In my last post HERE, I talked about back to school and dollar store items for your sewing room / studio. I had forgotten to mention that I also like black Sharpies. I used them when I made the wall hanging from Helen Godden’s Flower Power Quilt Along. I also use them when a light thread shows through on black fabric. The flowers in the wall hanging below were outlined with black sharpie prior to being coloured and sewn. All of this as per Helen Godden’s instructions.
Tips and Hints from Others
Norma, from “Notes from Norma,” said that she spent around $15 at Dollar Tree and here’s what she bought … “little plastic containers with lids for my embossing powders, a 2021 calendar for my studio, envelopes, plastic spoons for containers, cosmetic wedges to use with inks when stamping, index cards, glue tape, toothbrush for spattering ink, sponge brushes.” Now … you must go visit her blog to see her fantastic work!
Emily, from “The Darling Dogwood” said that she likes little post-it notes for labelling tiny pieces (which she’ll later pin) and kid’s glue sticks. She said this about them, “I like the Elmer’s Disappearing Purple glue sticks, but do have to warn you that the shade of purple when the glue goes on will freak you out that you ruined your project–you didn’t!” It’s good to know that the purple will not ruin your work!
One friend, Roseanne, from “Home Sewn by Us,” commented on how clean my gloves were … I was caught!!! I have a nearly new pair that I use for videos and pictures, but in real life … well, you decide … the ones on the left are what I usually wear. I’ve washed them, I’ve soaked them … they are still dirty looking. However, when quilting on white fabric, none of the “dirt” comes off. Do you have any hints on how to keep these quilting gloves looking clean?
Wendy, from “Pieceful Thoughts,” said that she has another tip for the shelf liner: “cut a small 2″ square and place it between your small square ruler and fabric. It will keep the ruler from shifting.” What a great idea!
Bonnie, from “In Stitches with Bonnie,” couldn’t figure out how I used the hair ties. 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!
Design Wall
Piecing:
Bouquet Murder Mystery: There is progress on this UFO!!! The borders are on! Now to piece the back!
Quilting:
The Carpenter’s Wheel (Star) is in the process of being quilted! I’m outlining all the star points with Stitch in the ditch and using my straight ruler to fill in the blue portions.
Stash Report
No finishes, no shopping, no change in the numbers …
- Fabric Used this week 0 yards
- Fabric Used this year: 230.5 yards
- Fabric Bought this week: 0 yards
- Fabric Added this year: 23.5
- Net Fabric used 207 yards
Stitchin’ Time
I am aiming for 30 minutes/day – at least! I switched from 15 minutes / day to 30 minutes/day in April!
- 15 minute days: January – July: 210 / 212
- 30 min days/ Aug: 14/ 16
- Total days in 2020: 224 / 228
- Percentage = 98%
For more Stitchin’ Time, you can check out Kate’s blog: Life in Pieces
TO DO
I’m linking up to Roseanne & Sue’s “TO DO” Tuesday. Their blog is “Home Sewn by Us.”
Last weeks list:
I kept my list short, because I knew I wouldn’t be available to sew every day … but I got it done!
- Start Quilting Carpenter’s Wheel √ done
- Add borders to Bouquet Murder Mystery √ done
This weeks list:
- Finish Quilting Carpenter’s Wheel
- Make label and bind Carpenter’s Wheel
- Make backing for Bouquet Murder Mystery
- Make label and finish binding my niece’s baby’s quilt.
- Tidy & clean studio for 30 minutes.
No new starts this week … no finishes … there is progress being made on the UFO I’m working on!
One who sleeps under a quilt is covered by LOVE!
Happy Quilting!
Gail
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Linking to:
- Tish @ Tish’s Adventures in Wonderland
- Sunday Stash @ quiltpaintcreate
- Oh Scrap @ Quilting is More Fun than Housework
- 15 minutes to Stitch @ Life in Pieces
- What I Made Monday @ Pretty Piney Quilts
- Monday Making @ Love, Laugh, Quilt
- Design Wall Monday @ Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
- To-Do Tuesday @ Home Sewn By Us
- Colour Inspiration Tuesday @ Clever Chameleon Quilting
- Tips and Tutorials on the 22nd @ Kathleen McMusing
I’ve pulled out this UFO: It was a Murder Mystery quilt that I started in 2010 at a Wild Rose Retreat in Orting Washington! It was a fun retreat! (Um … I haven’t been to a retreat that wasn’t fun …!!!) Anyhow, one of the shop’s owners was ‘murdered’ with a pinking rotary cutter … the evidence was the rick rack around his neck and the red fat quarter next to him … and the weekend went from there.
Dog/Cat Quilt #2 used 8 yards of fabric. You can see more details of this quilt 
In the past week, I finished 1 ½ UFOs. I finished Summer Solstice (
Tish, from “
Winnie the Pooh Quilt Along
I have a horrible habit of starting another project just as one project is finishing, or almost finished or is partly done. And, consequently, NOTHING gets put away or tidied up. Those of you that know me are nodding your heads and thinking “She is telling the truth!! A recent conversation on my guild’s Facebook page talked about setting our phone alarms to remind us to clean up our sewing rooms. I jokingly said that if I set my alarm to clean up, I’d likely ignore it and my room wouldn’t be tidied. Well, the state of my sewing room and I had a clash this week. It was SOOOOO bad, it was really bad … This picture is just a small corner of my sewing desk (2 containers – materials for the retreat bag, left-over backing, left-over border fabric, scraps … and who knows what else was hidden in there? Anyhow, I spent 2 hours tidying and vacuuming and dusting and putting fabric away. What a difference it made … and I think I was able to work better afterwards! SEW … you can see on my To Do list below, that I aim to work on my sewing room each week!
My sister and 2 cousins were all planning to go to Quilt Canada together, which was scheduled for later this week. We also decided it would be fun do a project together and decided on the Retreat Bag. This is a free bag from 
So … I looked through my “kids” box and came up with this fabric. I think I had a Disappearing 9 patch in mind when I bought it.
… is in it’s 2nd week, starting tomorrow! Did you check out last week’s hoppers?
Ugly fabric quilt Guild challenge: We are to use the quilt pattern in this 
Florabunda: The blocks are now sewn into 3 tops … They need to be sandwiched and quilted … in due time.
Florabunda: Do you remember when I was working on these blocks? Well, they are all done and I have way more than enough for one quilt … so there are at least 2 quilts to be made. I need to lay them out and decide on which ones will go into which quilt.
Florabunda:
An Island Batik project was completed … but that’s not counted in my stash.
Circles – borders on and it is sandwiched ….
Quilting Gail 