Off the Clock

Update April 21:  Most of the blocks are done, just waiting for the patterns for the last 4 blocks.  I've got them all laid out on a sheet and pinned in place along with the border triangles.  You can see the four gaps for the last blocks.  Then it's assembly time.   Blocks 1 - 4 I have started on a virtual quilt-along project for a bright, scrappy quilt.  This is being put on my by local quilting shop and I am so pleased I joined in.  I'm having a lot of fun and learning new things.  For example, on block #12 I initially pieced in rows and then sewed the rows together.  My scant 1/4" seam may have been a bit too scant and my block was oversized to the point that after I trimmed it down I will lose some of my points when I assemble the quilt top.  When I made the second block #12 I instead assembled as 4-patches, trimmed to size and then assembled the block.  This gave me much better results. These are blocks 5 - 8.  I have been paying much more attention to the direct

 I mentioned in my last post that I had been working on a number of projects.  One of them was new covers for my two ironing surfaces; the ironing board and the padded tv tray I use for ironing at the sewing machine.  I also mentioned I may make another Bionic Gear Bag.  Well I decided that was a "go" and I took the plunge to get started.  This time around I found a video for the Sew Together Bag that I think the Bionic Bag was based on.  It is definitely helping.   I pieced and quilted the outer layer to coordinate with the needle case .  Then I cut and interfaced all the other sections and got as far as I could until I was ready for the zippers, which I had ordered on Ebay.  Well those zippers came in today - less than 2 weeks after ordering them from overseas, so I am really impressed! - and now I will be able to carry on with that project. Once I put that aside I decided to organize the eight bins of quilting scraps I had on hand (no not all mine - I was gifted six of th

  I have done a LOT of sewing lately.  I summarized my holiday sewing in my last post.  Since then I've made another pair of knit pants for me (because Covid-10 is a thing), a pair for my daughter, a couple of jersey tops, added back pockets to all the knit pants that didn't have any, made a pair of houndstooth dress pants, and I'm sure there's more.  To be honest I was a little tired of clothes sewing and quilt sewing when I ran across the Nancy Zieman needle case project .  Thanks to Ebay and Amazon I have a pretty good stash of needles, and this looked like a good project to practice some skills without getting overwhelmed.   I have seen a few scrappy quilting projects lately that caught my interest and thought this could be a cute little project to try out that idea.  I made scrappy 2 1/2" squares and then used a 2 1/2" sashing strip to showcase some embroidery to make the outer fabric.  I used a heavy natural cotton for the inner fabric.   The pattern cal