Thread bed progress

I wasn't too ambitious when I got home from work. I was tired and watched an old movie. I finally got my second wind and trimmed the zipper pockets.

After that I went and sewed together two more thread beds. So now I have 16 out of the 66 I had cut out done. That's 24% done!

I have the lining and outside fabric layered and marked with tape for the next two thread beds.

Surprisingly yesterday was a bit slow at work. I had a pot of a succulent that had multiplied and needed to be split. Now I have a whole little garden! The cuttings all had a lot of roots so I hope they all take.

Oh I have been busy!

I finished those 8 thread beds.

Friday the band headed to Allegan Michigan for a show. We stopped in Kalamazoo on the way so the guys could have their picture taken in front of the original Gibson guitar factory.

Six and a half hours after we started on this trip, we arrived in Allegan. We were about an hour and a half early. Michael had factored in some extra time in case of a problem with road construction or a mechanical issue. This gave me time to walk around town, which doesn't happen often. Allegan is a cute turn of the century town with a downtown that they are revitalizing. There were lots of cool architecture and little shops. It was all I could do to not buy a plant from one of the stores.

The venue was along the Kalamazoo River. The area looked like it had been recently renovated and it was so nice! Views of the river

A beautiful metal sculpture that the branches moved in the wind. I want one of these for my front yard!

A big gas fire pit.

A four swing structure. I want one of these with a fire pit in the middle for my backyard!

And a splash pad! It was hot so I took a walk thru the splash pad a couple times. Yes, I was fully dressed and didn't care! The water was ice cold and it felt so good!

We had a nice crowd

and the crowd included a Viking wedding party that was having a girl's night out.

We had left for this trip at 8:45 AM Friday and I got to bed Saturday morning at 5 AM. I sleep 3 1/2 hours and I was up, slow, but up. I just couldn't sleep anymore with the daylight. I had been binge watching Marshalls in the van so I watched the rest of the first season. About noon I got moving and worked on thread beds. Started on the next group and finished those six on Sunday morning.

My bin of thread beds is filling up!

I needed more felt pieces, so I cut up the remaining yard and a half of felt I had

I needed some flannel pieces too so I cut up the flannel Cherie sent me, interfaced those and cut them to size.  This is only part of the flannel.  I just cut enough to keep me moving forward for now

I did some laundry, cooked some food for work, and got started on the next batch of thread beds. These twelve will all use pink thread. I have the zipper pockets made and they just need trimmed to size.

The last thing I sewed Sunday was altering this dress. It was easy and didn't take too long. I put a couple darts in the back beside the zipper to take out the fullness and a bit under each arm. I still need to sew a hook on that fell off.

Sunday morning there were at least 6 male and a couple female yellow finches eating the coneflower seeds. I got a good picture of one of them. They are so pretty!

8 Thread beds almost done

The next step for the project bags was to get all the quilting done then add the flannel. The flannel is nice to stick the loose threads to after you pull stands out of the section of thread that was cut off the skein or bobbin. Next, I positioned the zipper pocket and pressed the self-binding on four of the eight thread beds. I use small binder clips to hold the binding in place especially the corners which I miter. The binder clips are cheaper than those plastic ones that are sold and they work great. All that is left to do on these four is to top stitch the binding and add a snap.

The other four are ready for the binding to be pressed.

Thread bed progress

I made good progress on the next group of 8 thread beds. The zippered pockets are sewn together and trimmed to size.

The next step is to quilt the fleece interfaced lining pieces with the outer fabric. Two are quilted and the rest are marked with blue tape and ready to sew.

Back to project bags

I was so tired when I got home from work it was hard to get motivated to sew. I did manage to get these two project bags done

I finally got my second wind about 6:30 and worked on the next two project bags. The print batiks are from Wanda. There was enough fabric for one project bag and two thread beds out of each fabric.

When I had my big weekend of cutting, I ended up with 12 project bags and they are all now completed! There will be more to come. Like Vicki of Colorways by Vicki Welch said that my motto is why make one when I can make 100!

Since I have black thread on my machine, I will be working on the thread beds that take black thread. I will just work my way thru the rainbow!

Busy shopping and project bags

I picked up my company Friday and the shopping we did was at the grocery stores. I hadn't had time to do that, but with the extra help we ended up with a few items I would have not have thought about buying, but came in handy. Have you ever had the Thin Mint Oreos?  They are dangerously good!  On Saturday once we got moving and I made breakfast then we headed to the mall. We were there about 2 1/2 hours which isn't that long compared to some visits we have had. The mall was busy because it was tax free weekend, well, some things were tax free. I was told that the legislature changed the shoe policy and tax free was only on shoes less than $75.00. We shopped around and found a few bargains.  The lines were long to get into dressing rooms and to check out.  We were getting fed up with the crowds.  We then drove over to the other side of town to an outlet store and they found a few other things.  It was busy, but we got a dressing room and checked out quickly.  We stopped a couple places on our way home and then after 5 hours of shopping we called it a day. I fixed some food and we watched movies the rest of the evening. Sunday we chilled and got caught up on Project Runway.

I did get a bit of time early Saturday to do some laundry and make two project bags. The marbled batik is more fabric from Wanda.

These two bags are almost done. I just have to press the self-binding, sew it and they are done.

Two more bags

Last evening was busy so I only had time to construct two more project bags. These are much prettier in person than in these pictures.

I needed to spend time clearing out and making up the beds in my guest room. I am having company this weekend. I staged the materials for the project bags and thread beds on the beds as well as projects that need finished so all that needed moved. I also moved The Hulk and snap cases so that space could be used for whatever my guests needed to layout. Looks like we will be spending most of the weekend indoors because there is rain in the forecast for today (it's raining right now) and Saturday. We will find something to do!