2019 is starting out well. The weather is mild, work is progressing on the house, and I'm excited about getting things unpacked and organized although that is still a few months away. I think I found all my boxes of fabric, then sorted and counted my yardage so I can concentrate on reducing my stash this year. I'm starting off with a clean slate and hope I can make it through the year without buying more than 5 yards of fabric. My goal is to show a 15% reduction by the end of the year, and as it stands now, that is about 90 yards of fabric, so that probably isn't realistic, but I can still hope.
I had a good week in the sewing room even though the Pond Lily block nearly made me pull my hair out. Famous last words "Oh I can do that" came back to haunt me several times. It seems the printed pattern was more a suggestion of shapes than the exact sizes needed. I rough fit all the edges of the templates and redrew one at the start, but all the others seemed to match up, at least the edges did. But after cutting all the pieces for one block, I found that one of the pieces just wouldn't fit no matter how many times I ripped it apart and carefully put it back together again. So I redrew that piece, and now all is well. But it is a very fussy block and I am going to be doing well to get one done in a month's time.
Sheetrockers were here Friday and did the entire first floor working less than six hours. They are coming back Monday to tape the joints, so there isn't much for us to do right now. Hubby built a cabinet for laundry baskets, but can't install it until after the walls are done. That means more guilt-free sewing time for me!
This weeks' sewing reports:
I'm trying to make it easier to track my time and fabric usage with these reports and have simplified them this year. Hopefully, all I have to do is plug in my numbers each evening and it will calculate my numbers and percentages. I know most people just want to see how much is coming in and going out of their stash, but I want to see my overall total decrease.
I'll come back later and add my design wall photos to this post. It's probably something you've never seen on a design wall post.
I'm back with a picture I wouldn't have shown anyone a few years ago. You might not fully appreciate the beauty of it if you haven't lived with construction for a loooong time. But here it is, my design wall:
Nothing but a lawn chair. Nearly everything we own is in the attic until we get the house finished. That makes for a very small and cluttered sewing space for me. But someday....
Someone asked me before how the garage is next to the attic. The garage is the full height of the building. Before this insulation, the only thing separating me from the cold garage was 3/4 inch foam board.
Since I don't have a real design wall at the moment, and no floor space clean enough to put my works in progress (the house is covered with sheetrock dust at the moment), I'll have to get creative so I can take a picture of the Depression Block quilt I'm working on.
Ok, this works. My goal last week was to have two rows completed, but I didn't make it. Now I have a cold and I'm not sure how much I'll get done this week either.
Linking to:
15 Minutes to Stitch at Life in Pieces
Sunday Stash at QuiltPaintCreate
Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework
Design Wall Monday Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
I had a good week in the sewing room even though the Pond Lily block nearly made me pull my hair out. Famous last words "Oh I can do that" came back to haunt me several times. It seems the printed pattern was more a suggestion of shapes than the exact sizes needed. I rough fit all the edges of the templates and redrew one at the start, but all the others seemed to match up, at least the edges did. But after cutting all the pieces for one block, I found that one of the pieces just wouldn't fit no matter how many times I ripped it apart and carefully put it back together again. So I redrew that piece, and now all is well. But it is a very fussy block and I am going to be doing well to get one done in a month's time.
Sheetrockers were here Friday and did the entire first floor working less than six hours. They are coming back Monday to tape the joints, so there isn't much for us to do right now. Hubby built a cabinet for laundry baskets, but can't install it until after the walls are done. That means more guilt-free sewing time for me!
This weeks' sewing reports:
I'll come back later and add my design wall photos to this post. It's probably something you've never seen on a design wall post.
I'm back with a picture I wouldn't have shown anyone a few years ago. You might not fully appreciate the beauty of it if you haven't lived with construction for a loooong time. But here it is, my design wall:
Ok, so you don't see my design wall, but what you do see is the wall where my design wall will be, a lovely, insulated wall keeping the cold air from the garage into the attic. And for those of you who want to know why I sew in the attic, let me show you below:
Since I don't have a real design wall at the moment, and no floor space clean enough to put my works in progress (the house is covered with sheetrock dust at the moment), I'll have to get creative so I can take a picture of the Depression Block quilt I'm working on.
Ok, this works. My goal last week was to have two rows completed, but I didn't make it. Now I have a cold and I'm not sure how much I'll get done this week either.
Linking to:
15 Minutes to Stitch at Life in Pieces
Sunday Stash at QuiltPaintCreate
Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework
Design Wall Monday Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
You will soon have a beautiful home and sewing space! I remember following along with another blogger's home building progress (can't remember right now who) and when it was done? Woo Hoo! You'll get there! Happy sewing!
ReplyDeleteI hope so. For a while there, I was beginning to wonder if it would happen in my lifetime.
DeleteSo glad there's been good progress on the house, at least enough so you can sew in relative comfort. You did really well on both the stitching time and on the stash reduction. I like how you've framed you goal for stash management. I'm officially on a fabric diet. We'll see how long that lasts!
ReplyDeleteI'm on a fabric diet too now. The LQS had a going out of business sale and I just couldn't pass up 45% off. But that's it, I keep telling myself. I'm not sure how I'll resist if she goes lower.
DeleteGosh... you must have a serious stash to be looking at those sort of quantities. How did you calculate your initial stash volume, and how do you estimate how much you have used? I have fabric that gets partially used, and goes back into stash... little bits used here and there so would find it difficult to calculate volumes used.
ReplyDeleteCompared to a lot of people, my stash looks pretty small to me. Some of my friends have it stacked to the ceiling across an entire wall.
DeleteI started in 2015 or 2016 measuring each piece of cloth, so now it's easy to keep track of as new fabric comes in. If a piece is under 1/4 yard after cutting some off, I just stick it in my scrap box and count it all as used. It's just too hard to measure scraps.
Wonderful accounting system. I like numbers, too. I just don't want to count my stash. LOL You ARE making progress on the house, too. It's already warmer and nicer in the sewing attic. =) I've been in the construction zone, too, and some parts spurt forward and then it seems to idle forever, but it does get done, and then how nice it is! The whole first floor dry-walled, and now mudded and taped! Woo hoo! And blocks made, also. =)
ReplyDeleteI didn't want to count my stash either, but I needed to know if I was making any headway. It wasn't really difficult when I did it a little at a time.
DeleteWe have lived with construction too, and I was so glad when it was over with out last house. I never thought we'd be doing so much ourselves with this house or that it would take so long. But it is coming along.