I'm curious..............

I'm almost afraid to write this since I don't want to jinx the situation. But things seem to be under control. Oh - there's still lots of stuff to do, but things are calm. Even when I've had a few people e-mail me to ask for something that they're waiting on. I've been able to work that into the schedule. Now that's a nice feeling. I'm still a wee bit behind on about two things - but hopefully, by the end of next week, all will be completely caught up.

What a great feeling!!!

Last week, Ronda and I were sewing in Studio U. She was making the Lollipop Bag by Atkinson Designs. Has anyone made one of the bags?????

Lollipop Bag pattern by Atkinson Designs

Everything is pretty similar to other bag patterns that we've made until it gets to the end where you deal with the bottom.  It's very weird and even after we did it several times, it still didn't make sense so we reverted to our usual way to make a box corner. Notice the hardware???  Oh yes - we're into hardware. Oh by the way - Ronda was making these bags. I was not!

Lollipop Bag 

Making the box corner makes the pink bag a wee bit wide, so she remodeled the instructions and made the base a bit narrower. Once you understand the logic behind those box corners, you can make ANYTHING and in any size. I love the technique.

Narrower box corner

And there are two ways to make a box corner. One is much easier and more consistent than the other. Oh, shoot - now that I've said that, you're probably wondering what the heck is a box corner since the two photos above do not really show it well.

Box corner

I stole this from my tutorial on QUILTsocial. If you want to know how to make those box corners - heck, here's a link to the tutorial to make a complete tote bag. It's easy to change the sizes in this tutorial. You have to scroll down near the end to see the box corners as it's one of the last things that you do.

But a super neat way to make a bag or a tote, or a zippered pouch or - well anything with a bottom on it. So super easy!!!!

Back to the Windsor Quilt Show. Gosh - it seems to keep coming back in the story. I think this is the last thing that we gleaned from the show. I was wondering why my wallet was so thick. That's unusual because there's not much is in it. Certainly not money!

Oh yes - when we went to the quilt show, they gave us this little card case (which I shoved in my wallet) and inside were business cards from local businesses. Did they sponsor the show in return to be included in the handout?? What a great idea. It's a shame that we wouldn't have a chance to use any of the services since we live too far away. There was also a card for free admission to one of the guild meetings. Someone was using their head!

Gift card pouch filled with business cards

I did have to tidy up the house yesterday and did a not so bad job. The upstairs hallway is well - it's sad and I heard DH say something bad when he went up there last night. Don't worry - it'll all be shoved behind a closed door by noon.  I was busy taking pictures and writing yesterday, that I didn't have time to finish my tidying up job. I hope to get a wee bit more done today.

I had a hammer and nails out and was hanging pictures that have been sitting around. Oh yes - I was a very busy little bee. I'll share those new pictures with you later this week.

At lunch, I'm going through some of the paperwork stuff that's languishing in the office. I figure a wee bit every day will make life easy? Not fast, but easier.

I looked through a bunch of catalogs. OK - have you ever noticed that there are MANY, MANY brands of the same thing. Everyone wants a piece of the pie so everyone has a seam ripper or marking devices or whatever. The one thing I notice is rulers. How many different brands of the SAME ruler do we need? It's crazy!!!   And Quilt Market was happening last weekend and I can imagine that several thousands of new fabrics were introduced to the quilting world. Let's not forget the different substrates of fabric that are now invading the space. Not only do we have cotton, but we have rayon and cotton lawn and cotton linen and well - way too many.

I'm sticking to my plan of not buying anything unless I absolutely need it. OK - a few little things along the way are OK. I'm not going so far as to say that I won't buy anything. That's silly. But I'll only buy what I need. And go shopping in the stash for god's sake!!!

Which is what I was doing last night as I continue to prep for the two classes on Saturday. I really had to laugh because I knew that I had a FQ of a fabric set aside to use as the starting point for the next block in Saturday's North Star quilt class. Do you think I could find it?? Nope. Oh well, let's go pull fabric. When I went downstairs and pulled the basket of fabric from which I would choose the rest, there was my FQ sitting right on top!!! Now how the heck did that happen??? Must have been in a hurry as usual and left it there. Or got interrupted or distracted. More likely distracted!!

OK - so back to the catalogs. Here are three products - a tapered awl, a straight awl, and a stiletto. I get the tapered awl. It's used to drill holes in things like bags and such. But what is the difference between the straight awl and a stiletto??  And what exactly is the purpose of each???

Three different pointy tools

So I checked.  Here's the information on the tools as I found on the internet:

Tapered Quilt Awl - For punching holes in leather and fabrics, pulling out corners and widening out spaces.
Straight Quilt Awl - Designed for piercing small holes or craftworks
Quilters Stiletto - This antique sewing notion is Eleanor's favorite and most trusted tool. The brass stiletto can be used to guide the fabric under the foot of your sewing machine, pick seams too small for standard seam rippers, turn applique edges and so much more. The brass stiletto is a must have for any quilter.


Eleanor Burns was the teacher who introduced me to the Stiletto and I thank her each day that I sew!!!!


Here's the page for cleaning products. Holy - how many different iron cleaners does one need??? The problem is that we think that the next product or the latest product will work better than the previous one - so we buy that when we may not even have used the one that we already have. 

Cleaning products from a catalog

It's a huge problem and it exists in every market, not just quilting. The economy would die if our household was a typical household!

On that note, I'm out of here. I've got another busy day. Not a crazy day, but busy. A few phone calls to make, pictures to take, e-mails to write - the usual!!!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!