WIP Wednesday Nov 4, 2015

I know - it's really Friday - not Wednesday....

But it's been a busy week!  And an aggravating one!  One of those weeks when you set out to do some tasks and they go nuts on you....

Like....

I went to sandwich my Japanese lady quilt top....  I laid down the backing, used the spray baste on it.... laid down the batting...... spray baste...... and then carefully laid down the top.   Well - I made a mistake in measuring and the top was larger than both the backing and batting.... ARRGGHHHH......   What that means for me is that now I have a backing and batting that are too small for the top AND tacky with spray glue :-(   Can I recover from this?
Of course!  But I was so aggravated at the time, that I knew I needed to STOP
put my stuff away
and move on....

 (I had a few others to sandwich but decided to move on completely since this didn't go well... I will revisit the sandwich day another time!)

So...... I decided to look for the leftovers from my jelly roll quilt so I could make the binding.  I knew I had put it in a safe place - and you know what that means.   Yep - took me THREE days to locate it!

In the meantime, I busted through my white / off white scraps, cleaning up the collection into sizes I could use.  (when I can't figure out what to do with myself project-wise, I neaten up my scraps).  Weird week... went through my blue scraps again too.

And I had offered to make treat bags for my granddaughter's birthday party with the specialty fabric I found on vacation

I'm not sharing the tutorial for the reversible bag because I found it cumbersome and hard to manage.  And I'm not thrilled with the way they turned out.   That said, they are treat bags for a birthday party and they are in the correct theme so it's all good.  8 reversible (snowman / princess) and 6 unlined snowman.  Not particularly thrilled with the construction of any of them..... which does make me want to try again MY way and see how that goes....  ah... the challenge!  Another day..

The week was a little hectic.  I work as a substitute librarian sometimes and a coworker has been ill and in the hospital - so I've been called in to work a few shifts.  Added to my regular week makes things a little nuts - not bad nuts :-)  But change is always uncomfortable!

Meanwhile, I found the leftovers!

which I will have to rip out the seams and stitch together

and then press into a binding

I do love the way the crazy pile of strips turns into a neat roll of binding :-)  I machine stitched it onto the quilt and now all I need to do is hand stitch it down, put on a label and assess for finishing details.   My handwork basket is growing again!

I finished the last 2 lovies..... which I FORGOT to take a picture of.... more impressive was the overstuffed kitchen trash bag FULL of the 31.  I delivered them to my daughter and she promised to give me a pic of them as she fills the bags for the pediatric patients

And finally, for this week, the birthday gift!  A mermaid tale snuggle.... There are about a million patterns out there now - but when I started this one - this link is what I used.   I do think my granddaughter will love it EXCEPT that it is in fact a blanket - NOT a dress up item.   We might have to finagle some fastenings at the waist to make it more fun....  we shall see

Fortunately all I had to do to finish was the tail....  I have one in progress for my other granddaughter but it is about 2/3 finished.  I put them away when the summer got too hot to work on them - they are heavy and warm!  I was fussing the other day and all I had to do was sew on the tail!

So that's it for this week....  what's in YOUR craft basket?