{Post 1,553} Machine Quilting the Mountains

It took a couple days to piece the back (because it involved washing brushed cotton) and loading it onto my frame, but I am finally machine quilting my Scrappy Mountains Majesty quilt.  It took less than a month to piece, but the quilting has taken a while. I actually am making it for my daughter's boyfriend. They have had a "committed friendship" which in everyday language means they have been dating exclusively. He was my friend and sign language apprentice before they started dating, so I semi-claim him. Anyway, it was an awkward time to give him a quilt, but now all is well.

Here is a picture before I started the quilting. I also added 2 rows of rectangles of shirt fabric at the top for a pillow tuck that are not in the picture. I am doing swirls in the border and wavy lines in the mountains. Hope you can see that in the pictures.

The quilt is about 108" long by 79" wide.

{Post 1,552} Soup Bowl Cozy

I made this little soup bowl cozy a couple days ago, and I've used it at least once a day since. I put my leftovers in the bowl, then transfer it to the cozy, putting the whole thing in the microwave. Since there are 2 layers of batting, one can put the bowl right in her hand w/o getting burned. Since I usually eat alone back in my sewing room several times a day, this makes it easy to carry.

The pin for the pattern is here - - https://happyhourstitches.com/2016/12/19/soup-bowl-cozy-pattern/amp/. Very quick and easy. Make sure you use 100% cotton batting as the poly stuff might melt or even catch fire!

{Post 1,551} New I Spy

I am going to teach a friend to piece quilts. We were supposed to get together yesterday. She has never sewn. 

One of my girls gave me back a sewing machine I had bought for her, so I am giving it to my young friend (early 20's). She has a nearly 2-year-old and is pregnant with a second child. She has had rough morning sickness, so I did not get to go. 

While I was looking through my I Spy prints to taken them with me (I'm letting her pull from my stash), I found that I had a large stack of 3-1/2" squares. Usually I use 4-1/2" squares. I found myself thinking, "There are a LOT of these! I wonder if I could make a quilt top from just this size?" I pulled 144 of them, and this center was pieced this AM. I debated about framing each 4-patch, but I ended up just joining them right next to each other. I laid them out in a color wash, dark upper right corner down to light lower left. I will add a border or two and call it finished.

The picture is just the squares laid out, but the top center is pieced. I have my 3-year-old grandson this weekend. He is napping right now, but once he is up, I am all his. He got a haircut on his way over. Cute as can be!

{Post 1,550} I Spy Quilted

I taught a woman in my church to quilt. She has made many things already. Once I showed her an I Spy quilt, she jumped right in and planned three! Here is her first one. I like how there are "solid" colors going one way and novelty prints the other. I quilted it with white thread with loops. It measures about 38" square.

{Post 1,549} Box Bag, Take Two!

Since I changed phones, my phone charger is larger than before. I have a small travel bag I used to put my phone and iPad chargers in (two different ones). Same story as the toiletries bag...it was slightly too small. It was done in a piece of fabric I covered with selvages, so I went to work making a charger bag before I forgot how to sew them!

Here is my little charger storage bag. It is 4-1/2" long, 3" tall, and 3-1/4" wide.

{Post 1,548} Box Bag

My husband and I just did a two-day trip to Virginia. Our daughter is touring with a music/drama team this summer. That is the closest she would be for the rest of the tour. It was a delightful trip. Every time I pack up for somewhere, I think to myself that I sure could use a slightly bigger toiletries bag. I was exhausted yesterday. But I did finish this little gem. I looked at some boxed bags on Pinterest, and came up with this. It is 9" long, 4-1/2" wide and 4-1/2" tall.

I used one of my favorite Thimbleberries prints for the outside. The accent stripes and hexagons are made from the lining fabric. I thought they added some nice detail. I used fusible batting. I like the way it turned out! The accent strips were not supposed to meet at the top. I just sewed them down on opposite corners of my flat piece before construction of the bag.

True confessions...I had the zipper completely sewn in and then realized I had put it in upside down. The pull was on the lining side. I just cut off the stopper on the end and flipped the pull over. Worked perfectly. That could have stopped this project in its tracks if it had not worked!

I am having a hard time finding zippers locally.  Anyone have a good online source?

{Post 1,547} Happy Hubby

My husband has rarely asked me to sew him something. But he wanted a travel bag for his beloved Aeropress coffee maker. It is a cross between a French press and a pour-over coffee making system for you coffee affectionados. I have had 3 sips of coffee in close to 55 years, and it has been more then enough. In retrospect, I should not have taken the 2nd or 3rd. But he loves his coffee.

I was out yesterday and picked up this fabric. It is darker in person.

I made a drawstring bag with a boxed bottom. I could not find a notion to buy that would allow me to use one drawstring and keep it from opening on its own, so I made two drawstrings so they could be pulled to the opposite sides of the bag, and they would stay closed. I just cut a slit in the non-seam side of the bag and zigzagged it on the edges, then turned it under a little bit and topstitched it. I have made bags for game pieces this way.

Lastly, I boxed the bottom edge and gave it a trial run with the Aeropress parts in it...success!

Our youngest daughter is traveling with the Merrill Evangelistic Team this summer. She was in our hometown several weeks ago. Now she is going to a church that is 4 hours away. We are leaving tomorrow early afternoon and will see her tomorrow night at 6. Then she will stay overnight with us in a hotel and we have to have her back by 4 the next afternoon. We will come home after that. Good thing the Aeropress is ready to travel.