Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day everyone! Thank you to all our men and women in the armed forces who have allowed us to experience freedom every day.

And if you want to have a feel good moment, check out this little Yahoo video of a little boy and a sea otter at the zoo. It was on Yahoo today and it'll make your day!

Got the straps on!

Got the straps done on my daughter's bag. Woohoo!
I'm not sure if I got the straps done right. I suppose it will hold up but I've not made that many bags and have never done straps like this before. I have a question to the designer to see if I did it right or not. You know, sometimes my brain checks out when I'm reading patterns. :o)

In case you like this bag, which is a really nice size, it's called Swanky Bag. The pattern says Little Scraps from This & That original quilt patterns by Sherri K. Falls. I sound like an infomercial. hehe

Shoppin' and sewin'...

I got up this morning and went to Joann's to buy some fusible fleece for some bags I'm going to be making for the bridesmaids for my daughter's wedding. While there, I saw a couple things that caught my eye. I don't know if these bags are new or not but I love them. And the handles made to look like measuring tape is too cute! I didn't buy one because I saw them after I had checked out and went back to check a price on something. (Darn it!!)


And I thought this wall vinyl design was adorable but my poor sewing room hasn't got an inch of space available so I left it at the store. If you have room in your sewing room, they are $14.99 but with a coupon........ :o)

After leaving those goodies at the store and only leaving with what I went for (pat on the back and only a little white lie LOL), I got in my sewing room and started on the bag for my soon-bride-to-be daughter, Ashley. She picked out the pattern when we stopped at a quilt shop on a trip home from looking at bridesmaid dresses. I got the upper focus fabric from her friend Mailie. She's the girl who got married in January and I made make-up bags for her bridesmaids described here. She gave me two pieces of fabric. I used the black and white quilted fabric which was the color of her wedding and this was left over. I used it for Ashley's bag thinking if the bag was a flop, at least I was only out the free fabric but it's a cute bag. I just couldn't finish the straps because I didn't buy any cotton strapping, which I need to cover for the straps.

The bag measures about 14 x 20" so it's a nice size travel bag. This one will come in handy for appointments or honeymoon travels. :o)

One bag down, 9 more to go!

Wash-a, wash-a, wash-aaaa

To wash or not to wash, that is the question......

I started quilting in 2000. I had made a few patchwork baby quilts and a tree skirt here and there but 2000 was my first class and the use of a rotary cutter. At the time, I was told to 'wash your fabric' so everything that has come into my house and into the sewing room, went into the washer first. Yes, it's a pain in the butt to iron fabric before getting started but I have never had any surprises with my finished quilts, totes or craft project.

This big pile is from many shop hops and quilt shop visits and even some gifts from Christmas and my birthday. I honestly don't have any room in my bins so I think that's why I hadn't done anything with it yet. I dread the washing but in opening up each of these pieces of fabric, I can't believe the difference in the quality of quilt-shop-quality fabric! You probably all know how silky Moda fabric feels, right? (I'm making the assumption that a quilter or two reads this.) :o) Well, the difference between the feel of the fabric and the openness of the weave really surprised me. And since i don't want to mix washed with unwashed fabrics in my stash, I'll keep washa, washa, washaaaaa-ing. :o)

That pile is the closest thing to sewing that I've done. It seems like by the time I'm finally done with everything else I've got going, it's 9:30 p.m. already. It felt good to touch fabric! :o) After making my 'pile', I took these blocks off the design wall, just as I said I (probably) would. I can't start them right now. Too many other irons in the fire. And I still have these waiting on me. And some bags for the bridal party and meet with photographers and..... :o)

When you can't make `em.....

....buy `em!! Honestly, I practically "own" a fabric store in my sewing room but the "little" wedding details for my daughter's wedding are taking a lot of my spare time so....when I went to get lunch today, I saw an 'Estate Sale' sign. Errrrrrrt! Put the brakes on and off I went. There were lots of old toys (collector type) and antiques but this was an Estate Sale company so things were priced a little high. At least, higher than a yard sale so I passed on most of it. I hope I didn't get taken on this quilt....

It was marked $100 and marked down to $75. I offered $45 for it and the worker-bee said they would take $50. I himmmed and hawed and bought it. I can't tell if the fabrics are 40's, 50's or 80's. LOL The binding and backing are very white compared to the quilt top so I'm thinking it was a top that got newly finished.
I loved the quilting and I'm thinking it doesn't look store-bought or like some it was made in China.

The back is plain white but it really shows the quilting.

I will NEVER hand quilt anything I make so this is the only way I'll have something hand quilted. :o)

The front has several stains, almost like smokers stains but it doesn't stink, so it is soaking right now in the washer. We'll see how it comes out after a bath! hehe

Finally, some sewing!

Things have been hectic since before Easter so I feel like I am still catching up. There are still wedding plans being made for my daughter so that takes time away from the hobbies that I love but I "suppose" a wedding IS more important. LOL

Last night I swapped out some blocks that I had received from a swap on Backporch Friends. This is a great scrappy block. I mentioned it some time ago and you can read about it here or an older post here. The block directions are from a McCall's flyer that I get for their quilt magazine. It's called Scrappity Do Dah. These are some of my blocks on my design wall just put up next to each other. I don't know if I'll get these sewed together in the near future. More than likely, they'll go back in a baggie. I have some bridesmaid bags to make so I think they might need to go "in the bin" with so many other swapped blocks. :o(

This is the second time we did this swap so we could get enough blocks for a bigger quilt. The picture above is some of the first and second swap. I only sewed about 84 blocks this time around. Last time, I did 120. I should get a nice size quilt from them all.

Off to get a few more things done before bedtime. Where does the time go???