Jayne's Quilting Room: Another Rewarding Day of Sewing

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Another Rewarding Day of Sewing

I am a lucky girl, I know. Three days in a row this week, I was pretty much able to do whatever in the world I wanted. It isn't often that I can say that, and so when I get days like that, I really treasure them! Did I mention that DH was on a little road trip with his dad and brother to Florida? It sure is different around here when DH is away.

Recapping, Sunday, I was able to read all day. I needed to get our book club book finished, because I wanted to give it to Sharon on Monday. She and I are both in the book club, and she hadn't been able to get a copy of the book. So, a marathon day of reading - with a small interruption for the OSU-Michigan State game, which we won - and I finished the book early evening.

It was a mystery/historical fiction, and it was pretty good. I will be interested to see how our discussion goes. The book is The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Englemann, and is her debut novel. I would definitely recommend it.

Well, that was Sunday. Let's move on to Monday.

Still on my own, I expected Sharon around 9:30 for a day of sewing. My last post was all about that, and I was very pleased with the blocks I finished. After Sharon left, I looked at 3 projects I have lined up in a queue - these are projects that I have been procrastinating about for long enough. I decided to tackle one of them, just for the sake of getting it out of my sewing room space!

It was a repair job. DS Adam needed to have handles replaced on a nice bag he likes to use. It's nicer than a gym bag, maybe more like a man's version of a carry-on bag.

I had some nylon rope in the sewing room supplies, dug around for a masculine brown and figured out a way to make handles and attach them! I am rather pleased with my efforts, and Adam is, too, so all good for the first job on the list. Take a look and tell me if those handles don't look just fine!!

The third day of doing what I want was Tuesday, and after I finished my OUC class, I drove up to Mary's Barn in Grove City for a project she was offering. Terry and Sheryll from the Frankfort group were there, as well as Monica, a friend I met the last time I sewed at the barn, and a new sewing acquaintance, Pam.

Mary has a nice little system worked out. Every month she offers to teach a class, serves lunch and snacks, and provides this wonderful little barn-turned-sewing studio to do it in! For a small fee, it is totally worth it! And I won the door prize!! *big grin* It's been awhile, but I quilted here once before and blogged about it. You can read about that adventure by clicking here, if you are so inclined.

Below is a picture of the project Mary made to show us what the finish would look like. She emailed cutting instructions ahead of time, so I had mine ready to go. The others had started at 9am, but I was about an hour or so later because of my class.

I got the entire thing finished, complete with appliqued handles and all! I tell you, doing that machine applique on a loaner machine is not something I'd planned on doing, that's for sure! But it looks just great, and I am eager to get it quilted and put to use.

There were a few show and tells which I will share with you. At lunch, Mary showed us a quilt she'd just recently gotten back from the long-arm quilter. She is ready to bind this and call it done. Isn't it gorgeous?

Pam, shared a recent quilt she'd made for her granddaughter from a Nancy Drew panel. To make it all even more cool, she has found a copy of one of the books shown in the panel! Now that is special!!

While we were making our table runners, Mary, our hostess, worked on a sweet little quilt for her granddaughter. They are a family of horse-lovers, and the panel in this fun quilt fits that theme quite well.

Pam had opted out of the table runner project and instead brought a hand-stitching project to work on.

I regret that I did not take a picture of the table runner Sheryll was working on, but I do have a picture of Terry's. I love the toille background that she used!