I then set up some formulas so that the last column would automatically calculate the difference between the first two columns--IOW, if one day, I buy 5 yards total of fabric, but a few days later use 3 yards, then the last column would automatically show that I still had two yards more in the "purchase" category than the "use" category. The end goal is that my "use" category should be higher--at least until I knock my stash down a bit.
My formulas all worked beautifully, but the last column kept showing numbers in the positive rather than the negative. I had in my head that if I used more fabric than I'd bought, I'd rather be seeing a negative number--a "fabric deficit," so to speak. So how could I write the formulas as such?
I asked my husband, who uses Excel all the time. He just looked at me drily and said, "the last column is how much fabric you can buy now, right?"
Be still, my beating heart.
So now the last column has been renamed: "Can Buy More". If the number in that column is a positive number, that means I've been successful at using more fabric than I've bought and have therefore made enough room in my stash for that amount of new fabric!
After 10 years of me quilting, my husband seems to have learned the Rules of the Game.
I didn't get as much sewing done today as I'd originally planned, but what's new about that? I had a terrible night's sleep last night--only got about 2 hours' worth. So I'm a bit bleery. We granted ourselves a slow, lazy morning and then went to a ballgame (minor league) this afternoon. We won, in an 11-inning overtime game. Phew! I spent an hour or so tidying up my sewing room and getting myself organized earlier today; when we got home from the game, I decided to begin one of my little stashbusting projects. I didn't get as far as I'd hoped--here's where it's at right now.
You can't really see well in this picture, but so far I cut two pieces of fabric and one piece of batting, grid-quilted it all together, cut it to size, and started the process of binding one side of it. This is one of those projects that I suspect would take others only about an hour to whip together. I'm already at 90 minutes and have a ways to go. Oh well--I'll pretend that's due to sleep issues.
I'm not going to tell you what it is. (Try to guess!) It's something that I hope will be terribly useful on certain occasions--that's as much of a hint as I'm going to give you. If nothing else, is finally a good use of the novelty quilt fabric that I've had in my stash for probably 8 or 9 years and never knew what to do with! Between that, the coordinating fabric, and binding, I can put 2 1/4 yards in the "used" column on my spreadsheet! And May is off to a good start!
