letawellman

Well, the "go longest without buying" is interesting... hmmm, who HAS gone the longest? Speak up, y'all, inquiring minds want to know!

Sorry I've been incommunicado for awhile... got really busy with several customer quilts, then my work contract got cancelled, so I was job hunting, then found another contract job, then was told today that one cancelled as well. So, it's back to the job hunting again for me.

With all that's been going on, I haven't had time (nor money) to buy fabric. I've been really, really good, deleting all the sales emails that come my way. In the meantime, I've been using up my stash and/or finishing UFO's. I just took one off the frame, and will post pics when I get it bound (binded?)

As far as fabric purchases, with the exception of buying two bolts of extra-wide backing fabric at Foust Textiles back in February, I haven't bought anything this year. Nothing. No patterns, no tools, no books, no sewing machines, no kits (although the 50% off sale at Craftsy was a HUGE temptation).

We planted our garden right after Easter - and everything is just growing like crazy!! Peas (2 rows), beans (3 rows), okra (2 rows), corn (5 rows), peppers (about 50 plants), tomatoes (about 100 plants), squash, watermelon, and cucumbers. The cucumbers are about the only things not doing so well.
When I got home from work (or should I say, losing my job again), I was so upset. Hubby took me out to the garden, and pointed out the rows that needed thinning (we sowed really heavy b/c some of the seeds were several years old). It's really therapeutic when you thin out veggie plants and pretend they are a particular person's body parts. :O

Well, thanks for letting me ramble on... have ya missed me?

oksewglad

Good to hear from you, Leta...bummer about the job situation, but I love your and MrLeta's attitudes! (Just getting my garden in, but plenty of weeds as we've had a late, wet spring.) Keep being positive; a silver lining to your circumstances you've kept up the promise to yourself to not buy fabric and use up stash...yay.....looking forward to seeing your finishes..G

rryder

Fabric purchases- I've been pretty good, but there have been a couple of drive by fabric drop offs in the last 6 months and I did have to purchase muslin to use for the foundation for DC's tuffet. I used all but a few tiny scraps of the muslin making the tuffet, so this may or may not count. But, I did break down a few days ago and bought some rulers I've been wanting.

Leta- sorry to hear about the jobs, I like your description of the therapeutic value of weeding.

Our garden is both earlier and later than usual. The early warm spell caused our blueberries and the pear tree to bloom very early-- just in time to get a hard freeze so we weren't expecting to get any berries this year, but somehow they managed to produce after all and we will have some much earlier than usual (if the birds don't get them) too early to say about the pear. That early warmth followed by the freeze also got to our fig but it has begun leafing out on all the branches so we may end up with figs this year since it didn't die back to the roots.

We have had collards and kale throughout the winter, just put a covering over them once when we had wind chills in the single digits. We had to put in new strawberries as many of ours didn't make it through the winter. Our okra is in, but not doing much thanks to these odd cool days we're having. We've got some of the summer squash in and there's a squash on one already. Beans are in, but we need to plant more. Some cukes are in and all the eggplant is in, but need to put the tomatos and peppers (bell and chili) in--these rainy days make it hard to keep up! And, our neighbor across the street gave us a bunch, so now we need to come up with more planting beds and some place to put the melons. I moved the collards to a nice spot around the pond so that made room for some heat resistant greens and more okra....

Rob

MadQuilter

I am taking my birthday and retreat exemption and fess up that I jumped off the wagon big time. Thimble Towne in Bakersfield (where the retreat was held) is a fabulous quilt store with 3500 bolts. How can a girl resist? I did buy border fabric for the project I am working on (so that doesn't count). Got batting to use in the rag quilt I was also working at (so that doesn't count). What counts is the batik selection that was too yummy to pass up (total of 8 yards) and a Kaffe Fasset FQ bundle of solids and a jelly roll of his prints. I am grinning from ear to ear.

rryder

There's a retreat exemption????? Does it have to be a retreat organized by someone else, or can I organize one on my own? If I'm allowed to organize one on my own does it have to involve anyone else, or can it just be me on my own special little retreat??????? Why didn't I know about this before when Craftsy had that great sale on those distressed muslin fat quarters... I'm pretty sure that my next retreat is going to coincide with a Craftsy sale . thanks for alerting us to this important exemption, Martina.

And enjoy your luscious new fabric.

Rob

Blue Bell

I have been trying not to buy fabric but when you go on a shop hop, to stores that are far away, I BELIEVE that it is alright to buy fabric.
But on Saturday, I bought 3 yards for future projects and I BELIEVE that is alright, too. Well, that is my opinion.
What is now happening, because we are not buying fabric, stores are closing. Another one is closing in RI.

letawellman

Hey Rob!! Let me know when you "organize your next retreat" - it can be virtual, right? and we can all hit the Craftsy sale, right?

I reached out over the weekend to all my recruiting contacts and have (so far) one interview already (tomorrow), with two other potentials that I expect to hear from by the end of day today.
In the meantime, we're working in the garden, weeding, hoeing, running the antique tiller, and so on. The weather is PERFECT for this today - 67º, clear blue skies, and a slight breeze to keep us from getting too hot. Every single one of the tomato plants has at least one golf-ball sized tomato.

The UFO that I finished this weekend has lots of polka-dots... and I also had quite a bit of leftover FQ's and scraps of polka-dots. So, I'm thinking about making a "Metro Medallion" from SewKindofWonderful (pattern here: https://sewkindofwonderful.com/produ...on-pdf-pattern ) with all the polka-dots and entering both quilts in the 2018 MQX challenge next year (info here: http://www.mqxshow.com/MQX/East/2018...enge/index.cfm )

I'll post pics asap, but this is a "on-the-fly-post" while I grab a bite between hoeing/tilling/gardening.

Hope your day is as beautiful as mine. (But I'm still envisioning a certain person being disarticulated while I'm weeding/thinning).

MadQuilter

Haha, I don't set the rules so I can't really answer. All I know is that my retreats are out of town (4-6 hour drive) and I have to support the local economy. So I call it the retreat exemption.

happylab

Such a great idea. I think we should have a virtual week retreat once a year where we all participate in and we can buy as our hearts content. We just have to decide which week and have fun all of us jumping off the wagon. Of course the horses that pull the wagon would be running without a driver. Anybody in?

To answer the question of buying fabric. I haven't bought fabric for 2 months. Then again, I'm still working on all of my projects from then. My progress is real slow. And life is real busy. Enjoying sewing everyone.

elly66

Welcome back Leta.. As for my fabric purchases - I think I have gotten a month in maybe two that I didn't add any to my stash. However this month isn't one of them.

Went to a crafting garage sale this weekend. A quilter you know so I was in trouble. I would have to say close to 8 yards came home with me. DH was helping me pick out fabric which was rather sweet ( he seemed to be having fun) and she was selling a Accuquilt Go that was used once which he bought me for Mother's Day. I love it!! Been busy cutting scraps up ever since.