May flew by, but I did accomplish my goals!

May Goals:

1.  Complete Clue #4, Summer Stars at Fawn Lake.  Yes!
2. Complete Clue #5, assembling the top.  Yes!
3. Make donation blocks (This month, Kat asks us to make blocks for her friend Briawna.)  Yes, I made a dozen, and they’re in the mail!
4.  Make a low-ish volume baby quilt.  Yes, the Train baby quilt (in a post soon). 

I’m doing the smaller (63″ x 72″) Fawn Lake quilt, so I think it needs some 6″ borders to bring it up to bed size.  And I have the perfect fabric!

June Goals:

1. Add borders to Summer Stars at Fawn Lake.
2. Quilt and bind Summer Stars at Fawn Lake.
3. Make Heart baby quilt.  (low volume)
4. Make Anchor baby quilt.  (low volume)

We’re looking at a week of cooler weather here (whew!), so I’m excited to get started on my June goals.

Good sewing to you this month!

Hi! Taking advantage of our Memorial Day weekend to get back to the sewing machine. This week I completed twelve donation blocks, using 1.5 yards of fabric.

And I bought 1.75 yards, but it was travel fabric, purchased in Elkins, West Virginia, so it’s okay, isn’t it? Fear not, I have a new baby quilt on the design wall, so I should have more usage to report soon.

This week: + 1.75 yards, – 1.5 yards

This year: + 44.25 yards, – 62 yards

Net destashed  added in 2018: 17.75 yards

Keep up your good work destashing!

This week I’m working on donation blocks for Briawna at Purple Poppy Quilts. I usually make blocks for Kat’s Covered in Love, but this month she asked us to support Briawna, and autism is a cause that’s important to me.

I’ve never done these cross-plus blocks before, but they are very easy. Choosing colors is harder, as you can see from mine, but I’m learning. One thing that I like is that it uses scrap sizes I already have cut, and it’s perfect for bright or novelty fabrics that don’t always fit in other places.

Six blocks finished, six more to assemble.

Today was a beautiful day with perfect sunny, mild weather. I spent some time working outdoors, indoors, in the studio, and at the Y. Hope you had a good day, too.

My last Stash Report was a looong time ago. Since then the only thing I’ve finished was the Tree wall hanging, using 2.5 yards.

This week I bought 7.75 yards of fabric. I do want you to notice that most of it is low volume, so I’m trying to meet that goal.

This week: + 7.75 yards, – 2.5 yards

This year: + 42.5 yards, – 60.5 yards

Net destashed  added in 2018: 18 yards

How is your destashing going?

So, where did March and April go? It’s not like I was enjoying the warm weather. I remember the end of March, and making a vague attempt to blog, but the days just kept passing by. And when I don’t have clear goals I don’t sew every day and make the kind of progress I could.

I did well enough with my March goals, and for April, I made the Tree wall hanging and part of Clue #4 for Summer Stars at Fawn Lake.

March (April) Goals:

1. Participate in March-Along, sponsored by Darla, the Scientific Quilter. Yes, I think I only missed three days during the month, so I consider it a success. Thank you, Darla!
2. Clue #3, Summer Stars at Fawn Lake. Yes, and I’m working away on Clue #4
3. Make blocks for Kat’s March/April Covered in Love block drive . Yes!
4. Complete donation top using green and white leader-and-enders blocks I’ve completed. Yes, and I quilted it.

Bonus: I turned a backing scrap with a tree print into a wall hanging.

May Goals:

1. Complete Clue #4, Summer Stars at Fawn Lake.
2. Complete Clue #5, assembling the top.
3. Make donation blocks (This month, Kat asks us to make blocks for her friend Briawna.)
4. Make a low-ish volume baby quilt.

Now the weather really is warm (in the northern hemisphere), so long overdue gardening will be competing with sewing. Good luck to all of us on our goals this month!

First, let me apologize for all the snow some of us are having. I’m pretty sure it’s my fault, after I publicly declared that one (about three snowstorms back) our “last”. And last week I put away my boot tray from the front door. Sorry.

I have made very slow, incremental progress on the tree panel. Thank you to Gretchen and Jaye for your suggestions.

I’m not usually a fan of medallion quilts, so I didn’t want to go that way. I added some borders, but not too many, because they already bring it to 35″ x 45″. I cut off the top of the tree, to help with the proportions, but also because I saw a wonderful tree quilt by Cathy Geier that extended the leaves out into the border, so that’s what I want to do. Not that I think I’ll come anywhere close to hers. I’m thinking of bits of snipped fabric for the leaves.

And I think that sunbeam on the right needs to be highlighted.

So far I’ve used invisible thread to quilt in all the border ditches.

I can’t promise huge progress on this soon. DS is home, so we’ve been doing some things, and DH and I have gone on some outings just from cabin fever.

Hope you’re make good progress on your projects.

This is the leftover fabric from the backing for the Ombre donation quilt. I didn’t plan it this way. After cutting (tearing) my two backing pieces, this is what was left.

I haven’t trimmed it yet. I’m just looking at it and pulling a few scraps to go with it.

What would you add to this or do with it?

I made some progress this week on using the stash. This donation quilt used about 11.5 yards, and I bought one yard of gray fabric.

This week: + 1 yards, – 11.5 yards

This year: + 34.75 yards, – 58.0 yards

Net destashed  added in 2018: 23.25 yards

And I’m continuing to make hundreds of these little guys for Summer Stars at Fawn Lake.

Keep using your stash!

This week’s finish is a twin-size donation quilt.  I made the forty-eight 16-patch blocks as leaders and enders over the last year or so.

I love all the squares I put together, but they do look more interesting up close.  I thought the citrus greens would keep it bright, but when the blocks were finished, they were pretty dull.  That’s why I bought the ombre fabric to use for borders and sashing.

Of course, I had hoped to miter the border corners and let the green flow around the quilt without interruption, but I didn’t have enough fabric.  I used scraps to make the cornerstones instead.

The backing is a watercolor forest print.  I used the trimmings for the binding.

And here it is against the last snow of the winter ().

Hope you’re keeping warm and having some great finishes!

As I often say, lots of sewing but only one small finish. I made these twelve donation blocks for Kat’s March/April block drive. They used two yards of fabric.

But I didn’t buy any fabric, so that helps.

This week: + 0 yards, – 2 yards

This year: + 33.75 yards, – 46.50 yards

Net destashed added in 2018: 12.75 yards

I am continuing to work on this leaders and enders quilt.

I didn’t have enough fabric to miter the borders (so that the colors matched, so I made these cornerstones.

Hope you’ve been using your stash!