Still plugging along

but the enthusiasm is dwindling. Yesterday I made the small (38" by 36")quilt I had planned, and then two small purses from the pattern in QA Magqzine, and 6 coffee cuffs. These purses are experimental ( I've never met a pattern I didn't want to change), but I'm finding that this pattern is really quite good. The changes I'm making are turning out to be not good. With these two I found that I didn't do enough quilting in the body of the purse. I'm judging the purses by asking myself if they are good enough to give to friends--so far I've got three that are worthy, out of the six that I've made. Thank Goodness I can use budget zippers with them, but I did find that I must use the correct size. There is no way I can cut down the zipper in this pattern, the way I do for so many others. (That way I can buy off-size zippers on sale and save a few cents.)

The coffee cuffs are fun. I take my quilted scraps and re-join them into sizes to suit the coffee cuffs. I do this by butting the edges together and sewing them together with a wide satin stitch. When I attach this to a stabilizer and backing, they are quite secure., but I've also made quilts with this method and found that it works well.

Before I started with the quilt, I shortened a pair of dress pants for my daughter. These were good slacks and I wanted a good appearance, so, for the first time, I used the blind hem process with my sewing machine. It took a few minutes more as I wanted it to be right, so did a little hand basteing. It looks good! I also had to fix the elastic on DGD's ballet slippers. I hope I did it right. They had been fixed before and the elastic was twisted. I straightened it, but then thought later that maybe it had been twisted on purpose to give a more secure direction of pull.

So yesterday was spent at the sewing machine. Today I face a pile of 3 1/2" squares and a pile of long strips 1 1/2" wide by anywhere from 10 to 15 inches. At this point, I really have no idea what to make. I'm actually thinking of using the squares to experiment with different ways of piecing. The strips will probably make up into the little purses that I've been selling for years. Although, it might be nice to have a beaded collage with more of a rustic appearance. I wonder if I could pull that off?