To Do Tuesday: August Is Moving Right Along.....

It's time for another "To Do Tuesday" check-in with everyone gathering at Carol's "Quilt Schmilt" to share their project progress!

Last week had some twists and turns to what I thought were simple project plans.  On last week's list were the following:

1.  Finish the QOV top.

I thought I was ready to get right to work on putting the top together after finding a batik in another project's stash to fill in the empty spots for blue fabrics for my layout. 

However my MIL called and I sent pictures of the layout with the new fabric and she agreed with me that while the batik worked okay it wasn't great.  She also told me that the August deadline was loose: as long as it was in by the end of the month I was fine so still had some time to get it done.  

She looked through her stash and offered to send me something else that might work.  However she was going away for the weekend so wouldn't be able to mail the fabric out until this week.  I resigned myself to a big delay in working on it.  However, I soon realized I actually had the perfect replacement sitting under my nose all along!  Ironically,  I had shown it in the top of the kit picture whenever I blogged about it.

Turns out that print was the one to keep the project moving!  When I had picked up the kit in February, the guild's charity quilt rules were that if you made a top, you had to also supply a backing for it to be submitted to the guild's longarmer for quilting and who would supply the batting.  I had found a great wide-back print while down there so purchased it (and some extra for my own stash) with the intention of using it to send back with the finished top for the backing.  

Well the problem with being a long distance member is that I am not there to hear updates at the meetings.  My MIL had let me know that they've changed the charity quilt rules:  Now you make the top and send it along with $20 and the longarmer will handle the backing, batting and the quilting!   So I had separated the backing fabric from the kit stash and basically forgot about it.  Fortunately I saw it as I went looking for something and realized it was the perfect fabric to add to the layout!

So the good news is that the center of the top is now pieced together!

There is more work to be done on it but I'll cover that in the "To Do" list for this coming week.   

2.  The "Alaska" blocks will take second position and be the leader/ender project for the QOV top.  

More good news, in the course of sewing the center of the QOV top together I managed to get two "Alaska" blocks done:

So now I have six more blocks to sew.   Since I'm doing these in "Block of the Month" fashion, I have the rest of the month to work on the remaining blocks.   

3.  "Fully finishing" a Cross stitch project:  My local At Home store is closing so I went in to try to find a frame for a recent finish.  Fortunately I found one!  So I'd like to work on this and get it hung up. 

More good news:  this is now "fully finished"!

I discussed the finishing details here.

4.  I spoke last week about having finished a top for an old project and wanted to look into what I have for finishing it (backing and binding).  

"Gathering A Garden Is A Snap"

I've narrowed down the stash of fabrics related to this to what you see here.  

Some or all of the fabrics on the right will be used to make up the backing while the fabrics on the left are binding choices.  

Alot of the time spent sorting was reminding myself that I wanted to make another "9 Fat Quarter Disappearing Nine Patch" quilt like the one I donated for a raffle back in 2023.  Many of the fabrics for that one came from this same stash of fabrics.  So any full FQ cuts were put aside for that future project.  

Coming up for this week:

1.  Add the borders to the QOV top.  Turns out this is presenting a new challenge!  The border fabric was sent in the kit but it is only three strips!  So now I am figuring out ways to add "filler" to the strips I have to make all the borders.

2.  Continue the "Alaska" BOM block making.  I also cut four scrappy blocks that I want to get sewn up too.  As before, I have the rest of the month to work on these so how ever many get done is progress.

3.  Right now since I'm focused on getting the QOV done and on the "Alaska" blocks, I'm not sure if the "Gathering A Garden" backing will get a push this week.  However, if I get inspired, I have no problem doing so!

4.  Having finished "Craft Supply Lies", I have now gone back to working on my "New York Skyline" cross stitch project which is my "monogamous stitch" for the rest of the month.

So still keeping a short list and feeling very focused for the coming week!  You can check out (or join in!) what everyone else is gearing up to work on this week by hopping over to Carol's "Quilt Schmilt" for another installment of "To Do Tuesday"!  

Slow Sunday Stitching: A May-nia Project Fully Finished!

Good morning on a sunny Sunday for a quick "Slow Sunday Stitching" check-in with the good crafty folks over at Kathy's Quilts!

Last night I finally "fully finished" my "Craft Supplies and Other Lies" piece!

I had started stitching this for "May-nia", continued it during "Red, White and June" and completed the tail end of it along with resuming work on another piece for "Christmas In July".   After that I found a frame that I liked and decided to go the route of mounting it on it rather than putting it in it.  

I debated a long time about how exactly to go about that.  In the end, I mounted the piece on some foamcore and batting and laced it in place.  It needed a little something around the edge so I made some cording from the flosses it is stitched with using the Clover tool purchased awhile back.  

Then I nailed it to the wooden patterned surround in the frame using brads.  The hope was that the nail heads would disappear between the fabric threads which went fine for all but one corner that took some tugging to cover.  I  know it's a little skewed on the surround but I think I can live with that --- well, I'll see if I still feel that way after a few days (or weeks) of looking at it displayed, LOL.   

So with that done, I am now ready to get back to some stitching!  I haven't stitched on anything since finishing the "CIJ" piece.  Now to fill my evenings,  I am going back to another "May-nia" start:  New York Skyline by XstitchByTA.

This is how far I've gotten on the next page of the pattern (it is a total of four pages).  I expect this to fill my days through the Fall and probably right up to the start of the actual Christmas season --- not the shopping season which will probably begin in earnest in the next week or so, LOL!!

To see what other crafters have filled their stitchy days with (or to add yours!), head over to Kathy's Quilts for this week week's "Slow Sunday Stitching" link up to see what others are whipping up in their craft spaces! 

To Do Tuesday: August Is Off To A Good Start!

 The temperatures have cooled greatly and I've been on a roll setting up things to work on!  So I am going to continue to check in with Carol's "To Do Tuesday" at her blog "Quilt Schmilt".  It seems to be my good luck charm lately!

Checking in with the things on last week's list:

1.  After speaking to my MIL and finding out about the August deadline to turn in the top for the QOV donation kit that I took,  my plan last week was to get it made up stat!  

NOT DONE!

While it's a pretty easy design and I had hoped to get it made up by the end of last week, I hit a snag.  The kit was pre-cut but when I laid out the fabrics provided, I found that there were way fewer blue rectangles than anything else.  As a result it took me awhile to go through my general stash and other project kits to see if I had something I could add to it.  The only blue fabric I had that I liked with the others was this one:

This is a batik that was in with my "Catch" Alaskan Sampler project that I haven't worked on since 2017.  However, I had this fabric slated to go into a block in that project.  The good news was that reading through the block instructions now, I saw that I had more than enough fabric to fulfill both desires!  And of course, picking up the project again, I couldn't resist making the block up just to get it out of the way and move that project a little further forward:

It's the block pictured on the lower right on the book cover.

Well, I made up the pieced portion of it anyway -- there is a Polar Bear applique that also has to be added to it.  I haven't done the appliques for any of the blocks I've made for this project because I still need to decide if I will do those in cotton or in wool.  

I had embarked on this project back when my DH and I were big fans of the TV show "Deadliest Catch" about Alaskan Crab fleet fishermen.  We haven't watch the show in years but when I looked it up, turns out a new season of it just premiered last Friday!  So I've set the episode (and the season) to record.  Maybe this was a sign from the Quilt Muses to return to this project, LOL!  We'll see if I'll pick this up again.  

And now that I've cut and laid out the blue pieces for the QOV top, I'll continue work on that this week. 

Although the layout might still need a little tweaking.

2.  I had made a Fat Quarter Gypsy - Sew Organized Design "Stacking Pop-up" bucket to use in our tent when we went camping for the Fourth of July weekend.  It's the second one of these types of bucket that I have made and last week the plan was to make a third for my Featherweight's travel kit.  

That DID get done and both were reported on here!

3.  My last task for last week was to cut out the next set of "Alaska" blocks for this month's DIY BOM progress.  

That too is done!

As noted previously I am making the red, cream, blue and pink version of Edyta Sitar's popular design.  I'll be making the same basic style Kaleidoscope blocks as I did last month but the blocks needed this time will be colored differently.

This time too, I have to piece a "left" and "right" version.

I am also continuing to make the scrappy Kaleidoscope blocks too so cut scraps and parts for a few more of those as well.

I didn't note before that the scrappy blocks are cut with the Small Kaleidoscope ruler that I had to purchase in order to make pieced triangles for the larger BOM blocks.  I'll need to use both rulers to make next month's "Alaska" blocks!  

The good news is that with everything cut out, I should be able to stay on track with this even if I only have as little as fifteen minutes to work on them on any given day.  

So this week's (still) short "To Do" list is to: 

1.  Finish the QOV top.

2.  The "Alaska" blocks will take second position and be the leader/ender project for the QOV top.  They don't need to be completely finished this week since I have the whole month to work on them.  

3.  Cross stitch is coming back into the project queue:  My local At Home store is closing so I went in to try to find a frame for one of my recent finishes.  Fortunately I found one!

So I'd like to work on "fully finishing" this one and get it hung up. 

4.  I spoke last week about having finished a top for an old project:

"Gathering A Garden Is A Snap"

I want to look into what I have for finishing this in terms of backing and binding choices.  I've also already thought about how I want to quilt it (simple straight-line cross hatch) so I might even try to get it layered if I can also get my cutting table cleared off!

So that's it for me this week!  Now to head back over to Carol's "Quilt Schmilt" and see what everyone else is up to for this week's "To Do Tuesday"!

Finished Or Not Friday: Another Pop-Up Bucket!

 Hello August!  Just here to report a quickie along with everyone at Quilty Girl Alycia's for this week's "Finished Or Not Friday"!

Last year I made one of of the Fat Quarter Gypsy - Sew Organized Design "Stacking Pop-up" buckets to use as a sewing station garbage can when I visit my MIL for a mini quilting retreat.  That one was coordinated to go with the bag and supplies I use if I take my Juki sewing machine with me.  

The outside fabric is actually a recycled sheet!

The Juki travel set-up.

At that time I also had planned to make another one for my Featherweight's travel sewing kit.  As I said on the last post about my "Catch-All Cuties" sewing tools totes,  I like to have a separate set of tools for each of my sewing set-ups.  I purchased fabrics to go with the black, red and white color scheme of all things Featherweight.

I had purchased the red lining fabric for it when I Shop Hopped with my MIL back in October.  I wound up ordering the black and white exterior fabric when I got back home.  That happened because I decided that the fabric I had purchased for that on the Shop Hop would go better with a panel I already had in stash to make a future holiday quilt.

However, before I could get that one made up, I actually made another one!  On the July 4th holiday weekend, my husband and I went on a camping trip to Letchworth State Park.  Since this was a short trip, we used our small camp set-up:

On our last trip with this same kit over the Memorial Day weekend, one thing we realized was that we needed a small garbage can for our tent.  We've tied plastic bags to the little table we use inside the tent but really wanted something a little more structured.   Fortunately, when Joann's had gone out of business this year I had picked up some fabrics because I loved the bright colors of one and the camping theme of both:

At the time, I had thought I might use them to make a new roll up kitchen utensil storage pouch for my DH.  When I saw we needed the can and since I had made one of these Pop-ups before, I decided I'd use some of it for that instead!  For the sewing station cans, I had used a "Large" pop-up, this time around  I made a smaller "Medium" sized one:

And hard at work in our tent!

These Pop-ups also come in an even larger "Extra-Large" size as well as a "Small" and "Mini" size. They are easier to make than they look and full instructions for all the sizes are in the  "Stacking Pop-up" pattern which is sold seperately from the wire frames.

You only have to cut out six pieces to make it:  one side piece out of each fabric used for the outside and inside, interfacing (the same size) for both of those and circles for the bottom out of both the outside and inside fabrics (a template for that is provided with the wire frames).  

If you are going to secure the folded up Pop-up with ties, you cut two additional fabric strips to make those but you can also use a strip of elastic for that.  Note that I used a twill tape printed like a ruler for my first large one and I recycled an elastic headband from a broken headlamp for my camping version.  

With the camping one done, I figured I'd end a busy July finally making up the second Large one for the Featherweight kit.

All finished, open and closed!

This completes my set of DIY travel accessories for my Featherweight!

If you want to make things like this for your Featherweight, check out the making of my tote bag, foot controller drawstring bag and extension bed cover here (all using Jeni Baker's Sew Portable Travel Set design) and the Catch-All Cutie I made for this set here.

Want to know what else everyone is making to start off this new month?  Well then head on over to Quilty Girl Alycia's for some "Finished Or Not Friday" reports!