Sunday, November 2, 2014

All Saint's Day, Nov 1

When I was a girl living with my parents. we always spent November 1 going to Mass at the local church since it was a holy day.  That was okay but the bad part was we couldn't eat any Halloween Candy that day for some reason. Maybe my mom just made that up to force us to parcel out the goodies and not hog them all up at once.  That's the kind of thing she would do!  :)  And dang it if I didn't do the same thing with my kids!

Well, I didn't go to church yesterday. I was at home all day helping Don move a garden shed into our back yard.  It was in the neighboring empty lot and we got permission to move it to our side of the fence and we got it done!


Here's the shed in all it's dirty, moldy glory!  Next spring, we'll clean it up and give it a coat of paint. I'm thinking gray with white trim and a red door, and I want to put flower boxes under the windows with red geraniums in them.  It'll be a great backdrop for photographing all the quilts I plan on making!  Right?

I also spent time in the sewing room yesterday and got these things done. They're pillowcases the Guild is making to send to military personnel stationed in Kuwait with the son of one of our members.  


I've never made one of these before and it was so easy!  I think I'll be making more of these in the future. It's called a Hot Dog Pillowcase and you can see for yourself in this video from the Missouri Quilt Company Hot Dog Pillowcase.  These are pretty good directions but I did things a bit differently.  I cut 1 1/2 " for the flange and before you stitch it to the cuff and body of the pillowcase, be sure to press it in half lengthwise, wrong sides together.  I also used a decorative stitch along the flange to secure it to the pillow case after I'd stitched the hot dog and turned it. Some people mentioned that the flange doesn't stay flat after the pillowcase has been washed so I stitched it down. 

On my cases I cut a piece 12" wide for the cuff and in future I think I'll try the 9" cuff.  I also made an enclosed side and bottom seam instead of serging or zig zagging the edge.  To do that, after you've stitched the layers together and pulled the body "hot dog" out of the cuff "bun" and pressed everything and stitched down the flange, you fold the pillowcase wrong sides together and stitch the seams with a 3/8" seam allowance. Trim the seams and turn it inside out and press. Then you stitch again, right sides together, (the first seam will be enclosed in the second seam) with another 3/8" or 1/2" seam and press again. It's done!   And they feel soooo nice when they're made of good quality fabric.  I hope whoever gets my pillowcases enjoys them.

I also began assembling these Sister's Choice blocks that I've been working on as leader/enders for the past 6 months or so.  This will be a queen sized bed quilt.  Today, I'd like to get the top finished up and ready for the borders.


This block is made with 9 patch blocks I got in a guild block exchange and all I had to do was make a gazillion star point pieces to add on each side of each block.  I stitched a 2 1/2" green square on each end of the neutral 2 1/2" by 6 1/2" piece, similar to making flying geese units.  I stitched twice on each green piece so I could cut between the lines of stitching and have a little half square triangle unit to use. I trimmed these units to 1 1/2"  and have about 500 of them. I plan on using them in the border instead of simply having a plain border on this quilt.  I hope I have enough of them but I won't make additional ones if I don't have enough. I'll simply work with the ones I have.  These little blocks are waaaaay too small to make up individually, in my opinion.  Also in my opinion, I was insane to even think of saving all these little pieces in the first place! But once I started, I couldn't stop! 

Don and I have been invited to a "Meet the New Neighbors" open house in the neighborhood this afternoon so I better get a move on if I want to get that quilt top assembled today.  I'm glad I get an extra hour on the clock today--if I remember to change the clocks! 

1 comment:

  1. I can just imagine your new garden shed all painted up – and yes – it will be the perfect backdrop for photo ops!

    LOVE your sisters choice project. Scrappy beauty!

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