Stash Report Week 26

Fabric Added Week 26: 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 76 1/2 yards

Fabric Used Week 26: 5 1/2 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date: 42 5 /8 yards

I AM HAPPY to report there has been some stash busting going on around here. Finally! I used 1/2 yard for Sandie's Quilt binding. The other usage happened while I worked on and off for the last few weeks to turn this twenty fat quarters Into this top:I'm having a hard time finding a suitable backing in my stash, hopefully I'll find (decide) something soon, the binding has already been prepared from left over strips, so it will be just the backing on next week's report. It seems like I'm stuck on those red and green combinations, this one has a little brown and yellow but still the red and green are louder. The next project will be either purple or blue, something more male orientated.

On the Saturday class, it's going well. Here is Mickey reading our schedule for the next two months, we managed to secure our meeting place for the summer, although, we had to exchange Saturday mornings for Friday evenings on some dates, but overall I think it will work out just fine.
I was wondering... How does a group became a guild? I suppose I'll be doing some research on it, as it seems like it will the next obvious step for our group. Thank God for this great resource known as the Internet.

To close and just because, here are a couple of pictures on my two favorite beings, little peanut, my favorite grandbaby:And Swiffer my furbaby:
Edited: I still haven't figure out how to respond to comments, so I'm responding here. Sheila asked about the pattern for Sandie's Quilt, it's called Dandelion wishes on the American Patchwork & Quilting magazine, issue April 2008.

Like Giving Away a Child, Almost

About two years ago, I bought a lovely teal & brown fat quarter bundle. It lived in my stash for a few months waiting for the perfect pattern..... it showed up in a American Patchwork & Quilting magazine about the same time my friend Sandie moved into a new house. Perfect timing! It was to be a housewarming gift, the color were perfect for Sandie's decor and I was excited to work on a new project. The original pattern was done in a softer color palette with minimal contrast, it had applique flowers and leaves and either no border or a one fabric border (too lazy, I mean, busy to dig out the magazine). I got rotary cutter happy and cut too many squares, but they worked perfect as a pieced border. Then..... This is where it becomes the same old story, once the top was done, the stars misaligned and it was put away in a closet to be finished at a later time. Since then, Sandie moved again, went through some major medical treatments and the top still waited for its chance to come out of the closet.

Now in the present, I've been so excited and motivated by my last finish , the sewing machine was already setup for free motion quilting, I could use way more practice on the machine quilting, and most importantly it was time for this baby to go live with its rightful owner. The top made it out of the closet and is now finished! The binding will be hand sewn tonight and this child is ready to meet Sandie next Monday.

I'm getting better at regulating my stitches and the puckers and tucks are minimal, still sticking with meandering though.

I love it, love it, LOVE IT!. It will be painful to give it away! I want to keep it, but I already opened my big mouth and the entire world knows who this baby belongs to, so I'll just have to chin up and pass it on. Maybe I'll make another for myself, if I do, I'll try not to take two years the second time around. Great opportunity to reduce stash.

Right, almost forgot, Stash report: Nothing in, nothing out. Oh wait, yes I used 18 inches of white fabric for the binding, I'll add it up on next week's report.

Saturday Morning Quilters

Our first Sewing Saturday as an 'unofficial' sewing group. Luz lives in an apartment complex and booked the Rec Room for our first meeting. It started a little rough as the facilities manager was MIA and did not open the doors until almost 9:00am instead of 8:00am. The beautiful room made up for the wait, there is a spacious open room with a kitchenette and media rooms off to the side (forgot to take pictures), we see quilting videos viewing and potlucks in the future!. I did take pictures of some of the ladies hard at work:
Here is Ann sewing strips for a lap quilt backing:
These two ladies are new members and beginner quilters, they had just signed up a week before our class was cancelled and Mickey, our instructor, did not turn them away, instead is teaching them on a volunteer basis.

This is Gloria, she is working on an applique Sun Bonnet Sue.

Sara, concentrating on cutting fabric

There are a few logistic matters that we need to work out as we now have to haul in sewing machines, extension cords, ironing boards, irons, etc, these items except for the sewing machines were always available in the class room and we now have to get used to bringing them with us, but we'll eventually get it going smooth. Overall, it went well, and although our next meeting is still not confirmed, I am looking forward to it.

Sewing Class

Our Saturday quilting class has a meeting place for next week!. While it's only one day for sure, we are very optimistic that some else's club house will be available for the following Saturday and that meeting places will continue to became available. There are at least two more potential meeting places, so it is looking good.

Here are a few pictures of a few projects been worked on by the students:

Juanita's black & white log cabin

Her Hidden Stars

Lucy's Christmas String/Scrappy Stars:

And my Rectangles, a Gudrun Erla pattern from Fon's & Porter's Love of quilting Easy Quilts magazine

I plan on posting about our weekly classes, it would be nice to kept a ongoing journal to record our groups journey. It looks like great things and new adventures are in our future.

Stash Report Week 24

Let's get the stash report out of the way:

Fabric Added Week 24: 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 76 1/2 yards
Fabric Used Week 24 : 0 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date: 37 1 /8 yards

I probably should have said nothing in and nothing out, but I thought I needed a reminder, it's been almost half a year and my stash busting is not going very well. There is a need to seriously start busting the stash in the next two months, August is my birthday month and this is when I plan to enhance my stash to my heart's content. Storage space it at a premium around here, so making room is a priority. While there hasn't been any fabric usage, I had a great sewing week. I finished an old, old, OLD project: A string quilt. I can't even remember when I started, but I know it was buried in a closet last summer after pin basting. It is free motion quilted with wavy meandering across the blocks
Had a little mishap with the "quilting" gloves, my machine was determined to sew them unto the quilt:
But I persevered and finished it. Here is it after an encounter with the washer and dryer

There is hope still for my machine quilting skills to get better.

A month gone in an instant

At least that's what it feels like. I've been busy with family and work and have not taken the time to post, but until I signed in this morning, didn't realize it's been a month. I've been sewing somewhat, just not much of my own projects. My friend Ann needed help with her granddaughter's graduation quilt. I helped her sew the top together, put on borders, backing and pin basting. Great team work!, the binding and label went on yesterday at our Saturday quilting class.
Speaking of Saturday class, our teacher Mickey just gave us some awful news, due to education funding cuts in the State of California, our class has been cancelled for the summer; next Saturday is our last class. The fall session will probably be cancelled as well, even eliminated entirely, but we won't know for sure until August. Most of the students were devastated as this is about the only opportunity we had to interact with other quilters. Maybe the state's economy will get better and our class will be re-opened, but in the meantime, we'll try to organize get-together's somewhere else in a non-school district environment, something will work out.

On the stash report, nothing in and nothing out. I've been just not in the mood to touch my sewing machine until this weekend, my courage just popped in and I started to machine quilt a string top I put together about a year ago. Just quilted in the ditch and thought about leaving it at that, but the quilted rows are 7 inches apart. It has lots of bulky seams.... but I have some ideas that may work, so that's what Im working on today.

Hopefully it won't be another month when I post again.