Easy Street Revisited

21/2 years later:

Just finished basting Easy Street and have decided how to quilt it.  But I won't be starting until I finish basting Melanie's Medallion, Mosaic Tiles baby quilt and maybe half a dozen catnappers.  I have to put the large folding table up in the living room for basting, so I like to do as many pieces as I can while it's up.  

Easy Street will be my third Bonnie Hunter quilt to be finished.  Orca Bay is on the guest room bed and Celtic Solstice was just completed a few weeks ago.  Roll Roll Cotton Bowl, Orange Crush, and Grand Illusion are still being pieced.  My goal is to get them all to the ready-to-baste stage before Bonnie starts releasing her 2015 mystery quilt the day after Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile I've also been some time garment sewing.  I made a pair of calf-length knit pants from Vogue 8929.  It has some very unusual piecing and I thought the finished product would probably be going into the charity bag.  However, it ended up fitting well and I'm quite comfortable wearing it, although I haven't dared to wear it in public yet.

In fact, I'm thinking of making another view of this pattern in the fall.

I've also made two knit tops and a madras top.  The madras top's sleeves were too snug and I ripped out the shoulder seam so I can add a gusset.  If that works out I will alter the pattern and make it again because the rest of the garment fits well.

Easy Street

Started last November, this is Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery quilt. If I had kept pace with the project, it would have been to this point by the first of the year.
These were not the colors I would have chosen myself but I trust Bonnie and I was not disappointed.

 

And of course Smokey Joe appears whenever I lay a quilt out on the floor!

 

The next step is to add some borders.  Bonnie suggests using a 1 inch border, then a 4.5 inch border.  That will make the quilt about 95 inches square which is pretty big, especially considering that I plan to quilt it on my Janome 6600.  I will probably just do straight line quilting with the walking foot, so it's probably doable.  But first I have to quilt Bonnie's 2011 mystery, Orca Bay.  It is all basted and ready to go as soon as I stop procrastinating.

Fishalong

I had great plans for this tessellated afghan project. But after doing about 10 of these pieces I got bored and decided to settle for a catnapper. Smokey seems to like it but, after a very short time, it is full of snags. Sure glad I didn't spend any more time on it.

Annual Report

 

Sewing Fabric used 2011:  1/2 yard, to make a cushion for Mr. B’s wheelchair.  It wasn’t comfortable enough and we threw it into the recycling bin and bought one from Amazon.

I also flung 37 yards of fashion fabric on Freecycle in December.  That was all from one shelf in my sewing room closet; it looks neater but not much emptier.  I have two shelves left and will probably be able to fling many more yards this year.

That means I still have about 300 yards of fashion fabric remaining.  Plus all that is packed away and didn’t get counted. 

Quilting Fabric used 2011:  about 15 yards (can’t find my note from the Stashbusters 100 yard Dash from the Stash database and the 2011 file has been deleted to make way for 2012).

This was augmented by the quilt I finished for my step-sister Sharon in Indiana. 

This was a UFO started back in about 2002.  I finally pulled it out this fall and quilted it for her.  Other than that, I think I finished one catnapper and made an apron and a tote bag for Mr. B’s walker using quilt fabric.

I did manage to fold and count yardage for two shelves of quilt fabric.  It amounted to 299.75 yards which did not include fat quarters, fabric stored with UFO and current projects, fabric stored in boxes (patriotic, chicken, and muslin), and scraps (many of which are 1/2 yard pieces).

I know that’s a lot of fabric, probably more than I can use in my lifetime, but it means that I can sew a quilt using fabric I already own (most of which was purchased for $2-5 per yard) instead of having to go to the quilt shop and pay the current price of about $10 per yard.

Thread spools emptied 2011:  12, of which 1 was a wooden spool.

Kind of pitiful for a full year but I lost several months to ill health – mine and Mr B’s. 

I’m currently working on Orca Bay which is Bonnie K. Hunter’s 2011 mystery quilt.  We started in mid-November and the final clue was published on New Year’s Eve.  I was behind the whole time and I still haven’t finished the top.  But I’m really enjoying the process.  Last time I posted I was working on her 2010 quilt Roll Roll Cotton Boll.  I managed to finish the top minus the borders just before Orca Bay started but now it’s going to have to wait a while.

I have also pulled some UFOs that are ready for quilting and plan to start basting this week.  More on that later.

Almost Spring

Not a lot of action in the Sewing Room the last few months.  Once again I let Procrastination take over which meant that I didn’t do the taxes until almost the middle of March.  Which meant that, in good conscience, I couldn’t get serious about sewing/quilting.  The dumb thing is I could have done the taxes the first week of February, and the really dumb thing is it only took me about 4 hours all told.
Oh well, that’s over for another year; so now we can get down to the real deal.

I did manage to make Mr. B a tote bag for his constant companion.  He isn’t a motorcycle fan but the fabric has our hometown on it.  This item busted one yard of fabric from my stash.  Woo-hoo!

I finished steps two, three and four of Bonnie Hunter’s Roll Roll Cotton Boll mystery quilt.  Actually, step three isn’t quite finished since I still need to remove the foundation paper from about 40 of the blocks.  I’m doing a few each day as it’s tedious work.  Step five involves 600 (that’s right, six hundred) 2 inch half square triangles.  Currently I’m at about 200 sewn but not pressed and squared up.
Little by little I’ve been refolding my quilt fabric stash using 8x10 cardboard and measuring the fabric as I go.  Up until this point I just kept a running total but since then I’ve been making a note of the amount right on the cardboard.

I have now finished folding the second shelf as well as some pieces that were in baskets.  No photo yet but the new grand total is almost 300 yards.  That doesn’t include a stack of fabric that hasn’t been laundered yet plus what is with projects I’m working on or thinking of working on.

1-1-11

 

At the beginning of 2010 I predicted that I would finish all my unfinished quilts or eat my words.  Well, pass the ketchup because I have a lot of eating to do.  I only finished two quilts, one of which is the small Halloween quilt that only needed the binding.

I also discovered several UFO’s that I had forgotten about.  Not sure of the actual count but I’m thinking of trying to finish 11 of them in 2011.  Probably a futile effort, but at least I can try.

This is made from blocks that the four Courthouse Quilters sewed and shared back in 2005 or so and was finished in July.

I started at least two quilts – the Stashbusters 2009 Sunshine Sampler and Bonnie Hunter’s RRCB.  Most of my quilt stash used was on tote bags and pillow cases.

I did make a kitchen smock for myself, aprons for GD1 and GD2, several tote bags- some from sewing fabric and some from my quilt stash.  I also cut some larger pieces of fashion fabric into oval tablecloths to fit my dining room table.  I used a rolled hem edge on some of them and just left the edge unfinished on the ones made from double knits.

The grand totals are:

Sewing Fabric used 2010:  14 yards

Quilting Fabric used 2010:   14.75 yards

Thread spools emptied 2010:  17, of which 4 were wooden spools.

Books used 2010:  I think only one, Martin & McCloskey’s Pieced Borders which I used to design a border for the Sunshine Sampler quilt.

Not saying how much quilt fabric I bought but it probably didn’t equal what I used.  I don’t think I bought any fashion fabric; however there is still quite a bit not originally counted.  When I use any of that, I don’t count it as used.

The Original Five-Year Plan

I’ve been sewing for over 50 years and have accumulated a very large stash of fabric, notions, patterns, sewing books, etc.  Some of it I’ve bought and some was given to me by friends. 

  

These four shelves contain 371 yards of fabric.  Last year I went through all of it and made entries for each piece, noting yardage, width and fiber type, along with a small swatch.  I keep these pages in a binder and have found them very helpful when I want to sew something. 

 

Last year I made a kitchen smock, a couple of tote bags, a hat and apron for GD1’s school project and a small backpack.  This reduced my original yardage total but then I added some pieces from fabric that is stored elsewhere.  There are several pieces of fabric on the other side of the closet as well as a large box in another room.  There are also a few boxes stored in the garage. And a few boxes here and there with fabric meant for doll clothes.   As space is available in the primary closet, I will bring in fabric from these other areas and add it to my binder.

 

By the way, the bolt of striped fabric is not included in my total count.  It was propped up in a corner of the sewing room when I did the original count and was only moved into the closet recently.  One of these days I will unroll it and measure the amount so that I can add it to the binder.

My goal when I retired two years ago (has it really been that long?) was to whittle this collection down to just about nothing in five years.  I haven’t made much of a dent yet but I’m still determined to try.  I thought that, last year when I looked at each piece, I would be able to pull quite a bit for giving away, either to our local hospital thrift shop or on Freecycle.  But I found it very hard to let go.  I ended up giving 3 or 4 pieces to the shop and a jar of buttons to someone on Freecycle. 

For the last 15 years, most of my sewing has been for quilts and, in addition to all this fashion fabric, I have a large collection of quilt fabric – all 100% cotton of course.  I decided not to spend time measuring and swatching the quilt fabric, since a lot of it is on open shelves and I can easily see what I have.  Instead, I will count it as a I use it.  I don’t add the amount to my “used” total until I actually finish the quilt.  So in 2009, even though I went through about 30 yards of quilt fabric, I didn’t actually “use” any.  That’s going to change this year as I finish up all those quilts I started last year.  (Sure hope I don’t have to eat those words!)