November OMG & Stashbusting Efforts

It's time to decide on my November One Monthly Goal.  While I was trying to decide what to work on this month it dawned on me that I really had to have all Christmas presents bought and wrapped by the second weekend of December because I had all sorts of other plans for the rest of the month.  So, knowing that, I decided to make my goal present-oriented.  Natalie has her new American Girl doll so I will be making doll clothes for it.  My goal is to make 2 complete outfits (sans shoes...) during November. 

I bought this great book a couple of months ago at Quilter's Corner in Midlothian, VA.  It has quite a few different style outfits including 2 dresses, several pants, the coat and pjs.  And, notice the little dog.  Hum, do I want to try to make the dog?  

Here's the dress and jacket I've already cut out.  Both the bodice and the jacket are lined.  Unfortunately the shoe pattern isn't included.   I'll be starting on it soon.  So two doll outfits is my goal for the month.  

Next up is my stash busting statistics.  I just realized I didn't post the September results.  So here are the stats for both months.

2017	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
Sept.	18.5	85.5	15.625	92.0	6.50
Oct.	7.25	92.75	10	102	9.25

I bought a lot of fabric in September because I was shopping in Lancaster County.  But I added to the stash in October too.  Luckily, I had a couple of  finishes that counter-balanced the additions to the stash. In October I made lots of pillowcases to donate to hurricane relief and to Ryan's Case for Smiles. In October I finished my Christmas Trip Around the World.  That used up a nice amount of fabric.  What tickled me about it is I was able to use up several smaller bits of fabric that I'd had for a long time.  

I suspect I won't have much fabric used during November.  But I will be getting some doll clothes finished! 

Link ups for today include Elm Street Quilts' One Monthly Goal November Goal Setting and Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation. I'm heading over to these two sites to see what sewists are up to today.  Hope you take a look too. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings & OMG Success! 10 - 30 - 2017

Let's start with the success!  Yes, I was able to complete the "Ninja Stars" top this month. YEA! It was last month's goal in the One Monthly Goal challenge so I am happy with the finish. I'm not sure when it will get quilted as I have to find/make/buy a backing.  But here it is in all of its cuteness. (You can click on all the pictures and they will enlarge.) 

I really like the concept behind this quilt.  Cute conversation prints with blenders make up the stars.  What I failed to realize is it's a pain to deal with those corners where so many layers of fabric meet.  Some corners met perfectly but lots did not.  I'm not worrying about it as whoever gets this quilt will no doubt love it.  It will be a charity quilt but I haven't decided on which charity I'll give it.  I hope to get it on Ruthie to quilt soon.

Did I mention I won one of the drawings for the August OMG challenge? No, I didn't think I did.  Well, yep, I did -- it was a $25 gift certificate to the Fat Quarter shop.  OOOOhhhh.  It took me a while to make up my mind.  But after careful review of all the wonderful products I made my decisions.  

I chose a small charm pack called Ready for Take Off and a small jelly roll of batiks.  These were both considered "small" because there weren't as many pieces in the packs.  I believe the charm pack had 20 pieces and the jelly roll -- maybe 20 too.  I know I'll use the charm pack for a baby quilt for a NICU but have no idea what I'll do with the jelly roll.  It'll be fun to work with these though.  I'll need to find a go-with fabric for the charm pack and get going on it. 

Guess what?  I FINALLY cleaned off the front of my cutting table.  It was a total mess. Left over fabric was layered on it.  It was like a archeological dig going through some of those fabrics.  One from early spring, a couple from mid summer, and a few leftover pieces from Ninja Stars.  Right now the table looks great!  I could actually cut on both sides of the table or open up the Go and cut some pieces.  It helps that I put away a container I was collecting blocks from my FCQ Equilters.  And, I filed some papers. (Or did I just move them somewhere else?  I'm not sure which.  Oops.) But I'm pleased that I could actually cut something out there if I wanted to. Let's see how long it will take to fill it up again?! 

My goal list is, well, ok is all I can say.  Not fabulous and not horrible. You would think with only 4 items I could finish them all.  Not to be.  Ruthie is unhappy with the thread I chose for the charity quilt so she isn't cooperating.  Or she was  cranky.  Who knows.  

October 23, 2017

Make last kite block and sew blocks into top√

Make and mail FCQ Equilter pinwheel blocks ugh… no

Pick a charity top and quilt it √ Loaded

Clean the front side of the cutting table √

October 30, 2017

Make and mail FCQ Equilter pinwheel blocks

Start more doll clothes

Finish quilting charity quilt

Work on cross stitch ornaments

Linking up with my regular linky parties: Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Moving It Forward and Elm Street Quilt's One Monthly Goal Finish Link Up .  Hope you can spend some time checking out what folks have been working on. 

I'm going to spend a little time checking these links out and then head down to the studio.  

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 10 - 23 - 2017

All of my sewing this past week has been focused on the birthday party we went to on Saturday. We were celebrating Theo's and Ellie's birthdays.  Theo had to wait since mid September and Ellie celebrated a few days early.  I doubt Theo minded!  

I took very few pictures for some reason.  But once Theo had eaten cake (read that as got cake all over him...) he was hanging out in a diaper.  Kevin grabbed his Halloween shirt and covered him up -- just to keep him a little warmer. He cleaned up pretty well, didn't he?   

On the other hand, Rapunzel didn't get all that dirty eating cake (or dinner for that matter.) She'd been playing outside all afternoon so her cute little off to the side braid was a mess by this time. 

She and her 2 friends along with her 2 cousins played upstairs for a bit.  It was amazing how much noise 5 girls could make!  But I was happy to see that she was able to dress her baby doll in this outfit.  Thank goodness for Velcro™!  These fairly simple doll clothes took me two days to make.  Of course, I didn't devote sustained time on them so maybe 8 hours all-together  

Ellie loves to play with my Ginny doll when she visits.  So far she can't dress the doll herself.  Heck, Velcro™ wasn't invented . . .  oops, actually it was invented in 1955.  Ok, so it wasn't widely distributed until much later.  My Grandma Ruth made me numerous doll dresses for all sorts of different dolls.  I particularly like my Ginny doll for the grands because she's small and child-like.  Did you have a Ginny doll growing up?  (Do you have any doll clothes patterns for her?) One of these days I'll share her with you and some of her clothes.  

As I was putting my purse away at Kevin's house I noticed a rubber duck.  I've shared several of ducks here and here. I had to take a picture and share.  Nancy, here'ssssss Elvis!

We had a good time at the birthdays celebration.  Good food and fun to see all of the grands at one time.  However, with the Halloween and birthday sewing done I can now start back on my quilting projects.  You'll notice I didn't get that stray kite block done yet.  I did get it cut out though!  So a tiny bit of progress was made. 

Most of my goals were achieved. 

October 16, 2017

Finish 2^nd skirt√

Embroider 2 more shirts√

Make 2 baby doll outfits√ I ran out of time so 1 was done

Make last kite block didn’t even try to do this

Finish binding the trip around the world quilt √ (I'll share it later.) 

Here's what I'm hoping to get done this week. 

October 23, 2017

Make last kite block and sew blocks into top

Make and mail FCQ Equilter pinwheel blocks

Pick a charity top and quilt it

Clean the front side of the cutting table

I'd be happy if I got all of these projects done even though the list seems pretty short to me.  On the other hand I have an ebook that needs to be returned in 2 days and I'm only about 40% finished.  I'm planning on doing some reading too! 

I'm linking up with my regular linky parties: Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, and Moving It Forward.  Take some time to see what folks around the web are doing these days.  Enjoy. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie