Back to quilting the odds & ends

I don't want the odds and ends quilt to turn into a UFO so I decided to get back to it before I start anything else. I am now 63% done which is up from 43% done on Wednesday.

I am so glad it is Friday! The band has one show this weekend that is only about an hour away. Hopefully it will go smoother than the weird dream I had last night of the band going to a show in Canada. It was the van and a stake bed truck following  with the equipment and hay - ok I told you it was weird! We had to show our passports and I was helping the officer identify everyone. One person did hide so we snuck him in. I have no idea who he was or who the two women were driving the stake bed truck. Then we had to go thru several doorways/gates and we got the roof of the van caught on a light fixture. That is when I woke up. I have weird dreams all the time. Have a great weekend!

Tote bag fabric, floss, and t-shirts

No progress on the odds and ends quilt; I had a hair appointment after work so I didnt' get home until after 7. What I do have to show is a box that arrived

One of my blog readers sent me this box of fabric she no longer had a use for so I could use it for tote bags. It will make some very cool bags!

She also sent me this cute cross stitch chart! I can't wait to stitch it!

On my way home from the salon, I did stop at Michael's and get the floss I needed to finish the Irish Blessing piece. I also picked up two more skeins of black for the deer cushion cover. I have used almost two skeins of floss already and I am not even close to being halfway done. Since I am doing the design again in a varigated thread I picked up two more skeins of that too.

Here is the progress I have made on the deer cushion cover - the where I was last time I posted picture and where I am now.

I was handed a bag of shirts for the next commission t-shirt quilt. The way the fellow had talked I though he would have a big bag of shirts. Instead it was a little bag of little shirts! I will be making a twin sized quilt out of these shirts and a pair of kids camouflaged overalls.

Good progress on the odds and ends quilt

I am now 43% done with the quilting which is up from 20%.

I could have gotten more done if I hadn't had to mow the front yard and one of the side yards.

Odds and ends quilt

I don't have anything pressing right now so I thought I would work on quilting the Odds and Ends quilt. I don't want to have this turn into a UFO! I am quilting it with my usual design. I am doing it a bit larger than I usually do. Right now I am now 20% done with the quilting. The quilt is 79" X 90".  It is not a big quilt so getting this quilted won't take too long.

new cross stitch project, amp cover, thread score.

I decided to replicate this cross stitch piece I did way back in 1983 for a gift for someone who has built an Irish pub in their new house.

I haven't seen the pub, but I will sometime in the next few months. I thought it would make a nice housewarming gift for people who have everything. I tried out a couple differnt fabrics and ended up using a Dublin linen. I started this on Friday evening and stitched on it most of Saturday. I had to stop on Sunday because I ran out of the dark green for the lettering. I was so close to having it done! I will be driving by a Michael's on Wednesday so I will stop and get a skein of DMC 500.

I went to a tag sale Sunday morning and got this thread, 6" ruler, and two tomatoes for the grand total of $3.25! I was needed some black thread and I was happy to get the nice assorment of grays. There was a bag of tape measures, and a few zippers but not any other sewing items.

I did get a bag made for the drum riser mask. Maybe that will help keep it from getting dirty.

I only had the measurement for one of the two amp covers my brother needs, so I got the one made.

I also did a bit of weeding early Sunday morning, but only for about an hour. It was so humid I couldn't stand it for any longer. 92% humidity! It was awful!

Lorain, new scissors, a mask, and tote bags.

Wedneday was a busy day. I was up early and made three kinds of cookies for the band - chocolate shortbread, toasted pecan shortbread, and oatmeal rasin. I bagged the cookies in individual bags for each person and the oatmeat rasin bags went into a box for Thurday. The show Wednesday was in Lorain, Ohio and after the show the band hit the road for a show in Oshkosh, Wis. There wasn't enough room in the van for me to go to Oshkosh so at least I sent along cookies for the next day. Here is what was left of the cookies after I had them all packed. I was in such a time crunch I didn't have time to take pictures!

Here is my view from the merch booth.

I also managed to finish up a new stand for the used autographed drum heads we sell at the booth. What we were using before to display the drum heads was not working. I had a wood napkin holder that I cut down, added a bigger base and the extension to make it taller. I forgot to get a picture of it in action, but it worked great!  I try to remember to get a picture at the next show. 

The band opened for Lita Ford.

I got to bed around 12:30, but when I got up I was still really tired. It took me awhile to get moving. I wanted to try out my new scissors that came in the mail on Wednesday. Yes, another pair of Dovo. These were less expensive than the embroidery scissors!

I thought I would give them a tryout cutting the duyvatine to make the drum riser mask my brother needs. The mask will used so you can't see under the platform the drums will set on.  I need to cut this material lengthwise in half; it is about 55" wide. The scissors worked beautifully!

The mask is done except it needs a good press. It is 20" tall and 26 1/2 feet long. I am going to make a bag for it once I get it folded so I know what size bag I need to make. FYI - duyvatine is a fire rated fabric. It had a slight nap on one side. At many indoor shows the Fire Marshall will check to make sure all fabrics used in the stage area are fire rated.

I also managed to get the last 8 tote bags that I had cut out finished. That will make a total of 64 I have made so far.

We went thru a lot of them Wednesday at the show, so I dug around and found some polyester twill that was given to me years ago. I will never use it for anything and although it is not the most ideal fabric to make bags out of, it will work. After all I am just giving them away so nobody should complain. I figure I should be able to get another 20 - 30 bags. Here is what the deer pillow looks like last time I showed it and how it looks now. I was busy at the merch booth so I didn't get a lot done. I started on the interior part at home and work since I need the chart. The border design is good to do at the booth since I don't need the chart to stitch that.

Apron done and new scissors

I needed to make a money apron for my SIL like the one I made myself a month ago to wear at the merch booth. Done!

I received my new embroidery scissors in the mail yesterday. I have been wanting a good pair and I bought these on the recommendation of Brenda of Brenda and the Serial Starter who has a floss tube channel. They are very nice except for the really cheap cover. So I got out my lamb leather scraps and made myself a nicer cover. The brand is Dovo, German made, and they are going out of business. Brenda has bought many of this brand of scissors and thinks they are the best. I found a pair of Dovo dressmaking sheers at a great price so those will be coming this week too. Don't you just love a new pair of scissors?

While sewing the apron last night, I had potatoes cooking in the air fryer and laundry going too. I needed something for lunch today and the potatoes were starting to sprout so I needed to get them cooked. I just cleaned them, cut them up, drizzled on some olive oil, sprinkled on a little salt, used lots of paprika and roasted them until nice and brown.

I also got the handles pressed for more tote bags. I will be working on those tonight.

I will be on vacation Wednesday and Thursday so we will catch back up on Friday.

What a weekend!

Thursday after work I tried to get some mowing done. Got the front yard and one side yard mowed and was starting to trim when this rolled in

Friday I spent most of my day working on the odds and ends quilt while watching the TDF before I had to get ready to head to my brother's for the gig that night. I got the quilt pin basted by Saturday afternoon.

We were lucky for Friday's gig that we had lots of help loading in and loading out and it wasn't' raining. It did sprinkle during the show at times. At this venue they make us set up the merch booth right next to the speakers. It was so loud I had to write things down to communicate with customers.

Here is my view to the stage.

This is not the first time we played here. Instead of my ear plugs on a headband, I bought these and they worked great.

Here are a couple pictures from the show my SIL, Michael's mother, took. His pants and shoes were more green than what they look like in the pictures. You can see we had a crowd!

Saturday I made chocolate and vanilla shortbread cookies since our gig was out of town.

We went to Painesville, Ohio which is about 55 miles away. No rain loading in or loading out, but it rained thru the first 40 minutes of our set. These shots I took from the merch booth.

On Sunday morning I got outside early to try and get some weeding done. 2 hours and 45 minutes and 10 five gallon buckets of trimmings and weeds later, I went inside to watch the last stage of the TDF. Here are a couple before and afters of the clean up.

I got 5 more tote bags done.

I spent some time Sunday morning rearranging what I had hanging on the walls of my downstairs foyer. It's about time I found a place to hang my cross stitch! Here are the befores and afters.

Yes, I moved my TDF piece from one wall to another

Before I hung the TDF piece back up I finally sewed on the labels that had been pinned on the back ever since I made this piece in 2010.

My plan was to move a larger quilted piece where the cross stitch pieces are now located, but the quilted piece was too wide. SO, I decided to hang it here.

It would be better if it was a bit higher up on the wall, but this is as far as I could safety reach with the ladder. I am ok with it.  Before I hung it up I added five more guitar picks I had acquired.