Sunday Stash - 07/30/17

So another boring week around here. Nothing in and nothing out, but progress is being made, just very very slowly. I've got all the blocks sewn for my Paisley Please quilt and I have then organized into rows, I just need to sew the rows.  I have also been trying to finish up my #100days100blocks2017 blocks. If all goes well I will finish cutting and sewing the all of the blocks this week.  But I will only be able to sew on Monday, Tuesday we get a new roof, so I'm pretty sure I will be holding Marley and trying to keep him calm. I'm taking Hollywood to doggie day care, so he won't be bothered at all, but Marley would be more terrified of being left there than the noise at our house.

Now Sharla and I did post every day last week for our #100days project and we posted blocks 78-84, and I have to say these are some of my favorites so far. Ok maybe they are all my favorites. Here are my blocks, and my favorite this week is #79 (middle, top row).

Here are Sharla's blocks, and I love her block #79 as well. We will hopefully be laying all of the blocks out soon so we can get idea's for the final layout. I am pretty sure I know what I want to do, but Sharla is still deciding on how she wants to arrange hers.

Since no fabric came in or went out the numbers are the same, boring but the same. I hope to have something new to report next week. I still have to get my bee block made and in the mail. I'm not sure what happened to July, but it went by so fast I don't even remember it. I will be linking up with Quilt Paint Create today, and if you want to see what others are doing check out her blog.

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yard
Fabric Used year to Date: 122 yards
Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 86 1/4 yards
Net Fabric for 2017: 35 3/4 yards used

I hope you have a great week and if you're in Texas, try and stay cool.

Sunday Stash - 07/23/17

Well there has been no movement on the stash front. Nothing in and nothing out. Sharla and I are both working on projects, but none were finished this week. We did continue to work on our #100Days100Blocks2017 pieces, and we are getting close to the end of that project. I love it, but at the same time I'm ready for it to be done. Doing anything for 100 days in a row is hard for me.

Here are my blocks from last week, we went through block 77, so that means on 23 more to go.

And here is Sharla's for last week. I think she is ready to finish because she much prefers when she can chain piece and most of the blocks now don't have a lot of chain piecing in them.

But although we are ready for it to end, both of us are loving the blocks we've made so far. I think if I did this in the future I would try and do all the blocks over a couple of weeks, and not drag it out. We've always stayed ahead, but we have consistently worked on it over the entire time as well. Now since there was nothing in or out this week my numbers stay the same. I'm hoping to get more done on my Paisley Please quilt and Sharla is getting close on her Bristo, so maybe the numbers will change next week. I am linking up with Quilt Paint Create.

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yard
Fabric Used year to Date: 122 yards
Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 86 1/4 yards
Net Fabric for 2017: 35 3/4 yards used

I hope each of you has a wonderful week!!.

Piggy Bank Challenge 2017-2018

This will the 5th year of the Piggy Bank challenge @ Val's Quilting Studio, but only the 4th year for Sharla and I. We have done well each year and so we will continue and do it again this year. We used real banks the first year which were a monkey and a duck(McGee and DiNozzo...yes we are NCIS fans), and while I still love these banks they were difficult to use.

The last two years with have used a boxes I found at JoAnn's and they worked much better. Well I think Sharla used a cup to collect most of her change, but that is because she couldn't remember to take the box off of her desk.

I realize the boxes are boring, but they work and I can set mine on my desk, so when we do our monthly money/budget stuff I can drop a $20 in it. Since we gather much less change these days, I try to put a $20 in it every month (approx. $5 per week). If there is leftover money at the end of the month I might drop a little more into it. I can also still toss my change into it as well. But I may make a pouch this year to toss my change into, because it beats up the inside of the box a lot.

I would say we are going to buy more fabric with the money we save, but who knows what the year will bring. We serviced our sewing machines this year with part of the money so it would be nice to do that again next year. Maybe will take a class or buy some new cool tool. But it really doesn't matter what we buy, the important part is that I save more than Sharla (just kidding...well sort of...ok not kidding).  If you want to join the challenge simply check out Val's page. It really up to you if you save a little or a lot.

Sunday Stash - 07/16/17

I wish I had a good excuse for not reporting the last couple of weeks, but I don't. On the 7/2 I was off work and just didn't want to sit down at the computer and last weekend I was very busy, so I just skipped it. But I'm back on track today. And let me just say it has been a busy couple of weeks. We've been keeping up with the #100days100blocks2017, so that means I need to show three weeks of blocks for both of us. And we've received the goodies we purchased with our piggy bank money.

So to get started let me show you my three weeks of blocks. As of yesterday we were posting block 70, so that means only 30 left to go.  I'm still enjoying it, but I will say there are some blocks I like more than others. And sorry there are lots of pictures this week.

Now here are Sharla's blocks for the same time period.

We have both picked out the fabric we want to use for the sashing on our tops, but haven't ordered it as of yet. But we did count our piggy bank money and order some fabric. We both have been looking for a while knowing the piggy bank challenge would be over soon, but neither of us was finding things we just loved. We even talked about just saving the money. In fact we used part of the money to service our sewing machines. Then Sharla found Kaffe Fassett Collective Spicy bundle and we both really liked it. So we decided to buy the bundle (30 FQs) and split it. During May is for Makers I purchased a pattern called Craftsman by Amy Smart and it uses 15 FQ, so we decide we would each make it. We have purchased the outer border and backing fabric as well. But we still have to buy the sashing fabric.

Here are the fat quarters I picked.

And these are Sharla's pick.

And this is the backing/border fabric we have chosen. Mind is on the left and Sharla's in on the right. She really loves the fish fabric. We may buy a different fabric for her border, but we won't know for sure until we start assembling it.

So now it is time to talk numbers and they definitely went the wrong direction this week, but I think we restrained ourselves quite successfully. We still have money to spend, but won't be doing that until we buy the sashing for the #100day and Craftsman's tops. This weeks numbers are

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yard
Fabric Used year to Date: 122 yards
Fabric Added this Week: 14 1/2 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 86 1/4 yards
Net Fabric for 2017: 35 3/4 yards used

Now I've have been progressing with my Paisley Please flimsy and Sharla has been working on her Bristro, so I'm hoping to be able to up the Used number very soon. But overall I'm not unhappy with our progress, at least it is still going in the right direction. Today I'm linking up with Quilt Paint Create, and if you want to see what others are doing, check out her blog.

4th Annual Piggy Banks Savings Reveal

Sorry for so many posts today, but this will be last one, at least I think it will be. Today we are to reveal how much we saved in out piggy banks this year. We started saving last July and it has really added up this year. And all totaled, Sharla and I did really well. Since we changed how we do things, neither of us get as much change as we did in the past, so we both started tucking $5 per week or $20 per month in our banks then more as we had left over in the monthly budget.

So who saved more....me, but really only by a tiny bit and only because I found a stash of garage sale change left from a couple of years ago and threw it into my bank. I saved $423.89 and Sharla saved $410.85, so a total of  $844.74 (OH BOY). And we've already used  a nice chunk of that to have our sewing machines serviced.  Since we've been trying keep out fabric purchases to a minimum, that seemed like a good way to spend at least part of the money. And it was time for them to be serviced. It was a nice way to cover that cost without having to  adjust anything else in the budget. Now does that mean we won't be buying any fabric, NO.

We have already ordered a fat quarter bundle of Kaffe Fassett Collective Spicy. It has 30 fat quarters in it and we are splitting them so we each get 15. We have also already ordered the backing fabric to go with the bundle. We have the patterned picked out, but still need to order the sashing fabric. Here is the bundle

I picked the Red Rolled Paper as my backing fabric.

Sharla picked the Tomato Shoal (or as she calls it red fishies).

After we buy the sashing fabric for these quilts and our Tula pink quilts we will still have some left over, but we've not decided what to buy with that as of yet. To be honest we both really looked and couldn't find anything that just jumped out at us, so it may just sit until something does.

We did really well this year by consistently adding money each month. If we counted only the change, I had about $90 and Sharla had about $20. We are big time budget people (yeah Dave Ramsey), so any money tossed into the piggy bank was out of our fun money. So we weren't robbing Peter to pay Paul. We are both excited about our Spicy quilts, and I'm sure they will get onto our to do list very soon. In the mean time, I am just happy that we didn't turn all into fabric. The remaining money may also go to buy some other supplies like thread, batting, etc.

I am linking up with Val's Quilting Studio for the Piggy Bank reveal. If you want to see how others did go check out her page.

Finish-A-Long Q3 Goals

I sucked last quarter and only got one of my goals done. I am hoping to get a few more done this quarter. I would really like to get all of them done, but that really isn't possible. I keep the list big so that I have choices. So let's start. Most of these are from last quarter, but I did add a couple of new ones.

1. Sharla's City Street Quilt. 

2. My City Streets Quilt.

3. Sharla's Monkey Quilt. 

4. Sharla's Big & Tall aka Hollywood's Big Blue Flowers.

5. Sharla's Strip Box Quilt. 

6. My Big and Bold quilt.

7., 8., 9., 10. Angela, Ariella, Samuel and Tina's Memory quilts. Progress has been made, not enough, but progress.

11. Hollywood's Zombie Quilt.

12. Sharla's Summerfest Quilt.

13. Sharla's True Colors Quilt

14. Sharla's #100days100blocks2017 quilt...we won't finish the blocks until mid-August, but I know she wants this one done.

15. Shauna's #100days100blocks2017 quilt. Same as above.

I know that is way more than I can do, but it gives me choices once my knees are better. So I will just leave it there. I will be linking up with the 2017 Finish-A-Long Quarter 2 Goals at Felicity Quilts.

One Monthly Goal - July Goal

Ok get ready because I am going to be a posting beast today. I think I have three to do. First up is my One Monthly Goal. I finished my goal for last month, but alas Sharla didn't. So I am 6 out of 6 and Sharla is 4 out of 6. But she is hoping finish her last month's goal this month.

My goal is my Paisley Please quilt. It is a bundle I purchased a couple of years ago on the Flash Sale at Fat Quarter Shop (I love those). Sharla spotted it and called me because it if full of purple fabrics which I love. I decided to use the pattern Easy as ABC & 123, and here is a mock up of it. I struggled to find photos of the fabrics to use, so some of them aren't wonderful, but at least you get the idea. The fabric is cut and matched into blocks, but I've not started sewing yet.

Sharla is going to keep working on her Bistro flimsy with the hopes of finishing it this month. I think the #100Days100blocks2017 has slowed her down, but she is having fun with it. So that is what counts.

We were both hoping to get ahead over the 4th of July weekend, but the shots I got in my knees before the weekend really knocked me for a loop. So I spent a big part of the weekend with my knees up and iced. My knees are getting better each day, so I'm hoping to get a lot done this weekend. I am linking up of with Elm Street Quilts for July's One Monthly Goal.  If you want to see what others are doing then check out the linky party.