Bagmania continues

I worked on tote bags most of the weekend. I now have 51 finished and pressed.

There are a bunch more handles sewn and ready for adding to the bags

Handles pressed and ready to be stitched

Handles that need pressed and sewn. Lots of handles are needed! I have forty-nine more bags to sew together. That is more bags than I thought I had cut out so that equals 200 handles I need.

I did spend some time on Saturday sorting out my cross stitch fabric and kitting up some future projects. I did get the I Collect piece finished and this morning I got the buttons sewn on. These buttons are from my grandmother, mother, my stash, and from some buttons that were from a tailor whose wife had a cross stitch shop in the basement of their home. I just need to sew on a back and stuff this and it will be done. I did run out of the color I used for filling in the mason jar, so I went into the floss boxes and found a bobbin of the same color from all that floss I had bought. See it came in handy already!  I do keep all the buttons in old blue Mason jars with the zinc lids.  

I made a batch of chili, did some laundry, dishes, mowed the front yard and did some trimming. I kept a lookout for the pregnant doe and she is still hanging out in the woods behind my house. I saw her this morning and she hasn't had the fawn yet.

Tote bags and 2010 progress

I got another 8 tote bags sewn together. I have 5 more to sew together in this group so that means I will be pressing and sewing handles this weekend for the next group of bags.

I spent about an hour quilting on the 2010 quilt. I was watching a show I had taped and I just kept on quilting! I now have the section circled in blue done.

Here is the spinach and tomato plants that I started from seed. I might get some tomatoes by September! My plants are still so small!

I haven't seem any deer in quite a while, but there was a doe out back last evening. She is quite pregnant. Several doe like to have their babies in this quiet wooded area that the houses in the area butt up to. The neighborhood I live in is bordered by a deep ravine. The other side of the ravine is part of the metroparks.

My big plans for the weekend are to finish sewing on the two borders on the t-shirt quilt, planting the marigolds, and working on tote bags. Have a great weekend!

Tote bag and 2010 progress, more x-stitch fabric

Another 7 bags are sewn together - yeah! I must be getting a bit faster to get 7 done in a hour.

I got 20 minutes in on the 2010 quilt. The blue arrow points to the line of quilting I did.

Three more pieces of 32 count Belfast cross stitch linen showed up in the mail.

I am freaking out a bit at work. Covid had shown up. I will be back to wearing a mask anytime I leave my desk.

Tote bags are progressing

Spent the first 45 minutes of my time at home helping the neighbor move a heavy box into their garage and then her husband came home so a conversation ensued. I did finally go inside and get my half hour of quilting on 2010 done, then I was onto sewing tote bags. I got six sewn together and they still need pressed. It takes me about 10 minutes to sew the handles on and the sides. That means it is going to take 3 hours and 20 minutes to sew together the remaining 20 bags. Geeze! I need to get faster!

2010 quilt, t-shirt quilt, cross stitch fabric

After work I dropped off my sewing machine at UPS then did my half hour on the 2010 quilt. I got this section done.

I fast forwarded thru 90% of the Billboard awards. Geeze what a lousy show this year. Too much rap, too much country, so much bleeping. Thank goodness Silk Sonic was on early in the show. I wonder how many hours they practiced their routine for the song they performed?  It was so well done.  I did take a picture of the t-shirt quilt. I still need to sew on the right and bottom borders.

I did two loads of laundry and opened my happy mail which was three pieces of cross stitch fabric. I have a couple more pieces coming. I am building up a small stash.

I didn't get everything done on my list last night, I was just too tired after not getting enough sleep Sunday night. We will just roll those uncompleted items forward and try again tonight!

Packed weekend

The weekend started off with mowing the grass Friday night after work. An hour and fifty minutes later I was done. I didn't do any trimming. I did mow around this patch of groundcover - I forget the name of it - because the bees were enjoying the flowers.  Once the flowers die I will mow it, but in the meantime I have this lovey patch of purple.

I didn't feel like sewing once I came in from mowing so I worked on merging Lana' floss with mine. Guess what? All the DMC floss did not fit in the double sided box. Lana had some colors I didn't have, I had some she didn't have, then there was a lot we both had. I can't imagine I will have to buy any floss for a long time except for black. Neither one of us had much of that. I did have room to put the Cosmo floss in the single box along with the few skeins of Leo and Roxy floss. Here it is all sorted and organized.

I took the car Saturday morning to get the oil changed and a headlight bulb replaced. They no longer have a car wash, but they give you a free carwash coupon for a new place right down the street. My car was DIRTY so I headed over there and what fun! It was like going thru a disco inspired carwash! Different colored lights as you are pulled thru and the most colorful soap! Doesn't take much to entertain me! LOL!!

After I got home I started working on the handles for tote bags. One hour and 25 minutes later I had 52 handles pressed.

It took another hour and 10 minutes to stitch the handles.

I took a break and repotted some plants, did some dishes, packed up my sewing machine to ship it to get it repaired

and spend an hour and a half hand quilting 2010 which would be my half hour a day for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Here is part of what I quilted

I decided to work on sewing the t-shirt quilt together. On Sunday after I got back from running some errands I finally added the top and left side border to the t-shirt quilt. I got the other two borders ready to sew on, but I forgot to take a picture. Here is at least the picture with the two borders sewn on.

I knew what backing I was going to use for this quilt so I cut it to size and sewed it together.

I also finished the spider cross stitch piece.

I switched from working on the quilt to go back to the tote bags. I need to press over the tops of the bags to finish the edge where the handles will go. I pressed over 2" and then folded it so I had a double 1". It took me a half hour to press 17 bags then I just finished the rest in a few minutes here and there. I am now ready to assemble the first 26 bags.

My neighbor stopped over about 7 last night and brought me three things that need repair work - lining in a ski mitten, hole in leggings, and a missing hook. Nothing big, but I will have to find the time to squeeze this in.

Big progress on the piano key border

I started off my evening by making a pot of chili and some brown rice to go with it. I usually make my chili in the crock pot, but I only had a couple hours so into the Staub Dutch oven and slow cook it. This will be breakfast and lunch thru the weekend. Yes, I eat chili with brown rice for breakfast!

I wanted to see if I had enough t-shirt fabric cut for the piano key border, so I sliced up the pieces and got them sewn together. I just slapped them up on the design wall and I am pretty close to having enough.

I dug thru the pile of leftover bits and found plenty to make a couple more sections of border.

I am going to try to squeeze in 15 - 30 minutes a day quilting on this older UFO to try and get it done.

The baseball baby quilts made it to my sister's house and they have been delivered to the grandmother. My sister said she loved them and she will get pictures of the kids with their quilts. In the box I had her scissor holder and she sent me a picture of her's all loaded up with her best scissors.

I have lots of plans this weekend; let's just see what I accomplish. I would like to get the t-shirt top sewn together, go get the oil changed and the headlight replaced, make at least 30 tote bags, and mow the backyard for starters. One thing I will do is download this CD, Silk Sonic, which I have borrowed from the library. It has been playing in my car for two weeks now and I haven't gotten tired of it. I had to listen to it about three times before it grew on me. There are only 9 cuts with the first one being an short intro.  There is a R&B vibe with some funk thrown in and a Donna Summer disco feel in one of the song's beginning. There are some clever lyrics "your sweet perfume is better than a bar-b-que" and my new mantra "I deserve to be with somebody as fly as me ...somebody this fly." LOL! The bad language is not all that bad. In fact, I didn't hear some of it until after I listened to the CD at least 10 times!

Have a great weekend and Happy Trails (another reference from this CD)