The “Unpaper” Towels

So, I completed my “unpaper” towels. I believe the actual pattern called them reusable paper towels, but I found hat an odd name since they were not paper.

Here is what I learned about making these:

Use a walking foot. I fought with it until I got the bright isdea to use my walking foot. After that everything went much better.

Put your opening to turn right side out on the side not where you want the snaps to go. It can make getting those plastic snaps more difficult if it is bunched and when you are closing up it is more likely that will happen (I sewed mine shut with the machine when I went around the whole towel.

I used three snaps on each end. The pattern called for 2. Initially I had such issues, that Iput three on each end. I will try 2 if/when I make these again.

The plastic snap tool – Watch a video on how to do it. I failed to do this and once I did, I had way more success. Use it on a hard surface (once I watched a video, I put a wooden cutting board under mine). Be prepared to waste some snaps until you get the hang of it. I did not buy my snap tool just for this, but also for baby bibs. They are not expensive maybe 20 dollars for tools and a whole box of colored snaps. I bought it on Amazon. It came with the the big box (top left). I bought some additional snaps because they were inexpensive.

The Practicality of “Unpaper” towels – Not sure on this one yet. I will have to review the actual use by everyone at our house. I am hoping to hear less harsh words over lack of dish towels and having them all over the counter. I made a roll of ten and then some spares (I think I had 8 more). Once it has been in use a while at my house I will let you know if it is a truly useful item. So far, it makes me happy to use up the stack of older towels we had.

I am feeling better every day. Looking forward to losing this neck brace. I am back to work, which is great. I am not good at sitting around doing nothing. Prior to my surgery, I got a new super expensive office chair (X-Chair). It has a neck rest and heat/massage. It has been a life saver and allowed me to return to work quickly. I did not want to sped the money, but Kevin made me……good call on his part.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

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Sarcasm is running amuck…..amuck…amuck…amuck…

I finally found a use for flannel.  Yeah.

I do say that with a hint of sarcasm.  I like flannel, just not in quilts.  Then why do I have so much?  Good question.  Maybe I just can’t pass up a sale.  Ohhhh, that is very likely.  Don’t get me wrong, I have made a  few flannel quilts with scraps.  They came out fine.  I just feel that by the time I am done, the fuzz on flannel looks dirty.  I know, weird.  But I do like these cute receiving blankets made with flannel.  Super simple and cute.  I would like to make them a bit larger, which I will work on for the next one.

20180414_085845-1.jpgThis past Saturday our guild had a quilt in.  Name tags with your name or your code name.  Hah!  Well, I could not help myself.  The sew-in was fun.  They had someone teaching free motion quilting, or you could just work on whatever you wanted to.  I took my $11.99 Bernina and sewed up a storm.  It was a rainy Saturday in Ohio, so it was perfect for sewing and I won a door prize.  $25.00 gift certificate to a local quilt shop.  WooHoo!

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

One Monthly Goal Finish

Seriously, how can January be over?  As I get older, I do not understand how time passes so quickly.  I feel like the holidays were last week.

I actually completed my One Monthly Goal. Not only did I complete, but I did a “New” (new for me), all over FMQ design.  I guess I can call it the “Linangle” design (lines and Angles).  It is not perfect, but it is not that bad either.  The only major weirdness is the binding.  I did not have enough fabric to do all one color,m so I used what I had.  Looks a little wonky because of it.

Now I am going to have to come up with a new one monthly goal for February.  Likely to be more quilting.  I am working on a secret piecing project.  More on that later.

I don’t have any plans for this quilt yet.  Will likely just store until the right time comes along for me to give it away or donate to charity.

I really enjoy the “One Monthly Goal”.  It is a strong motivator for me to get things done.  I can not say I am going to do something and then not do it.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

I Think my Quilting is actually improving.

So, this is my One Monthly Goal project and I decided to not do my normal boring meandering.  This is an all over pattern, but I was surprised once it was all done that it did not look to bad.

I always get nervous when I try something that is outside my norm on a quilt.  I mean there is the potential of totally screwing up a top that you spent time putting together.  I am certainly becoming less intimidated.  So, I actually had the angled meandering done a quilt before, but I paid for it.  I did not like it all.  They kind of did a crappy job.  Mine is actually better and I did not have a long arm.  Just me and my Bernina free motion quilting. As I was quilting this, I did not think that I would like it.  I thought I may have done to much quilting, but once it was complete, it did not look to bad.

I really think that I am Super Klutz.  I almost titled this post “Fat Girl Falls Down Part 3”. Saturday morning, I decide to go out to the hot tub.  Step up get one foot in and the steps slide out and I fall straight down, one foot still in the hot tub.  This time I am straddling the edge.  It hurt so bad, that I could not move.  I actually chose to fall in.  Seemed way better than falling outside the tub, considering it was ten degrees.  I survived.  I have the blackest bruise I have ever seen, somewhere you really don’t want a bruise.  I am starting to think the hot tub is trying to kill me.  It is supposed to be helping me.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

 

My One Monthly Goal and the coming year

So, for my One Monthly Goal, I am going to completely finish this baby quilt.  It needs quilted and bound.  It has been laying over the gate entrance to my room, for months.  It is just staring at me.  Since I am now imaging my unfinished quilts are staring at me, I should probably just complete.  Then, my non completion guilt should go away….maybe, there are a lot of those pieces.

The one monthly Goal has been so helpful in helping to get items completed.  I very much have that personality that if I say I am going to complete something, then I am going to do it.

For this year I would like to finish all the tops that I have lying around.  I am not sure how many I actually have.  I would guess 7 or 8.  That is a fairly tall order, but it would be great to get done.

I won’t say that I won’t start any new projects, but I do not want to buy fabric to start a new project.  I can purchase stuff to finish things, but I am trying to avoid going out and buying fabric to start new quilts.  We will see how that goes.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

What to do, What to do???

These are my daughters receiving blanket from when she was a baby.  I had put them in my cedar chest to make a quilt from them.  I need to make room in that cedar chest for “other things” (more quilts)  for all my future grandchildren.  However, I have a block on this one.  I usually “see” in my mind what I want to do.  I have been staring at this pile for weeks and have come up empty.  There are 13 flannel blankets (several duplicates) so it is a good bit of yardage.  Most are about 36×36 and a few are a bit bigger.  I think there is plenty pf fabric.  I just can’t figure out what to do.  I am thinking it will not be a baby blanket, but something bigger maybe for my future grandchild that might be a big older who would understand that it was made from all the blankets there Mommy was wrapped up in.  Gosh, I sound like a fruit loop!  Being that I did wait until I was 40 to have Haley, I am always thinking that I won’t get to meet her children.  This will be may way of letting them know who Grams is in case I am not here.  If she waits as long as I did, I may not meet them.

If anyone has any suggestions on type of pattern or anything to release my mind block, please let me know.  I always get such good advice from our blogging community.  Thanks!

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

2017 Q4 Finish Along – Can I do it All?

Well, I this is new to me.  Seems like a really good idea.  I have had much success with the One Monthly Goal.  I am hoping that this one will give some extra incentive to get projects done.  I have ambitiously put 6 projects on here.  Yikes!  I hate to lose, so I hope I can get them all finished along with the 10,000 other projects I will start along the way.  If you are interested in Participating, Please go to She Can Quilt.

So, for Quarter 4 I am going to finish the following:

20170905_203052_resized#1 Flannel Baby Quilt – Needs quilting and Binding.

 

 

 

 

20170813_185057_resized (1)#2 Safari Baby Quilt – Needs quilting finished and Binding

 

 

 

 

20170816_193127_resized.jpg#3 – The Ugly Quilt – Needs quilting and Binding.  Jeez, I hope I can stand it.  still Might have to change something on this in order to tolerate it.

 

 

 

20170702_182615_resized#4 Zipper Quilt – Needs quilted and Binding.

 

 

 

 

20170310_094411#5 The Fourth and Final Dog Bone Dresser scarf.  This is an EPP project and is partly pieced.  I am so tired of these, since it is the fourth one I have done.  Ughhh.  The last one is taking forever.

 

 

20170511_184141#6 – Table Topper that has been laying around for quite some time.  Needs borders, quilting and binding.

 

 

scan q

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

#2017FALQ4QuiltingNeeds

Just a little Scrap Busting with Flannel….Ehh

In the midst of my crankiness, I kept looking at this pile of scrap flannel that was just taking up valuable space (on my pool table AKA quilt project table).  So, I just decided to cut it up and see what I could get.  I had a bunch of blues and some lavender and purple.  This is what I got out of the blues with just a few squares left over for the scrap bin.  It will make an OK gift or donation baby quilt.  Just some weird sized square blocks.  I had to use what I had the best way I could.  Just did some meandering for the quilting.  Nothing special.  This was a thinking quilt, meaning I did a lot of thinking while I was working on it,  not about the quilt, it did not take much thinking, but about my general crankiness.  I came to no real conclusions.  I am still a bit cranky.

So, I often wonder if I am the only one with weird issues.  I don’t really like to make quilts out of flannel.  The weirdness is that I think/feel that the fuzziness of flannel always looks dirty when I am done.  It looks like it has been laying around a while and needs to go into the washer.  I even try to be careful and make sure that my machine table is clean and that I always have clean hands, but the fuzziness of the flannel always looks dirty.  Just wondering if that is Compulsive Lori overthinking or anyone else ever feels that way?

I need to get over it, because at some point in my life I bought a bunch of flannel.  I need to do something with it.  Some of it is actually cute, but it is flannel.  Ugh.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Bahaha. Two of these things are not like the other one, not like the other one

Sorry, brought back a funny memory.  The first time I got married, I had my three sisters and one girlfriend in my wedding.  Since my sisters lived elsewhere, I picked a dress out of the Penny’s catalog so they could each order it.  Pretty simple.  So, on the day I was getting married, I am sitting in the waiting room with everyone except my sister Karen.  She walks in and my little sister starts singing “One of these things is not like the other one, not like the other one, not like the other one…”  Well, Karen’s dress was way darker than everyone else’s (totally different dye lot).  She was so upset, mostly because she thought I would be upset.  I just laughed.  Seriously, what are you going to do 15 minutes before hand?  Laugh it off.  And then there was Kellie singing.  It was pretty funny.

So, in my fit of sewing, or what I would call depression sewing or sewing without thinking, whatever you want to call it, over the weekend, I of course performed one of my ever so present mistakes, which I only noticed when looking at the photo. The top left corner and the bottom right corner each have a block the wrong direction.  Classic Lori.  The only thing is I didn’t put it together and quilt it before I found it.  So, I have the opportunity to correct it.  That is a change.

I made this from a stack of scraps from a dog quilt I made from my great nephew.  The pile was taking up valuable real estate, so I just started sewing.  It will make an OK baby quilt.  Haley said she liked this one.  She is my very critical daughter who could not sew a button back on her blouse.  Love her.  I can always count on her for an honest opinion.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting