2018 Planning Party

Yvonne at Quilting Jet Girl is having a link up for sharing our quilty plans, goals and resolutions for 2018. In the boating world, "plan" is a four letter word. The humans make a plan, and the boat laughs and laughs and laughs! The mechanical state of the vessel and the whims of the weather are really in control here. So we always use the word "goal" to talk about where we might wander next.



My quilting path also wanders. I buy lots of weird, used fabrics and get inspired by them. My scraps pile up, getting in the way, so I stitch up a scrap quilt. Babies are born, friends suffer losses, quilts are needed for comfort. Another blogger posts a fabulous finish and SQUIRREL! I gotta make my own version!



I'm extraordinarily lucky to be able to quilt whatever I want, whenever I want. Therefore, I resolve to keep on doin' what I'm doin'.



{Lowers voice to a whisper so the boat doesn't hear} Just between you and me, though, we're hoping to cruise for about six months through the Bahamas and Caribbean islands. That means my access to quilting supplies will be extremely limited from late January to around June or July. {Something goes TWANG, CLUNK!! on the boat} It's a goal! Only a goal! Not a plan! Sheesh.




Anyway, I'm kinda sorta thinking I should maybe probably have about six months worth of quilting stuff on board, just in case. Last year I finished 37 quilts, almost all of them baby, toddler, or lap sized. That felt like a good pace for me, around 3 per month, so I'll use that number as a guideline. And this blog post is a great place to calculate and record what I need to continue that pace.

In the first half of 2018, I will need the following items:



Fabric: I'd only be fooling myself if I said I needed any more fabric. My stash is up to the task, I'm pretty sure. The only exception might be light/low volume pieces, which is what I run out of the soonest.



Best Press: I don't use conventional starch, because I really don't want anything that might attract bugs. There are plenty of bugs in my life already, living on the water as I do. I have one of the big refill bottles of unscented Best Press and it's about half full. I think that's enough. If I run out, I can live without it. I do carry a spare iron, just in case!



Batting: 3 quilts a month for 6 months = 18 quilts. Let's round up to 20, just in case. My quilts average about 50" square, or 2,500 square inches. So I need at least 50,000 sq. in. Wow, that looks like a really big number! However, a king sized package of batting is 120"x124"=14,800 sq. in. So four packages should be plenty. I also have some batting already on hand and some scraps to make Frankenbatting, which gives me some wiggle room.



Thread: I have at least 50 full spools of thread. I use mostly Aurifil 40 or 50 wt in the larger size spools. Should be plenty.



Needles: OK, confession time. I don't change my sewing machine needle often enough. They say you should install a new needle when you start a new project, but my projects overlap and intermingle, so I forget until I get the dreaded clunking/popping sound. So I resolve to change my needle more often, and I'm going to buy at least 10 shiny new ones.



Rotary cutter blades: Like needles, I know I don't change 'em often enough. I have four new ones on hand, three of which are the titanium ones. What do you think? Is that enough?



505 Basting Spray: This is my preferred basting method, so I use a lot of it. I get 2-3 quilts from one of the larger cans, so I need at least 3 to last six months. I only have 2 small cans on hand, so I'll order 3 big ones. Aerosol cans aren't supposed to be shipped via air, so they need a longer lead time to be ordered. Better get cracking on this one!

Freezer paper: I've never used it, but who knows? This season might be the time I'm inspired to try it. It's about $6 at Walmart and I'm guessing it's $20 in the Bahamas, so it's a no-brainer to just stock some now.



Shipping boxes: I typically mail off my charity quilts after I accumulate 2 or 3 of them, but paying overseas postage for that will probably be pricey and hard to track. However, we'd like to stop in the US Virgin Islands for a while, so I should be able to use the US Post Office there at standard shipping rates. After this year's terrible hurricane season, I know some supplies might be limited, so I'll bring my own Priority Mail boxes. 6 Large Flat Rate boxes should do it.

As Provisioner in Chief, I'm responsible for making the same sorts of lists and calculations for everything else except boat maintenance items. I have a big spreadsheet that shows our monthly needs for food, paper goods, toiletries, the kitty's needs, etc. Most of it has to be purchased and stored before we leave the USA.



Our previous experience in the Bahamas has showed us that some fruits and veggies are readily available, but expensive. (Yes, that's a $3.30 cucumber and we were happy to pay it.) Decent meat is very hard to find. Beer is plentiful, but outrageously expensive. Toilet paper is scarce and precious. And our cat's prescription diet is impossible to buy. So my first several weeks of the new year will be filled with trips to the store, most of them aboard my little motor scooter. Then I'll remove all the packaging and tuck stuff into every nook and cranny of the boat. Our freezer will be stuffed to bursting with protein, and our bilges full of beer. Then we'll sail off into the sunset!