Sit n Sew aftermath

I LOVE Sit n Sew days. It's a day spent sewing, it's a day spent with friends, it's a day with much laughter! Yesterday was another fun-filled day! We were a full house and I was a tad bit cramped - Hey - when you usually have the run of the entire place and now have to share with 9 other people - you see what I mean. But I wouldn't trade it for the world. And it forced me to do some stuff that I've been putting off. I'm going to share with you tomorrow what I did.

Today - it's all about what the others did.

I'll start with Diane. She loves to make rugs on my sewing table and I don't blame her. It's perfect with all that extra room. She came prepared as Diane always does. Here are her two rolls of batting and the strips already joined and presented in a nice roll. Gosh - she's awfully neat.

Jelly roll rug supplies

 Then she cranked out those strips after a few minor glitches to get started.

Strips for the jelly roll rug

See how nice it is to work with all that space. There is ZERO drag on that rug as you rotate it around.

Rag rug - almost done

 Here's the final rug! It's gorgeous. It's amazing how different the rugs feel depending on what batting you use. Diane used the batting rolls for hers and I used batting scraps. I have to say that my rug is much heavier. The lighter batting is easier to keep flat, but I managed just fine with my scrappy batting rug.

The fabric she used is a jelly roll of French General which will match the Border Creek Mystery that she's signed up for.

Diane's finished rug

Pat is a lover of all things Halloween.  A HUGE thanks to Pat for hand stitching the binding on my Halloween quilt. More on that another day. Pat has already made several Halloween quilts (you can never have too many!) and with the leftovers, she made half-hexie shapes and was sewing them in rows. I don't think she quite finished before she left, but she made great progress.

Pat's scrappy half-hexie Halloween quilt

Liz was working on Road Trip. This is a pattern by McKenna Ryan. Her designs are to die for, but they're a tremendous amount of work. I believe that Liz is getting close to the end and was working on the top and bottom rows.

Road Trip by McKenna Ryan

Here's the pattern for the fish. Yep - that's all fusible and it takes a lot of time to trace, sort colors and keep everything organized. I can't wait to see the finished project.

Tracing the fish

Linda also had a Halloween wallhanging that she was finishing up some stitching and I didn't get a picture of it. But it was super cute. Then Linda has this project which she brings only to the Sit n Sew days to work on. She is making progress!!! The main block is a nine patch (but each section is pieced). I do believe that she has ONE of the nine blocks completed. I see a few more Sit n Sews in her future.

Linda's sit n sew project

 Linda also brought us her Town and Country quilt to see. I think she's added one more row since the last time we saw the quilt. And you can't see it in this picture, but she's added some bling to it. I do want to work on this quilt as well, but I've got BIG plans for how to do it and I'm just not quite there .......yet!!!!!  Don't forget I have some play dates for myself booked in the near future and well - you never know what will happen.

Linda's version of the Town and Country quilt 

Ruth is working on Sylvia's Bridal Sampler and she's getting closer to getting the quilt finished. That's super exciting! I think she had a lot of pressing to do when she got home and a couple more Sit n Sews and she'll be done!!!!

Ruth's Sylvia's Bridal Sampler

 Tish was working on her Kaffe Fassett mystery. We've all decided that's it not that big of a mystery since ALL the blocks are either checkerboard or snowball. And that blue dot print is in every block. Oh well - it's a "color" mystery. A little detective work and I saw the finished quilt in another color. Anyway - that's enough about this mystery. She did get more than one block done!

One of Tish's blocks for the Kaffe Fassett Mystery

Claudette is slowly getting through all the blocks for the Stepping Stones quilt by Judy Niemeyer. These blocks are paper pieced and they do take a lot of time to do. I think she's getting close to the end. She always says - "I need to count them". Good grief - I'd know EXACTLY how many blocks I'd done and had left to do!!!  I'd need that information to slog through them.

Claudettes' Stepping Stones paper pieced blocks

Helen Anne was working on this quilt that was designed by Patti Carey. It's a great pattern and we all agree that it would look amazing with a different fabric in the center. There are some cool panels on the market these days. Anyway, Helen Anne made excellent progress and I think there are 6 rows left to insert.

Quilt top designed by Patti Carey

Pauline was working on a small baby quilt and got the top almost completed. Just two more outer rows to add. It's super cute.

Pauline's baby quilt

 It's amazing what you can get done in a day when you're not distracted by things in your house. Me - I get distracted on these sit n sew days. But that's OK. I did accomplish a lot which you'll see tomorrow.

I like to carry the sewing machines up and down the stairs for everyone. As I was picking up Helen Anne's sewing machine, I saw this.  WAIT A MINUTE! What's this???  Her cords are wrapped in TOILET PAPER rolls.

Those cords are wrapped in toilet paper rolls

I blogged about this a while back. I had read it somewhere or someone had told me about it and I poopooed the idea. I did get a note from Patti C that she uses the empty TP rolls for her cords. Seriously????  I guess so.

Here's a better view of the cords wrapped up.

Cord keepers AKA empty TP rolls

OK - so I have a lot of machines hanging out downstairs and they often need to be moved which means doing something with the cords. I tend to wind them up and then they unwind when I set them down. Guess who will be saving TP rolls in this house. Shoot - I think we just got rid of a few rolls yesterday as it was garbage day. Well, I'll have a few more soon enough.

Oh my - who would have thought. Patti - I should NEVER have doubted you!!!

Yesterday was a very bizarre day. Nine people showed up - two without ANY thread. Now how could that be? Then one person didn't have a cutting mat for their paper piecing. And a fourth showed up with no electrical cord or foot pedal for the machine. Fortunately, I was able to fix everyone up and they all got quickly to sewing.

Now here's an instance where you should ALWAYS trust your gut. I was making that quilt for the magazine. It's from a strip pack and when I designed the quilt, I didn't put all 40 colors into the electronic design. So I was praying that the final quilt would somewhat resemble the picture that I had submitted to the magazine.

I had made one block and put it on the wall and to my dismay, there was a color in the wrong place. I was working with a very limited palette and fabric quantity. Two identical strip packs. I replaced the color and then I was good to go. The blocks looked OK. I wasn't sure there was going to be enough contrast, but let's just keep our fingers crossed.

I mentioned yesterday that I really felt the quilt needed to be custom quilted in two different thread colors to help punch out the contrast, but there was no time for that. So a neutral color was used in an all over pattern. I got the sleeve hand stitched on yesterday. I hung it up for a photo after everyone left.

The verdict???  The quilt looked exactly like it was supposed to and there was enough contrast. I was a happy camper as I drove the quilt to the UPS office where it's merrily winging it's way to Colorado.

That's one quilt down and only six more to be finished by the beginning of December. I know - we just won't go there. But I got one more mostly cut out this morning.

On that note, I'd better get myself geared up for today. As usual, it's going to be busy and I still about one hour and a half on that audiobook. Oh - what a thriller!!!!!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!