A work night

I had to spend my evening doing paperwork and updating a spreadsheet with new information I received yesterday. So no sewing stuff to show.

My sister and her husband are coming in from Georgia so I will be away from the computer the rest of the week. Family business needs taken care of. I will catch up with you on Monday.

Have a great weekend!

AD Hoc improv project

I received two more AC/DC t-shirts Friday for my improv t-shirt piece I am doing for the Akron Art Prize. There are only two more that I need, but since the prices of the shirts for Flick of the Switch and Fly on the Wall have been $40.00+ dollars for decent shirts, I have ordered woven patches to represent those albums. Here are the shirts as of right now not hung in any particular order. I won't be able to start sewing this together until they publish the rules for this year's event. I need to know the size limitation. The first piece I made for the show two years ago the size was 96" x 96". Last year it was changed to 72" X 72". I don't want to guess that the size has not changed and then have to go back and redo the piece.

The woven patches came in the mail yesterday. They are a good size and are nice.

Last night I made myself fix the neighbor kid's pants. For one pair I had to narrow the width of the leg from the knee down and then fix the crotch blow outs on all four.
Done

Patched

I received my order from Superior threads yesterday too. They had 12w. thread on sale for $1.50 a spool. There were some good reviews on using it for hand stitching so I thought I would get a bunch of colors and try it out.

I also bought a spool of their new thread for general sewing to try. I will see if it is better than Coats or Gutermann.

Done and done

DONE
I did get the equipment covers made for my brother. I am waiting on a shipping address and they will be on their way.

DONE
Got the curtain made for another brother's customer. I am waiting on a shipping address and then it will be on its way.

I was tired this weekend so I would at least make myself knit. My scarf is now 31 1/2" long.

I did get the grocery shopping and mowing done. I didn't get to patching the neighbor's jeans. I spent to much time this weekend procrastinating since I didn't want to work on the covers, make the curtain, or patch the jeans. I should have just made myself get them done and been done with it.

A little culture and equipment covers

After work I went to the art museum to see an exhibit before it closed on Sunday. I got started on sewing together the equipment covers.

This weekend will be all about getting the covers done, making that curtain, and fixing those jeans. Looks like I will be chained to the sewing machine all weekend.

Have a great weekend!

The purple one is gone

I don't even know what to say. I am numb. Prince, the purple one, died this morning. RIP Prince Rogers Nelson.

Equipment covers

I needed to get the equipment covers for one of my brothers cut out last evening. First I had to draw myself a cutting plan for each of the four covers. I decided to start a note book with the sizes and pictures of the equipment since I needed to make a new replacement cover for some amps that after 3 years of usage was beat up. I never thought I would be making replacement covers so I wasn't very good with my record keeping. I gathered up all my notes and pictures and will be putting them all in this book. This way next time I will be able to respond faster and my brother won't have to get me measurements.

Thank goodness I have my big table. This would be a much more difficult task without this table. I put up the other leaf, measured, and cut. I also used my 60" metal ruler and the 20 1/2" Omnigrid square ruler when drafting and cutting. The material is 55" wide and it is easy to rotary cut.

So here are the four covers stacked and labeled. I will be putting elastic at the bottom of each cover. It took me 2 1/2 hours to get this done. Tonight I will start sewing them together.

The list is growing

I received fabric for a curtain one of my brothers asked me to make for a lady he did work for. This brother is a multi-talented handyman. He can do just about anything! Here is the picture he sent me along with the measurements.

Here is the fabric the lady sent me for the new curtain. I got it cut out last night and it won't take me very long to sew.

A neighbor stopped over with four pairs of jeans that need some patching.

Another one of my brothers needs me to make four more equipment covers. I needed to order more car cover material and it arrived. I ordered 15 yards as that is the price break point.

I still had 3+ yards left from my last shipment. I will have to figure out a cutting plan.

I did get my 10,000 steps in, watched a movie while I ate dinner and knitted. I added 2 more inches to the length of the red scarf.

Productive evening?

I had a bad day yesterday so I was having a hard time being production when I got home. A woman got me called on the carpet because I could not understand what she was trying to tell me. Yes you read that right. This women's inability to communicate a simple piece of information got me in trouble.

My sister also had a bad day. What is going on? She is extremely worried about the three children she sponsors in Ecuador. If that wasn't enough, an attorney asked her when her baby was due. She is not pregnant. She has been fighting a bit of weight as she has thyroid issues. My sister was none too happy.

I decided to watch a movie when I got home and knit while watching. The people that make haute couture are amazing!

My scarf is now 21" long.

After the movie, I put on my big girl pants and headed out to the garage to try and start the mower. I have been procrastinating doing this since I had so much trouble getting my mower started last year. I got it started after about 15 pulls so the front is mowed - yeah!

Then one of my brothers called. We talked for an hour and a half. So that was my evening.

Weekend accomplishments

I didn't get as much done as I wanted, but here is what was accomplished. I got the garage cleaned up - no before pictures

I raked up sticks and debris at the side yard. No way could I mow with the mess that the neighbor's trees had made in my yard. I walked down to the school project I am working on, cruised the parking lot and found this. I did not pick up all the lost pens and pencils.

Did dishes, cooked some chicken, cooked some salmon, vacuumed packed the rest of the salmon, and did some laundry.

I was tired this weekend and only managed to knit a little bit. My scarf is now 17 1/2" long. I am not in a hurry to get this done.

I spent some time cleaning up the studio and downstairs. I did get a bit more of the clothing quilt quilted.

That time of the year

It was a beautiful evening yesterday so I decided to start a bit of yard work. I first went around with week killer and sprayed the dandelions until I ran out. I needed to cut down the ornamental grass. This is a bigger job than one would think. I use my big trimmers - the ones you would use for a small branch - and hack my way thru the hundreds of grass shoots. They can be hard and woody so hand snips don't work very well. I needed to get last year's growth cut down before the new growth starts. It took three trips with the wheelbarrow to move the debris to the recycle pile. Here is what they looked like before and after.

I still have one more ornamental grass to trim, but instead of doing that I got out the weed wacker and edged the front. I didn't have any gas or additive for the mower, but I thought the front would at least look better if I trimmed it. Here is along the sidewalk before and after

So I will be mowing the front this weekend. I can't do the sides or the back until I pick up about a million sticks that have accumulated over the winter. After trimming I had to get 3,000 more steps in to get my 10,000 for the day before I could go inside and sew. I was pretty tired so I wound some bobbins and didn't do any quilting until this morning before work. At least I got it started!

The weather is suppose to be beautiful this weekend, I have so much I want to do - work in the yard, work on the house, sew. It is hard to fit it all in. I may take a half day vacation this afternoon to get an early start to the weekend.

Have a great weekend!

Pin basted and ready to quilt!

Another big accomplishment - the quilt is all pin basted! I then went and looked for thread to quilt it. I think I will wind some bobbins at lunch so I can start quilting it tonight.

Ready to pin baste

I was up early this morning and finished sewing the quilt top together. I also trimmed it. The backing is pressed and ready to go. They are both laying folded in half on my big table.

If you wonder why the backing is lavender, well it is because that is my sister's favorite color. I got the backing on sale at Connecting Threads. Once it is quilted and bound it will all blend together nicely.

Progress on the quilt and a quilt for Carlos

I now have the pieced section of the clothing quilt done. I almost forgot the two ties I was to incorporate into the quilt! The navy tie was a bit dirty so I washed it and now it is part of the quilt.

I dug thru my stash last night looking for fabric for the rest of the quilt. I found a couple of solid fabrics, but they were just ok. Then I found this

It has a subtle dotted pattern that is just enough and I have 4 yards which I can make work.

My brother gave another pooch one of the extra quilts I had made. Here is Carlos with his new quilt!

I have a feeling that these will be so popular I will need to make more. So when I go work at Miller's for their anniversary sale in May, I will first head to the bargain basement to look for dog fabric.

Weekend accomplishments

Saturday I was gone all day. I had to go get my taxes done and was able to make the trip because we did not get the 5" - 7" of snow that was predicted. We only got about a half inch. The fellow that does my taxes is in the county where I use to live. It is only about a 45 - 50 minutes drive. While I was "back home" I went to the bulk food store to pick up a few things and went to the credit union. I visited my son and I didn't get home until 6 p.m. I was tired, but I still knitted a bit. My red scarf is now 13 1/2" long

I had received another AC/DC shirt in the mail so I cut it up, pressed on the interfacing, and hung it on the design wall. It is the one in the lower left corner "The Razor's Edge". The back was printed too so I interfaced it also. I still have a few more I need. I may have to change plans and go with patches to represent the albums I need as the shirts I needs for those remaining albums have all be very pricy.

I started working on putting together the quilt for my sister. She had sent me this picture of a quilt she saw on Pintrest. She like the way they used the pockets.

I am using the whole width of the front of one leg and improv piecing them together rather than cutting the fabric into strips. I am trying to keep the color variation at the seams and the hems for the denim and trimming the Dockers to fit. Here is what I have so far; similar, but different. Some of the pieces at the bottom are sewn together. It is hard to take a good picture as I have this on my secondary design wall since the AC/DC shirts are on the primary wall. My big table sits 2 feet from the secondary wall so I can't get a straight on shot of it.

More progress and snow?

I got another pair of Docker type pants deconstructed last night. One more pair to go.

I made two batches of cookies last evening and I was a bit challenged. The recipes were from a book I borrowed from the library that was written by a woman whose Dad was French. Well, let's just say there were issues! The Cinnamon Cookies called for 3 Tablespoons of cinnamon! I thought that was a bit excessive so I cut back to a rounded teaspoon. Also the dough would not come together so I put in an egg. Perfect! I roll the dough into a log and let it get cold for a couple of hours. Sliced, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, baked, and they are delicious! The chocolate cookie recipe called for 3 Tablespoons of vanilla! Really? I put it 1 3/4 teaspoon. It also call to bake them at 400 degrees. I baked them at 350. Again the dough would not come together so I added an egg and a bit more flour, rolled in a log, cooled in the fridge, sliced and baked. They taste really good! So here they are cooling.

I did get a bit of knitting done and the red scarf is now 8 1/4" long.

I woke up to this sight this morning

What the heck? My poor daffodils are so depressed. There heads are hanging on the ground. This weather is just plain unacceptable! And then everybody keeps telling me we are suppose to get 5" tonight! This weather is just crazy!

This weekend's activities will be visiting my son, working on the jean quilt, and probably doing a bit of knitting. Have a great weekend.