Sewing updates!

Let's get back to the T-shirt quilt. All the shirts are cut up and hanging on the wall.

The first part of the T-shirts

Make that two walls. This second wall also includes the backs of the T-shirts, and thankfully there were only seven of those. There are 44 T-shirt fronts and seven backs. 

The second wall of T-shirts

I sent a note to Dillon to ask how to proceed, as they will not all fit on one quilt unless we make a giant quilt, and I'm happy to do that if that's what he wants. 

Let's just say that the T-shirt cull happened when they moved in together. M kindly suggested to him that I could make him a T-shirt quilt, but he had to cull his collection, which is mostly concert T-shirts. He saw the first picture and sent a note back that he wanted one of them back. LOL -- I kindly explained that what he was looking at was no longer T-shirts, but just the logos from them. I also said that if M found out that I returned a T-shirt, we would both get in trouble! 

I told him to take a week to figure out what he wants, and then the fine-tuning begins. 

As I was digging through the laundry basket where the T-shirts resided, I found my collection of T-shirt books. Yep -- why have just one when you can have everything published about T-shirt quilts? Good grief—I don't know why I do that. 

My collection of T-shirt quilt books

Hopefully, I can get started on the math later this week. It will take some finessing to make this one happen. And once that is done, then I have one for myself I'd like to work on. 

But in the meantime, I now have two weeks to complete 4 new samples and make a shirt for myself. The ONLY thing on my schedule is a massage next week. I'm in good shape, but I also need to deal with that garden. The weather has cooled right down, and it's the perfect weather to get out there. What's even nicer is the humidity is gone! Let's hope it lasts for a while. 

What is this new label all about? I only recently started noticing it, and it can intimidate a person. ALL chocolate bars I buy at the grocery store now have this label on them. If that doesn't make you sit back and think! Thankfully, I have halved my daily intake, so I'm good - a little bit of saturated fat is not a big deal. It's really how much you eat. I wonder what type of food has three warnings on it? 

New warnings on food labels

They have not resorted to putting danger pictures (obesity) on the foods we eat, like they did with cigarettes. Like everything, it's all about moderation. Just Googled it and it's a new label system that Canada has implemented. You will find it on packages of food items that are high in saturated fat, sodium, and sugar. Hmmm -- that makes me think of the book: Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss. I read it a while back, and it's shocking to learn how companies deliberately load foods with those three items to make us CRAVE more. 

When I went to the post office to mail that puzzle, I got a bit of a surprise. There was a line because our small satellite post office is closed, and the lady said their location is now quite busy. The line never stopped. Once I was done, several people were behind me. And it seemed that everyone took their time to run their mailing errands. 

And the other thing I noticed is that they changed the size of the flat-rate boxes. Yikes!!!!! I didn't know that. They are now larger, and I think they cost more. Of course, they cost more! 

New sizes of flat-rate boxes

When I stopped at Indigo, they had a puzzle sitting on the table. A few pieces were clearly in the wrong spot, so I took them out. 

The in-progress puzzle at Indigo

And then I stood there and found ONE piece. That was all I did because I could get caught up in the puzzle, and I was already running behind schedule, with a line-up at every place I went that day. 

My lone piece in the community puzzle

I was looking for some strong clips for the long arm. These clips had been recommended to me when I was at Quilt Canada. But where to find them? Imagine my surprise when I was at my friend's as we changed her leaders and she had the same clips (white) on her table and was switching to those clips, instead of the clamps that we currently have. 

She bought them online. I was determined NOT to buy online if I could help it. So on the way to the mall, I stopped at HomeSense and found exactly what I needed, and they were HALF the price of buying online. So I got four for what she paid for two! I have yet to put them on the machine. 

My clips were on sale! 

And in case you are wondering, I got the hem on the leader done the other day. I need to sit down with some peace and quiet and determine which way the leader needs to face and then sew in the channels. I might attempt that this afternoon once I get the long arm (sample-making) up and running. 

Hemming the leader

I'm also trying to get a handle on the stuff that's on the cutting table. That seems to be a constant battle, but that meant trimming more half-square triangles. These are the insane ones that are trimmed to 1¼". I'm not done with the bag, but I believe it's the last bag of ones that are sewn and not trimmed, and I made progress yesterday. Any progress is good. 

Progress on trimming the small HSTs

These next ones are from the sewing I did on a quilt, which I need to share with you this morning. 

More HSTs trimmed

And some others, so everything, except that one bag, is pressed and trimmed. 

More HSTs trimmed

I almost forgot to show you what I've been sewing. My Tequila Lime quilt is in one piece!!! Now I have to remove the paper from the back, but that's OK. It's a mindless task to do while watching some YouTube videos. 

Tequila Lime in one piece

And someone had quilted two community project quilts for me, and I got them back the other day. I must have made these twenty+ years ago! Having them quilted was an experiment, and I realized it's so much work to prep them for someone else, so we won't be doing it again. But the quilting she did is gorgeous! It sounds silly that it's so much work, but it adds another deadline, and I don't need one. 

Quilt number one

While these two quilts look identical - wait, I think I used the same picture twice. But you'll see in a minute that there are two quilts. I had to check - the borders aren't even the same! Pictures tomorrow. 

Quilt number two? No -- that's the same picture.

The backing of one is purple. 

One back is purple

While the backing of the other one is blue. 

One backing is blue

The binding, made from lovely polyester fabric, is on both quilts. How can I tell it's polyester? The smell when it's pressed. It stinks of synthetic. 


Well, I have lots more to share, but I must get the day started. 

Have a great day!

Ciao!!!