What a weekend!

I took a half day off on Friday so I could get some bags made for the merch booth. We were scheduled for a show on Saturday and I only had two bags left after the big show in WV. I got 26 regular sized bags and 3 bigger bags for drum heads sewn together.

I had two covers we use to cover the merch booth road cases in case of rain. I decided they needed to be sprayed with Scotchguard to give us a bit more protection. Since we were schedule to have a show Saturday I needed to get this done. The smaller cover easily fit over my recycling bin for spraying.

The cover for the t-shirt road case needed to be altered first. The cover only fit when the lid for the road case was off. After the storms we went thru this summer, the cover needed to be bigger so it fit over the case with the lid on it. I cut the cover and added a strip

then spread the cover over two bins and sprayed it with Scotchguard.

I then laid it out in the driveway to dry until I realized a bit later it had started to rain. I shook the rain off the cover and hung it in the garage to continue to dry.

Saturday I made oatmeal raisin and pan banging sugar cookies to take to the show for the band and friends who would be coming to the show.

I didn't have to leave for the show until 2:00 pm so I fixed a hole in a pair of pants and hemmed a pair.

Two hours before it was time to leave my brother called and said the show was cancelled because of rain. I took all those cookies to work this morning and got lots of "thank you for the cookies!" from the guys. So now I needed to regroup because now I had the rest of the day to myself. I worked on finishing up the four thread beds and project bags as I watched football on TV. Notre Dame beat Rice.  Woohoo!

I started working on the next four TBs and PBs until I ran out of vinyl pieces. See my TB trays are empty or nearly empty! I cut a little bit of vinyl so I could work on the next batch of TBs, but I am going to have to spend some time this week replenishing my trays as I will show you all the cutting I did!

Sunday I felt like cutting and some cutting I did! This pile is the 8 TBs that will be table gifts at the next retreat I am going to. I had enough fabric for two PBs too. I only had two matching zippers.

This fabric has cute pigs on it. I think I got 4 TBs and four PBs out of it. I paired it with some polka dot fabrics. I need matching zippers.

I bought the same pig fabric in gray and got 4 TBs and 4 PBs. I found enough matching zippers.

Out of this 4th of July print, I got 8 TBs and 4 PBs. I found plenty of matching zippers.  

Out of this purple fabric I got 4TBs and 4 PBs. I think I am short a couple zippers. This fabric has metallic accents and is very pretty. I have a piece in dark blue int he same print that I still need to cut.  So that will be 24 more TBs and 18 more PBs out of all this cutting session. 

It was very humid this weekend and hot if it wasn't raining. Not much yard work happened. I did cut down my Zebra grass. With the rain it has spread out and is huge! Too big for where it is planted.

Just as I started cutting it down, it started to rain. I finished cutting it down and got most of the stems hauled out back, but there are still some stems that need cleaned up.  I saw lighting so inside I went!   I plan on digging the root ball out and just filling in the hole. Yes, it will be some work for sure! It is going to be dry today and cooler so my task this evening will be working in the yard.

Progess on 4 more TBs and it's Friday!

Here are the four TBs I worked on last evening. I think these are so cute and will not have a problem finding a new owner! I also will have four project bags out of the same fabric.

Here is a closeup of the fabrics. I wish I had bought more of them.

I need to put the TBs aside and work on tote bags tonight. It's going to be a busy weekend with the band having a local show. That means I need to make a lot of cookies! I plan on making oatmeal raisin to use up more of the oatmeal and raisins I have on hand and I am going to make some pan banging sugar cookies for the first time. Have a great weekend!

TBs, storms, and deer

Six more TBs are done! I used three different colors of fabrics for the lining. I now have 107 done. I am going to keep making them until I run out of zippers.

Had two storms move thru last evening. Neither one of them lasted long. The first one was around 5:30 pm

The second one was a little after 7 PM.

Last evening there were four deer in the backyard. One doe and three fawns that are about 3/4 the size of the doe.

I think these dragonfly TBs are cute!

These are the TBs I finished last evening. The zipper pockets were already made and everything was cut to size so finishing them only took about an hour and half.

I had time to work on the next group of six. I am using a dark blue thread except I changed the top thread to match the lining fabric for each set.   These two are ready for their self-binding to be pressed

The green ones need the flannel stitched on and the darker blue need quilted and then flannel.

The zipper pockets are ready to go

It was too hot for me last evening to go out and wack more weeds. 86 is the high today so I probably won't weed wack. The next couple days will be cooler with the highs in the 70's so I will hopefully get outside a bit.

3 days of Thread Beds, Project bags, and more

I only left the house this 3 day weekend to walk over to the neighbor's to get their mail while they are on vacation and to spend about 45 minutes in the yard wacking weeds. Otherwise, I was in the studio sewing. I got 18 thread beds (TBs) done and 8 project bags (PB). I made four of these TBs

2 of these

2 of these

4 of these

and 2 each of these

I decided to try and make some project bags with fabric fronts instead of vinyl. Some people don't like vinyl. I like the vinyl fronts because you can see what is in the bag. Here is the first fabric front one I made and it is completely lined.

I just had to think about the best way to cut fabric to get the most out of what yardage I have. I had a lot of this print and I had enough for six thread beds which still need finished and a PB of each type. This will give people a choice of which ever style they prefer.

Here are the eight PBs I got done this weekend

The Hulk got a workout with the snap installation for the TBs!

On Monday I needed to get the handles made for some tote bags for the merch booth. As I was pressing handles for topstitching, I found a couple more pieces of fabric to cut totes and handles. I spent about four hours cutting, pressing, and topstitching enough handles for 28 bags. I am going to have to dig around to find more fabric for tote bags although we only have a few more shows on the schedule right now.

On my temporary extra table in the studio, I have the in-progress TBs and PBs staged. The two stacks at the left just need sewn together. The three lavender and pink stacks in the back row need zippers which I will get when I place another order after I figure out all the zippers I need. The remaining stacks in front have everything including zipper, but I didn't press the pieces for the zipper pockets or iron on the interfacing. For these I just wanted to see what I could get out of two yards of fabric which was four TBs and two each of PBs with the fabric fronts and two with vinyl fronts.

Here are all the TBs and PBs I have made so far. There are 97 TBs and 21 PBs. That seems like a lot until you get 150 people in a room! I will keep making them for a couple more weeks and then switch to making those scissor pouches.

The scissor pouches are my giveaway to anyone who attends the retreat and for the workers at the Hobby House Needleworks shop.

I did do some dishes, make food for lunches this week, and did a couple loads of laundry too. The only thing I didn't get to was Scotchguarding the road case covers and altering the one cover. I will have to get that done this week.

Two more TBs ready to go and a three day weekend!

I had an appointment after work so I got home a bit later which cut into my sewing time. I did get another two thread beds (TBs) ready for final assembly

I got started on the next batch. I must of had a two yard piece of this cute print because I will be able to get four TBs and a couple of project bags out of it. The lining fabrics will be different. I used up what I had left of this light blue batik and will use a darker blue batik for the rest.

We got a heck of a storm last evening. My lights flickered four time, but thankfully they stayed on. I did unplug my machine just in case!

I am looking forward to a three day weekend with no shows with the band. Of course, I have a long list I will attempt to put a dent in. That list includes fixing a cover we use to cover the t-shirt road case. I made the cover to fit without the hard cover to keep the sun off the shirts. After the storms we had at a couple of shows this summer, I need to make the cover a bit bigger so it will fit over the entire case with the hard cover which closes up the case. I will show you pictures of this at the next show so you get what I needed to do. I will then Scotchguard it and another road case cover. After those rainstorms I realized the cover needed a waterproofing boost. Next on the list will be of course TBs and project bags. I have yardwork that needs done so if the weather gets a bit cooler some of that might happen. Lastly, I need to make more tote bags for the merch booth. We used all of the regular sized bags at the show in Morgantown. All that was left was one or two bigger tote bags for drum tops. I dug around and found a couple dozen bags already cut out.

More TBs and project bags cut

I had this dark batik print that Wanda sent me. I paired it up with some green batik and some wine colored zippers. I had enough fabric to make two.

I had two pieces of this yellow print that I bought. I got four TBs out of one piece and the other piece was big enough to get four project bags. All the pieces are cut, fused, and the zippers installed. I ran out of yellow zippers, but these turquoise zippers match the print. I also ran out of yellow batik for the lining, so one of the bags will have a blue lining.

I do need to get more project bags made. Right now, I have less than 10.