The seeing stars top is finished and so is my attempt to thriftily piece together the back. The weather is finally good enough to take the quilt outside and so here they are.

I'm pleased with the quilt. Thank-you so much to those who helped with my dilemma about the setting blocks a few weeks ago. I've looked at a few of the other finished tops on flickr and I am impressed by them all.

I got a little carried away on the backing. The silhouette of the clothes line in the photo was an accident, but maybe I could work with this. I was going to just sew together the cream fabrics in my stash into strips and keep going until I ended up with a square. Then I decided to use up all the remnants from the front too. It grew from there. Soon I was cutting bits already sewn together to add more colour. My dearest managed to watch most of Die Hard 4 in the “just 20 minutes” while I pieced the stripy section.

Tomorrow marks the end of my no fabric buying strategy. I was trying to only spend $15 a week. I started at the beginning of June. After overspending in July, I worked out that I couldn't buy any more until August 18. I have failed miserably.

In the interim, I have succumbed to the allure of:
5 balls of wool
An Amy Butler Card Kit
1m of boarder fabric for the jelly roll quilt
1m of batting for the days of the week quilt
5m of background & backing for the stars quilt (AND despite being the same name it wasn't an exact match)
3m of merino & wool knits at the global fabric sale
2m of stretch silk at the global fabric sale too
buttons, threads, magnets and steam a seam for various projects

FAR TOO MUCH !!

So after a but of re-jigging, it looks like I spend about 3 x the estimated amount on fabric each week. 2 x would have been amusing but this is getting a bit out of hand.

My problem is that I buy too much fabric and I possibly have too much fabric.

I am starting with piecing fabric I already have, along with the remnants and undersized blocks, to make the back of the seeing stars quilt.

Ideas and miracle cures to the craft budgeting problems would be warmly welcomed.

I now have my very own copies of World Sweet World and I am impressed. On our weekend shopping trip to the big smoke I was able to call in at Madam Fancy Pants to get World Sweet World. I had read about it and am stoked that it lives up to the hype with a number of new ideas and information about local-ish goings on.

Other local-ish news – The Sawmiller's Quiltery is getting in The Very Hungry Caterpillar fabrics. I ducked in to take advantage of pre-ordering and am looking forward to having my very own Hunky Hungry Caterpillar fabric.

As far as the fabric budget is going, I don't think preordering counts and I can neither confirm nor deny money changing hands at the Global Fabric sale.

This time last year a friend of mine had some Sri Lankan boarders. There was an intense discussion about buying powdered milk. My friend explained that while it is sometimes cheaper, no one in NZ buys powdered milk because the fresh stuff is so cheap.

When I was growing up, powdered milk was a strange concept too. It was the abandoned packet at the back of the cupboard for emergencies.

I have had a rethink. In the last few years the price of milk has shot through the roof, doubling even. It's cheaper to buy coke. I now have to admit that powdered milk has its place and that place is in hot chocolates (courtesy of the Destitute Gourmet)

You will need:

2 cups Milk Powder
1 ½ -2 cups icing sugar
½ cup cocoa
¼ teaspoon salt

Sift it all together. This will make enough to fill a large preserving jar.

Mix boiling water with ¼ cup of mixture to make up to a cup of hot chocolate. Recipe should make around 16 hot chocolates.

I have been reading about stash busting and I love the idea of just opening up the pink drawer and using every last bit there. In reality I would be more inclined to open the drawer, see that my pinks were a bit blah and feel justified in getting some more. Sometimes, I have all the resolve of a piece of cooked spaghetti.

Along with the stash busting ideas, I am trying to set a crafting budget. I really does get a bit scary when I add it all up. So I'm trying to stick to $15 a week. I have been very ordered in the first 4 weeks. I need to buy a jelly roll for the class so that was 4 weeks of saving. Then I got to the class, read the instructions and to make the quilt really big, I needed 2 rolls. So, then it was no more fabric for 4 further weeks.

The following day we found ourselves in Palmerston North. There is a chain fabric store there that gets remaindered quilting fabric. While the other branches have some remaindered fabric, this one has the most. So I had to get this:

In all honesty I had been eying up this fabric for a while at full price (3 x the reduced price) and I would have regretted not getting it. In fact, I would have done more than regret it, I would have dragged my whole family to the store on subsequent trips and lamented the fabric I didn't buy, loudly.

So now it's no more fabric until August 18. This might be a little tough but I'm sure I can do it because, really, I would have regretted not buying the fabric more.

note: That doesn't count the sewing books I picked up and the wool I just had to have yesterday.