Monday, March 18, 2024

Harley quilt top resolved

I finally figured out how to layout the shirts for this year's Harley quilt. Thank goodness my friend brought me that lovely mustard shirt when she came to visit recently. It did the trick! I had no other non-black shirts left. I just had to make the skull t-shirt a focal point. Being tie dyed and the skull made this one of the coolest shirts ever! I will get the top together and if I need it to be a bit longer, I have lots of black shirts with smaller designes that I can make a band for the top and botton.
I also made the zipper panels for more project bags just to gather those up and get them in one place. I even got a bin to keep them in along with the extra zippers. I will work on these from time to time just to try and keep them on hand.
It snowed here Sunday afternoon for a bit but nothing stuck especially after the sun came out. I was suprised this morning that it snow overnight a bit. Spring is tomorrow.

Friday, March 15, 2024

So glad it is Friday!

Yesterday was a heck of a day - I needed to be in three places at the same time which of course didn't happen! I had to go with the mandatory meeting which took longer, but they at least took us to lunch. Here is what is left of my sushi which I will have for breakfast.
I got back to the office long enough to finish up a task that had to be done then headed to a doctor's appointment. When I got home all I wanted to do was to sit and chill. I did take this photo of the daffodils outside my studio window. They are so pretty!
The box of interfacing I had ordered arrived. It was sitting in the rain. I was hoping they had put the interfacing in a plastic bag, but they did not. Luckily the rain had not soaked thru the entire box so the interfacing was dry. This is what I use when I make boxy pouches and project bags. HomeSew only had 6 yards on hand so I will have to keep checking for when they get more in stock.
I did straighten up a bit doing dishes and gathering up the fabrics I had earmarked for making project bags but ran out of time to finish. I will go ahead and finish those, so I have some extras on hand.
This weekend I have got to get back to working on the Harley quilt. Have a great weekend!

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Did good!

I got all twelve of those small bags done!
So here is the final tally of project bags completed in one week - 30 large bags and 22 small bags. I also had 18 previously made bags laying around so there will be 22 sets of bags (one large and a matching small) and 26 large bags that the retreat ladies have to choose from.
I want to go ahead and stitch up the other bags that I didn't have time to finish rather than trying to find a place to keep the pieces.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Project bag progress

I didn't do too bad last evening although I was really tired. I got the 8 large bags done out of the sampler fabric.
The eight matching small bags are trimmed and ready for pressing the fold over binding.
Tonight is the last night I have to get what I can done. I will pack up all the bags and hand them over tomorrow when my co-worker comes to the lunch and learn tomorrow at the home office. She will be coming from a town 2 hours away. My goal tonight is to get those eight small bags done plus these four. I didn't realize it until this morning I was short two back pieces. I have plenty of that sugar skull fabric.
Yesterday there was a mandatory lunch and learn I had to attend. For lunch they had a variety of box lunches. I took the salmon wrap and unwrapped it to just eat the salmon. I don't eat salad so I picked out the cashews and edamame to eat. The fruit was really good; the pineapple was so sweet it was like eating dessert! I would have eaten the rest of the chicken that was on the salad, but I was just too full.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Project bag progress and daffodils

I managed to get 16 zipper panels made last evening. It took long than I thought it would between doing two loads of laundry, getting a bite to eat, and talking to my neighbor. He was over to pick up their mail since they were on vacation last week and I kind of watch their place. I was short on a couple pieces of fabric so there was a bit of cutting involved too. I have tonight and tomorrow evening to get as many bags finished as I can.
When I went to get my mail these daffodils greeted me. The ones in the yard beds have not flowered yet.

Monday, March 11, 2024

Project bag factory!

My box from Wawak arrived Friday full of thread and zippers.
I bought 10 spools of thread and decided to straighten out my thread drawer to make room for them.
I bought a lot of zippers! They were having a sale - buy 2 get one free - so I had to make sure I ordered even numbers and I bought enough to get free shipping. I ended up buying 117 zippers! Here is what they looked like all spread out and a picture of how many I have left right now. I did buy a bunch of black zippers to fill out the order and to have on hand.  Hardley looks like I made a dent with as many bags as I made this weekend! LOL!!
I know I spent more time at the cutting table and at the iron than I sewed. It takes a lot of pressing and cutting to make project bags. I managed to get 32 bags made - 22 large bags 12" x 14" and 10 small bags 7" x 10". The small ones take the nearly the amount of time as the large ones.
I have these ready to trim, press and then sew.
These pieces are ready to be sewn into zipper units.
I need to finish pressing these pieces for zipper units.  I need to continue to make as many bags as I can by Thursday morning.
We had the Women In Construction luncheon on Friday. The tables were decorated with these beautiful bags.
Inside was a pink bathrobe monogramed with our first initial and a bag of goodies.
On Sunday it snowed most of the day which was fine because I wasn't going anywhere - I had project bags to make! Poor daffodils!
I did have to leave the house on Saturday to get more vinyl. That trip only burned 45 minutes so not too bad.

Friday, March 8, 2024

Daffodils, cheesecake, construction, and project bags

When I went to the mailbox I was greeted by some daffodils that are blooming. These are the ones next to the house so it is a bit warmer here with the bricks holding the heat from the southern sun.
I needed to make a cheesecake for work; it's a long story, but a good one.
I worked on the project bags a bit. I am still in the cutting phase. I have this one piece of fabric I needed something to coordinate with it so here are the fabrics I pulled out of my stash.
I removed the ones that were too green and the ones that just didn't go with the sampler fabric. Here are the ones left that I will study again later today when I have better light. I don't have a lot of some of those pieces so I will be using more than one of them.
Today is the final event in the Women in Construction Week. I will be heading to the home office for a luncheon. Last year the gift that was given to each of us was this custom Yeti. I wouldn't mind getting another one.
I saw that there was a small skid steer and small backhoe in the neighbor's driveway. They have a brick retaining wall that is in bad condition and a brick abutment that comes off the side of the garage; those are both coming down. The neighbors have had to wait to do this work until they had the money and have been wanting to do it for a long time. The abutment goes to the property line and Dave has to go thru my yard to get to the back of his property to mow. It's no big deal to me, but with the useless abutment gone he will glad to have easier access. I will take more pictures.
Tonight my goal is to get the rest of the project bags cut out, cut the interfacing and vinyl, press on the interfacing and press the zipper pieces so I can start sewing the bags together tomorrow and Sunday. Let's see how many I can get done this weekend. Have a great weekend!