September Monthly Report

Happy October! It's time for September's monthly report. See past reports here.


You may have noticed that things have gotten a little quiet around here. To be honest, I've been struggling lately to balance things. I'm not quite ready to say where we're moving, but I will tell you we'll be leaving Madison mid-December and will be starting the new year in our new city. Later this month we'll be traveling to find housing and go on a much needed vacation. I don't want to jinx our search, but as soon as we find a place to live I'll make a little announcement!

It's been a stressful few months and the next few months will be stressful too as we pack up our apartment of the last six years and move over 1000 miles away to a new state. I'm trying to be gentle with myself through this transition period, and at this point one post a week is about all I can manage. I am planning to finally share the remaining quilts from my book, as those are already photographed and are fun/easy to talk about. I've got a few other things tentatively planned, but we'll see. Thanks for sticking it out with me as we navigate this move. Hoping to really be able to kick things up a notch when we get to our new city.

I did finish a quilt this month! I'll be sharing it in it's own post soon, but here is a little peek above.


I have also been working on another Halloween quilt! I'm using a Lil Monsters bundle plus a few extra prints from past Halloween lines from Cotton and Steel. It's actually a finished top already, but I snapped a few photos of the block pieces all paired up. Hopefully I can get this quilted up before the end of the month!


I don't often make time to mend, but this past month I finally fixed one of my favorite lined drawstring bags (find the tutorial here). The tension on my machine was completely out of whack when I top stitched the ties originally, and they were falling apart. I took out the ties, seam ripped, pressed and restitched them. It was a quick task, but made a big difference. Now I can get more use out of those bag!


To keep myself accountable for my stash goals, I'm tracking my yardage for fabric and yarn each month. Read more about how I track my here. Here is how I did in September:

September Fabric
Used up: 12.25 yards
Brought in: 14.25 yards
Net: 2 yards
Year to date: -157 yards

September Yarn
Used up: 0 yards
Brought in: 0 yards
Net: 0 yards
Year to date: -3731.5 yards

So this is the first month since May 2016 that I've brought in more fabric than has gone out. The amazing Daisy Chain collection by Annabel Wrigley is primarily to blame! I have been so anxiously waiting for this collection to come out, and it was finally released this month. It was so worth the wait and definitely worth blowing my fabric tracking for a half-yard bundle. I don't feel too bad about this purchase though because I've been planning it for months. It wasn't spur of the moment or just because, which is the type of fabric spending I've been trying to curb.


I wish I had better news on my goals front. Most of my sewing goals have fallen by the way side for the time being. I did make a few more blocks for my fantastic quilt voyage, so that's something.


I did find this amazing metal cabinet antiquing in Ohio this month. It's in really great condition (other than a little rust at the bottom), and it will be perfect to keep fabrics protected from the sun in my some-day sewing space. I love the detail on the front. It even has movable shelves in the inside.


George bunny! This little guy is always there when I need a good snuggle. Such a sweet bun.

Happy Sewing!