Another One

I found some canvas fabric in my stash and thought it would also be good for a zippered bag. I think I bought it at a remainder store during one of our South Padre Island visits almost a decade ago. 

I found lining on a knitting theme that coordinated with the green accent colour and a coordinating zipper.

Initially I thought the canvas would be sturdy enough for it to stand up firmly on its own but before closing everything in, added batting between the lining and canvas.

I have a LOT more of this canvas fabric so will be thinking of projects for it. I welcome any ideas.

Working With What I Have

Inspired by the road trip to Chloe's Quilting this week, I had the urge to make some more things. I do like to create items that will be used and not just looked at or put away.

I thought I'd make a brightly coloured luggage tag. It was ridiculous how long I spent looking through my stash for cute fabrics that would go together, only needing a fat quarter each of the outer and inner fabrics; also planning to make a zippered bag for either cosmetics or knitting projects.

Then I happened upon a cute print that I must have picked up pre-COVID at JoAnn's - it was in a bundle of 10" squares - 5 patterns with 4 squares for each pattern.

First, I made a luggage tag. I had to look up my old directions for a reminder. Then, to work.

Folded up and ready to attach to a bag, backpack, or piece of luggage, the name and address are hidden.

I also had to refresh my memory on how to use the semi-automatic buttonhole feature on my sewing machine. 

A business card is slid behind the vinyl window inside the folded tag. 

Once the strap is pulled through the buttonhole, it goes around the strap or handle, and the rest of the tag goes through, too. The bright colours make it easy to spot luggage on an airport carousel. The reinforced stitching makes it very secure and almost impossible to remove with regular (ab)use.

I took a break for lunch then went out to do some watering and weeding in the garden. A squall was predicted so I finished up and came back inside but we only got a short rain shower.

Next, I made the zipper bag. I have a bin of odd-coloured zippers so I figured with all the colours in the fabric, I could find one that would work OK. An olive green one fit the bill. 

Since the outer fabrics were already cut into 10" squares, I cut the lining and batting the same dimensions. After adhering the outer fabric to the fusible batting, I stacked all the items and cut a slight curve on the top edge.

Everything went pretty well except I made the rookie mistake of not opening the zipper part way before sewing all the edges. I had to pick out the stitches near the zipper tab to slide it into the confines of the bag. I left an opening on the side seam of the lining for turning everything right side out.

The corners were boxed 1 1/2" creating a 3" deep bottom.

I glued the seam allowances on the side of the lining to close the gap.

Ta da!

I love all the crafty motifs.

The yellow lining will make spotting things inside very easy.

Because of the boxed bottom and batting between the fabrics, the bag stands up on its own quite nicely. And the olive green zipper looks great - if I do say so myself.

I wish I had more of this fabric but I have lots of other patterns in my stash to choose from.

I know I'll never use up what I have but I'm very pleased to adapt projects to accommodate the materials and supplies that I already have.

Another Blue Project Bag

I've had this checkerboard ready to go for months. On Monday, I finally collected the appropriate zipper (ecru from Michaels), fabric for the back from my stash, and vinyl (running low) to make it into another project bag.

I'm going to have to make a run to Fabricland in Pickering to stock up on some more vinyl and zippers.

I also ordered a small rolling utility cart with 5 drawers from Amazon last night 

Photo from the Amazon listing

and it was delivered today before I even got out of bed. It was assembled fairly easily and I've already filled most of it up in an attempt to get my dining room in better order. Doing so only made me realize how many more sewing projects I have fabric for so plan to start making some zipper and drawstring bags for knitters and maybe a few colourful luggage tags.

Jen1 and I decided at about 11pm on Monday night that we'd venture to Chloe's Quilting in Grafton the next day (yesterday). It was a beautiful day for a little road trip. We had heard about this place via a card I had picked up at their booth at the Muskoka Yarn and Fibre Festival a couple of weekends ago.

Ernest and Thomas take turns sitting up front.

The shop is down a long forested road. Once there we were greeted by two huge, friendly dogs who vociferously announced our arrival. The flower beds around the shop were well tended and beautiful.

Inside is literally crammed with bolts of fabric. I was very impressed that they keep a very current inventory - Tilda, French General, William Morris, etc. etc. It was very tempting to indulge myself but I held off. I really liked this fabric - Poppy Dreams by Clothworks

but I held off. But I know where these fabrics are if I have a change of heart. 

We stopped in at Annie's Quilts in Orono on the way home. It was Jen1's first time there since they moved a couple of years ago.

Again, I left without purchasing anything. By this point we were quite hungry so we made for Mexico Lindo back in Whitby. The Egypt/Argentina game was on the TV on the TeleLatino channel so you could hear the rapid-fire Spanish commentary then 'Gooooooooooooooooooooooool'. There was a large group of diners in the same room so it was quite loud but fun nonetheless.

Back at home, I relaxed on the sofa and conked out for about an hour nap. 

All in all it was a very fun day.

Today we met at The Courtyard for lunch - a get-together organized by Jeanette to celebrate Shelley's retirement from teaching 

and to bid farewell to Sue who is moving to Napanee. 

Again it was really loud in there as there was a large group above and behind us but it didn't deter us from a good gabfest.

This evening I crocheted a few more Mystic Lanterns. I only thought I had done 84 but in fact I've completed 105 out of 158. There's going to be tons of yarn left over so if I'm ambitious I'll make more lanterns - if I can stand it.

Today's Garden

My garden has loved all the rain we've been having. There are observable changes every day. When I first saw these coreopsis a bee was crawling all over one of the flowers, its rear legs covered in yellow pollen. I ran inside to get my phone to take a photo but it had flown off.

This is the first bloom of the random echinacea in one of my beds.

These dwarf sunflowers were grown from seed under the grow lights in my kitchen. It's the first to bloom. A little bee had already found it (at 7 o'clock on the centre). I also planted a couple of sunflowers that will grow to over 2.5m (8ft+). The seeds were a birthday gift to me last year.

My garden is a hodge-podge of perennials (mostly). The daisies were an end-of-season sale purchase last year probably from Canadian Tire. Behind them on the right is a bent-over blue bellflower (campanula carpatica), front left are cornflowers/bachelor buttons, black-eyed susans in front of the daisies, the sunflower, and viola foliage on the bottom right. I think the violas are done blooming for the season but I like the lush foliage. 

Scooter and Skip attached this bit of lattice to the fence a few years ago for our neighbour's clematis that likes to poke through the fence. This bloom is spectacular today.

Sharon's 3ft high shasta daisies are amazing right now. Bees are loving the pollen.

I took a couple of videos of the bee action on the daisies (click the 'play' triangle twice)

and the foxglove.

Staying Cool

It's another toasty day out there. Now that my A/C is working again, I stayed inside where it was nice and cool. It was a perfect day to wash all the bedding and hang it out; duvet cover, bottom sheet, mattress pad, pillowcases. I also am airing out my light summer duvet. I am fortunate my 'passive solar dryer' is just steps outside the door from my main floor laundry room.

Although everything was dried in a jiffy, I left everything out in the sun until later. The bed is going to smell so good tonight when I crawl into it.

I seem to be on a project bag-making jag. I unearthed a little mini charm pack from my stash that I had no recollection of buying. However, I had a zipper and coordinating fabric I could use for the back so I got busy with my gridded fusible interfacing. 

I saw a YouTube video about using charm squares and noted that sometimes the 2 1/2" is measured from the inside of the pinked (zigzag) edge and sometimes it is from the outside points. The gridded interfacing I am using has exact 2 1/2" squares so I had to trim off the pinked edges to make them fit well.

Again, I laid them out in checkerboard fashion. However I needed 49 squares for my 7 x 7 grid and the charm pack only had 42. Luckily I had some random blue squares left over from other projects and they fit in quite nicely. A couple were from the Yukata project and a couple of others from the Summer Eclipse Iceberg fabric . The quilted part is 7 x 6 squares and the 7th row is used for the part above the zipper on the front.

The backing fabric was some of the discounted 0.6m remnant I bought at Bolts and Bobbins a couple of weeks ago - Moda Canvas Ink. I also used it for the strip under the zipper. A fat quarter is also large enough for this project.

This time I quilted the checkerboard through the dark squares. I got to use my chalk marking tool again now that I have more chalk which I had obtained from Bolts and Bobbins. The gadget is that red thing on the left. You can see the white reservoir where the chalk goes. On the rounded end is a little wheel that deposits the chalk. This is a good alternative to using a white marking pen on the dark fabric as the chalk just brushes away once it has served its purpose. 

I do use my walking foot whenever I'm sewing over anything with batting. However today it wasn't advancing the fabric properly so I had to provide some assistance and push it through a bit.

This is the 6th project bag I've recently made that I'm planning to sell. I've been doing some comparison pricing on Etsy and have decided $40CAD is a fair price. Some of my stitching peeps will have first dibs before I take them to sell at our stitching retreat in the fall.

I like that I'm able to continue 'shopping from my stash' when creating these projects. I'm getting down to my last lengths of vinyl, though. I do miss having a Fabricland nearby as it was always so handy to run out and pick up sewing supplies as I've needed them. Now the closest one is in Pickering. Our local quilt shops don't carry the array of zipper colours and lengths that I like. Michaels only sells white, ecru, navy, and black zippers. My preferred length is 16" or longer as my project bags finish to about 14 1/2" wide.  Then the zipper is just trimmed down to the size after all is assembled.

I have 2 other quilted checkerboards in blue colourways that can be finished into bags fairly quickly. 

I'm also toying with making some zipper bags that could be used for knitting projects or cosmetics - like these I made ages ago.

I sure wish I had more of those fabrics.

I also made matching luggage tags.

I still have some of this fabric.

Japanese Fabric

My new central air-conditioning unit was finally installed today!! I've been without A/C for the past three days, during this big heat wave. It was 86ºF (30C) in my bedroom last night. Thank goodness it had cooled down outside so I had lots of windows open and several fans running. Unfortunately, because of the rain squalls yesterday the install was delayed and instead took place beginning later this morning so I didn't get to attend my guild's first Saturday of the month's stitching day. Turns out it was only 16C in the room where stitching took place and they froze.

Not wanting to move much in this heat, I did some stitching - a start on the Robin Pickens 'Seasonal Courier: Blackbird's Autumn. Wanting a break from that I did some sewing.

On my recent fabric order from Kallisti Quilts, I thought one of the fabrics would made a great backing for another project bag using the Yukata squares. The pattern is the traditional Seigaiha or ocean wave. I actually used the back of the fabric as the blue colour more closely matched the squares on the front.

and a fabric strip under the zipper.

I have no idea if the Japanese characters are upside down or right side up. 

I used the easier method of sewing it together, cutting the backing 1" wider on all sides then trimming it down to 3/4", then double folding it over to the front and sewing it in place. This method is way less labour-intensive than cutting and attaching a binding strip then hand-sewing it into place.

I really liked this line of fabric and wish I had purchased more.

Summer Seasonal Courier is Finished

I spent most of the day huddled inside with blinds closed and fans whirring after my air-conditioning unit ceased to function yesterday. I called our usual HVAC company and they sent a repairer within a couple of hours. He determined that the almost 30 year-old unit was 'toast' and could be repaired but considering its age,  a replacement made more sense. I got a call back within an hour that it could be done tomorrow and the very last available unit was earmarked for me. Hallelujah!

I did go to the grocery store and took my time, especially in the refrigerated areas. I’ve kept all the blinds drawn but the house got up to 29C (outside it got up to 37C on my deck).  I did have an offer to hang out at a friend’s house but I kinda wanted to relive some of the steamy days my family experienced when we lived in Mexico in the mid-60s. 

The classrooms in my school there only had ceiling fans. The only A/C unit was in the main office. At home, we didn't have central air conditioning either - only window units in our bedrooms. If I were a kid today, I’d have set up a sprinkler and run through it a few times. Instead I spent some time watering the garden and occasionally sprayed myself to keep cool.

Back inside I thought some quiet stitching would be in order and minimize physical activity. I only had a little bit to finish on the Robin Pickens piece so got that done and the piece pressed. Not sure how I'll fully finish it though.

I then kitted up the next one I want to do - Blackbird's Autumn, and put away the flosses from the Blue Jay piece. I didn't pick fabric for this one yet but it should probably be a bit darker so the Ecru stitches will show up better.

Yesterday, Poppy sent me a photo of Olivia after she received her little bear. She has named her 'Chloe'. Olivia certainly looked pleased. Poppy said Olivia took Chloe to bed with her that night.

For Canada Day yesterday I didn't do much. It was just too stinking hot. When I heard fireworks in the neighbourhood after dark I ventured outside to see if I could see anything but no luck. I do recall a few years ago a spectacular pyrotechnical display behind my across-the-street neighbour's place. 

Years ago - when Scooter was little - there used to always be fireworks for Victoria Day and Canada Day at nearby Pringle Park. The grass slopes down to the baseball field which almost created an amphitheatre for us spectators.  Folks would come from all over Whitby - there would be cars parked everywhere for blocks. It was an easy 5 minute walk for us. Sadly, they discontinued the fireworks there and now  probably do them at a park in south Whitby not far from the lake.

I was born and lived in Sarnia for most of my first 35 years, then moved to Durham Region for work. Summer is a wonderful time to be in Sarnia. The beaches at the bottom of every road running down to the lake are public as well as one of the best beaches of the Great Lakes - the beach at Canatara Park on Lake Huron near the mouth of the St. Clair River. (aerial photo is looking towards the east. The mouth of the St. Clair River and Bluewater Bridge are in the other direction).

Port Huron MI is across the river. The fireworks are taken out into the river on a barge and set off there for the benefit of folks on both sides of the river. I saw videos of last night's display and they were fabulous.

I've now opened all the upstairs windows now and have several fans going to blow the hot air out and get things cooled off a bit for my sleeping tonight. In spite of the fact that it was almost 28ºC in my bedroom last night, I slept really well with open windows and the ceiling fan over the bed on low.

I really look forward to getting the new A/C unit $$$$ tomorrow.