Progress on the boxy pouches, and tote bag done

There was no messing around when I got home from work. I first topstitched and finished one boxy pouch because I had tan thread on the machine and I needed to brush up on sewing together a boxy pouch. So here is the first one done.

I rethreaded the machine with black and proceeded to topstitch 18 pouches, sewed the halves together and trimed that seam.

Next I needed to press that seam open so tonight I can zig zag that seam down.

All 18 have been pressed.

I have two pouches set aside because they need matching thread so I will construct those last.

I also got the tote bag made. The quilt fits perfectly and it is ready to gift.

The quilt is a vintage top that came in a box of fabric I received years ago from someone. I finally quilted it 2022. I do love this quilt,

but after cleaning out closets I have determined I have too much stuff. This will be going to a friend who I had quilted a vintage top for and made a flannel quilt for her husband. She truly appreciates what I can do and I know will treasure it. This makes it just a little easier to let go although it is hard.

Holiday lights and pouches

Last evening, I had to get a haircut and it was dark by the time I was done. Look how pretty the lights were at the town square.

I had made copies of the taco seasoning recipe and the recipe for my SIL's Salsa chicken. I got them folded up and tucked into the pouches with the half pint jar of seasoning and the seeds.

These are all done.

Yesterday I received a reminder email about the ladies' Xmas lunch and realized I was short on the number of pouches I needed. I have no idea where I got the number 22, but I need 26. I had two more half pint jars that I didn't use, and I was thinking I had one more in a cabinet. I took the seasoning that we had put in pint jars to fill the half pint jars. One pouch is going to get a pint jar since I have no more half pint. I also had  extra pouches; the pint jar will have to go into a larger sized pouch.

I was able to come up with more containers for the seeds. The four more pouches are packed and ready for giving.

I haven't had much time to work on the cross stitch Xmas cards, but I have been able to steal a few minutes here and there to stitch on the third one. Here is were I was last time I posted this and where I am now.

The next three evenings will be all about getting the boxy pouches done.

Pouches made, boxy pouches in progress

I decided that I needed something to put the jars of taco seasoning and marigold seeds in when I hand them out. I found a pattern on youtube for a pouch made out of a placemat. I modified the pattern and made two other sizes. I cut the pattern out of mat board and was able to run the rotary cutter along the mat board to cut the pouches out except for the corner cut outs which I did with scissors.

The first pouch I made was too big for what I needed so that is when I made a pattern for a smaller size.

I cut up these wall hangings to make the pouches plus several others I didn't have pictures of.

I had a bunch of 11" zippers I had bought years ago. They were inexpensive and various colors in a grab bag type of deal. I finally was using them! It took all day to sew the pouches together and I ended up with 28 pouches I think. I was getting pretty fast and was able to get 3 sewn in about 50 minutes. I made a couple bigger ones for gifts. What was nice was I didn't need an iron the whole time.

I had some bigger scraps, but the scraps were too small for even the small version so I just cut them as big as possible. I will sew these together and they will make cute stocking stuffers. In this picture in the background is the larger pouch and the medium taco seasoning pouch.

I got the pouches loaded with the seasoning and seeds. They are ready for me to add the recipe. I need these for Thursday so I will have this job done in plenty of time! Yeah!

I decided to put a couple of the longer wall hangings to use. This one is going on my nightstand.

I am going to find a place to hang these two vertically instead of horizontally.  You can't see, but they are match stitch quilted and have a facing style binding. I will have to post a picture tomorrow. 

The pile went from this

to this

Sunday I spent a good part of the morning cleaning up the mess from the pouch construction and clearing off my big table from the stuff that had accumulated. The next project was to work on the boxy pouches. I got all 20 zippers installed while I watched/listened to the movie Ben-Hur.

I then flipped on football to topstitch the handles and trim them to size.

I opened up my new iron to try it out. I needed to press the fabric back so I could top stitch the zippers of the boxy pouches. My brother had this iron and I like it a lot! Great steam! I bought this one a couple weekends ago on sale.

Here are the boxy pouches all press and ready to topstitch

Here is the first one I'm topstitching, then I folded the right sides together to sew the bottom. Only 19 more to do!  I need to have these done by Thursday so you know what I will be doing this week!

I also cut out a tote bag. I want to gift a quilt so I am making a tote bag rather than wrapping it in paper. One more thing I need to get done in the next couple days. LOL!!

Sunday afternoon it started to rain and then we had some quarter inch sized hail.

I did get a package from Wawak which is a sewing supply company. I bought some zippers, a seam gauge, and this chalk sharpener. The sharpener was on sale. I had been eyeing it and with the bulk discount on zippers, I bought enough for free shipping. The sharpener works great! I use tailor's wax to mark things and I always just sharpened the edge with a pair of scissors which wasted a lot of material. The tailor's wax disappears with heat by the way. Well this sharpener makes a beautiful sharp edge and I am so glad I finally bought it.

And it is Friday!

Made some labels yesterday so the taco seasoning is now labeled. I will be handing these out at the ladies Xmas party on Thrusday along with the marigold seeds.

I continue to make progress on the Xmas card stitches. Here is where I was when I posted yesterday and where I am now.

I am looking forward to the weekend. I started a list yesterday of things I would like to get done; we will see how that goes! Have a great weekend!

Still stitching

The green card sampler is almost done! I wanted to start the next one just for fun. I am glad to get three out of this piece of fabric which was left from another project. I got about 20 minutes in on the green one while I waited for my dentist appointment then I stitched a couple hours when I got home. Here is where I was on Wednesday morning and where I am now.

Card stitching progress

I needed to get some serious time in on the Xmas card stitching so it was a way last evening to just relax and stitch. I think I am finally recovered from my four day weekend. Here is where I was on Tuesday with the stitching and where I am now. I feel pretty good with the amount I got done.

Not moving too fast

I was tired when I got home from work. I managed to do a load of laundry and get something to eat. I did get a bit more stitching done on the little pieces for Xmas cards.

This morning I got myself together and pulled off the garage shelves the closeout binders and drawings for jobs that are lingering. It has been difficult getting the final information I need for these, but it seems that things are starting to improve. I had taken some of the binders when I moved from the home office to the bridge jobsite, but now I needed the rest of the binders. The boxes seemed extra heavy at 6:30 a.m. LOL!!! I am just glad all of this is now out of my garage!

The temperatures have dropped into the low 20's and we received a very light dusting of snow. Right now the forecast says 49 on Saturday which will feel like a heat wave!