Design Wall Monday - bag progress

There has been significant progress on this bag, which is another of the Sew Together bags.  This is #17 that I've made from this pattern.  I'm wishing however that I had sewn that license plate another inch higher.  But I had already quilted that front section when I realized it should have been higher.  

The handles and final zipper are remaining, so I'm feeling optimistic that I can finish it this week.  The hardest part is sewing that lining, with pockets and side sections onto the front as there are so many layers of fabric to sew through.  

But before I could sew those sections together I had to correct my big mistake.  I had one zippered pocket all sewn and even top stitched, when I realized that I had left out the pocket lining.  Oops!!  My seam ripper is always close at hand luckily. 

 

The lining, pockets, and side sections were finally successfully added.  Now, on to the next step.

What is on your design wall today? 

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

I'm also linking up with Monday Making:

https://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/

What is the plan for the week?

 On Friday as I hung up lots of new blocks on the skirt hangers in neat collections, I had to look around my sewing room to see what was waiting for some attention.  Believe me, there are so many projects waiting for attention.  Too many!!  Some specific goals for this week need to focus on things stacked on the end of the ironing board and taking up space.

This bag was kitted up about a year ago, and has been neglected for too long.  I pulled it out this summer and quilted the front. Then I put it away.  A couple of months later it came out again and I sewed the end sections together. And then it was set aside again.  Well, it's time to finish it.  

Both granddaughters are getting tote bags for Christmas.  The music fabric will make Olivia a bag for her piano lesson books plus a pillowcase.  I'm not 100% sure about using that purple with the music fabric, but I'm thinking it will be good for the bag lining and maybe the handles.  The zebra fabric will become a tote bag for Sophia.  She loves animals, and this bag kit was something I bought while shopping with her mom last spring.  I should be able to finalize what size to make them, and cut the pieces this week.  Maybe a little sewing will happen on them too, depending on time. 

Friday this week will be completely taken up with the set up process for our guild Quilt Show.  The show itself is Saturday and Sunday.  It takes most of the day to set up poles and hang quilts, and then do a bit of decorating.  I plan to take only 6 or 7 projects to show this year, including this Halloween themed One Block Wonder.  It was finished in 2019 - but we can show anything we've made since the previous quilt show, which was 2018.  

Neutral and lime green

 For October our color for RSC is lime green or neutral.  I love lime green and have a pretty good selection of it to choose from in the scrap bin.  But . . . this happened instead.

There was already a green bunny, so this Country Bunny isn't green; it's kind of a grey/brown color.  He looks a bit boring all by himself, but when he joins his friends he fits right in.  I deliberately chose colors that are less saturated than usual, so they all have a softer feel.  Not quite pastel but not bright either.

But I did play a little bit with lime green.  A couple of green Ohio Star blocks and a couple of green Twinkle Star blocks have joined the collections.  And 8 new tulips were made and sewn into 2 quad sections.  There is a touch of lime in those leaves and stems.  

I'm linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge today:
https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Y-seams & HSTs & Squares - - Oh My!

Y-seams are not my favorite thing!  Grrr!  Notice the blue pin near the top of this block?  It's holding that Y-seam in place until I can sew it by hand with a needle and thread.

This was Garden Path from the Farmers Wife Sampler book.  It's only 6.5" square, so all of the pieces are very very small.  Working on these blocks has been an excellent way to improve my accuracy and skills, but occasionally one of them gets the best of me. Happily all of those little HST are getting better and better. My points are even looking pretty good on this block. But that pesky Y-seam drove me nuts!  I almost took those blue strips off and pieced them with regular strips and then squared up.  But the pattern had them pieced like this and I want to stay as true to the pattern as possible.  The last one of those Y-seams will need to be stitched by hand.  Enough said on that topic!!

The other block for this week was Gentleman's Fancy.  It was easy - thank goodness! It started with that center square, and then cream triangles were added to all 4 sides.  And then a round of pink triangles, followed by bigger cream triangles, and finally the larger pink ones.  Square-in-a-square times 4.

 

And finally, I got the HSTs made for the Halloween pillow.  This 20" pillow front is ready to quilt, but I have no idea what I want that quilting to look like.  

Additionally - 5 new tulip blocks were also pieced, and 2 side of Bats and Boos wall hanging was bound.  Hopefully I'll finish that binding today.  

Circa 16-21

Circa 2016-21 was begun in 2016, and finished in 2021.  This has been on my UFO list basically since 2017.  I kept up with the weekly block posts for several month - and then set it aside.  I maybe got tired of making teeny 3.5" blocks.   

It really wasn't difficult or very time consuming to finish it up this summer.  And I'm so tickled to have it done.  This one may get hung in my stairway where I can enjoy it daily, but first it's going to our guild's quilt show in 10 days.  

Counted cross stitch

 Is it just my imagination or is counted cross stich making a big revival lately?

Over 40 years ago I did a LOT of counted cross stitch.  It all started when I was the project "engineer" on a job site in Iowa and we got rained out one day.  I wandered around the Main Street area of the small town we were working in, and ended up walking into a yarn shop.  They also had lots of kits for small counted cross stitch and I bought one to take back to my motel room for something to do.  The next week I went back and bought more.  It was such fun, and it gave me something to do in the evenings in my motel rooms because I traveled a lot for work at the time. That first project was this farm scene plus the 4 seasons pieces that went with it.  I had them framed.  

For years this was one of my favorite stitching hobbies. I even did counted cross stitch on the front of a cute little outfit I made for my first baby.  But then in my 30s I discovered quilting.  And my eye sight required bifocals.  So you can imagine that counted cross stitch mostly fell by the wayside.  I did a few Christmas ornaments and small things, but that was pretty much all. But now I'm really wanting to do a couple of projects.  I'm not giving up quilting however!!

While in the little stitchery shop on Monday afternoon I purchased 1 chart, ordered another, and bought a few supplies for the chart I ordered.  This Christmas tree made of thread spools may be the project I work on first.  I think I have just the right piece of Aida cloth waiting, and most of the floss colors.  

Note to self - don't forget about the half-done cross stitch project aging on top of the dresser in the guest bedroom.  This was a travel project for a few years, but I haven't been traveling since Covid, so there hasn’t been much progress lately.  That is my story and I'm sticking to it.  

A change of scenery

 We all need an occasional change of scenery, even if it’s just for an afternoon and evening.  My husband had a meeting yesterday afternoon and was then going to stop in Sioux Falls to watch our 4th grade grandson play flag football at 6:30.  And I decided to ride along.

I took handwork along with to work on while he was in his meeting.  So from 2-4 in the afternoon I sat in his vehicle with the windows down, stitched and listened to the radio, and enjoyed a beautiful October day. I did take a little walk along the Main Street and stopped into an interesting little shop as well.  All-in-all it was a relaxing afternoon.  And a great evening watching flag football and getting hugs from from a couple of grandkids.

Hand quilting was finished and the binding is nearly done on the little guild challenge project.