Of Sewing and Strep

The past week has been interesting to say the least. Mr. P moved back to his bachelor pad, which means he was finally strong and healthy enough to live on his own again. Then I came down with strep throat. The timing was irritating, but I caught it fast (Thursday) and am already starting to feel normal again.

I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped in terms of cleaning, decorating, and projects but given the circumstances, I'll take what I've got.

I finished the cleanup work on these eight autumn napkins. I love the contrast of these too fabrics. The picture doesn't do them justice.

 The placemats are "pillowcased," trimmed, trimmed, turned, and pressed. They still need the side opening slip stitched closed and quilted. However I'm tabling them until after I get my holiday gift sewing done. I'm thinking about quilting them with autumn designs and that will take longer than I have time for currently.

 And whilst I was cleaning I unearthed these 6 1930's reproduction prints that I'd purchased to make quilt shop bolts from, so I got them cut last night. Like the other 59 from last weekend, I haven't cut the individual fat quarters yet. None of these particularly appeal to me for more use in miniature, so the remaining fabric will get put in my life-size quilting stash.

I finally found where I'd stuck this picture. I took it back in June. It's the quilt shop bolts I'd made to date, organized by color or collection. I need to get an accurate count at some point. There was one, but apparently the note was "put in a safe place." Plus I think I finished a few more bolts since then, not to mention the 65 bolts ready to be completed.

The hard part will be resisting the urge to buy more fabrics until I can get my custom shelves cut and assembled. That's actually going to be an issue for a few months. My friend who built a laser cutter sold it. He wants to build a larger one and needed the capitol to start the project. It will be a while before a new one is finished. I was also going to have him cut the other windows I need for the 1930's Nursery roombox. So that project is on hold for a while.

Now that I have access to the actual Patchwork Peach building again, I will likely start in on painting, flooring, and interior accents after the holidays. Perhaps by then I'll have found someone else with a laser cutter in the area who would like to help me out.

Getting There, Almost and Finished

As the title alludes, I've worked on three projects this week. First up is the Mystery Quilt's top, now with borders and waiting for me to have help sandwiching the layers. FH is holding it up for the picture since it's too heavy for me at the moment.

 I did get the binding on my little runner too. Just need to sew it to the back by hand.

 Here's a close up of the quilting so you can see the variegated thread colors.

 And finally a set of eight placemats for a Christmas gift.

Next project goals are a baby quilt that is already cut and waiting to be pieced, finishing the binding on the little runner, and I'm doing another Mystery project. This time it's a table runner. We've already been given cutting instructions for our fabrics and get the next clue tomorrow. I haven't cut my pieces yet as my fabric is still in the wash, otherwise I'd be showing them off too.

Until next week!

Playing Around

For my birthday FH took me to the local quilt show and I picked up some fun goodies. One was a new pattern for placemats that uses fat quarters. I played with it last week after I remembered four holiday themed fat quarters and matching yardage that was just laying around in my stash.

 The cutting directions rely on the fat quarters being squared up to the same size so you can stack and whack all the pieces. Then it's simply rearranging the order of the stacks in a certain way. The pattern instructions come with a total of five variations of the design. I played with the simplest as my fabrics were fairly busy.

 I started the quilting on this runner and I'm sort of happy with it. I'm thinking about going back and putting in a thicker batting. The stitching doesn't look bad as is, but I think I'd prefer more definition.

 I know I'm going to take this one apart and put in thicker batting. Stitching in the ditch isn't even visible so nothing looks quilted. Kind of irritating, but live and learn.

 I've also done some utilitarian sewing this past week. We have a good friend, P, staying with us as he recuperates from a bad motorcycle accident. He almost lost his left foot, but doctors managed to save it. Currently the dressings leave his toes exposed and since it's getting chilly out, I made him some toe covers that fit just over the bandages without squeezing toes, cutting off circulation, or touching his heel where the skin graft is healing.

He'll be with us on and off for a couple of weeks... basically when he's not expected at one of the doctors' offices back in the city where he lives. His family all lives in this area, but none of them have first floor bathrooms or they have stairs everywhere. Eventually he'll get to go back to his apartment 100 miles or so away, but for right now he's comfortable here.

That's all for now. I've got to go up and see if P needs anything. Take care!