WMUTeach

Iceblossom, Fantastic idea! I hope your friends "clean you out"! Well clean out what you don't want for yourself. Such a clever and friendly way to bless others with fabric and to build friendships too. Yea! Ice!

Iceblossom

I had wanted to do this for awhile, but I wanted my long arm set up at the same time. Because of all sorts of things like my vision and balancing marital harmony, it remains needing to be assembled. It is clear to me that I am just going to have to do this first step which is completely within my ability. It is a big heavy, solid, welded frame with hydraulic height lifts. Have to reassemble the hydraulic bits to the sides -- is mostly some screws and would be easier with two people, and the sides will be a bit cumbersome to drag/carry, but still doable. Once it is there with it's feet up in the air, we need at least a third person to help pick it up. A big anyway... at this point

The opportunity has come up and I am trying to carpe diem and all that with the ladies coming over. First picture are the things I know I can easily give away. One of my storage sized totes of Christmas fabrics, a large tote of assorted fabrics. The dark tote is just being used as a table -- but it used to be full of some of my dishes.

I did get my $20 church garage sale hutch cleaned up and upstairs. My old hutch was more like 6 feet wide and at least that tall. This is 3 x 5 feet. The dishes aren't fully in place yet but they all fit. Most of the more usable dishes are in the kitchen, these are mostly more display/special occasion dishes. The guest bedroom will be pretty full of oak furniture when done.

Lena1952

Your new hutch looks lovely there! Have fun with your group of friends. Maybe they would be willing to give a hand with some of the things you need an extra hand with. Either way, have a lovely time.

Iceblossom

Ladies just left. It was nice to have a visit. Although I've had a couple of them step inside before, this is the first time I've hosted multiple people in years! The old house was so full and small that I could only have like 2 people max come over, this was 7 (+me)! It was a struggle but we did have enough chairs and enough room for us all to sit in one room. It has been lovely but today was a lot more humid and hot than it has been or else we would have spread out to the back deck.

We had some show and tells and stories. They did take about half the fabric I had available -- so maybe almost two totes? LOL, they didn't eat enough snacks. Some of the cookies, a lot of the cashews, and I was the only one who took a muffin! Husband's work gets the rest of the carbs tomorrow so someone will have a happy score.

Lena1952

Sounds like everyone had a good time. And the bonus of moving some fabric made it worth your effort.

WMUTeach

I forgot to post my May successes. This past month of may, I used up 11.5 yards of fabric on finished projects. Now to be honest some of that was purchased for a specific quilt that is now finished and ready for gifting. So fabric used. There are two additional quilts at the long arm quilter, but I am not counting them because they will still need their binding. (That is just a rule I set for myself.)

I also have been looking at my stash when I go a'digg'en for fabric and pulling out the ugliest and those that I know I will never use. I am cutting them into 2.5 strips to donate to a a gal who makes them into rugs to sell at craft shows. She then donates the $$ back to our organization to purchase poly-fil to stuff chemo pillows for our cancer center here in town. I will add that to my June total of fabric "out the door" since it hasn't been donated yet.

I did order a backing from MSQ and some flannel to re-cover my design board but that will come.... in a week or two. But a sale is a sale so I shopped, just a little but with a purpose.

Lena1952

I’m giving myself a huge pat on the back today. I went to the quilt shop yesterday afternoon and only bought a pack of hand sewing needles that I needed. No fabrics were purchased! I had a bolt of sale fabric in my arms but asked myself was there a plan for this fabric. I didn’t have an anso I returned it to the shelf. The only fabric out of my stash this month was several small pieces used for the backsides of wool appliqué mats. Must have been all of half a yard!

WMUTeach

Lena, at-a-girl! Needles but no fabric with out a plan! Yeah! And you do wool applique too? I have just taken up wool work. A new friend is wool wacky and it has rubbed off but just a little.

Lena1952

I’ve been doing wool appliqué for many years. Even before it became popular. I learned from my great grandmother when I was a teenager - a loon long time ago😃 I have acquired a couple of totes worth of wool. But the needles I picked up at the quilt shop was for EPP. I had made one large block with this technique many years ago and when it suddenly became popular again I didn’t jump on that wagon again. But out of the blue, I suddenly found I had to revisit EPP. I chose a one inch petal flower blocks that will be a mini quilt when completed. I thought this would scratch the EPP itch and let my mind move onto other things I enjoy more. So far, I think that’s working.

Iceblossom

@Lena1952 good for you for resisting temptation! Just needles is something to be proud of

I still have a lot of fabric, but I've known people with much more than me! One of them did have an entire room for the wool. She did a lot of the primitive style things in the... 1990s? but she had just tremendous applique skills of all styles and I learned much from her. She had other forms of art too, just excellent at whatever she did!

I enjoyed my clean sewing table for day and have gone back to work. First I had to correct an error on my current project, so I got delayed but that top is getting closer to completion.

I have gone through an initial pull of greens for the next stash buster, the chevrons or I'm calling the Grass quilt. I need to dig out my tote of 6.5" strips (my small pieces) and go through that, both for the greens and the golden yellows I'm considering putting in. While most of my fabric is on shelves, some are still piled on top of each other. Why is whatever I want always at the bottom of a stack?? oh well, pretty easy all in all to move stuff aside and put it back. The labels I put on the totes do help quite a bit -- as long as I don't get distracted.