T-shirt quilt progress, snow, more batteries, weekend plans

I got started on another shirt and what is circled in yellow is what I got done. I didn't' have much time last evening to quilt; read on if you're interested.

I left a bit early from work for a doctor's appointment. It had been snowing all day so I wanted to make sure I wasn't late. The highway was sloppy when I first pulled on, but got better as I went north. After my appointment I stopped a couple places that are on that side of the area. I needed batteries for my garage door openers. One of them worked fine, but the other was sketchy. I changed the batteries in both so I should be good. The hardest part was getting the darn batteries out of the package! LOL!!

It was very slow going home. The roads were in pretty good shape, but people were going slow even for me which I don't mind slow in bad weather. I pulled up to the driveway, parked the car, and walked to the garage to get the shovel. I didn't want to pack the snow down by driving over it.

Got the driveway shoveled and went over to my neighbors to help him.

I have one of those orange fiberglass sticks to mark the driveway, but it is hard to see at times against the ornamental grass. I had some pretty garland that I saved from someone's Xmas package they won at the company luncheon, so I wrapped another orange stick with the garland and zip tied it to the one already stuck in the ground. I can see that!

My weekend plans are simple - hem all those pants and work on the t-shirt quilt. I might go to the mall just to get some walking in since it is forecasted to snow all day.

T-shirt quilting progress and snow

I got that shirt quilted. I must have spent another hour just doing outlining before I could finally free motion meander the outside of the design. Onward to the next one!

With only having the time in the evenings to get a little bit quilted, I won't bother to figure the percentage done until I post on Monday. I have a feeling I will be shoveling snow after work since we are forecasted to get 1 to 4 inches by 4 am on Friday. It is snowing now; the flakes are small, but it is coming down steady.

Not much

I was really tired when I got home from work yesterday. After getting something to eat and spending some time on the indoor bike, no quilting happened. At least the last couple of lunch hours I have been cross stitching. I hadn't cross stitched for several weeks so it was nice to get back to it. This is a Xmas present for my sister - no I am not ahead. I planned on getting this done for 2024 so I am behind. I am only showing the back so maybe she won't figure out what it is going to look like; she does read my blog.

It is freakin' cold here in NE Ohio. I was surprised it snowed yesterday; I thought it would be too cold to snow. we got about an inch of really fine snow. This morning around 5:30 a.m. it was 10 degrees. Burr! There are some days coming up where is it going to be even colder, but I won't complain about the cold. It's better than having those horrible fires in California. I wish I could send them some precipitation.

Finally back to the t-shirt quilt

I spent some time oiling the sewing machine, cleaning out the lint, and attaching the foot I use for free motion stitching. With the machine all threaded up I could get back to quilting the t-shirt quilt. The shirt I tackled last night had a very large design. I still have a bit more outlining to stitch before I can quilt around the design.

Here is what the back looks like

Zippered pouches, soup, snow, and straightening up

It was a busy weekend! After getting back from the grocery stores and getting gas on Saturday, I got going on the zippered pouches. I also started washing the fabric I received from Hancock's of Paducah. It is now all washed and pressed. Some of these fabrics will go into the Yellowstone bunkhouse quilts. All of these fabrics were in the clearance category. Beautiful 1st quality stuff! I bought enough to get free shipping, so I ordered 16 yards that averaged $6.49 a yard. I actually got a bit more than 16. Hancock's was generous with their cuts and one piece I got almost a 1/2 yard extra because it was the end of a bolt. Woohoo!

If I had a specific piece I bought for the bunkhouse quilts, after I got it pressed I put it in the box for that specific quilt. Remember during the holidays I was cleaning up this mess to make room to organize the quilts I want to make? Quite a mess!

This is how it looked after getting the worst of the mess cleared out and starting to get the quilt project boxes set up.

This is what it looks like now. I wrote the name of the project on the box and attached pictures too. Much better use of the space!

I finished up the zippered pouches on Sunday. Here are most of them

I needed a bag to put them in so in about a half hour I had a nice big tote bag for the 24 zippered pouches. I am glad to have that job done!

Other goodies in the mail were three cones of black quilting thread. I thought I had plenty on hand, but I only had a partial cone. I use a lot of black making those Harley quilts.

Missouri Star Quilt Company was having a sale and I got this pattern.  I had enough frequent shopper points that I got it for free. I had bought the hardware a while ago to make several of these.  I was just going to try and make it watching their video, but now I have the printed version. I think I need to set up another project box! LOL!!

Before I did my grocery shopping I had to shovel snow. We got about 3" overnight Friday.

I thought the ornamental grass was pretty with the snow clinging to it.

Made a big pot of my chicken kale soup on Sunday.

Had football on while I cleaned up the studio on Sunday and did laundry. I had made quite a mess making the zippered pouches and since a lady from work was coming over I needed to clean up. She brought 7 pairs of pants/jeans to hem.

I had to get the owner's manual out for the car to try and figure out how to change the battery in the fob. When I was getting gas on Saturday and the car wouldn't start when I was done. The car did not recognize the fob. I don't know if the battery was dead or the fob was just too cold. I warmed up the fob and eventually it worked so the car turned on. Luckly I had the right size coin battery at home so now both fobs have new batteries. I guess that was enough to squeeze in a weekend!

Zippered pouch tutorial

So you have your quilted fabric that is approximately 12" x 35"

the pouches cut out

and you have your zipper. For the large pouch I use a 12" zipper. I have used a 11" - I had a bunch in my stash and wanted to use them up - it is just a little harder to do the topstitching with the 11" zipper, but it can be done.

Put on your zipper foot and stitch the one side of the zipper on the right side of the pouch. I place the zipper tape just to the end so that when the sides are sewn, the zipper stop will get missed. I don't pin the zipper in place, but just make sure the edge of the zipper tape runs along the edge of the pouch. As you sew you can move the zipper slider out of the way

For sewing on the other side of the zipper I pin it. Here you can see I have the zipper tape all the way to the side edge just like I did on the first side.

I pinned it all the way across and then stitched it.

Flip the zipper to the back of the pouch and topstitch each side

Close the zipper part of the way and with right sides together, line up the sides at the end of the zipper. Don't worry if a bit of the front of the fabric is peeking out a bit. It can be trimmed off after the seam is sewn.

Sew the seam. I sew a quarter inch seam, going over the zipper a couple times since that will be a stress point. I usually hand crank the needle to make sure I don't hit anything.

Trim so the layers are even and cut off the excess zipper

Line up the other side. You can see here with the zipper tape sewn the way I did it, with a quarter inch seam I will not hit the metal zipper stops. Again I sew over the zipper a couple time to make sure it is good and secure.  Trim as needed. 

Next I zig zag the seams to keep it nice and neat!

We are almost done! Open the zipper up, stick you hand inside, and open up and match up the cut out for the box corner. I sewed a quarter inch seam and went over it twice.

Both corner done!

Turn the pouch right side out and you are done! Let me know if you have any questions!

The other little task I did was to take the pocket flaps off of this shirt for one of the guys at work. The flaps were useless and with them gone it would be much easier to put something like a pen in the pocket.

That took all of 5 minutes!

Thank goodness it is Friday. I'm tired. I did stay up and watch the first half of the Notre Dame Penn State game. I was shocked when I saw the score this morning. Woohoo! My weekend plans are to get all the pouches sewn and to get back to the t-shirt quilt. Have a great weekend!