June 2019 Recap

Hi all and Happy Independence Day for those in the US. It has been a great week for me as I am coming off two weeks of family vacation (will save that for a separate post) and have this week off of work for a company shutdown. This is the first year my company has offered a summer shutdown and I am loving it! In addition to giving me time to finish all the vacation laundry, it has given me time to stitch, quilt, and crochet, along with catching up with a few shows on Netflix. 

I am getting ahead of myself though, as I wanted to share what I did in June! It was a tale of two halves of the month - the first half which included some good stitching time, and the second half, which was vacation. I did take a few projects with me on vacation and I had one stitching finish, which is my only one for the month. This is the Mill Hill Menorah kit that I will give a friend for Hanukkah. She loves to collect menorahs, so I will make this into a magnet she can put on her fridge. 

On the quilting front, I worked on a project from my 12 Things list and a UFO this month. Let's start with the UFO. I made this mini quilt called Periwinkle at one of my quilt retreats several years ago. I had no idea when I selected and cut the green fabric that it would come together so well in the piecing! I didn't know how to quilt it so it sat (like so many of my UFOs), but I put it on the frame and started and it was done in less than an hour! I was glad to find some complimentary green in my stash for the binding, and had this one done by the second Saturday of June. 

The other project I worked on is the t-shirt quilt for my friend at work. It is a semi-commission quilt, as she will pay me for the materials and quilting. I had been slowly working through stabilizing the t-shirts over the last few months and decided to see how they'd all fit together. Imagine my surprise/pleasure when they nested together just about perfectly! There was one extra t-shirt that didn't fit, but she didn't mind leaving it out. I was really happy to get the top done in June and I also got a fuzzy backing for it so it would be ready to quilt when I returned from vacation. 

After that, we headed out on vacation and I did just a little stitching and crochet while on the road. More to show on those next month. I did visit one quilt shop along the way and picked up a few fat quarters. I let my mom pick two and she kept the top two. 

Overall, I had 7 3/4 hours of quilting in June and crafted 16/30 days for a 53% crafty rate - my lowest month for the year, but that's okay. Glad to still have half of the days with a needle, thread, or fabric in my hands! 

For the stash report, I used a little more than I added, so I am still moving in the right direction: 
Fabric added this month: 1/2 yard
Fabric used this month: 3/4 yard
Fabric added year to date: 4 1/4 yards
Fabric used year to date: 19 1/2 yards
Net fabric used: 15 1/4 yards

Hope you had a great June - I will be back soon with vacation pics and a mid-year check-in of my progress on my goals and lists for the year. 

Comments

Congratulations on getting the t-shirt quilt top finished along with the Menorah stitch! Your quilted UFO looks fabulous. I look forward to hearing about your vacation and seeing what else you have been up to. I think crafting over 50% in June was great especially since you were on vacation for part of the time. Happy Independence Day!
Kate said…
Wow, that green fabric did work out really, really well. Enjoy your last week off before heading back to work. Hope you've been able to recover from vacation and get back into the sewing room before you have to head back to work.
Carol said…
I bet that Menorah magnet will be a first for your friend, Jennifer--great idea! I don't know why I haven't turned any of my finishes into magnets yet...

The T-shirt quilt will be so much fun for the owner to look at through the years. I had always wanted to do something like that for my sons, but never got around to it. And now the t-shirts are no longer around. Oh, well!

Glad you've enjoyed not only two weeks off but the third week of a company shutdown. Do they do that to save money? Hope it's not too difficult to return to work next week!