Two Years and Twenty Thousand Excuses

March 2, 2008 I wrote this blog post.... about some great purple fabric that I got a great deal on.
And in June, 2009 I wrote this blog post... showing a peek at the first of two twin bags that I made out of the great purple fabric.

And today...
After many months/years of procrastination, moving the project from box to box, transporting it to Ohio and back again, sewing machine issues, lack of necessary materials, and too many other excuses to list here... it is FINISHED!!!

Now to move it one more time - to Massachusetts - so the Sibling Shipping Service can transport it south for delivery.

The rest of the bits of this wonderful purple fabric will find their way into a couple of scrappy projects currently in progress - so I will always remember the Two Year Totes.

But I won't promise that it won't happen again.

Temptation Tuesday

OK - so the competitive side of me was tempted by a quick finish and a finish a night - in addition to encouraging each other, our fearless Prolific Online Quilt group leaders are keeping score!

But as tempting as it was to finish some quick and easies that I have cut out and waiting - I went for one of the biggies...

Purple Miranda I (which is a twin to Purple Miranda II by the way) - which has been languishing, cut and waiting - since about - oh - 15 months ago...(oops!)

See - I cut them out (meant to make one but ended up with all those "there's only 7/8 of a yard left on this bolt -do you want it at 50% off the current price" situations - and had enough to make 2, and then some) - and then got my new machine so thought "hey - these would be great to free motion quilt" -and then I chickened out. I have practiced FMQ some - but these were for someone else - and on a bag it is really FRONT AND CENTER - and I was not confident.

And then recently - after fondling Lazy Girl Design's newest bag, Claire, who is not quilted but uses fusible batting, I put two and two together and decided that Purple Miranda I and II would NOT be quilted - but rather fused to fusible batting. The fabric pattern is swirly enough to stand on its own without the addition of the quilting, and I would be that much closer to having these done.

So a month later - I finally started.

And although I did not finish Purple Miranda I tonight - I have the "bagsket" part done - the body of the bag and all the pockets. I just need to add the straps and flap and cinch tabs. If everything goes well, it should be done tomorrow.

And I need to finish Purple Miranda II by the 2nd of July -it needs to catch a ride south...

All Pinned Out

In preparation for a December 13th Craft Show- I have been sewing lunch bags - lots and lots of lunch bags. I did really well over the summer clearing out scrap bins, repurposing other fabrics (mens shirts and cut-off's from clothing alterations), and splurging on a few bargain bin fabrics -and had lots of them cut out and ready to go...

...but cut out and ready to go does not cut it - they needed to be assembled - and that I kept putting off...

Crunch time now - so I kicked in to high gear on Monday and production lined 20 of them - getting the inside pockets made and attached, the linings and outer coverings stitched and box bottomed and nested, and then I ran out of steam.

Last night it was COLD in our house - so rather than sit at the sewing machine (with my back to a French door - brrr brrr...) I opted to sit in the recliner with a quilt on my lap, a lap desk on top of that, and a box of pins so that I could get the linings and coverings all straight and pinned for the final assembly.

18 covers, 2 dropped pins and one episode of Dirty Jobs later - I officially was OUT of pins! Yup - used every single one in the box!

So now I HAVE to get these sewn up - or procrastinate some more and only work on projects that don't require pins...

Nah- I am in the home stretch -

Now if only I could figure out a way to machine sew from the recliner?!?

My First Commissioned Work

Hubby's Mom IM'd me the other day - with a request that I make a prayer book cover for her to give to a friend for a 75th surprise birthday party gift.

The back story behind this is that I had made a greeting card holder for MIL out of some gingerbread fabric last Christmas - with pockets for cards and envelopes, and a spot for a pen so she could address Christmas Cards easily. (and she loves gingerbread). Well wasn't it just fun that the holder fit right over her prayer book like a book cover?

She's been after me to make her a non-holiday once since then, and I took all the measurements but I misplaced them, and then got distracted by some other projects - ok - LOTS of other projects. I kept meaning to do them - honest!!!

Anyway, she requested, and I sewed, after stopping by to pick up her prayer book to get the measurements. The burgundy stripe is actually kimono silk given to me by Mama Matsumoto, one of my moms from my Japanese life. The purple is left over from a quilt I made for Hubby's little sister. I decided to make two while I was sewing, and made a couple of little Rosary pouches out of the scraps (they are not attached to the covers). She can choose one or both for her friend, and keep the other for herself, or I can even make more...

Total time for both - about 1 hour, including the little pouches. And just a note- the Velcro Fusion DOES stick to the silk. YAY!

The commission? She pays us in fabric, meals, plants, Munchkin-sitting, and by generally being a great mother-in-law, Mom and Grandma. Works for me.

Anti-Procrastination Night

Last night was a "work on projects I have been putting off" night. I think I was inspired by my Sassy success of yesterday, so I just kept on going.

One project was a trial run at a Japanese Knot Bag. I was not entirely happy with how it turned out - but there are a few other versions of this pattern out there. I am going to poke around until I find one that works how I think it should - either that or create my own. Stay tuned.

The other project was a revisit of my Disappearing 9 Patch. FabricMom gave me a little "kick in the pants" to get this one back out again.

I was kind of dreading pulling this one out. I thought I needed 4 more 9 patches, and since it had been a while since I had done these, I was not looking forward to figuring out which fabrics to put where to avoid duplications.

Easing myself back into this, I took my big 9 patches and cut them into the smaller blocks. I decided to spread them out on the living room floor - just to see what it was going to look like - and lo and behold I think I have enough as it is without making any more. With the addition of borders this will be a nice size lap quilt. I think instead of adding more blocks I am going to cut up the remaining Charm Pack squares to make a middle border just for some more interest, and a bit more size. I just need to count to be sure I have enough to go all the way around - but I think I do.

So I was procrastinating for nothing...
Still cannot figure out why I procrastinated on Sassy so long...
Go figure.