Stories from the Sewing Room

I've been thinking about all the things I need to do or would like to do. I probably spend more time thinking about what to do than I do actually doing. Maybe you can relate?

I have two pieces of mending. For one, I haven't been able to find the right color thread. The other isn't immediately urgent, but would be nice to have done and out of my sewing room.

I have plenty of projects that are half-done and several small, new start projects to complete. My daughter wants a Jimothy pillow (from Getting Jazzy with It). I had pulled part of the fabrics about a month ago and one of the times she was home, she picked a background from my stash. However, the fabric I had selected as the main raccoon fur was too close in scale to the background she picked. She really, really wanted to stick with the background fabric, which is a Debbie Mumm print. That should give you an idea of its age. Anyway, we went to the fabric store over the weekend and we eventually agreed upon a new fur fabric. The new fabric is a linen print that they had in the cotton markdown section. I'll need to wash it before I can get going on this one. 

The original and the replacement are the bottom two fabrics.

Since my daughter was home, I made her help me switch out the quilt on her bed. Thankfully the sides are long enough to cover the mattress (at least until I wash and dry it at some point in the future). Here are a few views of it in place, one in natural lighting (dark) and one with the light on. As you can see, she likes her stuffed animals. She is the personality type that likes all her things to be on display (outie) and I'm not (innie), so I usually don't go in her room unless I need to since it's too overwhelming for me. 

It's hard for me to get used to the purple in there. She had a very light pink quilt for 20+ years and four houses plus a rental or two. I'm trying to remember, but I think we've had three different paint colors. One more thing from her room. This thing is just about as tall as she is. She puts her clothes on it.

I still haven't started sewing the Ghostie Girls runners that I cut out a few weeks ago. I haven't been able to drag myself down into my sewing room the last few weekends. I did organize all the pieces to try to make it easier to find each one.

I am in need of an evening handwork project, so I pulled out a few knitting projects and a few partially completed small cross stitch projects to pick from. Or, more realistically, to rotate through. One of the knitting projects is a blanket on size 8 needles, so that will be a major commitment. I guess I'm kind of missing the utter mindlessness of the selvedge rugs.

I need to replace the fabric on our dining room chairs. They came with removable slip covers. I can only find two of the six. And they are just light natural canvas, so they show everything. We bought these chairs over 15 years ago and I put laminated cotton on them since the kids were little. Half of them are stained and torn now. It's hard to find laminated cotton these days. I'd prefer that since it's a quick job. Otherwise I'd need to recreate the slip covers and then I'd still have a hard time finding suitable fabric since Jo-Ann is gone. I really miss Jo-Ann.

Finally, we have been invited to an outdoor wedding with a semi-formal dress code. I have about two months to figure out something to wear. Since nothing ready-to-wear ever fits me correctly, I need to choose a pattern, find an appropriate fabric, do all the fitting, and complete it. 😬 I'd kind of forgotten about (or blocked?) this event, probably at least partially due to the dress requirement. 

I found it really hard last week to get any work done. I didn't feel all that great until Thursday and I also had 14 people stop by during the week with their quilts. I did finish a few quilts somehow. These are from Wednesday to Tuesday.

I completed Trudy's quilt, quilted with Star Spangled Banner.

I quilted Cinnamon Swirl on Heidi's quilt.

I bound Carole's t-shirt quilt that I shared last week.

I quilted Winterfest on Heidi's other quilt.

I quilted Diagonal Plaid Bias on the first of four memory quilts Annie made. These will be a bit of a challenge for me with the pieced front and back and the wide variety of fabrics included. I decided to do the most challenging one (front denim overall pocket with snaps) first. I'm supposed to bind all of these. I need to measure and see if there's enough backing fabric left to do the job.

Paula W. agreed to In the Swirls for her quilt and wanted purple thread. 

Jumping over to the great outdoors, my husband harvested a few tiny bell peppers and a watermelon. I've consumed one of the peppers. We haven't cut open the melon yet to see if it's even edible.

We made jalapeño poppers with our 11 coolapenos. They were quite tasty. Definitely better right out of the oven than reheated though.

We'd been discussing how the street sweeper hadn't been through our neighborhood this year. Friday it did come through, but it wasn't the normal one. It didn't use any water, mostly it just seemed to be blowing the dirt around and redistributing it. I couldn't see any of the brushes actually turning.

The sky was rather dramatic Saturday evening. I have a video of some lightning within a cloud, but I'm feeling too lazy to try to upload it. All the clouds we could see had lightning during our walk, but only just flashes within the clouds, never any bolts or anything.

This cloud is lit up mid-lightning flash. Not as fun as the actual flickering, but easier to upload. :)

It's time for another progress update. 

Linking with Ms. P Designs PHD program

August was fairly productive, all things considered. I completed the final selvedge knit rug from the "new starts" column. Here are all three I made this year. The last one is in the middle of the picture. One of these days I'll bury in those loose ends.

I completed the 16 secret items, finishing off the last one on the 31st. I had five done at the end of July, which means I did 11 in August! I was worried I was going to run out of one of the materials and ordered what I thought the item was. It wasn't, but for the cost, it wasn't worth the hassle of doing a return. Luckily I had enough of the original supply to finish all 16. No picture until end of December.

I started something new, the Ghostie Girls table runner. I cut enough to make two. I haven't cut the borders yet. I figured I'd cut the correct measurements for my pieces at the end. 

Over on the UFO side, I completed one project--item 17, solid colored bed quilt. This one is for my daughter's bed at my house. This project was not without a hiccup or two. My target size was 90" x 103". That allowed 3% extra in each dimension for shrinkage after washing. After quilting and binding, it ended up 87.5" x 102". I didn't expect it to shrink that much side-to-side during quilting. I'm hoping it's not too narrow, but too late now!  I bound it using the darker backing color because I thought I had matching all-purpose thread whereas I knew I didn't have the lighter color. I didn't have a match for the dark either. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I also accidentally ripped the binding during the final stitching and had to rip out and repair part of it. I don't love the darker binding on the front, but it is okay. I didn't feel like ripping the whole thing off to switch to the lighter fabric and she was indifferent to the color. Once she's home for a visit again (hopefully this weekend) we will get it onto her bed.

Ripped binding.

Best I could do to get a whole-quilt picture at the moment.

I made progress on Unity. Parts one and two are completely sewn. That leaves parts three through seven to go. I don't love some of the blocks, so I was poking around the internet for inspiration. I really like Kate's round four changes and I will probably do something similar. I also like her changes to parts six/seven and may consider changing my blocks as well. I've also seen some versions that are square that I think I prefer. Normally I'm totally team oblong for quilts, but the square ones are speaking to me for this design. We'll see in probably four or five more years. 😅 I'm a bit sad that my favorite cherry print barely shows so far. 

Remember those quilt blocks I was gifted from my cousin? She asked her older sister, who told her she thought their grandmother (my great aunt) made them before she lost her thumb and two fingers in a workplace accident. I think that was back in the 1940s? Anyway, now we know.

I've slowly been working on quilting, but my health has been a hindrance. This virus really hit me. I hate to think what it would be like without shots. While I feel much better overall, I still can't smell anything and can barely taste anything. I also tire very easily, so I've been taking a lot of breaks. I'd hoped to have completed a few more quilts this week, but here we are.

The first quilt belongs to Shireen. I quilted it with Loops and Swirls.

Next is Carole's t-shirt quilted, quilted with Diagonal Plaid Bias. I need to bind this one.

I have managed to keep up with my walking every day, although some of the days I was moving so slowly I felt like I was barely moving. One night I saw this sunset. I sent it to my son and he told me it made him think of Folgers coffee. Wasn't expecting that.