It’s September and most kids are back to school … or not.  At any rate, the stores have all their “back to school” sales on.  Do you take advantage of these sales for your sewing room?

I do.  Here are some of the products I use in my sewing room and some are suggestions from other bloggers and quilters.

• A flannel back tablecloth is great for a design wall … especially if I’m going sewing somewhere besides in my home.
• Hair clips are great for clipping labels onto fabric
• Spray bottle for water (I always use a dry iron … and I spray the fabric if I want steam)
• Shelf liner … will hold your sewing machine foot in place, add it to the back of pincushions to prevent them from slipping around, and in a pinch, you can use a couple of pieces (3″x 3″) to place under your hands when you free motion quilt
• Put a small square between your small rulers and your fabric – it’ll prevent the ruller from shifting
• Hair ties – place them around the thread and the bobbin and you know which bobbin goes with which thread … plus it keeps the thread from unwinding

These are the small hair ties … they are cloth covered elastics. You can see in the picture how small they are. When my thread and bobbins are in the drawer, it’s super easy to figure out which bobbin goes with which spool of thread. Plus there isn’t miles of thread all over!

• Notebook with grid lines … for planning that next quilt and Pencil crayons to colour your quilt

• Mechanical pencils for fine lines (on the back of HST or to mark the centre of a block

• Elmer’s School Glue … I use this a LOT … dilute it 4 parts water to 1 part glue and it’s perfect for gluing down binding or whatever needs to stay in place.

Binder clips – they are perfect to supplement your smaller clips … great when you have a large number of pieces or ???

Flag post-its, or just plain post-it notes are perfect for short-term labels.

Disappearing Elmer’s Glue Stick. These have MANY uses. I often use it to pre-baste my binding. Then when I get to the sewing machine, binding is done in a flash.

Coloured Sharpies … OK … confession here … these are great for colouring that white thread that is showing, or for outlining shapes (as per Helen Godden).

Design Wall

Piecing:

#1. The project for the “Falling for You” Blog Hop. My day is Sept. 20.

#2. Third project from Scrappy Improv … which I can’t show you until after the blog hop

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Quilting: 

#1 November Island Batik project is being quilted

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Stash Report

No finishes this week … no stash yardage used.

• Fabric Used this week     10 yards
• Fabric Used this year:       99 yards
• Fabric Bought this week:  0  yards
• Fabric Added this year:      27.75 yards  (my husbands amounts as well)
• Net Fabric used                  70.25 yards 
• Husband’s purchases:  0 yards (which are added into my total amount of Fabric added this year). For those of you who don’t know … my husband often buys more fabric than I do … so, I’m keeping track! Unfortunately, he doesn’t sew!

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Stitchin’ Time

I’m aiming for at least 30 minutes a day. Many days there are more than a few hours spent in my studio. We were away this past weekend, so there was 2 days that I did not sew.

• January – August –  235 / 242
• Sept – 5 / 5
• Total: 240 / 247
• Percentage = 97 % 

For more Stitchin’ Time, you can check out Kate’s blog: Life in Pieces

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TO DO 

Linda from Texas Quilt Gal is now hosting “To Do” every week. You can check out her blog HERE.

The last To Do list: (from weeks ago)

OK … so I had 2 weeks to accomplish my To Do list. I kept the list light because I want some more time to enjoy the summer! Consequently, it was easy to get it done. I’m keeping this week’s list light as well!

1. Complete Island Batik’s November project Partially done!
2. Complete 2nd Project from Scrappy Improv √   done
3. Prepare more fabric for Island Batik’s December project √   done
4. Write the directions for the guild’s Fall Mystery quiltDo NOT be distracted by any SQUIRRELS!   √   done 
5. Tidy & clean studio for 30 minutes      √   done  

This week’s list:

1. Finish quilting Island Batik’s November project
2. Finish 3rd Project from Scrappy Improv
3. Work on Island Batik’s December project
4. Do NOT be distracted by any SQUIRRELS! I NEED this continual reminder! 
5. Tidy & clean studio for 30 minutes

One who sleeps under a quilt is covered by LOVE!

Happy Quilting! 
Gail 

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Linking to:

• So Scrappy @ Scrap Happy
• Sunday Stash @  quiltpaintcreate
• Oh Scrap @  Quilting is More Fun than Housework
• 15 minutes to Stitch @ Life in Pieces
• Frédérique  @ Quilting Patchwork Applique
• Monday Making @  Love, Laugh, Quilt
• Design Wall Monday @  Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
• To-Do Tuesday @ Texas Quilt Gal
• Colour Inspiration Tuesday @ Clever Chameleon Quilting