Great projects, Cattitude!

Thanks for the bias tape link, Iceblossom. Also congratulations on losing 100 pounds! That is an awesome accomplishment.

Conchalea, been thinking of you. I'm willing to give you an "itchy fingers and empty hands" on-line shopping excursion pass, I don't think any fabric you might get now counts since you don't have access to stash.

One of my Tuesday group ladies took 2 yards from my stash for her project. Originally she had asked about large pieces of solids, and then amended that to reads as solids or small prints. I pulled out about 10 pieces, one of which was sort of like my Minions choice -- it fit the design criteria and that was the one she chose. I had figured that next to last in most likely to go -- glad it found a project.

I have both my machines in the shop. The Bernina shop is "closed for the duration" which should be May 5 here now. The other dealer is my preferred repair guy anyway and he'll take care of it as well as find a suitable vintage replacement foot for my Remington. They were closed but applied for and got an exemption as an essential business and said that they are busy enough they are calling back their vacuum repair person. I finally got the foot pedal opened and found it was a much more complex mechanism inside than I would have ever guessed! There was this channel thing in the middle made of bakelite or some early plastic, and that is what shattered when I dropped it from desk height. Plus there was the definite black mark of an electric short, no repairs on that one just replace.

So here's the latest picture of some of masks I made yesterday. Made a ton of binding that still needs to be pressed for today's batch. These made for my son/DDiL and their friends. We can't hide it that we are wearing them, so we might as well make some sort of statement...

Iceblossom: Your masks brought a smile to my face.

Love the masks Iceblossom. Hope your machines are up and running soon.

Rob

Thanks for the kind thoughts and comments all! I'm not counting up my stash usage in masks, but the size I'm making uses up a half yard pretty well to make 4-5 masks, not including the binding. So the face part of that larger cheetah print was a half yard used up, same with the fake Indonesian batik to the side. I get two out of fat quarter. Feels good to (finally) use up my long left overs of bindings, some of them have been around awhile. Anyway, not counting yardage or masks made but it's a few of each.

They are my preferred machines, Rob -- but I still have plenty more to go.

My neighbor is enjoying sewing the masks with the 301. He's been a construction type guy most of the time and really liked the line I got from Leonf (I think) about sewing machines being power tools with needles. I read Adam Savage's book Every Tool's a Hammer (which the hubby read recently too, not on my recommendation but by finding it himself). He describes what he does as being a "maker" and has a section in there about one of the few times he ever really lost his cool was when one of the shop assistants used his fabric scissors for cutting a wire stemmed floral piece. When/if Matt gets done I'll see about the teenage girls next door and if they would like to use it -- but Matt is semi-afraid he might have a new hobby and a future in fibers so I don't know if that will be any time soon, we chatted over the fence yesterday because he wants to keep sewing a bit more.

So I have the cheapo Brother set up and chugging away on the masks and a bit of quilting here and there. I still have the vintage Pfaff which is the stand to a rarely watched tv in my bedroom, all I have to do is take the tv and put it somewhere. And if that goes, hubby brought his grandma's machine when he moved here. I think it's a White? Free? Rough textured, no nice decals, it was in working condition when he got here 15 years ago but could probably use some attention from me. It was a machine that received heavy use and is in the memory of all the kids/grandkids as a part of the household. It currently acts as a lamp stand under a picture my grandmother painted.

I've gotten the Bunny Star blocks done and next step is to see if I have enough fabric to do the setting I want to do... I think I do but it's going to be close so while I still have options I'm going to measure first or maybe 2-3 times even! Also putting together the back of the Cherry Goose top. When the Bernina is working, I really like the serpentine stitch in large block/grids, most likely will just run that through with that, give sort of a rickrack look which will work with the cherries. I'm actually sort of looking forward to running a couple of these projects through Bernie, the Wonky Bright project from last year will probably come back up with a large meander to hold it together.

My Tuesday lady who got the stash fabric also brought back the Confetti top (unquilted). That one I always intended that it be done with the serpentine stitch. She's used to preemie/small projects and it was just too big for her comfort level, is basically a twin sized.

I love your bright masks, iceblossom, especially the floral on black in the back. I'm slowing down - made three yesterday between sandwiching a quilt, which didn't go well. Then I got a message from yet another grandson that his family would like some. I asked some questions and haven't heard back. I'd like to do the children's tonight, but I won't press it - the ball is in his court.
The quilt is sandwiched, but I can't decide how to quilt it. I think I'll just do an allover large meander and throw in some spirals and maybe some hearts - it's for a new great grandson.

I'm to have my grocery list messaged to my daughter by bedtime - she shops early and I sleep late. It's hard to think a week ahead without being in the store. I do appreciate her willingness to take care of me, so I'm not complaining. She returned my carpet cleaner today - her husband was in the car, but wouldn't come in. He does the computer systems for the prisons in the state and knows he is around the dreaded virus, so he's not going to come in the house of an elderly person. C doesn't give me hugs for that reason. I think that is the hardest thing about this. One of the cats is hugger, but it's not the same as a human. Okay, enough whining. Off to walk the dog. I took a nap - the dog was on her bed on top of mine, one cat on my hip and one in the crook of my legs.

Iceblossom, I enjoy seeing the results of your stash adventures. I got the top pieced together for my great-granddaughter's quilt. It still kind of freaks me out to say or write that! But quilting it will have to.wait until I move. All my special quilting feet are in storage, along with the thread I use to quilt. I tried to do some straight-line quilting with the regular foot, but it didn't work too well, so I'll just leave it. I've also made 4 log cabin blocks for the quilt I plan for my brother's grandson. When my 2nd jelly roll gets here I'll make more blocks & put the top together. The sewing is therapeutic.

Well, I'm about a yard short for the back of my Cherry Goose project and there is just nothing in stash that will work. I'm going to go ahead and buy 3 yards each of black and white yardage, and a piece of white on white polka dot for the Cherry Goose. If I had any plain white, it would have worked but I used all of that up during the Bonnie Hunter Frolic/Hand Dye excursion.

I've always bought Kona solids so that my black/white is true to each other but I'm going to change brands and switching all my solids to American Made
http://www.clothworks.com/AMB

So I went to equilter.com, apparently my moratorium ways are working on me, because I'm not adding anything to the order! Ok, I would have if the piece of Cat-it-tude by Benartex was still on sale but it was gone. I notice that all the sales pages are heavily picked over and less offerings than usual. They did have some other fabrics from that line (and now there are a dog and a horse similar lines!), but they didn't make it into the cart. I did some looking and more than one "ooo that's nice" but made it out with only my 3 pieces.

Way to stay strong IceB!

A couple of months ago I went through my scrap bin and kitted up for six projects. This week I was getting bored with a couple of tops I am working on that seem to be dragging on a bit and nothing cheers me up like working on a scrappy.

This pattern is Carolina Crossing, one of Bonnie Hunter’s. I picked it up in a free supplement that came with a quilting magazine. I scaled the blocks up from 4.5” to 6”. The original pattern used lighter neutrals for contrast however I don’t have many in my scrap bin and decided to rainbow it instead. Also instead of going scrappy for the setting triangles I used a constant.....pieces of leftover backing I was going to make binding out of.