Sunday Stash Report - some finishes

I haven't had a substantial finish all month! Even in October my finishes were baby bibs so not huge. This month I have managed to notch up barely anything - a 6.5" square for a quilt, a cover for a small book last week were the first things I could record for the month. Up till Friday the only thing I had put on my spreadsheet for fabric usage was 7 fabric circles to cover jars of sugar coated peanuts going to a stall. Nothing much at all.

Friday, in between setting up a stall for Handmade With Love at a craft fair I finished off 2 small wall hangings. I have been plugging away at them since we were visiting my in laws in October. I have been making 6 of them and basically have worked on all of them at the same time... first finishing off all the blocks for the 6 quilts, then putting them together, then putting on their borders. I got a bit sick of it this week and wanted to get a couple finished - just so they could be DONE. So I spray basted them on Wednesday and got them quilted. They are only tiny. On Friday I made the binding for the two quilts and stitched them on. They are machined both sides - I like the look of them that way. As is my usual these days I used a fancy stitch on the front to secure the border. 

This is my favourite stitch these days. As you can see - not always the most careful stitcher but you can't see it except in close up photos

I put the triangles in the corners to put the pieces of wood in to hang them. I am happy with how these two turned out. I just have to put a label on them but I could count them as done. Yay. (and since they are destined to be Christmas gifts I get to write DONE next to one of this months goals Bonus) 



I thought that was going to be it. Saturday I was up at the Craft Fair from 8 AM till almost 3, standing most of the time. I was pretty wiped. But I was also wired. We had a pretty successful day. And I was itching to get those quilts DONE. So, after a half hour snooze ....I set up an outside for spray basting and got the remaining 4 quilts sprayed and put together. Then I started quilting. Had an interruption to go for a walk with the dogs... they didn't know I'd been on my feet all day and it was going to be good for me to go for that walk. We also went out to get dinner since there was no way I was cooking. I quilted and stitched binding as we watched some tv and I got 2 more done.

When I went to bed at 10.30 thought that was definitely it for the week but after laying awake till after midnight I got up and came back downstairs and worked on the remaining two quilts for an hour and a half. I made the binding, made the corner triangles so they could be hung and stitched on the binding to the back of the quilts. I must have been tired cause I forgot how to do  mitred corners and did them wrong and had to unpick and fiddle around... that is when I gave up. This afternoon I have finished off both remaining quilts. So that is 6 mini quilt finishes for the week.

No fabric purchases this week. That is another bonus.

So my stats for this week

Week 47
             Fabric Used       3.95

             Fabric Added     0.00

Year To Date
             Fabric used       142.33
             Fabric Added      76.70
Net Used/Added              65.64

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times

Finish up Friday - 5 finishes

Yes you heard it... 5 finishes this week. Doesn't that sound impressive. When I tell you that they are all mini quilts, that the embroideries were done by my mother (4 of them) and myself (1) some time ago it doesn't sound quite so impressive. I did piece the borders... but in 2 cases the piecing was already done and in the other 3 all the half square triangles were done some time ago as well. So... this week I finished them but not from start to finish.

The 4 my mum embroidered were a set of seasonal ones. I have made them separately (they were in one quilt according to the pattern) so as to be able to hang them according to their season in the foyer of my home. At the beginning of the year I decided I would make 12, one for each month to hang in the foyer. Pam on Hip to be a Square did somet thing along this line. However as a family (and generally as a society) Australians don't widely celebrate some of the  "days" that are so widely celebrate in the US. We know about Valentines Day, St Paddy's day, and Halloween and some people do celebrate them but they aren't nearly as big a thing here. I would prefer to put emphasis on things that are more important to us as a family and as Australians. These seasonal ones are more appropriate (although living in Central Queensland, on the Tropic of Capricorn we don't really get very distinctive seasons anyway)

Winter: I used the red and green border around winter cause it matched the picture better. Its NOT Christmas! That's in summer for us)

Summer:The yellow is for the sand and the hot summer sun

Autumn. Used the green and yellow hsts because I had them and they went with the picture.... 

Spring. Loved the purple hst that I had heaps of and they went so well with the embroidery

Here they are all together. Aren't they gorgeous

The Outhouse. Embroidered by me

These are only small wall hangings. Nor more than 10" wide and the largest about 12" long. I used a method I had read about on another website to insert hanging triangles into the corners. The video about it is to be found here Now a pencil, a skewer or small piece of dowel can be inserted into the top and bottom if required and it can be hung on a nail. I was so pleased to be able to use this method. Now all 5 wall hangings are good to go... apart from labels. I think I might just write directly onto the backing fabric rather than stitch on individual labels.

I used the same fabric as the backing to make the hanging triangles so it is  harder to see them in the picture but you should be able to make it out.

Linking up with 

  this time being hosted by Ms Midge and