To Do Tuesday

Playing along with Texas Quilt Gal for To-Do Tuesday!

Last Week:

1. Car for Dad √
2. Wedding Quilt /
3. Plan Baby Quilt #4 X
4. Dresden X
5. Squish’s sweater /
6. Missing Squish /////!!!!
7. Extra: Placemats √√/
8. Extra: Leaders-9 Patch /
9. Extra: Flag Pillow cover /

Caring for Dad brings home how much my sister does, she’s a saint! I tried to sew, but the weight of the wedding top was too much for the travel machine. I think the feed dogs are failing, it’s 1 seam short of ready for the border. I worked on a wool appliqué project and completed a cross-stitch.

What a mess!

Once home I tidied up the sewing room, i.e. cleared off the cutting table/ironing board, and uncovered leftovers from quilts, so I made a placemat. I needed L/E while sewing, so I pulled 2″ squares. No idea what I’m doing with them. So, did I get back to what I was supposed to do, no, I finished other placemats. I was making a new one, why not get back to the old ones! And last minute Monday, I just had to get that flag pillow cover started for the Summer rocker pillow. Cause I have no self control!! Bwahahaha!!! And, Squish has no body control, so she gets in corners.

This Week:

1. Lunch with friend
2. Sewing with friends
3. Wedding Quilt
4. Picnic quilting
5. Dresden Plates
6. Squirrel

Squish and I are on an adventure to meet up with a friend from Ohio today. Dresden Plates are on my mind, baby arrives in July, got to get going! Too many things to be done by July and here it’s already the last week of May!!! Squirrels? I need some pouches for gifts, perfect for my sewing bee project?

Sunday Report

Sewing Stats
Fabric In: +8.50
Fabric Out: -0
Net Fabric: +5.40
Fabric YTD: +12.86
Spending YTD: $994.81

In: On my way back home on Friday I stopped for a Grunge background for the Dresden color wheel. The Stitching Post has beaucoup Grunge!! I found one, and then 3 pieces from the sale room and 10 FQs hopped in my bag! Most of the FQs are for a WhatNot project, jewel tones in vintage are on my radar. The others just caught my fancy. For last Monday, my race cohort put together a thank you bag for me with a Jelly Roll!! The twigs are for our next endeavor, a block collection. The last row is more Chandelier blocks from a guild member, from her BOM winnings. She won 3 times! And the magnet set is from my race cohort. What a sweet gift! I sign my emails, “keeping you in stitches”, so I am sure she laughed when she saw the one on the lower left.

Out: No new fabric out, most of the projects were already in progress. Used a Buttermilk Basin pattern to learn wool appliqué, need a lot of practice. I also had a cross-stitch piece in my stuff that needed a few letters done. My eyes don’t work for small count fabric anymore! I got the wedding top almost done, just 1 more seam and borders. Before heading south quilting on Picnic 1 got done. It’s getting close! I just need to figure out the quilting on the last 2 rounds.

Once I got home and recovered I got in the sewing room to advance some projects. Promptly sat down and STARTED 2 NEW ONES! Gah! Well, This was the mess that I left on Monday.

So, while I was trying to pick up I grabbed some leftovers from a baby quilt, and ended up trying to figure out what I could make from them. And below was the result. The 9 patches, well, of course I needed a leader/ender for the purple thing, so I grabbed my 2″ squares and started making them for some undetermined project in the future. I am intrigued with the Jack’s Circle pattern, so maybe?

Knitting Stat
Last Week: 54,115 yards/283 skeins
Yarn In: 0 yards/0 skein
Yarn Out: 57 yards/0 skeins
Ending Stash: 54,058 yards/283 skeins
Spending YTD: $71.46

In: Nothing

Out: Worked on Squish’s sweater since my sewing machine was acting up, feed dogs aren’t making good contact. Grrr

It’s my cheap travel machine, so I’m considering buying a new one, or whether to have this one fixed. At $100 base price +repairs, I’m not sure. I might let Hubster root around and see if he can adjust the screws. I can’t get them to budge! Anyone have experience on a Janome MC 3000?

Friday FOs or No

During my time in the Guild, I have often felt compelled to impart knowledge to the members through workshops and videos. I decided recently to share my method of making zipper pillow backs with a workshop. And since I needed a sample for the class I sat right down and made one up.

I went with a simple Buffalo Check block to use for the pattern. The nice thing about the BC is the ability to make it easily with strip sets.

I cut 2 sub units from the darker set and 3 from the lighter set. Then arranged them for a checkerboard look, sewed the rows together and ready for borders. Easy Peasy!

I tried to get a good contrast between my greens, a lighter medium would have provided more contrast, but I really liked these shades together, so went with them. As always, a mono shot of the fabrics provides a good example of the contrast.

I had a plaid that tied them all together that I wanted to use on the borders, but it just didn’t work for me, so I used the two darker shades in a skinny and fat combo to finish out the front of the pillow.

I layered the front and back with batting and used straight lines to create grids. I was just going for simple and easy. You might also notice that the pillow isn’t “square”, that’s because I taper my corners.

My binding was cut on the bias so it would easily cover the edge and to create a neat color effect.

With the concealed zipper method, it doesn’t matter what color of zipper you use, no one will ever see it!

I think it turned out perfect! And if you would like to make a Cross Path Pillow with a concealed zipper, just let me know. I have written a free pattern and have a video tutorial of the steps. But warning, I haven’t proofed the pattern, so there might be errors here and there. “Buyer” beware! LOL

Now, go check out the links for Friday parties! You just might find something you need to make right now.