But I measured!

Yes I did neasure, but apparently not correctly! LOL!! I worked on the t-shirt quilt on Sunday. I decided to sew the improv border on the right hand side and look - it is too short! I thought I had measured and made it plenty long - NOT! LOL!!! Oh well, I will just gather up what scraps I have still laying around and add on. I stuck the border up on the design wall on the left side just to get an idea of how this quilt top is going to look.

The cheddar lines show the seams I have left to sew.

So what else happened this weekend. I had to make cupcakes for a birthday party on Saturday - kind of a last minute call. I made the cupcakes on Friday night and iced them before and after getting my car serviced.

While I was on that side of town, I stopped at the Asian Market to get some soy sause and noodles, then a quick stop at the sewing center for quilting thread for the t-shirt quilt.

When I got back from the party I cleaned up the studio a bit and worked on finishing the three smalls. I decided to just put wool on the backs and skip the piping. I have a lot wool to choose from and one of the backs was made with this fabric that came from a sample book. I got a bunch of sample books from a tailor's shop over 20 years ago. I used a bunch of it when I made that wool quilt for my brother, but I still have a bunch. I had some yardage of the red wool and the other backing was from an old skirt.

I filled the smalls with ground walnut shells (what a mess I made!  LOL!!  had to get the vacuum out after that!) and stuffed a bit of wool batting in the corner first so the corners will stay filled in. I see a lot of smalls on videos, but if they are stood up all the walnut shells settle out of the top corners and the small slumps down. I am hoping the bit of batting keeps mine nice a tall. I plan on doing a blanket stitch around the leaf shaped and add some buttons for decoration.

At one time I knew I had a button with an anchor on it so I went thru my button jars for that and for buttons for the other smalls. I wanted to put the anchor button on the whale small.  I never found the anchor button. Here are my button jars.

I fixed a shirt of mine and one for the neighbor, then dug up some Lenten Rose plants for a fellow at work.

Lastly, I heard from the fellow I made the second and hopefully dog proof cover. I tired to poke a hole in this material and it took all my strength and a very sharp pointed scissors to make a hole. There is no way that puppy is going to destroy this cover!  The fellow was very happy with it and wants another made as a backup so they can clean the cover as needed then have another one to keep the platform covered.  I am going to be smarter about it this time to try and make the job a bit easier. Here is what the cover looks like on the platform.

Progress on the t-shirt quilt

The left row with sashing is now sewn together. Then I got the top two shirts sewn together in the middle row.

This is slow going for two reasons - 1. I need every square inch of these shirts to make the quilt big enough so I have to be careful and not make a mistake cutting and 2. It takes time to fill out the armholes to even out the side of the shirts. If I were just to cut off the sides to make then straight, I would lose too much fabric and the quilt would turn out too narrow. For the two top middle row shirts I added white to fill out the armhole

I will have to do the same thing with some red for these two smaller shirts at the bottom of the middle row.

I am so glad it is Friday! My plans for the weekend are to get this t-shirt top done and I have a birthday party to go to. Have a great weekend!

Too much mulling; time for action!

I had been mulling over what I was going to do to insert a piece of fabric to make the left hand row of the t-shirts long enough. I finally had mulled/procrastinated enough and made up a piece out of scraps. I am happy with the way it turned out. I will need to make another piece for the right side to balance things out.

I have enough scraps to piece together another insert

I finished stitching the border on that red bird pin cushion. I also put the date on it.  Now I need to get it fully finished. I will have to dig around in my wool box to see if I have a piece of red wool to put on the back.  I did find my mistake so now I know why I was off one thread. This is the first time I had used 32 count fabric. It's needs a bit more focus than 28 count.

I was digging around my stash to find what baseball fabric I have for the back of the t-shirt quilt. I didn't have time to measure it, but between these two prints I believe I will have enough for a back.

T-shirt fabric, floss, and mowing.

I dug thru my stash of t-shirts and found some red and navy that might work with the current project.

The mailman finally delivered the envelop of floss my sister sent me. I thought I had finished a small piece only to realize I forgot to stitch the border! I had run out of the hand dyed color I was using so my sister thought she has some in her stash. She sent me three colors and one of them worked.

It had a little more dark to lighter variation than what I was using, but it looks good. I had to get started on it right away (LOL!) and I stitched a bit more on it this morning. I realized this morning that the one thread I was off which I forgot about, affects the border. Hum. Once I make it into a pin cushion it won't be noticeable. I never did figure out how I got off one thread!

I made myself put down the cross stitch and go trim, mow, and leaf blow. The front yard was crazy. It looks much better now.

The brown patches are the spots where I scattered too much fertilizer/weed killer. The spots are starting to fill back in.  Tonight I have more I need to get mowed tonight since rain is called for on Thursday.  The one side yard where the ornamental grass is located along the fence was a mess with leaves and sticks from the neighbor's tree.  I used the leaf blower to move all the leaves and sticks down the hill into the woods so I can mow that side.  The other side of the house needs trimming done then mowed.  The grass trimmer batteries are all charged up so I am good to go!

T-shirt quilt, walnut shells, cording, and pastel deer pillow top

I worked on the t-shirt quilt for a bit last evening. My goal is to get it done in October. I got three shirts sewn together - the ones in the lower left. I will need to add something in the space between the gray shirt and the red shirt. I checked the closet this morning and I found a bunch of extra t-shirt pieces that I can use.

While I was on my road trip on Saturday, I stopped at a pet store to see if they had some ground walnut shells. It is used for reptile bedding. They had some so I now have 12.8 pounds to use for filling my cross stitch smalls. The price was $12.99.

Also on Saturday I was looking for cording to make piping to go around the deer cross stitch pillows. I found some at JoAnn's but it was $2.49 a yard! That is way too much even with a 40% off coupon. I did go thru my sewing box where I keep odds and ends of all kinds of ribbons, lace and trims and found tucked underneath some lace this cording. I think it will be enough for both pillows. The tiny cording will be used for making piping for my cross stitch smalls. Whew!

Here is the progress on the pastel deer pillow top. I am so close to having this done. Here is where I was last Tuesday and where I am now.

Never again

Boy did I ever have errands to do. I needed to make a road trip to where I lived before I moved to my current location - a bit over an hour away. I needed to go to the credit union and so while I was in town I did a bunch of my errands. It is easier to get around than where I live now. Five plus hours later I was back home and tired! Had to get the chicken into the fridge and haul in my purchases: new sheets, some hand towels, and clear vinyl. The JoAnn's where I live didn't have any of this weight of vinyl so one of the stops I made at my old stomping grounds was to see it the JoAnn's had any and they did. I needed this in case I have to make more vinyl project pouches or see thru pedal board covers. I bought 4 yards just so I would have plenty.

I cross stitched, relaxed and cleaned off the big table in the studio the rest of the day. Sunday I had to run a few more errands. I wanted to stop at Menard's on my way home Saturday, but the parking lot was packed. No way was I going in there! On Sunday after hitting two grocery stores - the one had the pasta sauce I like on sale. The store where I use to live - their shelves were sparse when I stopped there Saturday. After the grocery stores, Menard's was open so I got the smoke detectors I needed, got gas and went home to start to work on that cover I need to make for the platform.

Remember this is what happen to the first cover? Their puppy that decided to alter the cover. LOL!!

I bought some sturdy coated vinyl that is used for boat covers and glory was that a tough opponent for me. The material was 61" wide so I had to piece it. Getting the volume thru my machine was a battle! I had to find a center point then measure out from there to end up with a 99" circle to cover the 8' round platform.

At least I got smart this time and sewed the velcro on the side piece before I sewed the sides on the big circle. It is like 315" around this circle! After wrestling that vinyl for 4 hours I was exhausted! Not the best sewing work I have done, but I used a heavy duty UV outdoor thread and it is not going to fall apart!  I forgot to take a picture of it laying out on the table; I just wanted to get it folder and into a box so I can ship it today. This is the only picture I got, but I am sure I will get a picture of it on the platform.

Stupid me I should of asked the lady I ordered the vinyl from how much it would have cost the company to make the tarp/cover since they specialize in making tarps. I will never again make one out of that 18 oz. vinyl.

There was enough!

Ok, now I can move forward. There were enough scraps, sleeves, and leftover bits I could get the border made. Yeah! I have still four seams to sew, but here is the border. I will cut it in half lengthwise to make a top and bottom border. You can also see what I had left.

I am so glad it is Friday, but the weekend is going to go by fast. I have to breakdown and do errands which will suck up a lot of time. I have put off things as long as I could so now I just have to get them done. Have a great weekend!