Thanksgiving at the Studio...

I spent the bulk of the long holiday weekend doing a chore that no one will notice but my tax accountant - and even that's a little bit iffy.

Back in December of 2009, my accounting software crashed and corrupted my file.  In the process, it also managed to corrupt my backup copy, making it impossible to recover very much information.  in fact, I had to completely reconstruct tax year 2009 from scratch using only receipts, my blog, and my Etsy stores as resources to what actually happened.

Well, 2010 hasn't been much better.  It took me the first 3 months of the year to reconstruct 2009, which put me behind in obtaining new software, which kept me from using said software, blah blah blah.  Fast forward to November, and I have 11 months of sales and purchases to account for, not to mention the annual inventory of the studio. Why do I keep doing this to myself?

In any event, this annual chore and pent up procrastination gave me enough motivation to get moving on the inventory, and in the process I've gotten more organized, processed a ton of scraps, worked on some UFOs, and checked some things off my list!

1. Organizing the Stash

This is one wall of my Studio.  Anything that has been wrapped on boards has been properly labeled & inventoried, and I've reconciled everything purchased & used from before 2010.  Anything yet on the floor still needs to be done.  So glad to see that pile reduced; I didn't take a picture of everything when it was on the floor.  I also dusted the shelves & found more fabric to donate.  Oh, I also came across the 10 bolts of holiday fabric that I keep meaning, every year, to turn into furoshiki.  Maybe I can get a few done in time for the holidays, but sheesh!  If by next year this time it's all still wrapped around those bolts, I will send it somewhere that it can be put to good use.


2. Finished a quilt for Project Linus
This quilt is from my training class for Mr. Darcy, and it just needed the binding.  Don't get excited - it's a cheater cloth, not a pieced double-wedding ring.  Technically this was finished pre-Thanksgiving but I'm only posting the photo now.



3. Pieced the rows for my Liberty Queen Quilt & chose the rest of the fabric.
Courtesy of my local quilt shop, Quilt Play, I managed to select the remaining fabrics for the quilt I'm making from the fabrics I got in Paris.  They are so dear, that every last scrap is to be used for the interior, and the rest of the top & back will have to be made from good old USA-imported-from-China fabrics. Shelley did a great job pointing out the perfect fabrics to bring this top together.


4. Recorded some videos.
I've done a lousy job at promoting this, but in 48 hours I'm starting my "30 Days, 30 Videos" campaign, all around the AccuQuilt family of products.  The time consuming part is in the processing & editing, not in the recording, so it was important for me to get a few videos ahead.  Here's a sneak peek at a project!


5. Pieced 8 Table Toppers
This is one of those UFOs that keeps growing every time I open the container.  Originally I thought there were 20 of them, so I finished 5 earlier this year.  Over the weekend, I pieced the tops of 8 more, and last I counted there are still 14 more in the box, plus a bunch of orphan pieces that need something.  The good news is that I'm going to use these 8 to practice a railroading technique on my long arm; that is, laying out several projects to be quilted on the same batting & backing.  These are destined for muslin backs and some Warm & White batting so they make great candidates for railroading.  Even at their rate of multiplication, I'm really excited at the prospect of actually finishing all my UFOs and entering 2010 with no project older than 1 year.


6. Cut a ton of scraps into 1.5" strips.
Usually, I like to cut scraps into a variety of strip widths, but I got impatient with so many scraps to process that I decided to just pick a strip width and cut everything that size. I managed to get through my entire bin of red & yellow scraps, but I still have blue, green, purple, and neutral to cut.  This picture doesn't show everything cut, but this is more than half of what I did to give you an idea.


The ultimate destination for these 1.5" strips is to make a pineapple quilt:


The only thing that really bothers me about making this type of block is that it's not really conducive to chain piecing, which is unfortunate & slows down my already slow rate of piecing.  Maybe once I get a few under my belt, I'll figure out a faster way to make them.

I also went grocery shopping & cooked some real food!  That hasn't happened in this house for a while.  Here's hoping your Thankgiving was delicious & productive as mine was!


Happy quilting!