Good Monday Morning!!

Oh, yes, it's going to be a good Monday because I had a good weekend!! I actually finished some projects......completely.......not one seam left unstitched!! So what did I finish?

This lovely bag which is a pattern designed by Nanette of Freda'sHive. Nanette sent the pattern and kit to me at Christmas last year and it has been at my sewing machine waiting to be stitched. Then I took it along to our retreat this past August where I sewed the strips together and then planned to machine quilt it. Didn't happen. The machine I brought to the retreat wasn't compatible with my walking foot from my machine at home (and I'd only ever used it once on that machine!) so the project went back to my sewing desk waiting to be finished. One day I looked at the panels and thought, "you know, I think I'll 'chunky quilt' the seams with Perle cotton" so that's what I did. My friend, Denise, taught me the term "chunky quilting" and sometimes it's just the right look (especially on flannel projects). In this case, I felt it was just the "right look" on the fabrics that were in Nanette's kit. I goofed, though, when I stitched the layers together. I placed the stitched strips, batting and backing together and proceeded to hand-quilt it. Then came time to add the rick-rack trim and that was when I realized I shouldn't have sewn the lining to the batting. Oh, well, move to Plan B.

As you can see on the back side of the bag and on the inside photo, I sewed a strip of red print along each panel edge, stitched it in place and then added the rick-rack. It worked! No mistake is really a mistake in quilting. You just have to get creative and come up with a different way to correct that mistake. LOL!

I intend to use this bag as my "goin' guilting, lots of fun, maybe some shopping" bag. I plan to see that it gets lots of use! Thanks, Nanette, for the great bag design and the pattern and kit.

So, what else did I finish? Neither of these projects are very big but they are FINISHED and that feels so good! I embroidered the "Time for Tea" design for this potholder and you can find the design here . Then I machine stitched around the heart and flowers to secure the layers of batting, silver heat resistant fabric, etc. I didn't use my walking foot on this one and it worked out just fine. But then I thought, maybe I should give that walking foot a try.....so I did and here's my walking foot project.

This little fabric panel (approx. 7 1/2" x 9 1/2") was in a bag of scraps that I won at a quilt club meeting. I thought it would make a cute hot pad and a good practice piece with my walking foot. And it was! The walking foot works great! I don't think I'd want to quilt large items with my machine but I enjoy small projects more anyway. I just did an outline around the chefs and a little stitching here and there. It went so fast!

So there you have it, my reasons for why it will be a good Monday. Hope you had a great weekend, too, and enjoyed finishing a project or just enjoying time with family or lovely weather. Have a good day now!

Sandi