Quick Catch Up

I haven't been posting but I have been busy.... still puttering around at cleaning/organizing my quilting supplies,... and replenishing some fabrics.  Hey!  A quilting friend is closing her brick and mortar quilt shop and I'm just helping her out by buying fabrics that she won't have to lug back home.  And, instead of me buying a couple of yards for this project and another yard for that one, I'm able to buy all the fabrics I need for several projects on my 'to do' list.  Oh, and I scored Kona  white cotton online for $4.99 a yard ... I couldn't pass that up!!!  I'm always running out of whites and apparently my friend was running out, too, because she didn't have it and I ended up buying a soft yellow instead.

Anyway, while going through some things in my room, I found a pattern for two blue jays sitting on a branch... I looked it over and realized that I could do it using just scraps... I soon found that the tracing patterns for pieces did not exactly match the drawing that she provided for piece placement and I had a bit of a problem here and there, but I got everything fused down and then simply stitched with straight line stitching around the edge of all the pieces.  Then I just did simple meandering in the background - not the best - I'm a little rusty at quilting on my domestic.  Had more than enough of the background fabric to make binding and hanger corners... used another scrap for the backing.  

 I think it finished somewhere around 14" x 14".  While we were at Walmart this morning, I purchased a dowel, came home and cut it to size so the ends would fit into the rectangles in the upper corners.  Hubby took it down to one of our neighbors when he took Buddy for another walk.  She came down a little while later ( she wasn't home when he left it with her sister) to thank me for it and to tell me she's going to hang it on their front door for everyone to see as they drive by.

 Once I finished with the blue jay wall/door hanging, I decided to get to work using up the Tootsie Roll print charm squares left over from the Disappearing Nine Patch Quilt A Long that ended last week.  Doing some figuring, I decided I had enough to make a bag if I used some blank white or black squares, too.

I've used this pattern several times and should know it by heart.  Well, I don't.  And I don't think it was the pattern itself that was giving me such a hard time... I just wasn't paying as close attention as I should.  I had found some old movies and tv shows ( December bride) on youtube.   In the photo below, you can see my hand inside what is supposed to be the inside pocket of the bag... I sewed it in upside down... the opening was at the bottom of the bag.... and the lining was all sewn together and the corners boxed - I wasn't about to risk messing it up worse by taking out a side and bottom seam so that I could restitch the pocket in.  I just took the pocket off and left it off ( actually, I made a 'hot pad' out of it).

There were some other problems - oh yeah... the lining again... I stitched the wrong end of the lining closed, too.. and boxed those corners... so the print is upside down... but it's IN the bag and most people won't see it so, at this point, I don't care....

 Here it is... finished.

 There were two print charm squares left and I thought, OK, I can use them for the bellies of the paper pieced kitties I want to do again... well, you can see from the photo below, that I messed up again....  Oh, and the brown strips are there because I was using the same fabric for the bottom of the kitty's belly and the background.... argh.

 It worked out.  Next time, I'll try and remember not to use white on the cat's body.  The fabric I'm using is from a pre-cut set of squares ( larger than 5" but smaller than 10") that were cut from one corner to the opposite one.  I bought them YEARS ago.. so long ago that I can't remember where I bought them - but probably online.  Anyway, it's time for them to be used.

Ok, that's it, I think... if there's more, I can't remember.

take care...
ttyl....