Stories from the Sewing Room

I re-boarded the struggle bus and powered through completing the Athena bag. 

I figured out the zipper pocket that I was struggling with last week. I discovered that I needed to read one line at a time and do only that. Do not read a section at a time, do not look at the diagram. Just one line and do what it says. I didn't love that I had to topstitch some of the pink more than once on the same line. 

Here are the front and back pieces of the bag and the carry strap. As you can see in my picture, I didn't do the best job at rounding the corners. 

Next I had to do another zipper insertion, which went okay. Then you had to sew another piece to that.

I finally figured out that they weren't supposed to bind, but rather, cover. If I looked very closely in the pattern cover images, I could just make out a stitching line that led me to this conclusion. That obviously worked out a lot better. I think the piece could have been a bit narrower, but oh well. I should also add here that every direction instructed me to stitch 1/8" away from the edge of all these binding pieces, but I did 1/16" because why would I want a flappy edge on everything?

Next I had to add binding pieces to the wrong/insides of both sides of this circular piece. I had a bit of a brain struggle to figure out how to join the pre-cut bias pieces because I didn't have long enough pieces to do my usual join. I really screwed up this one and had to do a straight join. It's inside the bag, so it probably doesn't matter one bit. 

Here I was trying to sew on the first one. It didn't require a straight join, but I did end up with a weird triangle situation where I did the bias join. You can just barely see it.

After the binding was sewn to both sides of this piece, it was time to do the final assembly of the bag. It was a bit challenging for me to wrap these thick foam pieces around the rounded corners, but I eventually managed. 

And both sides. One thing the pattern didn't remind you to do that I thought was very important: open the zipper before sewing the final piece on! Maybe I sewed it together in the wrong orientation and that didn't matter? It should still be mentioned. I had to unclip this to undo the zipper.

I really struggled with sewing down the binding and actually catching it on the bottom side. Clearly I did a lousy job. And had to re-do it. I think maybe it would have done better if I'd sewn from this side like I would a quilt binding by machine--topstitch on the front so that you know the stitching will look nice and even. I didn't, it didn't. At least it's on the inside of the bag.

Almost there. It looks like a lunchbox at this stage.

Ugh, such ugly stitching.

But I got it done! I felt like it was a "why is this being done this way?" scenario the whole way through. It's a useable bag, the outside looks decent, the inside doesn't. I was originally planning to do one for my daughter as well, but I think I'd rather pay for a pre-made one at this point. 

Moving along to things I do better than bag-making, here are the quilts I've worked on since last week.

Jeri's, quilted with Flower Swirl. I still need to fully bind this.

Another of Jeri's, quilted with Marmalade. Another full bind to complete.

Teresa's, quilted with Circle Drama. I fully bound this one. 

Heidi's, quilted with Stardust.

And one more of Jeri's, quilted with Cosmos. Still need to bind this one too.

Keetah's, quilted with Honey.

Amber's holiday version of Lupine & Laughter, quilted with Bright Lights.

Jan's, quilted with Loop the Loop. This one needs to be bound.

Finally, one more of Jeri's, quilted with Avalon. 

Out in the garden, we harvested the last zucchini. We had to pull out the plants because they got hit hard with squash beetles. I'm worried the beetles are moving on to the other plants. I'm particularly worried about the watermelon vines. Something is definitely eating the pole bean plants and the tomatoes. Not sure if it's the same or different. Most of my tomatoes have holes in them. Hornworm? Stink bug-like creatures? Plague of locusts? Who even knows at this point. We also picked 12 tomatoes that didn't have holes and one pound, 10 ounces of beans. 

The yard in general has gone from looking somewhat tidy and fresh to tired and overgrown. The weather was really nice for a few days, but I didn't make it out into the gardens to catch up on weeding and trimming. It's back to being so humid you can't breathe and I've been avoid going outside. I also noticed that some of the leaves in the trees are starting to change.

Both Barred Rock hens now have the scourge. Penny's been in the garage for almost a week. We are out of bins/cages, so we left Poppy in the coop with Nugget (chocolate Orpington). Nugget is the last one standing, but we're giving her precautionary meds. She's very skittish and surprisingly fast for her girth, so the menfolk are treating both in the coop at night when they can't run since the door is closed. My husband also noticed there was raccoon poop in the extended garden run, so he had to take the fruit netting off the top and put on cattle gate and fencing as a precaution. I'm rather over nature at the moment--snakes, raccoons, wild and creepy yard, chicken bacterial diseases, spiders (a garden spider? has built an elaborate web in between the window and the screen in the sewing room so I can't open my window), etc. Except I like all the fluttering butterflies I'm seeing in the yard. We have a swallowtail chrysalis on the doorframe of the barn.

So that's about it for this week. All my check-up exams were good last week. Somehow my doctors always seemed surprised that I'm perfectly healthy. We have two and a half more weeks or so until college move-in. I'll be back Saturday with the August OMG link up. 

Linking with Quiltery and Alycia Quilts.

It's time to share your July progress.

This link up will remain open until July 31 at 11:55 pm EST.

My goal this month was to bind my Linda J. Hahn Beach Bumz quilt. Ta-da.

I added hanging tabs to the back.

I custom-quilted this quilt, which measures 32.25" square. I used Glide Tar Heel, Blizzard, Air Force Blue, Limerick, and Bright White threads. I used a combo of freehand and computerized designs. The batting is a Quilters Dream poly Frankenbatting.

Now it's your turn to share your finish (or your progress if you didn't quite make it to the finish line).

Take a few minutes to visit others, offer encouragement, and make new friends!

This link up will remain open until 11:55 pm EST on July 31. Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can find the OMG link up from your blog--just paste this link into your post:  

Stories from the Sewing Room July One Monthly Goal Finish Link Up

I've had a different sort of week. I wrapped up my scheduled quilting last week and then took some time to decompress, catch up on paperwork, and work on a batting presentation that I presented Saturday morning. So far this week I've had nothing but appointments and events. In fact, today is the only day I don't have anything besides work on my schedule.

I was able to take some time Sunday afternoon for personal sewing. I started  assembling the Athena bag. I am struggling to understand the instructions and I haven't found a video tutorial. First I made the adjustable strap.

Then I started assembling the back panel. It had a cloth pocket on one side.

And a mesh pocket on the other.

I have to insert a zipper into the front(?) panel next and I don't understand the instructions. You can see the zipper in the pattern cover in the strap photo above.

I got frustrated and set it aside. I decided to work on month two of the Kaleidobloom quilt course that I purchased last year from The Crafty Nomad. Month one was fabric selection and general information and instructions. Here are my completed month 2 blocks. They went together easily. The colors didn't photo well, but they are Kona Celestial and Kona Maize, dark teal and stick-of-butter yellow.

I've printed out the remainder of the templates and will get back to piecing this as soon as possible. There are eight groups/months of lessons in total. The course is self-paced.

I have just a few quilts to share this week. First is Trudy's, quilted with Ocean Waves.

Next is Teah's, quilted with Creeping Fig.

Finally, Elaine's, quilted with a large-scale Soho.

Out in the garden, things are going fairly well. There are a lot of watermelons. Can you see any?

We harvested three coolapenos, seven tomatoes, two zucchinis, and just over two pounds of mostly pole beans. Unfortunately, it looks like the zucchinis have been hit with squash bugs.

We have pumpkins growing outside the fence. I'm hoping these don't become the next target of the bugs.

In the weird category, the other night I was walking back up the driveway from the mailbox and happened to look over at the vegetable garden. There was a rabbit inside the fence. I yelled to my husband. We figured it had squeezed in between the door/gate gaps. He opened the gate and noticed that there were actually two rabbits in the garden, which he proceeded to chase. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't see it with my eyes, but both of them exited the garden straight through the fence, which is an approx. 2" x 4" grid (photo right above). So when I was blaming squirrels for biting the blooms off the zucchini plants, maybe it was actually some stealth rabbits. We're considering adding some tighter chicken wire fencing along the bottom.

In my front garden I have zinnias blossoming. Since we were rebuilding this bed after the porch incident last year, I put in a few roses and some small perennials. I added two geraniums that I was gifted and threw all sorts of leftover seed packets in for good measure. The only thing that germinated from the seeds are these zinnias and they are all the same color. Weird, but fine.

I love the colors of the Gaillardia and geraniums together.

The only other thing of note this week is that when I returned from my annual exam yesterday morning, all I was thinking about was eating breakfast and then I saw this in my parking spot. 🤬 I'm guessing it was drawn to the wet concrete. We have two temporary AC units in the garage that have to vent, so that is what you are seeing under the door. I parked in my husband's spot to the right of this and crawled over the console and out the passenger door to avoid it. My husband asked if it was the same one as before, but I don't think so since the previous one was over five feet and this one didn't look quite so long. Yes, I know it's harmless. I don't care. Don't like, not approaching.

I'll be back Saturday with the OMG link up. 

Linking with Quiltery and Alycia Quilts.

It's been a slow week for personal sewing. Over the weekend I was able to re-quilt the border of the Beach Bumz quilt so that it was more even. Unfortunately, since it's batik, there are a lot of needle holes that are difficult to close back up.

I've started stitching down the binding and I'm about 1/4 done. I feel pretty confident that I can complete this in time to share it for the OMG finish link up on the 25th. I'm still wondering if I should have added more quilting to the white parts. 😆 

Over the weekend I completed the annual maintenance required for my machines. I have to clean the motor and motor brushes, take the side panel off, clean inside and oil the rocker. I typically complete these tasks in early July. The smaller machine was just fine--very clean, no issues. I had to get my husband to help me with the bigger machine because I couldn't get the rocker to move. He held it open while I sprayed some WD-40 on it and then oiled it. He noticed as he was manipulating it that it had some play. This can affect the foot and the needle. He also noticed that my oil wicks were looking pretty frayed. After I finish the quilts today I will contact service. Hopefully this is something we can fix at home instead of needing to send it in. To be fair, my machine is six years old and has quilted around 1000 quilts.

The rocker is the E.T. shaped piece near the bottom.

Meanwhile, I have been working a lot. I quilted Frost on Teah's quilt.

I quilted Midnight Sparkle on Melissa's quilt, which took two days.

And bound it. Which felt like two days. 😬

I also bound the one I quilted last week.

I finished the binding on Connie's quilt and sent it back to her. This is the last custom I will do for hire.

I quilted Fireflies on Sara's quilt.

This one had In the Swirls.

Elizabeth's cute little table runner had Fall Foliage stitched on it.

I stitched Diagonal Plaid Bias on Erin's t-shirt quilt and will bind it.

Teah picked Strawberry Fields for this one.

I quilted Lovely Rose on Trudy's quilt.

And Quatro Curved on Claire's first quilt.

I think I'm sufficiently caught up at this point to not need to work every single day. I also don't think I can continue working the hours I've been doing recently and not get completely burnt out. I've got a nicer schedule set up for the next several weeks. Luckily almost all the quilts I have scheduled now are not so huge either. 

I had kind of a weird experience last week. I was mindlessly scrolling Facebook one night and was shown a post from the statewide shop hop page. Someone was looking for a longarm quilter between two towns, which is where I happen to be. Several people recommended me to the OP, which was really nice. The OP mentioned that my wait time was x weeks according to my newsletter. It was actually a bit shorter than what she said, but I was going to let it go. I do not know who this person is. Lots of other quilters were either tagging businesses or recommending their own business. The next morning someone tagged me and my business and invited me to join the page. I joined as my business and liked the comments where people had recommended me. I attempted to respond directly to the OP's comment, telling her to reach out through my website (I have DM disabled on my business Facebook due to high amount of scam/spam messages), and it got sent to moderation. It eventually got denied and I am not allowed to comment on anything on the page. Oh well. 

Moving along, we've harvested a few more things--a handful of beans, three zucchinis, and a bowl full of lettuce. 

My daughter came down Sunday after work. I had her check the hens since she doesn't mind handling them. She couldn't catch the young ones, but thought they all looked and sounded okay. Unfortunately, Peanut the silkie hen is now sick and she's in quarantine in the garage with the roosters. Thankfully the vet let us get additional antibiotic without an appointment. The roosters have finished their course of antibiotics, but we aren't really sure if they are doing well or not. They have another week of quarantine to complete. Peanut started antibiotics Sunday evening. I'm still pretty convinced that the two Barred Rocks we bought from the lady on Facebook were carriers. I think the one actually had the illness, since we did hear her sneezing when we got her and she did have a very swollen eye. My daughter and husband disagree and think her eye was swollen due to Peanut pecking her eye, which my daughter did witness happening. We weren't savvy enough to know to quarantine them for a good amount of time prior to introducing them to the others. And now we are paying a pretty high price. 😢 This is still really weighing heavily on me.

In the "I can't believe I did that" category, I burned my knee by kneeling on my deck. I thought it felt really hot at the time. A few hours later, I noticed I had a big red circle on my knee. It lasted about 24 hours.

I have two quilts and one quilt binding left to finish this week. I am doing a short presentation about batting for a guild this weekend, so I need to prep that. I am doing this as a favor for someone and it's a 45-minute drive each way, so I'm not sure how much I want to invest in it in addition to the time and the gasoline. Maybe a very short handout rather than a multi-page resource guide that I'd be more inclined to do. For sure they can take a business card. Perhaps I'll create the lengthy guide for myself. 

Next week I have a series of standard medical and dental appointments. My doctor is probably going to tell me to lose weight.  I get to see her once per year and she's always like, "You seem healthy. Your weight is going the wrong way. Eat a Mediterranean diet." Yeah, trust me, I know. I'm calling this my "emotional baggage" weight. 😔 I worked really hard to lose a bunch pre-Covid and most of it has crept back on. I do exercise nearly every day and I'm rarely sick. Hopefully the other two appointments are uneventful. 

Finally, we found this game at Menards. Be sure to look at the pink circle. We aren't really sure what the original sentiment was, but it clearly didn't translate well. 

In case you can't see it, it says "Interesting play, the baby's hand-eye coordination but also to mention baby liter reaction force, so that the brain has also been developed."

Linking with Alycia Quilts and Quiltery.