Through the looking glass

Have you ever had a day, or a stretch of days, where everything seemed like it should be copacetic, and yet somehow, nothing was gelling? I'm having a stretch like that. A trip to my pain management specialist and a new round of treatment left me in side effect hell for the weekend, allowing me to do little other than stare at the television and nap in a Benadryl-induced haze. I'm still having trouble shaking the last of the effects, and have spent the last two days stumbling through days at work and then coming home and crashing almost as soon as I walk in the door at the end of the day.

So sewing progress in these parts has been limited, to say the least. There have, however, been a few projects I've managed to cobble together in the occasional burst of energy.

Last week, the madman and I took a trip to Ikea for a set of shelves for the sewing room. It was nice to spend some time with him--work schedules being what they are, we rarely get a day off together. We got home and put these puppies together, and I spent the following couple of days shuffling, sorting and organizing. What we have now is this:


Top shelf: FQ bundles, a scrap bag from Moda (contains mostly Luna Notte), some pre-cuts, and a bunch of strips cut for my someday Single Girl quilt.

Second shelf:


Solids! Mmmm, I think I have a problem with gray. Also, green.

Third shelf, projects that have been pulled/cut for. Momo in the bag, a bin of Hope Valley and Kona Snow, and a stack of large-scale florals for a hopefully-soon project.

Fourth shelf: My little bin of Heather Ross scraps, some yardage for a Christmas quilt that somehow never got done this year.



Bottom shelf: Bins of strings and sorted scraps to the left, smaller bins of little shnibbles and a few works in progress. A LOT of this had been contained under my sewing table, so it's nice to be able to stretch my legs now!

Finally, in a short burst one evening, I went through my bin of pre-cut 2.5" strips and pieced together a few Log Cabins for Japan. Just a few more strips and I'll have them in the mail!



Here's to hoping for more energy and less pain in the coming days--I'd love to actually have a bit more sewing to show around here!

Sunday Stash, 3/20/11

You know how I've been muttering over the last few stash reports that I had something big that was going to be done with my stash? Beyond organizing? Well, yesterday was payoff!



No, no. That's not incoming. That's OUT. Approximately 150 yards from my "old" stash, all packaged and now officially delivered to the members of the CT Piecemakers quilt guild, which is the largest quilt guild in my area, at over 200 members. They have subcommittees that make quilts for a variety of charities, including Project Linus, Quilts of Valor, and a local one, Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. All are charities dear to my heart, for various reasons. But that's another blog post.

The guild used to meet at the library where I work, which is how I first became familiar with them. However, their large and growing group of members quickly outgrew the library's meeting facilities and moved on to larger venues for their meetings. But I knew they still met in town, so when the urge to do some spring cleaning came, I contacted their board.

I've been quilting for about 12 years, and while you've seen my newer, more modern stash in recent posts, there's a whole lot that has been packed in tubs in our spare room, fabric that in many cases has been with me through three moves, and not getting much love at all.

Do you see where this is going?

Yesterday afternoon, one of the Piecemakers was nice enough to stop by the library (I was working) and take all five boxes to be distributed among guild members and subcommittees for various purposes, including charity initiatives. It just felt like the right thing to do.

The numbers this week look pretty good, too! I'm still in the midst of the sewing room overhaul, and as a result, there hasn't been much sewing going on. Um, make that nearly none this last week. I'm hoping that a trip to Ikea tomorrow night and the subsequent final shuffle in the sewing room this week should clear it so that I walk into the room and can just sit down and sew, instead of walking in and feeling too overwhelmed to know where to begin!

So the numbers...

Used this Week: 150 yards (Not sewn, but out of the stash and on its way to being sewn!)
Used year to Date: 158.5 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 50.25 yards
Net Used for 2011: 108.25yards

Now I just need to remind myself not to try and fill the space in my house left by the donation!

Sunday Stash

On Monday, again.

The past week or so has been all about evolution. I've sorted, ironed, folded, shifted.

I started out with my office/sewing room looking like this.

(If you are sensitive to photos of wanton stacks of fabric, unsorted, haphazardly folded in various sizes, you might want to scroll past the next few photos. They may shock you. You've been warned!)


Pulled out of my closet and onto my sewing table. No room to work! No wonder I can't get anything done in here!



The stash in flux. Some neatly folded and put away. Some waiting for the royal treatment. God, what a sty.



More stacks, pre color sorting, ironing and folding.




Soon to be happy fabric, posing with the new love of my life, comic book boards.


Did you make it? Are you ok? It's over. I promise.

Let me show you what all of the stacks and mess has turned into...


Warm and neutrals. See the issue here? Yeah, no room for orange. I'm working on that...


Altogether now. A spot for oranges. On the bottom left, you're looking at FQs in the front, with a project bin, all 3 purple fabrics I own, plus my FMF and AB Love stashes.

Off to finish with the oranges, and see if I can get my solids organized! (Thank goodness for Presidents' Day!)

Used this Week: 0 yards
Used year to Date: 3.5 yards
Added this Week: 2.75 yard (Found a couple of great deals on Etsy. I need to stay off of that site!!)
Added Year to Date: 23.75 yards
Net Used for 2011: -23 yards

Erk. Need to finish cleaning so I can get sewing!

Destash comes to a close

If you've been following me this week, you know I've been destashing in a big way. You can go over to my etsy shop to see all the goodies. If you've been waiting until I'm done listing things before you start shopping? Wait no more--right now, everything I'm planning to destash has been listed. A big thank you to everyone who has bought from me--the big project now? Shipping!

Picking up where I left off

With the destash sale, that is! I woke up late this morning, thanked my municipality for the floating holiday today, and went out to run errands in the beautiful New England fall morning. Not a cloud in the sky, warm, still a little color on the trees. I picked up a few things at the grocery store, grabbed a cup of coffee, then took a drive down the valley to the farm to pick up this week's co-op box. Broccoli, peppers, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, squash, turnips, and chicken! Tonight we're having roast chicken with veggies, I think. Mmmm.

In any case, I'm home now and ready to start day 2 of the giant destash of epic proportions. Thanks again to my customers who helped out overnight! Keep your eyes peeled over at my etsy shop--lots of great yardage coming up today!

Final destash update, day 1

Wow. 44 listings up at the moment. I've hardly made a dent. It's after 5 here, and pitch dark--no more photos til tomorrow. I've been through Yellow and Orange from my modern stash so far, in addition to precuts, some FQ bundles, etc. I have a crick in my shoulder like whoa--I need a masseuse named Sven to help me out with that.

There's some pretty great stuff in ye olde shoppe, if I do say so myself. Heather Ross's Mendocino, Denyse Schmidt's KJR, Amy Butler's Belle, and Midwest Modern 2, and Lotus. Joel Dewberry. Lizzy House, Tula Pink. You know, just to name a few. :D

Happy shopping, folks, and thanks again for helping me destash. I've needed to tackle this for awhile now, but having to come up with closing costs in order to refinance our mortgage really gave me the kick in the pants I needed. See you tomorrow!

Destashing update

Just before 3pm. I've realized I've forgotten to eat. Still a lot more to go through. This will certainly continue on into tomorrow. Thanks for your patience! About to get into some yardage, and the most modern part of my stash.

First, though, lunch. Or snack...

Destash sale update...

So, being the silly woman that I am, I forgot to recharge my camera battery yesterday. That meant that partway through photographing the second round of fabrics to list over on my etsy shop for the epic destash sale of massive proportions, the battery went kaput. I managed to bring over a few photos, and got those listings posted. Nicey Jane FQs and some scrap and other FQ bundles, including some holiday-type scrappy bundles are up there now.

Sorry for the delay. I'm going to go and prep some more things to photograph while I wait for the battery to charge up some. Keep an eye on me here and over on Twitter for more destash madness!

First round of destashing, posted!

I've gotten all of the precuts I'm destashing listed in my etsy shop!

Lots of April Cornell, Bonnie & Camille, some Urban Chicks, Chez Moi, and more.

Next round will be some coordinated FQ bundles and scrap packs (by collection, color or theme). Should have those up within the next hour or so.

Want up to the minute info on what I'm working on? Follow me on twitter, located in my sidebar!

Getting ready for a destash of epic proportions!

So, all those giveaways? Were just the tip of the iceberg! I'm in the midst of a major resort and destash in my sewing room. (To my last batch of winners, don't fret. Your prizes are set aside and neatly packaged, waiting for the USPS. No mix-ups, I promise!)

Last night, I went through my precuts. Holy wow. Once upon a time, I joined a jelly-roll of the month club. I had such high hopes for my own productivity. Ha! Now I am drowning in them, months after canceling my membership. Add in a few honeybuns, and layer cakes, and charm packs, and... Well, it's really just the tip of the iceberg.

What does this mean for y'all? I just wanted to give you a heads-up. I plan on going through yardage tomorrow night, and then taking photos Thursday morning. By early Thursday afternoon, I should have at least a quarter of the listings up. I'll keep you posted here as well as on Twitter. There is a LOT of good stuff, OOP, HTF, etc. 3 sisters, Amy Butler, Chez Moi, Sandy Gervais, Erin McMorris, Lizzy House, MoMo... Just to name a few.

Now, back to work with me!

Oh, what a mess!!

My husband thought he was being funny the other day. A friend asked where I was, so he took a picture of my stash, and said "Well, my guess is she's in here. Somewhere..."



Heh. The man has a point. What a mess! Pretty, though.

Anyone want to share the method to their stash madness??

Guilty pleasures...

If there is anything better than finding something absolutely delicious that thrills you to your very core, I'm not sure I know what that is. Except, perhaps, getting those things for an insanely good price.

This past week, I was browsing through some sales from some of my favorite vendors. I'm not sure how many people keep on top of fabric trends and news (I'll admit, I'm a great big noob on this, but I'm learning), but there has been a lot of hype lately in the quilt blog-o-sphere about the new Kaufman solids. I found them at a great price, so went ahead and bought a few of the ones which had caught my eye...


From left to right these are Everglade (which in reality is a bit brighter than this photo), Lemon, Green Tea and Cloud. I also snagged a half-yard of Pepper, which is darker than charcoal gray, but the tiniest bit grayer than black. It just photographs as plain black.

And as I continued browsing, I came across the Reflections collection by Hoffman, also on sale. The line has such a vintage-sheet feel, I was immediately a kid in the late 70s again, when my favorite sheets were yellow and covered in orange butterflies.


I threw in an extra couple of vintage feeling fabrics from other lines. I feel a summer quilt brewing from these. Not coincidentally, the solids I'd picked out go REALLY well with this selection.

Also, you'll recall me talking a little while ago of seeing a coworker's shirt and immediately being inspired to make a quilt. Well, that, of course, turned into shopping, which resulted in these:


I get a distinctly cool tile impression from a lot of these, and think that's likely the way I'll go when designing the quilt with these.

And of course, in all of this shopping, a few odds and ends slipped through...


Took this one three times and it's still blurry. You can see I'm slowly pushing myself out of my comfort zone--more brights and geometrics, which would SO not have been anything I'd touch, oh, a year ago? I'm mellowing in my old age, I suppose. :)

And to top off my gluttony this week, I snagged a new purse at Target for $10.


It's very bohemian, and should be a nice bag to transition into fall with.

Now, to begin the daunting task of washing and ironing my new haul. (Yes, I pre-wash, yes, I am insane.)

Surprises abound...

I knew when we moved in *mumbledy* years ago that it might be awhile before I unearthed all of my stash. And a few months ago, with my husband's help, we went through my boxes of craft stuff (I also embroider and crochet, and knit a little) and I thought I'd found, sorted and stored the last of it.

I was wrong.

In my cleaning today, I found a box innocently labeled "Office, Fabric". Oh, really?

Really.

Another whole big box of stash that I had utterly forgotten about. Well, scratch that. I remembered some of the fabrics, and wondered whatever happened to them. I didn't realize that my husband had simply stacked a bunch of stuff on this box while I was laid up this past winter, as he went through things in the office. (Long story short--we redid our kitchen ourselves last summer. The end of it, the new counter, was put in the day after I ruptured a lumbar disc and promptly lost feeling and much of the use of my left leg. Therefore, I didn't have a whole lot to do with the filling of cabinets from storage boxes--nearly a year later, I am STILL reorganizing things in there... BUT, some of the kitchen stuff had been stashed in my office while we were renovating.)

I sorted through the first layer or so, and was so immediately overwhelmed, I just closed it right back up. It was either shift the box and keep cleaning, or spend the rest of the day re-sorting stash, which will be done soon enough, once the office/sewing room is cleaned and organized.

And I did take a few before pics this morning, so that on the other side of this, you can see the progress, much to my shame and chagrin. I suppose the best news of all of this is that I'm now worn out from cleaning, and wouldn't be able to accomplish much in front of the sewing machine today even if I did have it.

As promised: Stash post!

As I read the blogs of other quilters, one of the things that I am most intrigued by is what their stashes look like. How do they store it? What colors do they favor? Are all of their WIPs stored together or separately? So I figured I would share mine, too. :)




This is my stash (just the tupperware bins, not the boxes behind--this is our "storage/kinda-guest-room", perpetually unfinished--as is evidenced by the painters tape that won't come off the wall... *sigh*). The big bins on the right-hand side are the bulk of it--FQs, yardage, etc. The smaller bins on the left are separated out by WIPs, UFOs, and in one case, WHIMMs. The WHIMM box is my 1930s prints, which are currently earmarked for a couple of baby quilts. I haven't started them yet, so they're just hanging around right now.


Inside one of my big bins. This is my uncategorized, catch-all, not earmarked for anything bin. Yardage, FQs, etc. When I talk about using up stash, this is mostly the one I want to work out of and finish off. Maybe it's a librarian thing, but having this big box of fabric that doesn't "belong" to anything kind of bugs me. The good news, for me, is that when I got home last night, I sifted through it and picked out a bunch of purples and greens for my next project, so I busted several yards. Hardly looks like I made a dent, but it's a start!!



Here is the innards of another bin--my Civil War repros. Some are slightly looser interpretations, and solidly half of it is care of my bestest quilty friend, Wendy, who decided the best way to get me moving on a Dear Jane project (or three) was to give me more ammo! Currently, I am still so awed by my embarassment of riches, I'm at a stand-still. Sorry, Wenders!


This is the innards of my handpiecing WIP bucket. A little pair of scissors, the horrifying pincusion I made a million years ago from some old scraps my mom had (my younger brother had a pair of jams made out of that fabric back in the 80s, to give you an idea!), spools of thread, and HSTs for pinwheels. This is what I do when I'm watching TV, etc. at home. The little bucket has a handle, so it's nice and portable. :)

This is what I mean by categorizing. In this bin, I have fabrics which are divided into batiks (lower right), oriental fabrics (top--I have plans for a flying-geese quilt with these), and paisleys and accents fabric (lower left) for my Stars over Kasmir quilt, which has yet to be started. I don't sort by color or value, but by what I envision them becoming a part of in the future. Again, I think it may have to do with the librarian thing. I don't shelve books together by color, or size, or what's on the cover. I shelve all the ones with the same subject together.

Oh, and even more of an embarassment than my "everything goes" bucket? Is this:


I know that Wendy, among others, is crying looking at this. This is my box (cardboard, yes, I know, bad quilter, no cookie) of "what the hell was I thinking??" fabrics. Enormous florals, novelties in a variety of flavors, animal prints--EEK!! Yes, they are going to find another home--and most of them will wind up in charity quilts of one form or another. In the meantime, they just make me absolutely crazy.

Want to share your stash with me and other quilters? Post it in your blog, and leave the url as a comment!

--Meg

PS--I am so totally going to join some of the challenges at Stashbuster.com next year--I want to get rid of some of this!!