Sister Swap received!

My "It's a Sister Thing" swap gift came in the mail the other day. It was such fun opening it with little brother...he loves presents, too! We were both excited.

My gift came from Melissa at www.sewgreenm.blogspot.com. Her note was so sweet as she explained her choices.

First, a fun Christmas-themed Loony Toons apron. I enjoy cooking and baking, and I can just see myself having fun this Christmas, making my hubby's favorite butter cookies in this apron!

See that adorable little Christmas stocking? How sweet of Melissa to think of the upcoming baby and something to represent it for this Christmas.

Then, she created this darling rainbow charm receiving blanket! It has a bright yellow fleecy backing. It will be perfect whether I'm having a boy or a girl.

An added fun note?! This exact purple paisley is one I recently used for another baby quilt. I still have some left, because I love it. Little brother recognized it, too.

Little brother had to sit and point and tell me all the colors of the rainbow with this quilt.

And lastly, Melissa included two pieces of fabric from her stash. One is a darling pink/brown stripe, and the other a blue with stars and streamers--very patriotic and boy-looking, too. How thoughtful of her to include pieces I could incorporate into my sewing/quilting wish list for the baby, whichever gender it turns out to be.

All-in-all, a very fun mail day!  Thank you so much, Melissa!

I can't wait until my sister receives her package. I'm not going to tell who it is, until I see her posting!

September goals

September already, and Labor Day is done. Time to set some goals!

1--cut and appliqué the tires onto the rescue vehicles.

2-- If I'm lucky or ambitious, or whatever, cut borders and start piecing the rescue vehicles into the borders. The rest of the quilt top will go together quickly with those borders!

3--Piece at least 4 Swoon blocks, one each week of the month.

4--Try to start baby quilts for coworkers and my sister-in-law, and baby girls. I want to use some jelly roll strips.

I'm excited, because my brother was able to fly in from Korea, his current tour in the Air Force, to be there when his baby was born yesterday! She is a beautiful chubby little girl with dark hair. Mommy and baby are great and daddy is proud! They have three sons already and are so excited for their first girl! So I guess I'm already behind on that gift.

After the salsa, I'm still pretty disabled. My wrists and hands are still swollen, but getting more flexible. My fingers and hands still go numb and tingly at odd moments and long periods of time. I haven't been able to do much, but last night, I managed to sew the bumper/background strips to the rescue vehicles. I also fused the Wonder Under to the fabric for the tires and hubcaps. All of that didn't seem to hurt my wrists too much. I went slowly and took breaks. 

Thank goodness that I already have all the pieces cut for the Swoon blocks. That should help reduce stress. And using jelly roll strips for baby quilts should help, too.

Oh, and I'm not forgetting that I have two more weeks till I can find out what my own baby will be! That will definitely dictate what I can get started sewing for my own baby.

August finish

August fly by so fast!

My birthday month is done, so it's time to see what I accomplished.

1--Secret-Sister Swap project done, and sent in the mail. I can't wait to see what she thinks! The participants should blog when they receive their gifts, so I will post again when I see that my sister has received hers from me.

2--I finished my experiment into bag-making and zippers in pouches/bags. I received an answer from Coats and Clark's Facebook: the zipper made up the difference of the pouch length--I used a regular poly zipper, and the pattern called for a larger, thicker "fashion" zipper. It wasn't a typo, and it wasn't me cutting wrong!

3--I finished paper-piecing all the rescue vehicles! It took me 3 nights to finish the ladder sections of the ladder truck, and a few hours to join all the sections. Then I cut the bumper and background strips.

It was the last week of the month, but I was taking my time--I need relax time, not more rush time. And I just can't seem to make myself do anything quickly these days....18 weeks pregnant now and I'm just sluggish!

3--I made salsa of Friday! It's my second year with this recipe, and I tossed in more seeds from peppers, so it turned out with just the right amount of heat for me. I need mild, with just a mild kick and warmth--I like to taste the salsa and the food it's on, not just burn!

It took me from 07:30 to midnight. Lots of stops for taking care of me and the boys. It took me till 4:30 in the afternoon just to finish peeling and chopping tomatoes and onions. I prepped the peppers, adding in the seeds, then used the pulse on the food processor, since my wrists and fingers were sore. All the veggies finally got mixed together and I started cooking. It was finally ready to bottle and start processing in the boiling water canner at 10:30. I finished up the last batch at 12:15 am and washed the million pots and bowls and strainers.

I accomplished 14 pint jars of salsa, and 6 pints of tomato juice (draining the tomatoes and onions--I like chunky, not runny salsa).

Here's the juice. Don't you love the cute star block-printed towel set that I have!?

My body is still very sore, and I really overdid it. I aggravated the tendinitis, and my hands go alternately numb and super-tingly every few minutes. I woke up Saturday morning, and couldn't open or close my hands, with the swelling and numbness. I have no strength in my grip, so I couldn't even hold my phone to type and write a post till today. Tylenol is the only medicine I can take while pregnant, so no ibuprofen to help with the swelling.

Hubby got home from the fire station this morning, so I guess he's cooking tonight!

Afternoon

Hi!

So this morning, I cleaned my iron. And made the hubby mad, because the smoke detector went off again, despite the open window. This time, he was sitting in the same room! Two fans were required the clear the smoke. "Next time, clean that thing outside!" he declared.

When the iron was clean, I noticed something weird, and asked my hubby to inspect the iron. What I thought was baked-on starch or fusible residue, was breaks, scratches and bubbles in the Teflon coating on the iron's sole plate....and scattered across the plate. Oh great. The metal deteriorating through the Teflon was what was leaving black marks on the ridges of my pressed seams!

I definitely bought that iron before I met my hubby, so at least 10 years ago. Hubby suggested we should look for a new iron!  Yay!

Then I ironed a bunch of shirts for work with a clean iron. After lunch, I settled in for an afternoon of paper piecing. I got a section finished for the ladder trucks. Just one section left--the ladder--which will be the most time-consuming of all the sections.

It's been nice to feel well during an afternoon for once, and to be able to relax and just sew pieces for quilts. Little guy is feeling lonely because big brother started school last week, so he wanted to help me clean the sewing machine.

A great time to clean the machine and change needles, is in between projects!

MIA

Have you missed me? I miss me!

Either I've been too tired, too busy, too much work, and not enough sewing, or a combo of all of that, to post.

I'm 17 weeks pregnant, and I need to wait till 20 weeks to find out what this baby is! Oh well, it gives me more time to work on my projects! I think I can feel the baby moving occasionally, which is very exciting.

I finished hand-piecing the King's Star at work one day.

I decided to try making bags, so I took the free Craftsy class "Bag-Making Basics". There are great instruction sheets to print off, as well as the video class. I recommend printing the instructions and follow along with the video.

The circle bottoms were hard to sew, especially the outer bag with all the layers, but it was doable.

I took the chance to practice FMQ and the paisleys I learned how to do in Angela Walters' Craftsy class, "Quilting Negative Space". Doing the paisleys has a different rhythm to it than spirals, and uses a lot more thread. There was a lot of draw-in, too. It's not necessary to quilt the outer bag, but i liked it holding the fusible fleece and fabric together and adding some beauty and stability. I think when I make another one, will quilt it more lightly like the first one--with loose spirals or something similar.

These bags are so cute--I can see them as treat bags for Halloween!

Then I started a zipper pocket caddy by Tim Holz for Coats and Clark...it was a free project download from the company e-newsletter. Pretty quick and easy!

I'm wondering of some of the cutting dimensions are typos, because the front panel us shorter than the back pieces!

What should I do? I'm thinking I'll just see the bag around the front piece and cut off the extra back.

August goals

I can't believe it's August and the week of my birthday!

Goals for August:

1--finish paper-piecing the rescue vehicles, and piece and appliqué the bumpers and wheels to complete the blocks.

2--Complete the Secret Sister project and get it sent off.

3--Complete at least two more Swoon blocks.

4--complete at least one more Sylvia's Bridal Sampler block.

5--I sure would like to join in Melissa's Star Surround QAL, but I need more supplies (fabric that I really want).....and I think I will do it for the baby's quilt. And the supplies will depend on what the baby is! Which means: I probably won't get to join in until it's over.

Ok, I think that's enough! It's plenty to keep me busy, but I still want to do more!

Swoon cutting

Hi.

I finished off my week by finally getting something accomplished, quilting-wise.

I finished cutting all the background pieces for the Swoon quilt!  Yay!

It was a lot of pieces. I was trying to get over my fear of cutting multiple layers. It was definitely a lot quicker. My wrists are sore, though. 

Part of my fear of multiple layers is the extra pressure that is needed in the ruler--to keep it from slipping, and also pressure on the rotary cutter.

Does it take more toll on your wrists to cut multiple layers at once, or cut single layers over and over again?

I developed tendinitis in both my wrists from working production clothing sewing for a year and a half, 9 years ago. They still bother me often, especially with repetitive motion, extended computer work, heavy cleaning, lifting children. I don't have a strong grip. I still get swollen wrists and numbness often.

Anyway, didn't mean to dump. Just wanted to celebrate a small accomplishment.

Any advice for making quilting tasks easier on the body?