Tote bags and a fun project

10 of the 25 tote bags in this latest group are done. The band has a dozen more shows this summer, so I need to keep making bags.

I have been trying to get the guest beds cleared off. In February when I went to visit my friend in Pennsylvania, I came home with two quilts that needed finished. To me this is fun to figure out how to finish something. Here is what I posted. "I am going to help out by finishing two quilts. These were made by a friend and the lady passed away. The lady was making each quilt in halves and quilting them. There is still some quilting that needs done and then I will have to figure out how to sew the halves together. It will be an interesting project."

I decided to see what it would take to get one of these quilts finished. I had started on this project Monday night. I got started by sewing the two halves together and giving the seam a press.

Next was trimming the batting. There was lots of extra batting. I decided to trim the left side first. I did it wavey to spread out joining of the two pieces.

I trimmed off the right side narrow enough I could tuck it under the left wavey side. I then marked the right side with tailor's wax to echo the wave so I could cut it off to match.

I had a roll of iron-on tricot

I used that to join the batting together. It is lightweight enough not to add any bulk and it doesn't get stiff. It's not pretty, but it will never be seen.

Last night I got started on finishing the backing. The edge of the left side of the backing fabric was not straight so I just started folding it under to get a fairly straight edge. I gave it a press.

I trimmed the right side making sure there was enough fabric to go under the folded left side.

Here it is all smoothed, pinned, and ready for hand stitching.

I finished the hand stitching this morning before work. Looks pretty good!

Next I will finish sewing on the borders and miter the corners to match the other two corners.  

After that it is stitching in the ditch to match what was previously done, then bind it. The other quilt is going to be a somewhat the same process, but there is a lot less of the quilting done. I can't wait to get the first one done and make it usable! I will be seeing my friend a couple of times in the next two weeks because she and her family are coming to two of Michael's shows. I will get to hand over at least this quilt.

Tote bag handles and what's blooming

I managed to get all the tote bag handles top stitched.

When I make the tote bags I use up thread that I don't like and clean off the bobbins of leftover quilting thread from different projects. I don't care what color the thread is. I had a big spool of this yellow quilting thread. I don't know what brand it is or even where I bought it, but I didn't like it so I am using for stitching bags.

I do need some bigger bags for when we sell autographed drumheads. The regular bags I cut 15" x 34", but the drumhead bags I cut 19" x 38". The regular bags will fit a vinyl album. I have this bolt of stiff fabric that someone gave me. I will be cutting a few drumhead bags out of this since we only have a couple of those bags left in the merch case.

The Shasta daisies are starting to bloom and I had another very pretty pink poppy.

Log cabin blocks, tote bag progress and a bunny

Sunday I was feeling a bit rough when I got up. I decided to make the remaining 8 blocks I needed for the log cabin quilt. That would be an easy task. The quilt will end up somewhere around 81" x 94.5".

I even got the binding made!

I did some laundry then dug around in the fabric storage room for more fabric for tote bags. I ended up cutting out 25 bags and their handles. The handles are pressed and ready to topstitch. I need to cut a few bags for drumheads. These bags need to be bigger and I have a bolt of some stiffer fabric that is wider which will make good bags for those.

I went out and mowed the one side yard and got started on mowing the back. After I got my half hour of mowing in, I saw one of the bunnies in the front yard. I got fairly close to him before he moved.

Tote bags, another last minute show and squeezing in a protest

I have been digging thru the stash looking for fabric for more tote bags. I got a few more tote bags cut out and have a couple more pieces to cut.

Another show was added to the schedule. A band had cancelled, and Michael filled in. Thank goodness the rain stayed away and it was a lovely evening.

The load in and out was easy. Since the show was over at 7, we didn't have to put the lights up. That made for a quicker tear down.

We left for the show late enough that I had time to go downtown and protest for an hour. There were four times the people there from the amount that were there in April. My guess would be 3,000 to 4,000. Never saw a police officer, no National Guard, no Marines. Totally peaceful, meaning no violence, but not peaceful because we were noisy! If anyone goes to protest, make sure you wear hearing protection. It gets loud with the horns honking, bullhorns, cowbells, and drums!

rain, rain go away!

I made cookies for the band and crew.

We had a show in Avon, Ohio at the ball park. Everything was two hours behind schedule because the company that supplied the decking for the stage and the road for vehicles to drive on the field. They measured wrong and didn't bring enough decking so they had to go and get more and threw the whole event off.

Our set was cut short to try and makeup time for the headliner which was a KISS tribute band.

It was sprinkling and we couldn't get our equipment on stage until after the headliner did their sound check so we had to use some of the merch tent for staging equipment to keep it as dry as possible. The wind was blowing so they guys hung tarps to protect things. What a mess.

The weather was miserable and the crowd was small.

I did get a hot dog for free. It was good!

Once Michael was done we needed to pack up because the rain was going to be heavier. We put up a third tent to stage the equipment that was packed into their cases so it was ready to load. Michael's girlfriend and I got the merch packed up quickly since we did a minimum set up - no lights, no displays, minimum signage. Then the rain really came down. Everyone pitched in and we got the trailer loaded and the tents tore down quickly.

I had drove to the show since the band was coming back from two shows, one in Wisconsin and one in Illinois. A man that is now helping with the band rode with me. It was about a two hour drive. We did make a wrong turn and had to double back which was a 15 minute time killer. It was just hard to drive in the dark and in the rain so I had to go slower.  I finally go to bed at 1 a.m.

Tote bags and deer

I got those 17 tote bags sewn together. Going to need them this weekend.

Saw momma and baby this morning.

8 more blocks to go and a surprise in the garden

I rearranged the blocks to make the quilt 1 block wider and 1 block longer. I got six sewn last evening. I am almost out of the cheddar fabric which I think is actually Kona papaya. I will dig around and find something close in color. Here is what it looks like now

A year and a half ago a friend gave me some poppy seeds. I sprinkled them in one of my Lenten Rose beds because there was lots of open space. The poppies never came up and meanwhile the bed exploded with Lenten Rose babies last year and there are even more this year. Well, guess what showed up? Poppies! One burst into bloom yesterday and I had never seen a poppy like this. It is spectacular! I had to hold it because the wind was blowing.

There are more that are close to blooming. It is just so interesting that it took so long for them to sprout. The flower heads look like this.

Here are a bunch of California Poppies that have found a home in this bed. I never planted one seed. Two years ago I had marigolds in this area. Last year I threw down marigold seed, but only one little plant came up. There were a few poppies last year, but now they have taken over and are so pretty! They will continue to spread and will bloom until the first heavy frost.