Sunday Stash Report

I had a finish this week! Yay so excited. Not a little finish like I have had the other weeks of this year but a quilt measuring 60" square. Its great to get it done and I have 2 more pinned and ready to quilt and have arranged with Lyndi to put one on the quilting frame at Patchwork club after our sewing day on Wednesday. As a group we have decided that we don't want people using the machine whilst we are all there sewing. Its a bit noisy and irritating when there is a group of us up there. 

Hopefully I will get at least one big one done then and maybe 2. I have my hexagon quilt, and Handwork Heritage ready to go on the frame. Stand by for some BIG usage numbers soon.

Stringen' Em Along was made from Bonnie Hunter's String X quilt pattern. I made the blocks whilst we were on our holiday last year (late September to early November). I cut an old light sheet into the required sized rectangles to be the base of my string blocks. I was able to use lots of scraps in the blocks themselves - from my strings scraps (under 1.5") as well as lots of 1.5" and 2" strips (some of which I cut down to 1.75")

The backing for the quilt was also heavily pieced - Australian animal pictures that were framed first in 1" finished strips and then wider strips to make them up to 10" blocks. So - its more like 2 quilts. 

I did my go to all over meander when I quilted it and bound it with pieced binding. Originally I was going to use it as an outer border but when I decided to give it to my Japanese Grand daughter I decided to use it as the binding instead and I am really happy with how it turned out.

A pieced back along with a pieced front uses a lot of fabric so my wonderful Fixit Guy who is very computer literate worked out another option for me on the spread sheet which caters for pieced back and pieced front. Using this option I can now say that Stringen Em Along used 5.86m

I have done a lot of sewing this week but Stringen' 'Em Along is my only finish. I have been working away on my En Provence quilt. I have put all the blocks together and am working on the sashing. Its going to be a big quilt when done.... the blocks are 15" finished and its 4 blocks by 4 blocks plus 3" sashing between each row

And its been another week of NO fabric purchased! 

Week 6 
Fabric used        5.86
Fabric added      0.00
Net usage          5.86m

Year to Date     
Fabric used       13.34
Fabric Added       9.05
Net Usage           4.29 Whooo back in BLACK

Now that I  am back in the black I am going to go buy the fabric for the sashing and border of my A to Z quilt so next week there will be some purchases.

Linking up with Patchwork Times

Sunday Stash Report - first for 2015

I am finally getting around to doing my first stash report for the year. The first week there was nothing to report and then the next week... and the one after that... well out of routine. Its holiday time here in Australia. The boys have been home for holidays for varying lengths of time. Its been lovely and busy and totally thrown my routines out the window. I didn't get much sewing done for a bit and then I have been back into it working on some longer term projects but have also managed to get a few finishes done... all small projects but they do mount up.

The other reason I haven't reported in is that I needed to get my spreadsheet up and running. Fixit Guy worked on it over the last week and it is all ready to go for the new year. He has tweaked it a bit more at my request. He has added to the formula Pam from Hip To Be A Square podcast and blog. She had allowed for large and small piecing but I wanted to be able to include straight yardage too as needed.. for things that had little or no piecing or for blocks that are made for our Patchwork groups charity projects.

 Last year mid way through the year he tweaked things for me so that there was a running total that took into account fabric added and fabric used. I had been trying to do the maths on the side and my calculations were often askew and needing to be fixed up. Its great! I really appreciate all the nerds and geeks in my life who fix all this stuff up for me.

This week's finishes are actually from over the last few weeks... I didn't do them all in the last 7 days.

Finishes
9 kitchen towels - I made a couple for me to replace my Christmas ones that were getting very daggy. I then made 3 for my friend after she admired them on Facebook and I remembered I still owed her some from a Pay It Forward thing a couple of years ago. I have also got 4 put away for a gift for someone. Each towel used .14m of fabric so that was a total of 1.26 m. I used some Christmas scraps but also cut into yardage for the ones that weren't for Christmas. (Grr the photos wouldn't upload from iPad and once they go onto the computer blogger goes back to the way the original photo was taken so now they are all sideways)

A small banner for my sister Joy. It was made from a tiny panel that had JOY on it - a Christmas decoration. The finished banner was approx 33cm square and used .3m


Two blocks for our Patchwork Group's BOM They were 12.5" square. I added the seam allowances and then just counted it as yardage since there was no backing or binding.  Converted to cms that 39.37 cms
 

Then I got on my bag jag and made 3 little pouches. They were so much fun. Can't wait for my funky zips to arrive so I can make some more.
  

Working out how much fabric each bag used was a bit tricky and in the end I was so glad for the option 3 that Fixit Guy had added to my spreadsheet so I could just put in dimensions. There was very little piecing in the bags so I measured the outside dimensions and multiplied it by 4 to allow for front back and lining. I am not convinced that I got it right in the totals but

Purple Bag - approx 23cm square so total of .75m
Kombi Pouch - 25cm square - .93m
Fiji Bag - 32.5cm x 26cm - 1.28 m

I made a necklace hanger as well... covering a painting canvas with fabric, securing with drawing pins and screwing in cup hooks. Voila. That used a piece of fabric approx 50cm sq. I also used a piece of fabric, about the same size to make a draw string bag for my friends daughter who is off to kindy this year. (I made the sheets and pillow as well but since the fabric was supplied I didn't count that. I just needed a bit of my stash to complete the bag. (I supplied the pink) Little Miss H chose the spotty fabric

Miss H with her bag. Photo by her mum.

I made 10 serviettes to put away for Christmas. I want some green ones to fold into Christmas trees. They were approx 38cm square and used 1.35m

I had some fabric in as well. A friend who had been to Fiji bought me back some as a gift (I used some of it to make the bag) 90cm wide (36") x 165cm long. This equated to 1.365m.

I've decided to join in the 30 week POD  (Project of Doom) Harry Potter bookshelf Quilt project on Fandom in Stitches. I had to buy 3m of the background fabric for it before I could start and also got 1m of the wood pattern fabric for the shelves. That was a total of 4m

Fabric used this week                                       7.04m
Fabric acquired this week                                5.98m
Net Fabric used                                                 1.07m

Fabric used this year                                         7.04m
Fabric Acquired this year                                 5.98m
Net Fabric used this year                                  1.07m