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Busted: 1.958
Purchased: 0
Net YTD: (21.362)
...and the crafting I get done in between all the activity of three very busy boys.
I commented on a bunch of blogs that we should declare 2010 the 'Use My Stash Year' - then I saw Julie's post about her spreadsheet and was ready to go! A good spreadsheet makes anything fun! geeky Engineer here
To keep myself from thinking the stash was nearing extinction as I watched the numbers, I'm starting the year with the Fabric Shack purchase...especially since much of it was bought specifically for quilts to be completed in these first three months.
As I go along, I'm sure the way I use my tracking will evolve. For now, I enter the fabric as Used as soon as it is cut for sewing on a specific project. And I have all kinds of odd decimals as I add up usage in inches then convert to yards.
I busted a good amount this week as I prepped for three of the auction quilts and made a pillow case for my little nephew. As I say in the sidebar, hopefully you really will "Watch me try to use it all up" this year.
Busted: 16.2
Purchased: (37.8)
Net YTD: (21.6)
I have 6" squares - marked off to 5x5 - for each child to design. I was going to label them after completion, but worried I would mess up a child's name and then ruin their work. So I have written all their names already. There are 83 of them. I'll bring along some extras in case the roster had a typo or some other disaster befalls a square in the class room. The teachers can also do one, and they will be grouped on a back corner - not enough room on the front.
I have a HUGE pile of gorgeous, graphic fabric. I added Heat-n-bond, peeled it, then whacked the stack up into small squares and rectangles. In the classroom, each child can hunt for favorites, then I'll quickly set their creation with an iron to make sure their design stays.
Once pieced, I'll free motion, raw edge quilt each placed rectangle {nanananana I'm not listening to how insane that may be with 83 billion fabric bits} the solids will probably be stippled.
I decided to pre-cut the fabric bits based on how my test quilt worked....for one, kid school scissors barely cut paper. They weren't going to make nice edges on fabric! Then, when I gave a pile to each kid and said 'fill it up and make something', this was the result:
Caleb the 7th grader literally filled it up and didn't bother to cut much of anything.
Kenton the 5th grader made some crazy tiny bits. I would have needed a padded cell if they all made little bits like that!
Becket was too small to cut with the sharp scissors, so I did cut his pieces. I preferred the clean shapes and loved how he layered a few. He worked for quite a while to get his just right. This was more what I was aiming for. You can see the blocks I made in the corners of the sample at the top.
The total effect is going to be pretty cool. I can't wait to see what the kids make of this!