More quilting pouch fabric

I got enough fabric quilted to cut out three more pouches.

I thought the purple fabric was kind of boring, but the quilting really makes a difference!

Here is what the fabric looks like that will be on the inside of these pouches.

Just so you know, I cut the fabric 12 - 13 inches wide and around 35" long for the quilt sandwich for making two pouches.

For these pouches, I did start with a freebee pattern, but I changed it to make more sense. I also reduced the size so I made templates for a medium and small pouch too which were not part of the freebee.

Homespun scraps, 2024 MT spools, zippered pouches

I was busy the last couple days with lots of different things: laundry, dishes, making soup, continuing the fabric storage room straightening up, and looking for my rotary cutter. I had moved a lot of stuff around with company coming and forgot where I had put the rotary cutter. It took me a half hour to find it, but I found it! I then could get finished with the homespun scraps. I got the red scraps pieced together and got 9 nine inch blocks. The blue and tan are 3 1/2" squares.

Here are my empty spools for 2024. Not too bad.

I got a bit distracted from quilting the t-shirt quilt. I decided to work on the zippered pouches that someone had asked me to make for a cross stitch retreat. She asked for 24. Here are the two that are done.

It dawned on me that I should use my Sulky Rayon thread to quilt the fabric to try and use some of this thread up. I used to buy it when it was on sale and collected a rainbow of colors.

It takes me about a half hour to quilt the fabric for two pouches. I have a template I made out of mat board. It is helpful to have one side gray and one side white to get the contrast for cutting.

I use a ruler to help make the straight cuts then free hand cut the curve. I mark the bottom corners with a washable marker and cut those with scissors.

Here is the pouch all ready for the zipper

I had this one fabric that has a large print. I wasn't even trying and the print worked perfectly to have the large motif on each side. These will be so cute!

I have 16 pouches ready for zippers

and fabric for six more to quilt.

T-shirt quilt progress, homespun scraps, and snow

The t-shirt quilt is now 20% quilted.

The blue homespun scraps are now cut into 3 !/2" squares. I pieced together some of the squares to be able to save the small bits of fabics I loved.

We are getting lake effect snow here in NE Ohio today. There is about 3" on the ground. I don't have any place I need to be so I'm staying in the sewing studio and get something done! Back to working on the quilt!

T-shirt and homespun scraps

If you haven't figured it out by now, I took vacation days during the holidays. The job site is closed for two weeks and since not much was going on I took vacation. Only 3 1/2 days left (sad face). I got started on quilting the t-shirt quilt yesterday and I got a bit done this morning. The top measurers 98 x 103 which is 10,094 square inches. I have 819 square inches quilted and that translates into 8%. I have a way to go! LOL!!

It is hard to quilt on black with black thread without much natural light. It is overcast and there is no sun in the current 7-day forecast.

I decided to sort the scraps of homespun fabric left in my stash. I have a picture of a 9-patch quilt that I want to make. It is a combo of quilting cotton and homespun. I will have to sew together some of the scraps into bigger pieces and I am ok with that. I love the imperfect look. I have only a few scraps of some pieces that I loved and sewing them together is the only way I will be able to save them to put into this quilt so I can still enjoy them.

When I need a break from quilting, I will work on the homespun scraps.

Hoodie alterations to start the new year

Yes, it's a new year. Happy - well, that is debatable, but I am not going to go into it. I decided I wanted to get this pullover hoodie that they gave me at work to be a zip up and this is how I did it.

I removed the hoodie, marked the center of the front, sewed a line of stitching about 1/4" on each side of the line to keep the layers together at the pocket and ribbing, then marked hash lines so that it was easier to make sure I keep the two halves lined up when I install the zipper.

Time to cut on the line. I used a Crayola washable marker that will disappear once I wash it.

I measured the width of the zipper and pressed back half that width on each side of the front.

The zipper was a bit long.

I saw a video on Wawak's site on how to remove the teeth on a plastic zipper. I zigzaged at the top of each side to make a stop, but I am going to have to get some metal stops as the thread stops are not going to suffice. How do I know that? Well, after I fixed the zipper I closed it and I couldn't get it opened again!  Yikes! I ended up having to use a couple pilers to pull on the slide to get it off the thread stops. I was breathing a sigh of relief when I got it unstuck!

zipper installed!

Next, I had to take in the hood since the neck hole is smaller with the fabric I folded back for the zipper. It was a surprised to me that the seam at the back of the hood was all four layers sewn together.

Hood reattached!

I checked on the sleeves and they were a bit too long. Here I have another hoodies I wear all the time layed on top so you can see how much I need to shorten them by.

Once this first sleeve was fixed, I decided it would be a good idea to check the altered sleeve to the one that still needed shorten to make sure the sleeves were the same length.  They weren't.   The one that still needed shortened was a bit longer to begin with. Good thing I checked!

All fixed except for the zipper stops! I am glad to have this done and it only took a couple hours. I feel like it is good to get one thing pretty much done to start the year!

The rest of the day I will work on quilting the t-shirt quilt for my neighbor.

Company

I have been busy the last few days with company. Had a Christmas dinner on the 29th - ravioli and garlic bread. Then I had made pumpkin pie, butter cookies, peanut butter cups, and chocolate covered potato chips.

Yesterday we spent 5 hours at the mall looking for bargains and found a few.

Still straightening up and new cutting mats

I finally got to the point where my table was cleared off enough that I had a place for this

I bought two cutting mats from Wawak and they have been sitting for two weeks. I was excited to get them out of the box and onto my big table. The price was so good - $24 for one!  

I had to try them out so I cut out some project bags 

I also sent time cleaning off the beds in the guest room for company this weekend and putting together fabrics for making those pouches. I picked fabric that went with the zippers I had on hand and a few I recently purchased. I hung the layers on the design wall which keeps them wrinkle free until I get them quilted

and I have a pile of fabric cut with the matching zippers for the rest I need to make.  I can quickly layer them up.

I continue to straighten up and have been trying to get rid of stuff that I just don't need.