Here’s my mid-month update to my September list of what I want to do…

1. Continue to count fabric in and out of my stash – Use my stash!

Even though I just got back to posting my stash report and I’m +almost 40 yards for the year, I’m happy with the downward progression that I’m making from year to year.  In case you missed sunday’s post I noted that this time last year I was +60 and in 2013 I was +125 yards.  +40 is okay now.  By counting the yardage in and out sometime this year I wanted to start limiting myself to buying fabric for projects and not just because I love fabric (I do succumb every once in awhile.)  But I am making a concerted effort to only buy fabric for specific projects and I’m getting better at doing that.  I’ve run out of space for fabric in my current storage solution so unless I make changes to where I store it, I really cannot shouldn’t buy any more. 🙂

2. Concentrate on one thing at a time. –

• Scrapitude – haven’t done this yet.  It is Quilt #2 to be quilted.
  • make sure I have enough batting in my stash somewhere.
  • trim down the batting
  • quilt this

• Tell It To The Stars – haven’t done this yet.  It is Quilt #1 to be quilted. Bailey is still in the garage and I haven’t brought it into the house yet.  
  • Get Bailey in the house to quilt it.

• Moon Glow –
  • cut and sew the borders on – done.  It is Quilt #3 to be quilted.
  • buy batting – haven’t gotten this yet but it’s not high on the priority list since it is #3 on the “to be quilted” list.
  • determine what the backing is going to be – I have bought the backing but I need to measure and piece it together so I can use it.  Again, it’s not high on the priority list since it is #3 on the “to be quilted” list.
  • determine what the quilting is going to be – I saw a quilted Moon Glow during the Quilt Run and it gave me some great ideas.  I think I’ll be marking this quilt for quilting.
  • get this on Bailey and quilt it! – At this point, I’m not proficient enough to want to quilt this on Bailey.  By the time I get to it, that may be different.  But I want to quilt each block differently and it might be easier for me to quilt it on the Bernina.  The throat space is really small and I may use the Brother instead.  I’m not sure.  I’ll have to get the Brother set up for FMQ and practice a bit before I could even get there.  For now, I’m going to wait and see how Quilt #1 and Quilt #2 go on Bailey before I decide one way or the other. 

• Raining Cats and Dogs –
  • Finish the applique on the final block – working on this.  Now that Moon Glow’s top is done, this is back on my rotation.  The plan is to work on this 2-3 times per week.

• Hampton Ridge –
  • Piece the rows together  – working on this.  I pieced the first set of rows together last weekend.  So Now I have 6 rows that need to get put together.  I’m not rushing to finish this but I do want to get the inner top completed by the end of the month.  

3. View and complete Craftsy Classes. –

Stephanie Japel’s Hats Four Ways – Work on the second project – I haven’t worked on this at all.  I brought this with me to my quilt guild meeting last night but didn’t even take it out of the bag!

4. Complete a project I have a kit for – I’m full on quilty mode right now and I’m relishing it.  I do have a few projects to work on but I’m not sure I’ll have the time to work on this.  My Dad’s coming to visit for a few weeks so I think I only have time for quilting projects.  As I stated in this post, I’m updating my upcoming quilt list above because I want to work on piecing blocks not rows.  

5. Scrap system?  – Go through bins and separate Bin #3, Bin #4 and full yardage. – Okay, so I’ve gone through my scrap bins and have separated them.  I went into it in this post.  But real quick here’s a summary.  I keep 4 different bins of scraps and each bin is as follows: 

Bin #1 – scraps I can no longer use.  They are so tiny and are used to stuff pet beds or mailing stuff or more recently packing. 

Bin #2 – Scraps I can use but cannot cut pieces out of.  They’re bigger than 1/2 an inch and I use them for relaxing piecing when I don’t want to work on an actual project.  This is the bin my DD has free reign to use whenever she gets in the mood.

Bin #3 – Scraps that I can cut into pieces but are not large enough to fold.  So nothing bigger than a 5×7 or 8×10 depending on my mood.

Bin #4 – Scraps that are large enough to fold.  These are fabric from quilt projects I’ve completed and have enough fabric left over to fold up.  or are fat quarters I have on hand.  I don’t generally buy fat quarters but they still end up in my stash.  

Yards of fabric – these are kept in 4-5 separate large tote bins.  The bins above are small. I will take a picture at some point.  

Anyway, this is what I’m working with.  We’ll see how well it works.  I am thinking about sorting all my fabric in terms of color no matter the size of the fabric or whether it is yardage or scraps (not including Bin #1 which cannot be used in sewing or Bin #2 which is too small to cut pieces from.  So Bin #3, 4, and yardage all grouped up together in their own color bins.  That may come in handy if I’m looking at doing a Red and White quilt or something.  But not so much if I wanted to be pure scrappy.  And I may end up with a ton more bins than I have space for.  So, we’ll see how this works and if I need to change it up, I will.  

Here’s to a great year!

Happy Quilting!

~Melanie