Update, new challenge,

After my Mom visiting I realized that perhaps I could list parts of my projects and try to complete them in stages by imposing my own fab four every Friday. I had seen this idea before out in blog land and I don't know whose it was but it may help me in my creative endeavors. So last week I wrote out 4 projects I wanted done or specific steps on certain projects completed by this Friday.

To date I have 2 off my list. The first is one of the Ott light bags that Mom and I started on the last day she was here. I had found a pattern on the web at:

cqmagonline.com/vol03iss04/articles/368/index.shtml

I used it as a reference but drew up a pattern and thought it through several times. I ended up cutting a large rectangle and then cut out the top center area leaving two rectangles attached towards the outside portion. Oh no, take that back, that was the first prototype thought through.

I actually had a large rectangle and then cut out two rectangles off each top outside section.
Serged around the whole perimeter.
Sewed the one seam from the top of the bag to the bottom and then I top stitched both sides of that seam for a little detail. That part was a bit fussy but to me it was worth the effort of squeezing the bag cylinder under my Number 10 foot a bit at a time.
Sewed the bottom seam, then sewed the gussets into the the bottom corners.
Made a 1-1/4" single fold binding and sewed that on the inside of the bag, then after flipping the binding over the raw edge, top stitched that by machine to the outside.
Made a handle and then attached it to the back, just behind the flip over top. Sewed them in place.
Velcro fastenings for the closure with the top one covered with a complimentary button and VOILA!



An Ott Light Bag that helped me bust 1/2 yard of prequilted fabric and cross one of my FFF (Fab Four Friday's) off my list.

Another step to Miss Shabby Chic's Bird BOM was stitched, another FFF met.



This last snap is of an apron I completed a couple of months ago, but never wrote about it here. I fell in love with this fabric while shopping at Yankee Pride Quilt Shop in Essex Junction, Vt just before the VQF show and thought it would be nice to update my apron. Quite of a few of my aprons get so stained that I hope to keep this one tidier. I really love this one.


That's it for now. I hope to be back perhaps Satuday night and share the other 2 FFF I wish to have completed by this Friday, even though when I scheduled these I didn't know I be running into town more often! My schedule is a bit heavy. Despite DH finishing his cardiac rehab last Friday he now has injured his back and it's daily trips to town to keep his appointmkents for that. AS Rosanna Roseanna Danna used to say "If it's not one thing, it's another". Oh well, I continue to count my (our) blessings.

Jane

Quiltathon weekend

Retreat weekend, sewathon going on, well however you want to phrase it, many of my on line friends are sewing up a storm this weekend. I am amazed of how much every body gets done all the time. They produce a quilt in a week, and it takes me months. OH well, at least I am progressing more than I have been. This back injury surely limits my abilities, too often than not.

The guild my Mom belongs to in FLorida has a UFO challenge. How it works is they have you list some UFO Projects in a list and number them 1-5. Then the chair person draws out a number and you have 2 months to complete it before another number is drawn. So here is a list of the numbers and what Mom and I each plan to do for that respective number.

Mom's:
1-Bear Paw
2-Beth's White and Cream
3-Is her 4- Patch
4-Lone Star
5-Scrap quilt w/ prairie points
6-Moon Glow

Mine:
1-Alien Invasion
2-PAtience Corners
3-Double Four PAtch
4-Montana Log Cabin
5-Snow friends and Convergence Wallhangings
6-Kashmir IV

Of course the guild has a nominal fee and prizes given out to encourage and add accountability, but I play along in Northern NY unofficially. Previous years I have NOT been too successful at finishing anything within the 2 month constraints, but this year is going to be different. SO the number I need to finish by April 13th is Number 4. Yippee! It's the one I wanted to work on next.


Happy to see progress of pgs#3 valance. I've had this mantra of

"the dreading is worse than the doing"

going on in my head recently thanks to a Ruth, a sage voice on stashbusters and it has liberated me into taking the steps to finally get to it. For such a little thing, it took up quite a bit of yardage. 2.5 yards of stash used. Right now my daughter has it to audition it in the window for the length she wants. I used the hotdog pillowcase method to sew the strips of fabric together for the hem so that way wall of hte seams are contained within. And with the overall width of 92.5 inches I figured it would be difficult to turn. Nope, not with the dimensions I used.
Note to self here: The bottom hem = 11 inches, accent band = 3 inches and the main curtain part = 18 inches. I had to get 3 WOF cuts from each fabric piece to get the required 2.5 mulitiplication in for the finished curtain width of 92.5".
Also was able to finsh a fab four of mine.



Candy Hearts from Patchabilities with a little change to the pattern. Deciding not to do the piecework in the top, that the contrast of the hearts on a solid red ground was better in my eyes so tha't what happened. But to help give it a better finish, I added a small bright white piping before doing the binding. It gave it a nice little frosted effect. I love the white fabric, it has on the selvage M.E. Hordyszynski for Michael Miller and it only has 2 paint chips 1and 5 but this fabric has a beautiful ahnd and an irridescence to it. The hanger provided with this month's kit seemed inferior than their prior months, I wonder if they have a new distributer for them. I might contact Patch-Abilities and let them know my feelings. Thank goodness I had a hanger on hand with a heart motif on it that was much better suited.

Stay well,
Jane