Field Trips in Fiber

Stash Report

Cory and Mitchell visited last night and they loved their shirts! We had a great visit with them. They love being outdoors and fishing and they are really well-behaved kids. They can come back any time! Cory has decided that he wants to learn to make tie dye shirts so that he can make them and sell them for $9.99.

I spent a little too much time outdoors with them and I always have issues when people visit in general because so many people use so much fragranced soaps, lotions and shampoos. I'm not too bad though. A few naps and some Benedryl and I'll be as normal as I get!

On the stash front, it was another quiet week. 1.75 yards in from the dye studio and only 1/4 yard out for Alana's box lining. Some day soon I really will have a significant out count but I'm afraid there might be a large "in" purchase first.

We are six months in to the stash control program. When I started I had 2 objectives. One was to reduce the amount of fabric that I have. I'm accomplishing that. The second goal was to reduce the overall amount that I spend on my hobbies. I only track my fabric status here so the other stuff I buy, dyeing supplies, rolls of batting, mixed media stuff, doesn't get counted. In monetary terms I have actually spent more this year than last for the first 6 month. I did some analysis to see where I spent the money. It turns out that most of the additional expenses fall into 2 categories: supplies for new/expanded interests and bulk supply purchases. In the first category falls dyes, paints and plain muslin for dyeing. The second category includes 2 large rolls of batting (a 3 - 4 year supply), a bolt each of black and white Mistyfuse (a 5 year supply) and a Wacom tablet and CorelDraw software. I can't think of much else I could buy in large quantities for either if these categories so maybe I can stabilize for the rest of the year!

The current tally:

• This week IN: 1.75
• This week OUT: .25
• YTD IN: 110.5 yards
• YTD out: 156.5 yards
• NET OUT: 46 yards (Goal 100 yards)

Stash Report

Not a lot to report but I did use a little stash this weekend! I added 3 fat quarters from what I dyed yesterday. I used 3 yards for the placemats and napkins that I made today and I sent 2.5 yards of my metallic fabrics to some friends.

The current tally:

• This week IN: .75
• This week OUT: 5.5
• YTD IN: 108.75 yards
• YTD out: 156.25 yards
• NET OUT: 47.5 yards (Goal 100 yards)

Once I get the 4 QOV quilts quilted and bound (in the next 2 weeks) I will finally have an interesting report!

Christening the sink (and a stash report)

The stash report is at the end of this post.

I had higher priority projects (Kim's quilt, class samples) and I did work on them some but mostly I dyed fabric this weekend. I had to. The sink was calling. Really, it was!

Boy is my dyeing life easier now! Yesterday I mixed together my dye powders and made one set of fat quarters using each color so I would have reference fabrics. The red, yellow, blue and black fabrics on the bottom row are the standard primaries. The six on the top row are some additional colors - 2 reds, 2 blues, a green and a purple - that I got to try out. I like the reds and blues because they are closer to the red and blue colors that I like to use. I'm not fond of the green but I love the purple. I made those and the backing for my Quilt For an Hour quilt. That's a total of 9.25 yards.

Today I made this rainbow set of fat quarters. These are for someone on the MQResource list. I sponsored a prize in MARCH and am just now getting it done. I'm blaming it on the plumber. Then I decided to do a couple of parfaits. I could easily spend all of my dyeing time doing these - I just love them. The one on the left was done with orange on the bottom, then light red and then chinese red with a bit of purple. I should have made that last layer more purple. The one on the right is done with bright green on the bottom, brilliant blue in the middle and black on top.

Next I wanted to try a gradient. I want to do several sets of these. This one is a gradient of brilliant blue to Chinese red. I love the colors I got from these. I used the left over dyes on a 1 yard piece of fabric that was pleated on the diagonal, twisted and then curled in the container. What you see in this picture is 1/4 of the yard.

Today I dyed 4.25 yards.

I finished off my session in the sink room by painting some paper grocery bags. These are done on two steps. A base color to cover the bag. I wad up the paper while it is wet with paint and then stretch it out without flattening the wrinkles. After the first layer is dry I add a metallic layer of some sort. I used these papers to wrap my soaps - because I don't have anything better to do with my time!

The reason I tracked the the fabric I dyed is because I decided that I have to add my dyed fabrics to the stash too. I won't add the white fabric I stock for dyeing but once it's dyed it goes into the fabric cabinet. I made 13.5 yards of fabric this weekend. Some of this will go out in the mail this week and I'll count that next weekend. I didn't buy any other fabric and that's a big surprise - even to me! I had to go to the quilt store to pick up some fabric for a friend Friday night and I was certain I would buy some fabric for myself. Lucky for me, I guess, I started getting a migraine so I wasn't in the mood to shop. Imagine that!  I even had the excues ready - it was my friend's fault. I wonder if I can play that card another day?

I so want to buy fabric that I'm afraid I am going to soon have a week like Vicky. One day I'm going to come home to a mailbox of fabric resulting from too much "Proceed to Checkout" button pushing! If I do start buying I will not feel guilty. Judy wrote a great blog post about stashing today.

The current tally:

• This week IN: 13.5
• This week OUT: .5
• YTD IN: 107.25 yards
• YTD out: 147 yards
• NET OUT: 39.75 yards (Goal 100 yards)

Can I just insert here at the end that the spellcheck in the new Typepad editor is really, really crappy!

Stash Report and Other Stuff

The long weekend continues it's good streak. Yesterday we had company - a very rare event here at Casa Welsh. Our friends Mark and Margie braved I-95 to spend the afternoon with us. For me and Margie it was postcard making day! After we made a few postcards I HAD to take her to my favorite LQS. We were both rather well behaved but I believe that's a normal state for her. I bought the 3.25 yards shown in the photo. The piece on the right is for a gift box. The others were some Japanese fabric samples that Joyce and Phoebe brought back from Quilt Market. That nets against only 1/2 yard that we used making postcards.

I am finding myself with an overwhelming urge to buy fabric! I've even been shopping the on-line stores. So far I've been able to resist but I REALLY am itching for new fabric. So far the desire to make June 30 with a net out of 50 yards is winning.

The current tally:

• This week IN: 3.25
• This week OUT: .5
• YTD IN: 93.75 yards
• YTD out: 147 yards
• NET OUT: 53.25 yards (Goal 100 yards)

In other news, my article on painting fabric with metallic paints was published yesterday in Fibre&Stitch eZine.

You can purchase the issue here.  It's very exciting to be published and I found out that I actually enjoy writing. Hopefully I can come up with other topics to write about.

Stash Control Report

I didn't do a stash report last week because I wasn't even in my sewing room. Last week was all work and no play. I took Friday off thinking that I would get a jump start on sewing for the weekend but I spent the day making soap, putting up strawberries and chores. It all caught up with me yesterday. After a few morning errands and a fabric cutting session in the afternoon I was DONE! I sat in the recliner at 7 pm and, aside from an hour to get ready for bed, I slept until about 7 this morning!

One of my errands yesterday was to buy one fabric for my Quilt For an Hour project. I decided last week that I would do mine in bright colors. I'll show you all of the fabrics later but that orange in the photo is part of the palette! It might be bright and happy or it might be obnoxious.

The quilt shop was having a sale on batik fabrics - how timely! I got the orange but also fell in love with two more pieces. The patriotic piece and the wavy stripes. Judy, how about designing the next QFAH so I can use that patriotic batik. OK?

Now before you start wagging your finger at me for buying 2 fabrics that I didn't need and 3 yards worth of fat quarters you need to know that I put 4 bolts back on the shelf before they started cutting!

Here's the current tally:

This week IN: 12.5 (from yesterday's purchases)

This week OUT: zero

YTD IN: 90.5 yards

YTD out: 146.5 yards

NET OUT: 56 yards (Goal 100 yards)

and the winner is........

Sarah! She guessed 67 yards.

Typepad must limit the number of comments that it displays because some of the most recent ones are not showing. Sarah's entry does not show but, trust me, it's there! Thanks to everyone for playing along and I am thrilled to tell you that the actual yardage on those boxes was even higher than Sarah's guess. it was

77 yards!!!

So here's the tally for the week

This week IN: 18.25 (from yesterday's purchases)

This week OUT: 78 (1 yard of the giveaway fabric)

YTD IN: 78 yards

YTD out: 146.5 yards

NET OUT: 65.5 yards (Goal 100 yards)

Wow, that felt good! It's nice to know that all of that fabric will be used for community service quilts. I can even tell that there is a little more space in my fabric cabinets. I sure hope I can keep from stuffing it full again.

Time for a giveaway.....

but you will have to work for it!

A couple of my Internet friends do charity quilting and I offered to send them some fabric for their projects. I packed it up into these two boxes. I'm not favoring one over the other. The large box is going to the person who coordinates several projects and the smaller one to a person that does all of the sewing herself. So please don't think that one is being cheated!

Are you ready for the challenge?

My article about making these metallic painted fabrics will appear in the next issue of Fibre&Stitch. To celebrate I wanted to give away some of the samples that I made for the article. Here's how you can win these 4 fat quarters. Post a comment with your guess of the amount of fabric in both boxes combined. The person who comes closest to the correct number will win the metallic fabrics. If more than one person is a winner then one final winner will be randomly selected as the winner.

Here's some information to help you guess the amount of fabric.

• The ruler behind the boxes is 20 1/2 inches square
• The boxes also contain some scraps that are NOT counted int the total. The scraps take up the equivalent space of two filled gallon sized plastic bags.
• Both boxes are stuffed full
• Sorry, I don't know the weight.

I'll select the winner Sunday morning when I post my stash report for the week. It's going to be a GOOD stash report!

Stash Report

I knew it would not be a good week for a stash report because I went to the LQS yesterday.  They had just gotten in these fabrics  (Shiki from In The Beginning) and you know how difficult it is to find good light value fabrics. I HAD to get them - all 6.25 yards in fat quarters. The problem is that they had another fabric in that I am aching to buy. She has the Timeless Treasures Taxi collection. BLACK AND YELLOW! Really, how often is there a graphic black and yellow fabric? I don't want fat quarters - I want YARDAGE of this stuff.

I think I need to find someone to donate a lot of older fabric to. I've only used 1 yard this week - making samples for my machine quilting class at Quilting Adventures.

I don't feel so bad though - I did better than Judy! But she went to Paducah - how was she supposed to behave herself after all?

• This week IN: 6.25
• This week OUT: 1
• YTD IN: 59.75 yards
• YTD out: 69.5 yards
• NET OUT: 9.25 yards (Goal 100 yards)

Stash Report and other things

Home from MQX and time to tally the damage. I think I did great! I only bought 8.5 yards. Aside from the convention I also went to 2 quilt shops; one in Massachusetts and Keepsake Quilting. I made it out of Keepsake with NOTHING!

We will not talk about the thread though. I bought lots and lots of thread but you can't beat getting Superior threads at wholesale. I don't have a wholesale license so these shows are the only times that I buy thread. They keep coming out with fantastic colors.

Judy recently set a specific stash reduction goal for the year. I laughed at her until she talked me into doing the same. I suppose she needs someone to be there with her on December 31 when the goal isn't met! Her goal is to have a net reduction of 150 yards. Ha! Not a chance that I'll set such a lofty goal. I'm going to set mine at 100 yards. Remember I'm just doing this for moral support. It will be a miracle if I actually do it.

• This week IN: 8.5
• This week OUT: 0
• YTD IN: 53.5 yards
• YTD out: 68.5 yards
• NET OUT: 15 yards (Goal 100 yards)

I don't have any fiber photos so I'll share a couple of photos that I took out in the yard last week. I was hoping to have updates from the bird boxes today but it's raining. If we get a break in the rain we will do a quick photo inventory.

In other news.....it's great to be home! I love going to quilt shows but I always really love coming home to my own environmental bubble and my bed. While I was away this week I used some of my time to re-think some of the things I am working on. As I work on preparing my list each week and always have more to do than time to do it in. I needed to reprioritize. 

I decided that I have 3 primary goals:

1. Make more advanced quilts that I can enter into shows and that will develop my quilting and design skills
2. Spend more time developing classes for my LQS and possibly develop more articles for publication
3. Make more community service quilts, especially QOV quilts

I also want to have time for:

• Making gifts
• Quilting for my Mom, Anne and Kim
• Learning more about color theory and dyeing - which could play into primary goal #2

What have I been spending my time on lately? I have been doing some community service quilting but I haven't worked on any of my quilts for a few months. I have been working on 2 classes for the LQS and an article for F&S but they took a lot longer to develop than they should because I didn't have time to devote to them. I still haven't quilted my Mom's Stack and Whack (which would feed into primary goal #1) and I haven't worked on my color theory posts since October.

What else? I spent a lot of hours on the MQResource triptych challenge in January and February, I took the Monoprinting class in March and didn't have time to get through all of the lessons and I've been spending about 20 hours or more each month on the Take It Further Challenge. I also an signed up for 3 days of classes with Laura Cater-Woods at the end of this month.

Some things are going to have to give. Going forward, if I take any classes I will only take those that will support one of my goals or that will focus on technique/skill development rather than just starting yet another project. Aside from the 2 postcard swaps that I belong to, I am not going to participate in any more exchanges or challenges and I am going to drop the Take It Further Challenge. I enjoy the challenge and developing ideas for the challenge but I am spending way too much of my time on those projects.

I really hate to give up on things but you can't do everything and I don't need to get frustrated over a hobby! With that, here's my current list:

• Load and quilt the Guild baby quilt
• Work on samples for the MQS machine quilting class
• Get my materials together for the LC-W classes that start Saturday
• Paint more of the black feathers from the MQX class.

What are your tips for setting and managing your priorities?

Stash Report

Yes, I bought fabric! My friend, Neely, is having a baby and she picked the Monkey'n Around fabric. The nursery is going to be the mint green color in this collection. I had planned to design the quilt and then order exactly what I needed - until I realized that this line is dwindling in availability and then Fat Quarter Shop put the bundle and yardage on sale. The prints in yardage were limited to I bought the bundle and two yardage pieces. The green because she wants that as her primary color and the stripe to use for the binding.

The fabric out this week includes 4.5 yards for the baby quilt that I finished earlier this week and 2.5 yards of fabric that I gave to Kim. Technically the fabric I gave to Kim can be counted out of TWO stashes. It's fabric that my Aunt Edna Mae gave me from her stash! It still had the price tag on it - 55 cents per yard! I guess she purchased it in the 60's or 70's. It's a small print floral that I found in my stash recently and knew that it was just the kind of print that Kim likes for her summer skirts. She made the skirt yesterday! She said that she loves the skirt so much that we are going to get tired of seeing it. See, no fabric every really goes bad.

This week IN: 10.5

This week OUT: 7

YTD IN: 45 yards

YTD out: 68.5 yards

This is all going to go totally pear-shaped at MQX. Just wait and see.

This and that....

Let's start with the stash report. It's boring this week! Nothing in, nothing out. I've been working on lots of stuff but nothing that uses a lot of fabric.

This week IN: 0

This week OUT: 0

YTD IN: 34.5 yards

YTD out: 61.5 yards

I'm continuing to make progress on my list but there's nothing interesting to show. Yesterday turned into a slow day. After I got all of the financial records sorted I wanted to put some in the attic. The short version of the adventure is that it ended with a bad allergic reaction so I was very sluggish the rest of the day. Today I hope to get the last piece of the scrubs sample made. It's going slow because it's kind of boring. To make it interesting I am using a different machine in each of the 3 pieces: my fancy Pfaff, the serger and a straight stitch only machine.

It's chilly today so I hope to spend the afternoon and evening with my TIF maybe watching an old movie on TV. I did have a nice visitor yesterday. The Great Blue Heron came by to do a little fishing. Here's a close up taken from inside my living room!

As soon as I tried to open the window for a better shot he flew away. I always get excited to see the Heron visit. During drought years when the pond levels are down it's fun to watch him stalk around the edge of the pond.

All-in-all, not a bad day!

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Easter Stash Report

I don't have a fiber photo for you today so I'll share this photo of the blooms on our peach tree. We never get any peaches off this tree. Just as the peaches are getting ripe the deer eat every single peach! We go out on a morning and find the ground covered in peach pits.

I have a GREAT stash report this week! As of last week I had YTD 33 yards in and 17 yards out.

I'm not counting Anne's gift and you all seemed to agree that's fair. My only other addition was 1.5 yards of this Monkey N Around fabric. I'm making a baby quilt for a friend and she picked this as her theme. I was so happy, I love the sock monkey fabrics! This is a good example of the discipline that I am trying to develop around buying fabrics. I decided that I would design the quilt before buying the remaining fabrics. Usually I would just buy about 6 times more than I needed so that I could make "whatever".

But I have a great "out" report this week! First the fabric from my Chinese Coins QOV. I don't count any fabric until the project is totally complete. According to EQ this pattern uses about 9 yards of fabric. I think that's an over-estimation so I'm going to count 7.5 yards for the top and 6 for the back. I dyed 7 for the back but had some left over that went back into the stash. I also used about a yard for the pillowcase. That's 14.5 for this quilt.

When I went to my Guild meeting last week one of the members did an amazing show and tell of about a dozen children's quilt tops that she has been making for a couple of local groups. One of the things she is doing is making nap quilts for a local Head Start program. She asked for donations of bright kids fabrics. I decided that some of my fabrics needed to be in her quilts so I put together a box of 30 yards of fabrics - everything from large yardage to fat quarters. She also took about 7 bags of poly batting - stuff that I had bought to for practice on my longarm but never used. She took a box and a large black trash bag from my sewing room and you can't even tell! Pitiful.

This week IN: 1.5 yards

This week OUT: 44.5 yards !!!!!!!

YTD IN: 34.5 yards

YTD out: 61.5 yards

Net OUT 27 yards. Finally, some progress in the right direction. Please let me have some tiny bit of self-control at MQX.

Weekend In Review

Spring is finally arriving. Here's a little photo of the daffodils in bloom by the pond. Spring is a double-edged swprd for me. It's much prettier outside but it means that I go back indoors for Spring - Summer - Fall allergy seasons. I can't complain though. We had a much longer winter this year and I'll son be eating fresh veggies from Chris' garden.

Lets start with the Stash Control report. I didn't buy anything this week and I packed up about 6 yards of strings and pieces larger than 1/2 yard to send to someone making QOV quilts.  I didn't actually total my purchases from last week but it was about 28 yards. I went back through my previous posts and I think I have my year to date stats calculated as:

This week IN: zero

This week OUT: 6 yards

YTD IN: 33 yards

YTD OUT: 17 yards

Net: IN 17 yards

There will be some real stash reduction in next week's report!

I haven't gotten as much done as I wanted this weekend. I finished Wanda's second QOV quilt and that's about it so far. Thats A-OK because I had a great time Friday with my nephew. I picked him up at the Eastern Trombone Workshop sponsored by the US Army Band at Ft. Myer in Arlington. Ft. Myer is the base that serves Arlington Cemetery. The Post Chapel is where many of the funerals for Arlington Cemetery take place and was right next door to the building where James was attending his Workshop. This little Chapel is also where Chris and I got married 20 years ago. It was very cool to see it again!

After the Trombone extravaganza we headed to the State Theater, in Falls Church, for the Pat Metheny concert. His music isn't everyone's cup of tea. It's what I call "art music". It's very technical and experimental and the concert was awesome! Take a look at this video and you'll get a taste of his music and will see his custom "guitar" Pikasso I.

Pat Metheny Video

 

Bad Vicki. Bad, bad Vicki.

You know it's going to be a fun day when you arrive at the first fabric store and Kim has already secured a shopping cart! She only beat us there by 5 minutes. Kim and Denise were having so much fun and I thought it would be rude not to join in. So I jumped in with both feet!

Our first stop was Quilting Adventures where Kim took advantage of a great rayon batik sale and Denise bought several quilt backs and a bag of fat quarters. I found this red, white and blue stripe to use in future QOV quilts and the ugly print at 60% off to use for my metallic painting technique. Quilting Adventures has also started selling Wonderfil Invisafil. I've been using the black and I love it so I picked up white and beige.

We had to break for lunch before heading to Quilter's Corner in Midlothian. It's like we won prizes! I bought waayyy too much stuff but Denise needed the support. I totally fell in love with the Moda Mary Engelbreit Friends and Flowers fabric. Wasn't I lucky that they had the entire collection in a fat quarter bundle. I picked up another fat quarter bundle of bright tone-on-tone fabrics. Of the large pieces the two on the left were on sale, the green floral was a pure frivolous purchase, the stripes are for possible QOV quilts and the sport print is for a couple of Project Linus quilts using Mary's quick quilt pattern.

I think I've been a very good friend today.

Total stash Used: ZERO!

Total stash added: a lot

I'm in a bind....

That was easy! It's amazing how well made kits are there days. This one from Costco went together in about an hour and a half and that included all of the clean up too. Not only did it go togther quickly, it actually works as advertised! Chris is happy so I'm happy. :)

I could have joined Judy's Quiltathon given all of the quilting I accomplished yesterday! The theme of this weekend is turning out to be "binding". I finished all of the hand sewing on Flora's maple leaf quilt and made the binding for her second quilt. The big surprise is that I got all of the quilting done on Wanda's pinwheel QOV. I'll show the quilting when I do the final shots of the quilt after it's done. I did an all over swirl except for the pinwheels and light squares. I like how it turned out and I got the binding made for that one too. Today I will sew binding to these 2 quilts and work on my F&S article photos.

Kim is coming over for dinner. Chris is making crab cakes. Yum!!

Stash Report

Now that Flora's first quilt is done I can report the backing and binding fabric as offically OUT of the stash! I did not purchase any fabric this week but I did restock lots of MistyFuse but that doesn't count.

In: zero!

Out: 6.5 yards

Stash Control Report

I have a quick report this week and it's dangerous of me to post it now since I will be at the LQS for 2 hours this afternoon! If I buy anything today I suppose I'll add it to my report next week.

I did buy fabric this week.  I bought 2 yards of the Floragraphix that I used in the second apron that I made yesterday. It didn't even make it into the stash! I also restocked solid black fabric and bought 5 yards. I think that was about $38.

In addition to the 2 yards used for the Floragraphix aprons, I used 3 more yards for the 2 other aprons. So 5 yards in, 3 yards out. Not bad!

I also sold the remianing longarm things that I put up for sale. So for the month I'm still way ahead with more money in than out. That will not hold. The Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival is in a few weeks!

Birds, friends, stash and progress

There really has been a lot of progress in my sewing room but I've nothing to show for it quite yet! Today Kim and Anne came over for a fun sewing day. It's a real treat to sew with friends and share a great pot roast lunch that Chris prepared. Anne finished binding a quilt and put the waistband on a skirt, Kim worked on her red wool coat and I worked on my Take It Further project. It should be done tomorrow. I do have a photo to share though. While we were in the sewing room a huge flock of blackbirds flew by the window. I snapped this photo of them while they rested a moment on the front lawn.

A little reminiscent of Hitchcock maybe?

I've also worked on my Triptych challenge pieces. One is complete and I'm happy with it. The other is about to go through a third iteration. I'm not happy with it yet but I think I finally have the right direction. Judy, if you are reading this, yours might be a few days late!

Stash Report

It's been an interesting week. I haven't bought anything (good) but haven't used much because all of the pieces that I am working on are small (not so good)!  But, I have reduced inventory. A couple of weeks ago I straightened out my longarm stuff and decided to get rid of some books and videos that I do not use anymore and some threads that I had accidentally bought as duplicates. I posted them for sale on the longarm list and they were snapped up. Ironically and accidentally I have recovered basically the cost of the paints that I bought last week! So here it is near the end of January and I'm near zero for purchases so far this year! That won't last but it's a good start.

Back to my sewing room and my TIF project.......

Does paint count in stash stats?

For my tracking all of my purchases count. I have one category in Quicken for my hobby purchases and it's that category that I'm trying to get under control. There was NO control on these purchases! In my defense I basically used up all of the starter packs and sample sets of both Jacquard and Stewart Gill paints. From Dharma (right) I re-stocked dye powders and bought new Jacquard paint colors. From Artist Cellar I stocked up on lots of new colors and even added some Galactica and TrueColours to the stock. Don't choke. I spent about $300.

The sad thing is that I am still below my average monthly expenditure rate and I'm still on the positive side of the ledger.

On the stash use side I used fabric this week! Woohoo! The ugly quilt that I finished yesterday has about 6 yards of fabric in the backing and binding! It was a wide back and there was one long piece left over. I cut that into fat quarters for dyeing. I'm preparing my Great-Grandmother's quilt tops for quilting and the backing and binding are all coming from the stash. I won't count those until they are actually done.

I used some of my dyes yesterday. I took a side trip off of my list and dyed these fabrics. Each is 2 yards. I was going to show you how I made them because I had great plans. After I got everything in the dye vats for curing I suddenly realized that I had mixed my dyes all wrong and used 50% more than I needed. But there's no such thing as ugly fabric - these were all dyed for painting so you'll see them again soon!

Sunday Stash Control Report

I actually had a good week from a stash control point of view. I had to take my serger and my Pfaff 7550 in for service so stopped by Hancock's right next door. This is all I bought - 5 colors of acrylic felt to restock base fabrics for my mixed medial boxes and about 10 yards of cheesecloth. I paint this to use in the boxes too. All totaled only about $32.

But wait until next Sunday. I went mad buying Stewart Gill paints last night. I'll do that confession next week but I'll post later today about my experience with the.

I haven't produced much in the way of finished product. I have taken about 3 yards of ugly fabric from my stash and transformed it with the metallic paints. I don't think that counts as stash busting since they are still just fabrics!

Don't forget to check out other blogger's stash reports through Judy's blog.

Stash Report

There's not a lot to report this week. But what I have is good!

• I didn't buy anything - no fabric, no books, no tools, no beads, no yarns, nothing!
• I used about a yard of fabric from the stash to finish off the Christmas boxes and, except for the red fabric, all of the fabric in Anne's quilt is from stash. The backing was hand dyed for the quilt but I'm not counting my hand dyed fabric. I dye it as I need it.
• I used 5 fat quarters for the metallic painting and gave 4 of the 5 pieces away. I want to paint more of them Wednesday.

The interesting thing that I've noticed after the Christmas box extravaganza is that I've used almost a bolt of WonderUnder, almost all of my MistyFuse, about half a bolt of Timtex and used up a couple of colors of felt. I don't really consider those stash items since I buy them as I need them. I like buying these supplies by the bolt because it's less expensive and it keeps me out of the fabric stores!

I will probably buy some more felt this week since Hancock's is next door to the sewing machine store. I've got to take my Pfaff in for a service. It needs it desperately!

I am looking forward to getting back to my normal sewing and some more fabric painting this week. Christmas is officially OVER!

Stash Report

I know that Judy isn't doing a stash report this week but since I've been spending money I thought I need to 'fess up!

I didn't buy any fabric and I have used a few yards to make my boxes this week. But I did buy some other things. First, I bought these supplies for doing Kumihiro braids. I've been wanting to make some cords for various projects and to use up some of the assortments of yarns that I have. These were about $35 and I got them on eBay from this seller.

These are the other items I bought. From my LQS, I picked up a sampler set of Wonderfil threads (because I liked the color palette), the Stitch Journeys book that goes with the threads and a specific issue of Australian Patchwork and Quilting because I was looking for a specific article.

I also ordered 3 books: one on braiding to use with my disks, a book about fabric bowls made from fabric-wrapped cording and one on paper making. I want to try the fabric bowls once I finish my locker hooked rug. I used to make paper and want to get back into it to make paper from some journals. All of this stuff was about $150.

My total for the month comes to about $215 and, I hate to admit it, but that's REALLY good for me! None of my expenditures were for fabric. I'm taking extra credit for that.

Stash Report and More Boxes

My weekend list is still mostly undone. I've been busy all weekend bit things are talking longer than planned! My Mom is here and is quilting her THIRD quilt of the weekend. I feel like we're running a sweat shop! All I accomplished is these 2 boxes for Christmas gifts. I'm really please with both of them but they sure took a long time! then cool thing is that I used some yarns and specialty fabrics that I've had in my stash for a while and had not used yet. I didn't use much of them but I did use them!

In the stash control front I made 2 purchases this week: a pillow form for a specific project and this lame gadget. It was only $10 and I thought I might be able to use it to sew my backing fabrics onto the zippers for the longarm. I hate using pins because I always stick myself at some point in the process. Don't bother to try the Sew Quick, it didn't work for the leaders. I think next I will buy a curved stapler as recommended by Jessica Schick in a class at MQX last year. Fabric wise, I used about a yard of fabric for my gift box projects and Mom shopped the stash for some binding fabric. Not much usage but no additions either!

Back to box and gift bag making......

Stash Control Report

When your project is postcards you don't use a lot of stash! The big news is that I went to the Bead Show yesterday and this is all I bought! $16! The two spiral pieces ($6) don't count anyway because I bought them to be Christmas ornaments! My tree has all handmade glass ornaments and I thought these would look great at the top of the tree.

The three strands are flower beads. I bought one in patriotic colors, one in Christmas colors and one multi-colored one. 3 for $10. I thought they might be good in postcard designs.

On the way home I stopped by my favorite LQS. I was booed when I entered because my friend Kim had ratted me out about the stash control program! They tried and tried to see me two new collections. It was difficult too because my MQResource secret quilter gave me a gift certificate at the shop! She must be one evil woman to tempt me like that! LOL! She's wonderful actually because I bought an 8 x 24 ruler that I've been wanting and a couple of packs of crystals to replace some of the ones that I used on the Christmas postcards. I didn't buy ANY fabric or yarn or other "raw materials"!

Not a bad week. I'm leaving shortly to meet Mary and Deb and then to visit my adorable niece! More photos later today...

Weekend Roundup

The weekend trip to DC was lots of fun. The surprise party was a real surprise for the birthday boy and it was great to catch up with friends. We delivered the quilt to Matt today. When he said he had a trophy room, he was serious! I'm not a big fan of stuffed animals but that's his thing and it makes him happy. He was thrilled to get the quilt and it is perfect for his room. He even has the perfect spot to hang it. It was as if he saved the one particular wall for the quilt. I think the quilt will be very happy there!

I rarely have a trip without a good allergy story and this one did not disappoint! We ate before the party so that I would not have to eat anything at the party. I never eat party food because I don't know exactly what's in it. On the way back to the hotel I was hungry so we drove through McDonald's for some fries. I haven't had any McDonald's fries in years but I used to eat them because it's the only food there that I can eat. A few hours later I awoke with a bad allergic reaction and it was a typical dairy reaction. What could it be - I only ate french fries? When I got home today I checked the McDonald's web site and found out that their french fries have DAIRY PROTEIN in them! It seems that when they stopped cooking them in beef fat and then removed the trans fats that they needed to add back flavor. The added beef flavor and casein to the mix. Damn it. I wish the health nuts would leave the bad food alone. We are adults and can choose what we want to eat. We do not need a whole bunch of unnecessary stuff added to food to make it taste like it used to. Leave the food alone. French fries should be potatoes, oil (the original good stuff), salt. Period.

Oh well.

In Stash Control I don't have a lot to report. I haven't added to the stash and everything I made this week came from the stash. It's just that everything I made is small so I didn't actually use a lot of stash. We'll just consider this week "acceptably unchanged".

Stashbusting, the counter argument

If you have some time and need a good laugh please read Helen's post on her position re stashbusting and the judges final verdict on charges of libel against her. She's obviously a very good lawyer!

WIP Wednesday

and no photos! I apologize for that. I hate to post without pictures.

I haven't posted in a few days because I've not been feeling great. I've had 3 migraines in 8 days and have had some persistent allergy symptoms. I can't figure out what the allergen could be though! I've passed 36 hours without a migraine now and have my fingers crossed for the rest of the week.

I have progressed on a few projects:

• My first set of Christmas postcards are almost done. Hope to have a picture to post for you soon
• I've made some good progress on the locker hooking rug
• I finished quilting Anne's quilt and sent some fabric to Debra so that she can embroider a label for me. That's going to be really cool, I usually just print my labels on fabric with my ink jet printer.
• I've started planning my next set of Christmas postcards - I hope to come up with 3 designs.

I also cleaned up a lot of piles around the house. Occasionally I get the need to fill garbage bags. So we cleaned out 3 bags of clothes and things from our closets and next I will hit some of the other closets in the house. I'd love to fill the car with stuff for the thrift shop! Aside from my sewing stashes, I hate having too much stuff in the house. I want things to be used and prefer to give a useful item away rather than keep it for "someday I might need it". I rarely need the item and by the time I'd want to use it I would want the new and improved version anyway.

On the stash control front I've been good. But it was easy because I haven't gone anywhere! My LQS is having a Fat Quarter Frenzy sale this weekend. Fortunately Chris and I will be out of town so I will miss it. I am going to order a rubber stamp for the backs of my postcards - does that count as stash? I don't think so and besides I am ordering it to use right away!

Back to the stash - you will want to sit down for this one

I enjoyed reading everyone's responses to my stash control post. Some made me laugh out loud but some made me realize that I needed to clarify some points:

• I'm not stupid, I am not trying to stop spending money on inventory. That's crazy talk! Let me provide some perspective. If I cut my spending in half I will probably move from the top 10 spenders at my LQS and drop respectably into the top 25. I don't think she will go out of business, nor will I be leaving empty handed every time I visit. Willpower isn't one of my strong character traits.
• My goal really is to cut my spending in half but only as the metric. It's not a money issue, that just seems a good target to control the amount of stuff I have to store. I'm not in the mood to actually inventory what I have. Since I track my expenses like an accountant, I can easily compare 2008 expenses to the average monthly expense for the last 3 years. How much is that? The number is big enough that I'm embarrassed to tell you!
• The real reason that I'm trying to do some stash control is that I really like the fabrics that I have and I want to use them! No need to add more to make many of the projects that I have on my "want to do list".

So there you go. I'm just trying to keep the floor from collapsing and to use some of the great fabrics that I already have. Don't recommend that I expand my space - I figure that my sewing/quilting/craft space in this house already covers about 1000 square feet!

Oh, and as a reward, I might just buy this for myself next year! You may remember that Mom and I used the Pfaff 2058 in our class in Houston and we both fell deeply in lust with it!

Now for your entertainment pleasure, here are the highlights of my current stash. I suppose that I could take these photos again in a year and see the comparison. (Probably not.)

Let's stat with thread - I ADORE THREAD! All kinds of thread.

General sewing thread and piecing thread is stored in this cabinet under one of my sewing tables. Of course it's labeled and categorized as is everything in my sewing spaces.

And Willie has his collection of (primarily Superior) thread. I am certain that I will buy lots more of these when I can get them for half price at MQX in April. I like having 2 or 3 good options for a quilt.

Finally, I store other specialty threads (metallic, Acrylic, clear, some rayons......) on these shelves in the containers highlighted with the red box.

That leads us right into the fabric tour. The rest of those shelves are all of the scrap bins. There are 2 large bins of 6" charm squares (I have loads of ideas for those), squares of other sizes, strips and bits. belows these shelves is an old microfiche cabinet.

When I first put this in for my fat quarter storage there was a lot of free space in those drawers. They are now packed to the gills with a lot of overflow here in my quilting fabric cabinet.

There was a certain amount of organization to this cabinet but now several bins of fat quarters have started a coup. If I could downsize (through completion of a project) a couple of those white baskets it would be really cool!

I actually have two of these BIG cabinets. The other one was for garment fabric storage.

I donated about $1000 worth of wool fabric to my local University fashion department last year when I realized that I had become so allergic to wool that I couldn't even handle it anymore. That cleared up one entire shelf which became a convenient place to store that huge plastic bin of yarns. I don't knit, these are for embellishment only! I mostly buy them on sale once a year at a shop near my friend's river house. I only buy yarn on sale but it's still a LOT of yarn! And that leads us to all of the stuff I have accumulated since I discovered fabric postcards and Sue Bleiweiss'  mixed media classes. All of these things are mostly her fault.

The silk fiber collection

The sparkly stuff collection

The ribbons and trims

The beads - I really like beads because they don't take up much space!

There's one last stop on the stash tour, the button department! This cabinet is another cast off from work and once held canceled checks. It's also a great magnetic bulletin board.

The only thing stored in it now is BUTTONS! I have collected buttons since I was given my Grandma Dove's button bag. In the past few years I have bought several large lots from eBay. I have 2 drawers like these with un-sorted buttons.

This drawer has my "special" buttons

But the rest of the drawers, fortunately, are not stuffed but they are sorted by color.

There it is. My sewing room in it's full stash glory! You should be feeling a little queasy right about now. Do you now understand why I do not need to buy ANYTHING else?

I think I'll start buying art glass again instead. Art glass is one of my favorite things. I have several pieces and never grow tired of any of them. I even like glass jewelry better than precious stones. I picked up this piece at a juried craft show a week ago. I can't believe I bought art for my bathroom but it sure looks nice there! Even Chris likes it.

Meanwhile, back in the sewing room. All of the fabrics I dyed this morning are a all washed and dried. I'm really happy with all except one piece. I'll paint over it to see if I can improve it. I'm also working on some Christmas postcards with all this stuff.

This has to be my longest post EVER! If you've read this far you deserve a break - a chocolate break.

Can I get my stash under control?

A few months ago my husband offered to knock out a wall and enlarge my 14 x 17 sewing room to add another 130 square feet. I told him that it was a bad idea because I would just fill the new space with even more stuff that I can’t use in my lifetime. I meant it in jest but it’s truer than I wanted to admit!

Can you really have too much sewing stuff? This past week I have determined that the answer is a resounding

YES!

Two things happened to bring me to that conclusion – three actually, if you count the comments from my Mom and friends over the past couple of years – “You have too much stuff, why are you buying more fabric?”

A week or so ago I got a little overwhelmed by the work and project lists running through my head. I decided to write everything down – work on one list, personal on another. It’s working very well to keep my time focused. The work list is under much better control but the home is 2 columns typed! I have no less than 27 projects in some stage of progress or that I have committed to do and another 10 or so projects that are ideas that I want to do. Additionally, I pretty much have ALL of the materials that I need to make EVERYTHING on the list.

That was my first clue.

When I was making the postcards this weekend I pulled out everything pink that I could find throughout my various stashes. I couldn’t find a lot of pink – which is fine because I mostly dislike pink – but I sure found lots of other stuff. (Of course I did find enough pink, so I had plenty!) I am absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of fabric, yarn, buttons, trims and other STUFF that I have. The good news is that I still love all of it – every little button, scrap and string. The hard cold truth is that I DO NOT NEED ANY MORE SEWING STUFF! It’s ridiculous, it’s out of control and it’s embarrassing.

Last night while cleaning up the postcard detritus I decided that it was time to get some control over my inventory practices and see how long I can go without buying any fabric – or anything else for that matter! Then this morning I read Judy's post on the same subject and decided that I REALLY need to do this since she is providing a built-in support organization. She posted on the same issue and is making a commitment to stash reduction and is going to track progress for any blogger wanting to participate.

I don’t plan to really track fabric used I just want to gain some control over what I buy. So my challenge to myself is to only buy what I absolutely need for a current project and to see how long I can do that without cracking under the allure of “new and shiny” fabrics and toys. If nothing else I just need to start thinking about my purchases before I come home with another $100 bag of new fat quarters. I’ll be happy if I cut my purchases in half – and I can measure that because the accountant in me tracks all sewing purchases in a separate account.

Going forward, I will post about EVERY sewing-related purchase and explain WHY I bought whatever it is and I’ll do it until I fall totally off the wagon. My first test will be at my favorite LQS this weekend. I’m teaching a class and rarely leave the shop without spending at least $50, usually it’s over $100. My second test will be a bead show in Richmond in 2 weekends. We’ll see. I’ll be happy if, in 6 months, I have emptied a couple of the overflow fat quarter bins from my fabric cabinet. Maybe this weekend I’ll post some photos of my various stashes – then you’ll see just how bad it is!

My Mother and my friend Kim are both laughing themselves silly right now. They don’t’ think I have any hope of self-control over fabric purchasing – are they right?