WIP Wednesday #13

Lucky #13, huh? I've had a pretty good (and productive) week, so I say yes!

Need to start: A Christmas present (for last year), the May String Me Along block, and a crochet blanket. I'm also thinking about getting a head start on next month's sew along project, but we'll see about that.

Started: Two Keyka Lou basic wallets. These have been on my list for way too long. In fact, I looked back at the last to-do list on my bulletin board, and my self-imposed due date for these was October 31. I'm pretty sure that was pushed back from the beginning of October as well, so it's about time I got working on them.

These are actually pretty quick & easy to put together, without much cutting or fusing, so I'm not even sure why I put them off for so long. Just one of those things, I suppose!

I also spent last night sorting all my I-spy squares into groups by the alphabet. I've decided I'd like to do a wall hanging/play mat/blanket/something-or-other for Goose using them. I was thinking I'd like to use the pieces to make the letters of the alphabet, but then got to thinking maybe I'll use them for the background & do the letters from solids. I'm not sure yet, so it's still very much a work in progress. I'm not in a huge hurry to get it done, but it was something I got in my head, and it was nice to sit in the nice, cool basement for an hour & sort through all those squares.

Obviously I'm missing a few letters! Any ideas for J, N, Q, X, Y, and Z? I'm thinking I could use solid yellow for the Ys & a zebra print for the Zs (I'm hoping to do capital & lower-case letters). We'll see how (if) it all comes together.

In Progress: Goose's postage stamp quilt! That's right, it's back off the "on hold" list. I got the rest of the pairs sewn together and 2/3 of them pressed & pinned together to start my blocks. I estimated at one point that I would be able to make 42 blocks (remember, mine are 5x6 instead of 5x5), and I ended up with 41 blocks & six strips of 3 solid/2 pattern left over. So essentially exactly enough for 42 blocks, although I'm not sure how I ended up with extra of just the one kind. Unfortunately, that doesn't even leave me with enough of the right squares to unpick & resew them, so I'll have to work them in to the back or something. Of course, that also means I can't do my quilt 6 blocks by 7 blocks, so I'm not sure what I'll do yet. I guess I can make it one row less & work the extra blocks into the back. I'll figure something out!

Completed: I was able to finish up the fire pit cover this weekend, I ended up going the "belt loop" route. I liked the idea of doing grommets, and may end up switching to them at some point, but this works for now.

The drawstring doesn't slide through the loops as easily as I would have liked, which makes it kind of a pain to tie since it has to gather around the edge of the fire pit. It does its job for now though, so we'll see how it holds up to the storms & sun this summer.

I also finished up both Keyka Lou basic wallets in just a couple hours. It would have been much less, but I screwed up at the very end of the first one. I was putting in the magnetic snap (I very much prefer it to Velcro) & when I checked the placement after putting it in, I thought it opened kind of funny. It was lined up perfectly (lots of trial & error on placement over the past year!), but the pieces didn't pull apart as easily as I remembered. I figured it was fine, and went on my merry way sewing up the opening & top stitching the flap (using my new favorite double top stitching). It looked as close to perfect as I was going to get it!

As I was getting ready to put in the first half of the snap on the second wallet, I grabbed the reinforcement washer to mark the slots when I realized I hadn't gotten out a second snap yet, and really shouldn't have another washer on my sewing table. That's when I realized why the first one felt off when I was opening it, I didn't put in the washer! ARGH! I went back & forth about ripping out the (double, of course!) top stitching & adding the washer or just starting over from scratch. In the ended I opted for ripping out the stitching & salvaging the original, but it was still pretty frustrating. In the end, it worked out alright, but it made for a frustrating day!

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Holy cow, I almost forgot my biggest completion of the week! I got the Perfectly Pleated Clutch finished up! It only took staying up until midnight last Wednesday. :)

On Hold: The last two Origami Bags. It actually crossed my mind to do them quick this weekend rather than the wallets, but since the wallets are for somebody who probably thinks I've completely forgotten about them, I decided they were a higher priority. And I can't work on anything but Goose's quilt right now since every single pin I own is in use. I guess that's one way to make myself work on something! :)

Head over to Freshly Pieced to see what everybody else has been up to.

Until next time...