The rotary cutter and iron got a workout!

I spent a huge chunk of time Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday in the studio cutting out thread beds and project bags. That also included pressing the zipper pieces to size which is two pieces for every project bag and three pieces for every thread bed. I also pressed on the interfacing for the lining then trimmed those to size. With the thread beds I had worked on last week and this weekend I have 66 almost ready to sew together. I ran out of white flannel. A friend in PA said she had some she wanted to get rid of and it will be arriving tomorrow, but there are a few I have the flannel pieces for so I can get started on sewing them together.

Some of the fabric pieces that Wanda sent me were big enough that I was able to get a few project bags cut too! I ended up with 12 and they are ready to be sewn together.

Just to give you an idea of how much I have cut, here the fabric I laid out before I got started cutting and after.

I did have to stop and cut some fleece interfacing pieces for the project bags.

I did find these three thread beds that are almost done. I will finish those first to get into a rhythm.

I did get a new toy. It took some fiddling around to figure out how to get them unlocked, but once I did I have to say they worked good! Much easier than using loppers. They do have an alarm if you get your fingers close to the blade, but you could still cut you finger off if you are not careful! The loppers take brute strength; this self charging battery powered pruners cut like butter a branch up to 1".  They can adjust to have the blades set for smaller branches - that is how it is set in the picture - or the blades can open wider.

I also spent a little time removing the loose bits from a stump. The pine tree was taken down maybe 8 years ago and the stump was getting spongy. I wacked away at it with a maddox. This tool is heavy so I would have to stop after about 6 swings.

I cleaned up two wagons of woods; this is the second load.

Here is the stump before and after

I used the maddox to loosen up the roots

but they were going anywhere! I then decided to get out the drill, put in the biggest bit I had and drill holes in the roots and the remaining stump. I saw somewhere I should dump salt in the holes, but I didn't have any regular cheap table salt. One of these days I will get rid of that stump!