4th of July tutu

Here is Joie in her 4th of July tutu.

Darn deer!

When I get home from work I like to take a quick trip around the yard just to look. The neighbor has some day lilies and some purple plant flowering in his wild backyard. The deer are too lazy to jump over the fence to eat the few day lily flowers.

I saw that one of the deer pushed the lower part of my fence that surrounds my Cora Bell bed and chomped the heck out of the cora bell Wanda has sent me a couple years ago. I was just starting to flower and it was huge! Darn Deer!!!! They pulled a couple of clumps off the plant so I dug a hole and stuck those back in the ground.

I then proceeded to mend the fence by adding a couple more rebar stakes and tying the fence at the bottom to make it tight. The ground was bone dry so later I spent about an hour watering the blazes out of everything. Hopefully the plant makes a comeback and the two clumps grow. I will just have to make sure it gets water every day. It rained fairly hard this morning and we did get some rain early this morning which was nice. I didn't hear the rain that fell earlier I just saw the driveway was wet when I got up at 5:10.

I sorted out the floss by brand. There is a lot of Iris, some DMC, and the rest is unknown.

I will take the DMC and rewind the new stuff with the floss I have stored in my Magnum boxes. In case you are wondering, I do not have every color of DMC, but I would guess maybe 80%.  In the single sided case I also have my stash of Cosmos embroidery floss.

Add to the to-do list

At Friday's show my brother and SIL handed over two items that need some attention. They bought for cheap a very nice camera bag, but the parachute clip was broken. I will be fixing that.

Then my nephew ripped the backside of a pair of pants at the last show he played. I think I have some orange thread to fix those!

We have three road cases for the merch booth, but only two covers. The one cover got wet at Friday's show, so I took that home to dry it out and it just happens to be the size I need to make for the additional cover we need. I will just measure it and make a duplicate. We don't need covers that often, but they are nice to have when we do need them. They protect the cases and their contents!

While my brother and SIL were garage sale hopping a couple weeks ago, they came across this embroidery floss. They got this all for $3.00 and gave it to me. I haven't had time to go thru it yet. There is a mix of brands, but some of it is DMC.

Put a dent in it

I worked hard for four days. I finished that group of 42 tote bags. Yes, we have some fancy tote bags for the merch booth!

Here is the bin packed with the 72 tote bags I made last week ready to take to the show on Friday.

I was sorting thru all the stuff that has accumulated on one of the guest beds. I found some potholders I had started years ago so it was time to get them done.

The binding on the back doesn't look the greatest, but they are just potholders.

I only had one very sad potholder that I have been using for probably 40 years so anything is better than this!  Yes, I pitched it!

Friday I headed to the venue at 2:30 in the next town over to help with the merch booth at Michael's show. It did rain a bit around 7 P.M.

It rained for about 10 minutes and then the rest of the evening was beautiful. The kids put on a great show and I was busy selling lots of t-shirts.  I didn't get to bed until about 1 A.M.

Remember I posted this fabric that I washed and this bin of fabric that needed washed? All of this was in my friend's garage that the cats walked all over it. This was African Dutch Wax and my hand dyed fabrics she had taken to sell. This is what was left and it ended up just sitting.

Over the four days, I got batches of the fabric by color washed and pressed. I also cut strips out of the African Dutch Wax and the yellow/greenish hand dyed that I am going to make into small quilts. I didn't count how much of the Dutch Wax and yellow/green FQs there was before I started cutting, but in the pile of FQs there is around 32 yards of fabric. I would guess I washed and ironed around 40 yards.

While I waited for the fabric to wash and dry, I got out the fabric for more tote bags. I had a heck of a pile/mess on the guest bed and that needed to be turned into tote bags. Over the four days I cut out 92 tote bags. Let's just say the mess had been tamed! We have been going thru a lot of bags and we have a six big shows in August so we will be needing more bags.

If that wasn't enough, I opened the box of t-shirts that needs to be made into a quilt by October. I got these interfaced and loosely arranged

I have these pieces ready to be turned into improv piano key borders to make the quilt wider. 

I have basketball jersey that needs some fabric added on to it so I can include it in this top and there is another shirt that needs interfaced, but I got the majority of the preliminary work done. Mowing and trimming the front and one side, laundry, and going to the grocery store rounded out the four days. Tomorrow I will show the projects my brother and SIL passed on to me at the show. Not huge projects, but I get a couple projects done and more come my way! LOL!!

A list for the next 4 days

A few more tote bags are done.

I am taking Friday off so that means a 4 day weekend. What shall I do? I have had a list going in my head for the last couple of days. I want to finish up the tote bags

I want to get placemats made out of this fabric. A co-worker brought this fabric back from Hawaii and asked me to make placemats for her. It would be good to get those done although I have only had the fabric for less than two weeks.

I need to open this box of t-shirt and figure out how I will put them together for a quilt. The quilt needs to be done by October.

I had a couple container of FQ pieces that a girlfriend took to sell for me many years ago. The fabric ended up in her garage and now needs washed because of the cats. I got a bunch washed the other day and now it needs pressed. I think this will end up in baby quilts. It is a mix of my hand dyed fabrics and Dutch Wax fabrics.

Here is the other container that needs washed. I need to make baby quilts to have on hand so while I press, I am going to cut strips for either checkerboard style quilts or zig zag blocks.

I need to find time to mow, edge, and cut back the Shasta daises that have died. Maybe if I cut them back I can get a second flowering.

Look who greeted me this morning when I took out the garbage. She stood there a long time trying to decide whether to stay or run away.  She ran to the backyard.

My nephew has one show this weekend. It is local so I can drive to that to help work the merch booth. I know my list is long, but I am really going to try and focus to get something accomplished. Have a wonderful and safe 4th of July!

Dent in the pile

I got 13 bags ready for finishing.

I press the tops of the bags down two inches them fold the raw edge under to make a 1 inch band. I mark handle placement with a washable Crayola marker. I will sew these bags tonight. Only 29 more to go in this batch.

I do have some specialty tote bags I will need to make for a show later on in the month. I am going to try and get those cut out while I am off over the 4th of July.

A weekend of tote bags

This weekend a sewing friend came up on Saturday and spent the night. She worked on her Cosmic Cow One Block Wonder blocks. Can you see the cow in the enlarged photo with a rose in the cow's mouth? The cow's nose is green.

I finished up pressing all the tote bag handles and my friend helped me top stitch them. It took a total of 3 1/2 woman hours to get them done. We both sewed for an hour - so that 2 woman hours - then we took a break and went to the grocery store. I didn't know she was staying overnight so I was short on provisions. We got back and then we both sewed for another 45 minutes. She went back to her cow blocks and I started sewing together bags. Between Saturday and Sunday, I was able to finish 30 bags.

I sorted out the rest of the handles and matched them up with the bag fabric. I have 42 more bags to sew together for this round of bags. Last year I made 200 bags. Once I get these made I will have made around 120 bags so far this season.

While my friend was here I had her help me cut up the large picture frames I had sitting in the garage. I need to cut these frames down for framing my cross stitch. The large frames are hard to hold on to and operate the miter saw at the same time so an extra pair of hands helps so much!

Some of the frames are going to need some refinishing before I cut them to size and reassemble them, but just getting them cut into pieces was a huge help!