Cooking, shopping, playing in the studio

I spent a fair amount of time cooking and doing dishes to keep two bellies full for a busy weekend. I was given 5 booms for several of the meals - that is like 5 stars. Saturday there was a lot of shopping going on so we needed our energy! Here was our haul

I washed all the clothes so they could be taken home and hung up. One pair of cute jeans needed hemmed. The stars are appliqued with the edges frayed.

Then there was a pair of pants that was dropped off that needed hemmed.

Made a big batch of taco seasoning to send home with them.

A broken necklace that needed repaired

A box of thread I bought on ebay arrived. It was a really good deal for 200 spools.

so I empytied a shelf in the studio

My helpers sorted the thread by color and put them on the shelf

Then we made chocolate covered Nutter Butters and Golden Oreos.

Next my helpers sort a stack of leftover pieces from zig zag quilts by color and size. I want to use up these leftovers and see if I could get a couple baby quilts and get rid of the pile. They had to sort the blocks that measured 5 1/2" square from all the other blocks that were bigger or smaller.

They moved the blocks to the floor and started putting them on the design wall.

Here is one of the quilt tops. I would have never thought about arranging the color like this! How fun is that?

The other helper is all about pink so she tried and tried to arrange the blocks in all kinds of crazy ways before I had to simplify it for her and we laid them out like this.

Well there wasn't enough pink and brown blocks so now she was making me work to put together scraps to try and fill this top out. I found one long strip of a pink print so I added the white and got another six blocks. Then I pieced together the pieces that were too small into four patches like this.

Here is where we left off on this top. I am going to have to do a bit more digging around to finish this top.

I still have quite a stack of blocks for at least one more quilt top and a stack of smaller pieces to make into four patches.

My nephew's girlfriend texted me and said she sold a lot of merch at the show last week. It was a show that required an overnight stay. I don't go to those shows because there is not enough room in the van for everyone. She said she hoped I would bring some more tote bags to the next show. Oh my! I dug around in the fabric storage room last night and found a 4 yard piece of fabric I was good with to cut into bags. I got 8 bags; that is at least a start.

Lastly, I did get a bit more of the binding sewn on the homespun quilt. I have about 60" on one side to stitch and then binding will be done.

Let's just say I was TIRED last night and passed out before 8 P.M.

Salso chicken and a successful project

I am having company this weekend so I spent my evening cleaning up around the house. I had some chicken that needed cooked, so I made Salsa chicken which will be enough for a meal for my company.

The fellow picked up his conceal carry belts that I fixed and said that they work great. Whew!

I will be hitting the grocery store for supplies for the weekend and vacuuming like crazy before company comes. Not sure what all we will be doing this weekend. Have a great weekend!

Emergency sewing project and a package

I had a sewing job I needed to get done immediately. A fellow at work asked me if I could do something with his conceal carry belt to fix the problem with the velcro that was too wide and that poked him. The fellow is going to another project on Friday for a while so I needed to get this done before he leaves. When he puts the belt on it stretches and the velcro end is too wide.

Then the velcro poked thru the thin material that was used to bind the belt and there was nothing covering the end.

I drew out a cutting line and went to town!

I had to dig around to find something I could use for covering the end of the velcro and binding the edge. For the binding I used a piece of knit fabric after the ultrasuede would not work. I did use ultrasuede to cover the end of the velcro. It took three tries before I cut the binding the right width and a couple tries to figure out the best way to attach it.

The second belt went much quicker! I also went over each of them and reinforced any area that the stitching needed some attention. I am anxious for him to try them on and see if I met his expectations. He said he has gone to alteration shops, but no one wanted to deal with them.

I received a box from my sister last evening. There was a pieced comforter that her son's girlfriend's grandmother had made. It needs some repair where seams are coming apart.

There was some fabric that I will be making one of those fancy tote bags and project bags for a friend of my sister - the Georgia Bulldog fabric - and to make some project bags out of the Atlanta Braves fabric for my sister.

And there was a cute pair of scissors in the box! Next May my sister, her friend, and I are going to a cross stitch retreat together! It is at the same place as I went in April. We will all have matching scissors for the retreat!

Binding progress

I got the rest of the binding sewn on, the corners mitered, and the quilt trimmed. Then I managed to get one side handstitched.

I taught my Mom about how to make a quilt. I was still learning myself. There was no internet, no YouTube videos, no blogs so everything I learned was by the few books I could find at the local small library. Eventually my Mom found other quilters and taught classes. She was giving me a hard time on how I was sewing my corners. I just overlapped them. Here is a corner on the first quilt I hand quilted.

I don't know how I found out about how to sew a mitered corner by machine. I bought the tool and with going over the instructions many times, I manage to conquer the technique. The first time I did this, it took me an hour and a half to sew the four corners! I can now sew all four corners in less than 10 minutes. My folded mitered corners never turned out very good so sewing them is my jam.

Let the binding begin!

I finished quilting the homespun quilt and it was time to start binding! I have one side sewn on and have the next side laid out and ready to pin.

Homespun quilt progress and mowing

The homespun quilt is now 90% quilted. Yes, I spent a lot of time this weekend FM quilting. I outlined the area the is left to be quilted.

I have gone thru four spools of thread and started on the fifth.

I worked on straightening up the fabric storage room and the guest bedroom. I had a lot of fabric piled up on the beds in the guest room so I needed to get that moved to the fabric storage room. While straightening up the closet in the guest room, I found two baby quilts!

On Sunday I worked on mowing and trimming the back yard. I had mowed the front on Saturday. The back was a mess! It has been 6 - 8 weeks since I had mowed it; lots of excuses! Too hot. Too wet. No time. It took 26 trips back and forth to get the mowing done. I dumped the mower bag 13 times; that's how I know it took 26 trips.

The grass/weeds had to be at least 6" tall. I am so glad the back is mowed. I still have some trimming I need to do, but the worst of it is done for now.  Here you can see the first two passes.

A quick trip to the grocery store, some laundry, and a bit of weeding rounded out my weekend.

Homespun quilt progress

I didn't get much quilting done on the homespun quilt last evening. After an appointment, I did errands. Then I had to haul in the groceries, put them away, and do some laundry. I did run thru one bobbin of thread and I am now 5% done with the quilting. LOL!!! I guess it is better than a stick in the eye!

I am ready for the weekend.