Stash use report for May

This has been a productive month after all. I have used lots of fabrics (5.3 m in May) from my stash to make the QAYG blocks I have already shown in my last post, but I wanted to use the too short bits as well, and started making crumble blocks to clear the sewing table. I tried to use colour themes for the blocks:

I even used tiny triangles to make squares to start a block:

Sometimes there were no matching fabrics long enough for the last 6½" side, so I pieced them too:

At the end of the project I noticed I was trying to make log cabin blocks with no system at all.

Finally I had my blocks, packed the remaining scraps in the plastic bag and looked under my desk: No bits wider than 1" in the waste!

I estimate the blocks used up about 1.5 m fabric. Hip hurrah! The Raggedy  Friends Quilt took about 3.7 m; I have been working on it since last July, but not counted the fabrics until now that it is finished.

I used 2.7 m for a jacket and lining, and 0.9 m for a slip, and gave away 0.7 m fabric for the Bag Club ladies, which is also counted as using my stash. This means that 14.8 m of fabrics have stopped being in my stash! On the other hand, I have only bought 2.2 m new fabrics, balancing very well the ugly results of April. Now I can feel relaxed and think about the fabric store selling all fabrics for 40 % off, as there is not much time left.


I waited for the apple trees to look like whipped cream again to take a lovely picture, but before I could really see the blossoms, white petals were blowing in the wind! I hope it was warm enough for the bees to fly so there will be apples in September.

In October Mr. K and I planted some Phlox Subulata on the slope facing the street.

They survived the Winter very well and are blooming now!

The narcissi are blooming for the first time in their new place, last year they just made buds.



Today is the first day of Summer, and at my time it meant the beginning of a three month summer vacation. Have a happy Summer, holiday or not!

Raggedy Friends Quilt, and Spring news

The Darling Buds of May - I have been watching a re-run of the life of the Larkin family based on the stories of H. E. Bates. It is a very nice series, no wicked persons who get away without consequenses, just a story of a large and loud family. Our newest buds of the month are these lilies of the valley, and with the temperatures around +10 C they will remain buds for a long time. While spending time with the Larkin family, I have also been hand sewing...

... finally the binding on the Raggedy and Friends quilt, and Andy posed for the block 11:

Here are the last three blocks, this one is 11:

And Annie is on block 10:

Both dolls are shown in the final block.

Here is the finished quilt, picture was taken in today's cloudy weather after the rain had stopped.

Thank you Kaaren, this was a fun project and I managed to finish it using only fabrics from my stash, many of them recycled. It was sometimes difficult to choose "my colours" for the ones given by Kaaren, but I think I can be pleased with the result. There are 5 ninepatches included, so I think this will qualify for Anne Marie's 9-patch challenge as my third finish as well.

For the first time in my life I have been growing tomatoes from seeds. These were sent to us by Candace and Mr. Squash as a Christmas present. Now I heard from experts that I should have started growing them indoors in March already instead of the beginning of April, but I hope that my little greenhouse cupboard will keep them warm and they will grow big and strong and happy and make lovely tomatoes.

Today I made sure we will get at least some tomatoes from our own garden: I'm making an exchange with a greenhouse-owner friend and get one of her plants agains two of my tiny ones. We will not have space for all these when they need bigger pots, so we will be giving some away to other friends as well. I couldn't imagine there would be a plant from every single seed I put in the pots! Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Squash! Mr. K. is wearing his Jersey Tomato t-shirt when he is gardening. It was a perfect fit, which is very unusual.

Raggedy News

It can happen to any diet. One day you just can't resist, and end up with cakes, chocolates or pizzas on your hips in no time. Or if you are trying to use your stash of fabrics, you end up buying more. Much more. This is what happened to me (I don't want to speak about the food type of problems here). My trusted fabric shop owner will retire in Summer, and she is selling all her fabrics -30 % of the prices. I bought the red flannel in March, and went to buy a stash of big pieces for backings on the third official Sale day. All her nice coloured solids were gone! I bought two checkered fabrics, one floral print (very lovely, I think), and a blue baby fabric for baby quilts. The heavy white solid is for bags I'm going to print and maybe dye. I forgot the amounts (like one easily does with unpleasant facts) but I will measure them for my statistics later. I think I will just exercise more. More and  longer walks, and more sewing and finished projects. I forgot to take a picture of the finished 9-patch. I'll do it for the next post.

I have already finished one project this month! I had bought this tea towel panel last month for a friend who is moving to France in a few months, and I machine stitched a useful sentence for her to learn. It must be useful because I learned it at school over 40 years ago and still can remember:

Kala ilman juotavaa on myrkkyä. Fish without something to drink is poison.  I gave it to her on her birthday on Monday, so she'll have time to learn French before the big move.  

It's a long time since I last showed you my Raggedy & Friends BOM. Kaaren published the last three blocks at one time in February, and now mine are stitched and the quilt top is finished. Here is block 10:

and number 11

and the last one:

Tonight I'm taking the top with me to class and  I will piece the backing and make the quilt sandwich on the large table in the classroom. Beats kneeling on the floor at home any time! I could finish this quilt for the exhibition on the weekend after next, but there is really no place to hang quilts. Our teacher has asked for smaller projects for the show, like cushions, potholders and such. I will borrow the Ladyfingers bag I made as Christmas present for DS1's girlfriend.

Pastry, stitcheries and some Boobs

Yesterday was the birthday of our national poet J L Runeberg (1804 - 1877), and we get to eat his favourite pastry. Yum!

I have been stitching the Raggedy  & Friends January blocks with golf and snooker on the TV, a perfect combination as those sports are not loud and noisy. Today I made the first nine blocks to rows:

This is a detail of the block 7:

and 8:

and 9:

Three big blocks still to come, and the top will be finished in May, I hope. Kaaren of The Painted Quilt has designed the quilt.

Do you remember Mrs. Moen's Boob appeal for breast cancer patients?

I have finally picked up a CD disc and some test blocks and other scraps, and made six Boobs for Mrs. Moen's project. They are plain ones and treasured ones for her workshops, where they will be decorated with lace and ribbons and threads, beads and all kinds of lovely stuff you can also send for this project by the end of March. This lot will be mailed tomorrow. If you are interested, just follow the links and you will find instructions how to make the Boobs and where to send them.

The Boobs will end up at the Make a Boob Art exhibition at the end of the year, or the participants may keep the boob they decorated at the workshop.

Use your stash again this year

I spent a long time making a new button for my own little challenge for 2011. Blogger and Picnik both work in curious ways, and so my pile of farbics is upside down and the picture is rotated to the right to make it look like this:



Edit: if you want to copy and paste this button, please use the smaller one on my right sidebar!

I'm pretty pleased with my self with the new motto: Use your stash to make space for new fabrics in 2011 sounds so positive! You are welcome to copy the button to your own blog, if you share the stash problem with me and want to try to make something about it. There are no rules, just try, like I'm doing, to use more fabric than you buy. Use the ones you have first. Check what you have before you buy a new fabric for a need. Nobody can avoid sudden urges if they see a lovely fabric they must have. Then you just need to use more of the old ones! I have a couple of good suggestions: Join Anne Marie's Nine-Patch Challenge (button also on my right sidebar) to make yourself a lovely new quilt, join Jackie's call for pillowcases (tutorial here) for the Hole in the Wall Gang, or use your strips to make some 10.5" blocks for Oz Comfort Quilts (tutorial here) . This is my lot photographed on the floor before I packed them tightly in a light shopping bag I had made earlier, and sent for Jan to Australia. I took care to keep it just within the weight limit, sending the maximum amount with the minimum cost. Jan will join these with other donated blocks or ones she made herself to make a quilt 5 x 7 blocks, and later they will be brought to the Queensland flood survivors. The bags will be used to pack each quilt in, and the people will get a nice bag instead of plastic ones for their things.

From small scraps and orphan blocks you could make boobs for Mrs. Moen's therapeutic art project for breast cancer patients (instructions here), or you can send her treasured boobs, or even adorned ones. One her blog you will also find the shipping instructions, and she hopes to get them before the end of March. The Make a Boob blog homepage is here. You will find answers to all your questions there.

This week I finished my sixth block of the Raggedy & Friends BOM quilt by Kaaren at The Painted Quilt. Next week she will give us three new blocks, smaller than this and each with only one stitchery. All the previous blocks' instructions are still available for free, so you can start your own Raggedy Ann and Andy quilt now if you like.

My Raggedy Ann has posed for many pictures like in the stitchery drawn by Kaaren, but we both found this one a little too tricky for her. She doesn't have wings, and the position was too demanding for her. Let's hope there will be easier ones coming, as we both enjoy our little photo shoots so much.

The days are visibly longer here already, but the sun keeps still very low, hardly over the treetops, and most days have been cloudy, so there are no nice new photos. It is best to keep indoors and cut fabric, drink hot tea and keep warm.

A year with my fabrics, the final stash use report

Today is the last day of 2010. This year started with a long cold period and with lots of snow. It looks like the end is the same: we have had snow for over 7 weeks already, and the temperature has been below freezing point all this time. The camera missed the little boy who was climbing and sliding down at this mountain of snow at the railway station last week, but you can see there is enough snow for games like that.

The wind has smoothed the shapes on the roofs.

In January I started keeping a record of my fabric purchases and the amounts of fabric I used. My intention was to reduce my huge stash, and only buy new fabrics if I needed them for a project. I had no idea how big the numbers would be by the end of the year. In December I reduced my stash by sewing some Christmas presents and giving some bits away, and managed to get rid of 9.9 m of fabrics. On the other hand, I couldn't resist some Christmas fabrics on sale a few days before Christmas, and I needed some tricot for PJ's I made for Christmas, so I bought 5.25 m in total. Adding these numbers with the previous statistics I see that I have used 82.5 m of fabrics in a year, and bought 32.15 m to fill the gaps (as if there were gaps!). It means a reduction of over 50 m in this time! I think I can be a little proud of myself. I have sewn lots of small projects this year, like tissue holders and mug coasters

and only a couple of quilts like this one for Stephanie's No Strings Attached Challenge

or this wedding present for my niece.

Many small pieces of fabric still add up to something , and I thought that if I can keep working with this efficiency for maybe 15 more years, using per week about 1 metre more fabric than buying in, the dent in my stash should be quite visible, 750 metres. I hope the coming year will bring new, inspiring challenges to help me reach my goal.

The Christmas fuzz is over and I can enjoy all the lovely gifts I had. Thank you dear friends for all the love and loveliness you sent! I don't intend to parade all my gifts here, but I need to show you what my beloved Mr. Kotkarankki made for me with his own hands. You remember I have been working on the Raggedy &  Friends BOM quilt by the Painted Quilt.

It means tracing the stitching patterns on the fabric, which I used to do against the window. In winter, this required careful scheduling so that I could do it in the short hours of sunlight, and my arms were aching from the uncomfortable position at the window.

 

DH always wants the best for me and only needed a little hint (and two remindings, as he forgot that I had given my letter for Father Christmas for him to be mailed), and this is what was in a big box for me on Christmas Eve:

The finest imaginable light table, with a long cord and switch and everything. He recycled our old light from the hall mirror to guarantee suitable light for the A3 size surface.

All the time he said he was working on his bamboo rod when he disappeared for hours to finish this for me. I had my suspicions! Now I just need to clear a safe space for this box. Maybe he could build me some shelves?

I want to thank you, my dear readers, for this past year, for all your comments and your lovely blogs which inspire me to use more fabrics, try new patterns, do kind things to others and use my skills for charities as well as for my own projects. I wish you all good health, inspiration and happiness in the New Year 2011!

New Raggedy & Friends block

It took me longer than usual to finish the Raggedy & Friends BOM, but today Raggedy Ann posed again:

And here is my November block finished:

A detail of the stitchery:

The picture of Ann:

Thank you Kaaren for the pattern, I enjoyed it like every month!

Between my secret sewings I have also managed to finish the Building a Village table runner, a free pattern by Mrs. Moen:

The December light doesn't allow me to take very good pictures, but here you can see that I stitched doors to the houses and added a white binding to the long sides (and a starry one to the ends). Thank you, Nina Lise!

Today is our Independence Day and I need to wash my hair and put on a pretty dress so I can watch the annual dress parade on TV!

New Raggedy & Friends block, knitting and a new challenge

Today the sun was shining so I could make a decent picture of the fourth block of my Raggedy & Friends quilt. If you want to make this quilt too, all instructions are still available at Kaaren's blog The Painted Quilt. Just click here or the button in my right sidebar.

Ann didn't feel like posing for this one, and as I didn't have hearts and stars available for her, I agreed. Maybe next month's block is easier for both of us.

I have also been knitting in front of the fire and the TV, and made myself a little shawl to keep my shoulders warm. I have had this fringy yarn for ages, and bought two other yarns to knit with it, also already some years ago, but only now I bought a pair of no. 10 knitting needles and finally started this. I knitted 30 stitches until I ran out of the fringy yarn, one row with each yarn.

I'm wearing it right now, it reaches comfortably from one elbow to the other behind my neck, very light and warm.

I still have two balls of the fringy yarn left and I think I'll make another scarf using it alone. Knitting with the giant needles is superfast and easy.

The days are short and dark at this time of the year. I took this picture some days ago just before 10 in the morning. The sun had risen around 8, but it keeps so low all day that cloudy days are pretty gloomy. This morning's sunshine was soon covered by clouds, and it started to snow a little.

I have taken a new challenge, like there was too much time on my hands at the moment. Dolores told me about the Napkin Challenge of Mrs Moen, and I couldn't resist! I'm going to make a very small project inspired by a napkin of my choice, and it needs to be finished by December 1st. I'll have a look at the napkins I have at home, and then I can have a good excuse to look for new ones tomorrow in town.