Fabric Use, Fabric Purchasing and Spreadsheets- Cheryl’s 2017 edition

At the December Sew Day/Party/Meeting I forgot to share my 2017 spreadsheet at Show and Tell.
I know you all missed it terribly, so here is my summary.

IN YARDS	jan	feb	mar	apr	may	june	july	aug	sept	oct	nov	dec	YEAR IN TOTAL
difference	24.75	-10.75	-5	7.5	-1	-5.25	4	13.75	-2	5.25	1	-29.75	2.5
in	31.5	3	0.25	10.25	11	7.5	13	18	14	17.5	12	12.5	150.5
out	6.75	13.75	5.25	2.75	12	12.75	9	4.25	16	12.25	11	42.25	148

I know Jaye has reported on her use, and Michelle also. Those of you who are reluctant to start tracking,
let me remind you that you can make up your own rules. Foreign travel purchases, for example, may not count.
Or anything bought during the “limbo” week between Christmas and New Years may go on either year depending
on how the math is shaping up (I use this one). Likewise free fabric may not count for you if you are interested
more in the financial "burden" of fabric stashing. Or any purchases made after midnight, or anything pink...
whatever. It's your spreadsheet!

AND REMEMBER, you don’t have to tell anyone. This is not meant to make you feel bad, it’s meant only to
make you aware.

Final tally for 2017: 150.5 yards of fabric purchased/won/given; 148 yards of fabric used/given away.

Final tally for 2016: 121 yards of fabric purchased; 122.6 yards of fabric used.

Net increase of 2.5 yards this year! Not bad. Like last year, I did some panic December sewing of gift bags,
etc to help reduce the gap. And finished 2 baby quilts in the “limbo” week in order to put my limbo
purchases on 2017.

A few things that happened this year to increase my intake:

Participation in destash: one in person when Kelly (previous BAMQG president) moved to Scotland and
what are friends for if not to help out with that?? And another one on instagram where someone was
destashing solid “neutrals” at an excellent price. One of my goals this year was to increase my solid stash,
so in addition to that destash I also joined a Solids of the Month Club whereby 1 yard each of four solids
in a certain colorway were sent to me each month. So these three things added 51 (gulp) yards to my stash.

Thankfully I also finished 4 larger quilts, 8 baby quilts (2 in December!) and 5 charity baby quilt tops.
(I am motivated by a finish, and by the Spreadsheet!)

Next year, I am also planning on using the spreadsheet to Plan out a few things for the year. For example
all of the WIPs from 2017 moved over onto the 2018 spreadsheet and those with a deadline (ie baby quilts
for babies due, graduation quilts, teachers gifts) have a highlight for the month in which I would like to
finish them. This spreadsheet has become a good (and my only way besides Instagram) of tracking what
I have made. So it works for me.

Don't be afraid to try it! It has helped me really focus on fabric I will use, and not just buy because it's on
sale or I am bored (it is notable that the months I was traveling and not sewing are also the months I bought
more fabric this year!). Still working on the hoarding factor if “too good to use” though. Also, I have been
doing more hand-quilting and other hand work. This slows things down (in a good way) but may also need to
slow down the purchasing…

Here’s to a creative 2018! Go out there and buy make something!

Thank You!

The end of my term as blog editor is here and Pam will be taking over for me in January.

Thank you very much for reading and for your comments. I have enjoyed writing this blog and appreciated the interaction with readers.

Happy New Year!
Jaye

Tara Faughnan Lecture Notes

Tara Faughnan came to the guild on Saturday and gave a lecture.

Tara was a gardener before she began quiltmaking. she works at Michael Miller after completeing at textile design program in Berkeley.

She uses Photoshop and Illustrator in her work. She had a Pfaff for a long time, but recently got a Janome. She uses her mom's machines when she wants to do something special.

Tara started out with Ruby McKim's 101 Patchwork Patterns. She also pored over back issues of Quilters' Newsletter Magazine to learn. She did not have a good internet connection at the time, so searching the web was not an option. She used templates to make her first quilt.

Her third quilt was an art quilt with a dragon on it. It was quilted with metallic threads and she decided that it would be her last representational quilt. This quilt is not shown on her website.

At some point, a clerk at Joann told her about rotary cutting.

Initially Tara was terrified of color. She took two colors and made one little block to kind of deal with color combinations. As a result, she got really excited about color combinations. Tara works, primarily, with solids since she works with prints all day long. She finds that dark colors help other bright colors pop. She likes the place where two colors meet and wants to continue to explore / figure out the fluidity of color. She finds that brown bridges the gap between green and purple.

She now makes iterations of quilts. She likes to take one block and see where it can go. Alexandra's Quilt is a grief quilt. The next quilt had many more neutrals, which are her safety net.

Tara doesn't like improv cutting or piecing, but likes improv layout. She always designs on the wall - (using a design wall). She ends up with a lot of extra blocks, extra shards , extra leftovers when she makes a quilt.

Her DWR quilt was inspired by the Roderick Kiracofe Unconventional Quilts Show held in Sonoma. It is hand pieced and it made her feel like she hit her stride in 2015-2016-2017. She began to feel like color was her focus.

She made one DWR quilt that was just like one she saw. She thinks you should make what you like and that you can learn a lot from making derivative quilts. There is a blog post on the MQG site about derivative quilts [your editor was not able to find it quickly, but will find it later and link  to it]

The Pine Burr quilt was a huge step in the direction of figuring out how colors flow together.

Tara loves discord in quilts - things that are unexpected that can't be resolved. She gets a lot of inspiration from the Quilt Complex.

The Easter Egg quilt (not its real name) had an Easter Egg color palette. She added neutrals, greys, browns and ochres to make it more palatable - less sweet.

Quilts have hard lines and we just have to deal with that.

She does not make garments

She works on one quilt at a time.

She doesn't get stuck. She just makes a decision and sticks with it. She thinks she will get stuck on a  quilt if she doesn't finish it.

She will be a QuiltCon judge in 2017. Quiltcon judges are not required to be NCQC certified. She doesn't think that quilts made from patterns should be entered into shows alongside original works, but that there should be a separate category for quilts made from patterns.

Tara will be teaching a workshop for the guild on 8/12.

San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles

Gerre, our fabulous president, recently met with Amanda Rawson, SJMQT Deputy Director, and Anna Bagarov, SJMQT Marketing Manager, at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles.  I was invited to meet with them to talk about how the guild might become more involved in mutual projects and events.  They are both enthusiastic about the modern quilt movement. Check out our ideas (in italics) below.

Amanda will be speaking to us at our April meeting about opportunities to get involved with the upcoming Modern Quilt Guild exhibit as well as the museum's upcoming 40th anniversary.
Anna followed up with me to provide information to our guild.  Below is an excerpt of her email to Gerre.  This has been edited for clarity. Please take the time to check it out.
__________
Hello!
Yes, an amazing meeting. Great to meet you, Gerre.

Here are a few more links for you for your members. I hope we can schedule a day in April for me to meet everyone in your Guild.

It would be great to get an email sent out to your members:

• Upcoming exhibits 
• Opportunities for action 
• Fibershots submission guidelines and information - (we would love for your members to submit their gorgeous artwork)
• Artist in Residence - all members are encouraged to apply 
• Fiberspace -  all members are encouraged to apply 
• Events - Updated each month
• Facebook Events page
• 40th Anniversary Open House

The museum also has a Permanent Collection which includes over 1,000 textiles. They have quilts from the 1800s. They have just completed the first phase of digitally cataloging all of it!

Now more than ever, it is vital that we have the support of the fiber arts community for  museums such as SJMQT. In addition to sponsorship that Amanda described, simply going to the museum for its exhibits or going to events or shopping in the gift shop is a big help. Sharing our social media posts and telling your friends is great. Word of mouth is powerful.

As I said during our conversation, I am open to ideas to collaborate and support one another- and to create a space where we nurture fiber art. Fiber talks, workshops, a mixer, a showcasing of modern quilt political responses to the current political situation - I am all for it. We are always looking for volunteers. Or perhaps your members have children or family that want professional Museum experience for their resumes- there is so much opportunity here to learn and create good references. 

Our next installation week is April 18-20^th.

If you know people that like to work with children- we have school tours and other activities for children. Passing on the art of quilting and the fiber arts is so important so that future generations support the art and the museums that preserve it through collections and exhibits.

The museum's 40th Anniversary is coming up

• We are looking for artists for our Make and Take tables.

It would be great to get an email out to your members about this very important birthday. The Museum was begun to promote and protect the art of quilting.

Please encourage your members to follow us on Instagram: @SJMQT. We are so close to our goal of 1,000 follower by our 40^th Anniversary Celebration.

Please let me know how we can support you and help you as well. I am open to all ideas as our missions are similar.

Hope to see you soon and have a lovely weekend!

Fabric Use, Fabric Purchasing and Spreadsheets

At the December Sew Day/Party/Meeting I shared my spreadsheet at Show and Tell.

Cheryl's Spreadsheet of incoming fabric for 2016 - she uses this to keep track of recent purchases, with the intent of keeping a zero-balance of incoming/outgoing fabric. Photo by Diana Lubliner.

Although this may not be everyone's idea of a good time, I wanted to track incoming and outgoing fabric, with the goal of not increasing my current stash. Whether or not I have "a lot" of fabric depends on who you ask. Certainly there are folks with far more than me who find my paltry stash not enough to work with, but my daughter insists that I am a hoarder. All in the eye of the beholder.

Don't get me wrong, I like to buy fabric. I like looking at the tiny pretty squares of fabric swatches on my phone when fabric shop newsletters come in my inbox. I do not wish to deny anyone that pleasure! But I overheard someone in line at PIQF a while back saying she had more fabric than she could possibly use in her lifetime. And I just didn't want that to be me. I want to use what I have, and use it while I still love it. And then I want to buy more of it to continue the process. Fabric that excites us is what keeps the creative process going, amiright?

Jeni Baker of In Color Order has a post talking about her process, which is similar to mine. She tracks her use of specific fabric by projects, which I don't do. I have a simple IN (by shop) and OUT (by project) spreadsheet that tracks by month and adds everything up for a final tally. I was really just interested in a total number. I guesstimated yardage for projects and tried to be conservative about it. A finished baby quilt was 4 yards, for example. I did not worry too much about exact numbers just tried to get it close. Another bonus to this spreadsheet is it tracks what you make in a year.

Final tally for 2016: 116 yards of fabric purchased; 121 yards of fabric used.

So I did use more than I bought-which was a goal- no net increase! Hooray! I admit to making lots and lots of gift bags in December, both to boost my out-yardage and to make reusable gift bags for future use. It was eye-opening to me to see how much fabric I purchased (and won, and got for free, I counted it all) and also how much I used. If anyone had told me I bought and used over 100 yards of fabric in a year I would not have believed it.

One thing this process has led me to is less buying of fabric just because it is on sale or just because I am trolling around for interesting stuff on the internet. I know have another filter to run any purchase through: IS IT SPREADSHEET WORTHY?

Here is my spreadsheet, in case anyone is dying to see it. I can share the google spreadsheet if you really want it. Just let me know!

IN YARDS	January	feb	march	april	may	june	july	august	sept	oct	nov	dec	YEAR IN TOTAL (should be negative!)
difference	-6	0.25	7.25	1.5	18.2	4.5	-5.5	-11	1.45	0.25	-6.25	-9.75	-5.1
in	0	9.25	11	12	23	22.5	2	7	10.25	14.5	4.5	0	116
bloomerie		1												1
hawthorne		3			7	7								17
fabricworm/fabric dot com		5.25	6					2						13.25
fat quarter shop				9					3					12
intrepid thread				3					7.25					10.25
stone mtn					8									8
OR/HI					8		2							10
restash (free!)						2				2				4
fabric depot						10								10
birthday+prize; retreat, BAM free table, prize								5		7				12
PIQF, japanese fabrics										3.5				3.5
ilovefabric											4.5			4.5
moona (etsy)/cia's palette/nimble thimble			5			3.5				2				10.5
out	6	9	3.75	10.5	4.8	18	7.5	18	8.8	14.25	10.75	9.75	121.1
2.5 inch purple	4
21 12.5" squares		7
rainbow top		1.25
wheelchair top		0.5
seal bag			1
gift & zipper bags	1.5							0.25				1
stash bee block	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.3	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.3	0.25	0.25	0.25
D2 donation quilt				8
Harper's window seat			2.5
slabs				0.5
charity binding				0.5		0.5
CH for Aja					4.5
Alison- bag				0.25
Kath- +2 pixie baskets				0.5
13 12.5" squares								4
photo mini for BAM						0.5
Eric and erin						5
blue ombre charms						4.5
destash						5
MLQG	0.25			0.5		0.25	0.25
wine/gift bags						0.5						2
DT bag						1.5
charity red and white, top plus binding							7
Steam punk								10
cargo duffle								3
pot holders								0.5	1			5
housetop-Gavin									4
Amanda									3.5
Steve and margaret										6		0.5
sew together bag											1.5
pillow case, harper
scrappy 9 patch top to BAM										3
grey strippy scrappy top										5
8 zipper bags											4
5 for Xmas											5
fmq practice												1