I know it is really mid-September by now, but I had another chance for a sewing weekend with my mom over Labor Day weekend, so thought I'd share some of the fun we had.
At our last sew-together weekend, we decided we should select a kit and work on it next time we were together. I went through several kits before I decided on two to bring along. In addition, I picked a few other things to work on.
I started with my kit - it is a pattern called Aussie Traveler from Capitol Quilts in MD. My mom bought it for me and also picked up with kit with Australian fabrics. It took about a full day of cutting, fusing, quilting, and piecing to get the bag together and I think it turned out pretty well. This is a big bag - more of a tote bag than purse size. It will be great for an overnight getaway or would be a good bag to stuff with things to take for a sewing weekend or retreat. I did swap out one of the fabrics in the kit for the green that is at the top and bottom of the focus fabric. While it doesn't show as much on the picture, it really pops in person and brings out the green in that focus fabric.
Next up was another bag pattern (I love to make bags and it had been so long since I'd made one!). - we picked up this one-page pattern called The Trendy tote when shopping in Illinois in December. I picked fabric from my stash (left) and mom picked out some brand new fabric at the local shop (the sunflowers) to make these bags. Mine has a thicker interfacing so stands a little more upright. This is a great pattern and quite easy to sew - two half yards along with interfacing. I am thinking this will make a great bag to store my stitching projects in. I am realizing as I look at the picture that it looks like both bags are higher on one side than the other - I don't think that's the case in real life, so hope it is just an optical illusion from the picture.
I also thought I'd share a photo of Cole, my mom's constant companion. When we sew, he cuddles up in the chair next to the machine I use and snores a lot! He's a very funny dog and sleeps in the craziest positions. He and Grace are getting to be friends, but she doesn't come along for the sewing weekends - I don't think Cole would be willing to share "his" chair!
The next thing I worked on was a little cross-stitch framing. I've only framed a few pieces so it still takes me a while to get one set into a frame nicely. I purchased both of these frames at Fancy Works, a local needlework shop about an hour away. She has a lovely selection of frames and I've had luck several times when shopping there (not to mention all the new projects I've bought!). I have had both of these for at least a year, so it was time to put on the big girl panties and get going to frame them.
The first one is called Evergreen Sampler and is was made from a Kreinik kit with silks and specialty threads. My mom gave it to me long ago and I finally stitched it in 2015, when I had my "Year of the Kits." I love this dark green frame and it really fits quite nicely. I started this at about 10 pm at night and ran into lots of problems...so it went into timeout when I went to bed. With a good night's sleep, I was able to get it into the frame with pretty good success the next morning. If anyone would like the pattern and leftover threads from this project, please leave me a comment below - I'd be happy to slip them into an envelope and send them along for someone else to enjoy. If more than one person is interested, I will run the random number generator.
The second piece I framed went much better than the first one - this is Harvest from Bent Creek and I also stitched this one in 2015. I love the rustic wood look of this frame and think I may have to adorn it a bit with a bow at the top. I have this one out on display for the fall and love seeing it each time I go by the table in my living room.
With these two projects framed, I now have 11 items fully finished for the year and hope to be on target to get to more than 16, my highest FFO count since I started tracking. I have also finished stitching 9 projects this year (2 of which are fully finished), so need to make sure I am keeping up so the stack of items to-be-FFO'ed don't get more out of control.
I did have one more project that I started, but I am going to wait on sharing that, as I hope to have it in a more finished state by the end of the month when I do my monthly reports.
All-in-all, it was a very successful (and fun) sewing weekend. Along the way, we discovered a new and very yummy Italian restaurant, debated starting our own Flosstube (a YouTube channel sharing our cross-stitch), and went on our very first trip to Tractor Supply!
See you again at the end of the month - thanks to all who stop by to keep up with what I am doing and special thanks to those who leave a comment.
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