabric for this top and decided it would be perfect for this years project.

There were several of us at the retreat that belong to the BOM QA group and some of us were working on our blocks. How fun it was to see what everyone was using for their blocks. And we got to see how some members blocks and Sonya's completed top looked. Stunning! Each project so different yet we used the same blocks.

Today I really want to continue on my weekend projects but can't. After a weekend away and another weekend full of planned things, I have domestic stuff to take care of today....darn, where is that maid I have been asking for.

Visit Judy L's and see fabulous design walls throughout Blogland.

Stash Report 10.24.10

Today is the last day of the retreat. Yesterday was interrupted with a trip to Urgent Clinic to get Hubby a few stitches in his hand. Just a "flesh wound"-nothing serious. I went back to the retreat center to sew the evening away. After backing up more than moving ahead, I decided to come home and sleep instead.

We played the Greedy Gift game-that is always a hoot! I won/stole/whatever a fabulous bundle of assorted fat quarters........so I included that in my report. Finishing the Hanky Panky top and making the back for another quilt really helped my stash numbers this week.

This week's report:
Used this Week: 13 yards
Used Year to Date: 231 yards
Added this Week: 4.5 yards
Added Year to Date: 150.25 yards
Net Used for 2010: 80.75

Go over to Judy L's and see her amazing numbers and numbers from all the other stash reporters.

Retreat Report

Just a quick retreat progress report. Most importantly, we are having a blast! Lots of sewing, talking, laughing, eating going on all the time. 14 women create no dull moments.

I'm making great progress and have 2 things marked off my list! I finished the Hanky Panky top. I'm very excited about this and wonder why I let it age for 2 years and 2 days. Sad. I'm excited to get this quilted.

Project 2 was the scrappy back assembly and I'm happy to say it is also finished. Sharlene and I will start our Christmas wall hanging in the morning.

Now I'm going to rest my tired brain for a few hours. We had show and tell this afternoon so I know I'll be dreaming of fabulous quilts.

My Bags Are Packed!

After my whining and sniveling on Tuesday, I'm all better now. I'm packed and almost ready to go. The taco soup is in the crockpot--my contribution for potluck dinner tonight. My bags are packed, my bed is made~~I come home to sleep. Royal Ridges is only a few miles from my bed and I'm a whimp!

I want to be super productive at this retreat so I am going with a plan......scary! So I'll write it here and check back in with how I did. With uninterrupted time to sew and talk and eat and be with great friends, I think I can do it all. Really, I think I can.

1~The Hanky Panky in the back...those blocks were put together at this very same retreat 2 years ago and I did nothing with them. Yesterday I laid them all out on the bed, pinned them in rows and found border fabric to go with it.

2~ The right/front package contains a quilt top that was finished in May 2010. I layed out 10 1/2" blocks to make a backing, they are all pinned in rows and ready to sew together.

3~My friend Sharlene and I bought a kit for a Christmas wallhanging last year and we are going to tag team and make ours this weekend.

4~Laying by project 2 is my fabric kit for this year's BOM Quilt-Addicts blocks. I haven't made my blocks yet so that will be caught up!

5~Back/right project bag is full of flannel blocks for the Split Decision Flannel Quilt top that I cut last month from by bin overflowing with flannel.

6~And the Happy Hour book/kit that I bought several years ago and now it's time to make the quilt. Pat from Bell Creek Quilts posted her top for Design Wall Monday and it reminded me I had this kit~Thanks Pat!

So there it is~!~The Plan! Let's see how I do! Oh I put my knitting in case I had time to work on my socks. Hahahahaha

I Can't Get Sick, I Just Can't!

Warning: this post is full of sniveling and whining.

I'm feeling a little blurry, kind of like this flower. I'm cold and achy and crabby! I want a nap and I can't get comfortable because I'm cold!

I have a quilt retreat this weekend. Ernie has surgery next week. I do not have time to get sick! I cannot be sick, he cannot be sick. That's just the way it is!

It's just after 4 and I'm going to put on my pjs, build a rip roaring fire in the stove and cuddle up in my clean flannel quilt. Tomorrow I will pack for the retreat, I will feel great! I have to. This is my only retreat this year......I have to feel great!

Design Wall Monday

This quilt has been named GO! Scrappy 1. All of the pieces for the blocks have been cut with the value die that comes with the GO! Cutter.

I started playing with my block bits yesterday. I have all the 4 patch corner blocks finished and now I'm ready to sew the half square triangle blocks together. Then the real fun begins with putting the blocks together.

I need to decide what to use for sashing and simple borders. Of course it is coming out of my stash. My stash is dwindling down to nothing so it makes it a bit tough at times. That is both a curse and a blessing. Although I don't think my husband would agree with me about the stash dwindling down to nothing.

Visit Judy L's to see what was on her design wall and then visit others to see their fabulous projects. I love Design Wall Monday!

Stash Report 10.17.10

Here she is in all her glory, my BOM from BOM-Quilt Addicts Yahoo group. I have named her "Oh My Stars" and I am in love with this quilt. I wanted to have her all finished before the retreat that is coming up but it didn't work out that way so I will show her off as a top. I need to order black batting and some backing. I'm also hoping to get a good photo this weekend.

I was quite amazed at the numbers when I finally added them up. I designed a similar quilt in EQ7 and used the same number of fabrics that are in the quilt. 1/8th yard pieces add up to a lot of fabric.

This week's report:
Used this Week: 13.5 yards
Used Year to Date: 218 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 145.75 yards
Net Used for 2010: 73.25

Go to Judy L's and see her amazing numbers and how others are doing to their stash.

**Happy Birthday today to my Dear Husband. He is getting a new knee next week-he thinks that's a darn good birthday present. Today he will get cake.

Sock Progress

I did it! I took a giant step in my sock knitting world. Remember the other day when I was all frustrated with the circular needles and switched to the bamboo double pointed needles??? I was happily working along a little each night while watching tv. Then Judy L posted this picture of her sock progress with the circular needles.

I started nagging myself~~~If Judy can learn to use the circulars, why can't you??~~~So I got them out again and transferred my socks back on them. I got out my book and read out loud over and over until it stuck in my head. Then I picked up the needles and talked myself through round 1, then round 2 and pretty soon it was time to make the heel flap. Scary!!! But again, I read out loud and talked myself through the process. Same with the gusset and now I'm headed to the toes!

See where the leg narrows about half way down??? I followed the pattern and cast on 60 stitches knowing that with my size 2 needles, I always cast on 48 but I followed the pattern. They were too loose so instead of starting over, I just decreased and will call it a new design. Yes, that's what I'm doing!

I was having a problem with the stripes not matching but I'm bringing out my younger, hip vibe and saying go with the flow.........these are socks, not a matter of life and death!


Here's my helpful to me hint. See the marker rings on the right? I took 2 rings and attached them with a split ring. When I need to make a decrease round, I slip both rings on the needle and that means to work 2 stitches together (I really do have to think this way!). When I am working a knit every stitch round, I only have 1 ring on. I have no idea where or when I read this but it sure has worked for me.

So today I will try my best to focus on the sewing room and not the knitting and the recliner. We'll see how that works out....

Design Wall Monday

It's been a week since I've done much sewing on anything other than the rug. Yesterday I took in Taylor's pants she wears for PE (why couldn't we wear yoga pants for PE???) and decided it was time to work on my next project.

I got out my bin of scrappy half square triangles that we cut with the GO! and started sewing more of them together. I had already designed my block with EQ7 (I have such cool tools!) and had a bunch of the sewn together. This quilt is going to take lots and lots of little HSTs. All of the pieces for this block were cut using the value die that came with the GO! cutter.

I can't work on a new quilt without seeing what the block will look like so I put this on the little design board and set it up by the machine for inspiration. I just love the crazy mix of colors with a scrappy quilt.

Grab something to drink and maybe a snack and head over to Judy L's and see her design wall and then start visiting other fabulous walls throughout Blogland.

Stash Report 10.10.10

I love a cool number combination, so today's date is a fun one for me. Only once in my life will I get to say today is 10.10.10!

I spent most of the past week either sewing on my rug, knitting or crocheting. My sewing room is lonely since the old Singer lives in my living room still. I really need to fix her a space in the sewing room!

I figured I used 3 1/2 yards of fabric for my rug. Before I started, I weighed the bag and weighed a 2 yard piece of fabric. After some careful Judy Math (technical term for hen scratching!) and a phone call to Crystal, I figured my bag had 5 yards of fabric in it. After I finished sewing and reweighed the bag and did even more Judy Math, I have 1 1/2 yards of strips left. These will be used for trivets or mug rugs or bowls or something.

This week's report:
Used this Week: 3.5 yards
Used Year to Date: 204.5 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 145.75 yards
Net Used for 2010: 58.75

Go to Judy L's and see her amazing numbers and how others are doing to their stash.

Taylor was out with the camera.......isn't this a fabulous photo? Can you find 4 hens? The girls and the dogs are having a blast in the leaves.

The Rug Is A Rug

The rug is finished. It's as large as it's going to be. Before I added the last 100 feet of cord, it measured 22 inches in diameter. It is now 30 inches. I had fun working on it. I made some mistakes, mostly pulling the cord too tight while I was sewing around so there are a couple of waves/buckles/whatevers. But I'll live with it. After all it is going on the floor to be stepped on by my tootsies.

Will I make another one? Probably not but this was a fun project. Now I am going to go back to quilting so I can have something on my design wall for Monday.

Today is a rainy, rainy day. I will set Taylor up with the GO! so she can cut some tumbler blocks and I will work on the last 2 rows of the black and bright stars. It will be a fun day here today.

Decisions

I'm not sure how big to make my rug. I thought I would end here with the diagonal red/yellow rounds. It's not very big but I could stand on it and keep my toes from hitting the cold floor first thing.

I have lots of clothesline and lots of binding left. I'm thinking I'll add at least 100 feet more of clothesline. Or maybe 200 feet because that's what I have left. My big plan (there's that word again!) is to use up all the clothesline. I guess I can always make mug mats or trivets. Thinking out loud or on the blog is always helpful for me.

While I was stitching away this morning and getting a bit wonky, I remembered I have a seam guide in the accessory box and wondered it would help me at all. What a great thought that was. I snugged it up against the cord and now I just go like I know what I'm doing.

I'm going to make more cord while the washer and dryer do their things-multitasking-and then I'm headed out to spend some quality time on my afghan while I chat with my Binding Friends. I missed them last week, they met on the same day as the great paint fiasco. Glad that's behind me now.

I've made up my mind, I'm just going to keep adding rounds until I run out of binding pieces or clothesline, whichever comes first. Wow, that was easy! Thanks for talking me through this. :~)

Design Wall Monday

My design wall is empty. Sad but true. I haven't done much quilting the last few days. I've been playing with these.

One day while blog hopping, I ran across this post at Jo's Country Junction. I bought a bag full of bindings at one of the quilter's sales that I think the lady must have steamed and pounded the crease in. I can't get it out so I put it away knowing that one day I would use them for making a corded bowl or something. And I have lots of cording. My something is a small rug for beside my bed.

I set up my 401A and started covering the cord. I wasn't going to sew the rounds on the 401A but had to try it. She sewed through that thick cord like a hot knife through butter. I love that girl!

I started making my rug oval like Jo did but it was all wonky. So I ripped it apart and started over with a round rug. My advise is to not rip. What a mess of strings and thread! This is where I left off. I have more binding strips and more cord. I'm not sure how big I will make this and probably won't know for a while. When my dad asked why I was making a rug, my answer was "So I can say I did." "Good enough!" he says.

Head over to Patchwork Times and see what others are up to.

Stash Report 10.3.10

I went to Goodwill......I love going to Goodwill. I found a nice stainless steel pitcher for my wooden spoons, a rack to hold my GO! dies, a t-shirt for me and 2 yards of 1994 Daisy Kingdom cotton that I had to bring home with me! Some days its just fun to stroll around the Goodwill Store.

Everything I used last week has already been accounted for. I finished 2 quilts, continued to work on the striped afghan and didn't work too much on the socks. I think I had a pretty good week if I forget Tuesday happened.

This week's report:
Used this Week: 0 yards
Used Year to Date: 201 yards
Added this Week: 2 yards
Added Year to Date: 145.75 yards
Net Used for 2010: 55.25

Go to Judy L's and see her amazing numbers and how others are doing to their stash.

My Sad, Sad Tomato Harvest

Here in mighty Western Washington State we've had the worst garden season I can ever remember. The garden weather just didn't want to be here. Heck, I couldn't even grow zucchini! I got 3 itty bitties and that was all.

Yesterday I decided to be done with the garden. I started picking the tomatoes. I picked them all, pulled off the cages and uprooted the plants. The cherry tomatoes are all going on the dehydrator. Most will become tomato powder, a few will go into bread or whatever. I planted several Roma plants, thinking I'd have a huge crop for sauce......not happening. I'm hoping some of them will ripen after picked but if not, we'll have green tomato sauce or something.

Today the dehydrator will be full of tomatoes, peppers and some carrots. At least the carrot crop is good, the darn slugs didn't get them all. I can't wait to leave the gate open so the chickens can go in and have a party.

**In the top picture the bowl is full of water. The second picture looks rather Christmasie doesn't it......oh, I am not ready to even think that way!!

Breakfast Thinking

Each morning I sit here at the computer and read my pages. It's like back in the day when I read the newspaper.......when news was based on facts, not sensationalism. Anyhow, I read Judy L's Patchwork Times and today she made me go read my flour labels. OK, I read labels a whole lot more than I ever did in the past but I didn't know I had to worry about flour, other than the fact that it gets over processed.

While I was reading my flour bag, I started noticing how few cans and boxes are in my pantry. I've done a pretty good job of doing away with them but there is still lots of room for improvement. I no longer buy boxed pasta or rice mixes, I make my own. If you search the internet, you will find a kabillion recipes for home made mixes. Me, I love Chickens In The Road Cooking Archives. I also use a book from the 1970s (way back when) called Make a Mix Cookbook. Simple, basic ingredients.

The photo above is what I'm having for breakfast--well not all of them, only 2 and that's probably too many. These muffins were made with Quick Mix (recipes from CIR) that I keep in a gallon jar, a fresh egg and blueberries from my freezer. They took about 5 minutes to mix up-including getting the pan out of the cupboard. It took longer to heat up the oven.

Yesterday we got word that our 1/2 beef is at the butcher and to expect the call for cutting and wrapping instructions. Nothing better than good farm beef in the freezer that was raised by someone you trust. Which reminds me, I need to re-organize my freezer next week.....another project.