Tool Tote, Tula Pink's Stacks Quilting and a Baby Mystery Quilt

My holiday break is about over and my reading, listening to books (total was 54 this past year) and sewing is coming to an end.  I will be limited again on my time as teaching and getting well sucks it all!

So I spent several days this break sewing with Barb.  We have had plans to make Penny Stergis' Tool Tote for a long time now.  It has pages and pages of directions and so it is nice to have a friend to sew with.  We spent about twenty minutes just trying to decifier which pattern pieces went to which fabric placement.  She calls the outer pockets the lining and so since I did not realize they were on the outside of the bag I went with my lightest color for the lining.  Barb did too.  We were not happy when we realized that ALL of the fabric placement was not what we expected.  I wanted the black to be the main fabric, the purple an accent and the green inside. UGH.  Barb stopped making her bag and is going to recut things to make hers correctly.  Meanwhile we both worked on mine.  All told, this bag took 8 hours on day one and 3 on day two.  Not sure I will make another one...my only other disappointment is that the pockets do not come up far enough on the bag.  We followed her directions and really the pockets should come up three or more inches on each side (they do on the short side) so IF I were to do it again (or if you are thinking of starting one) I would add three inches onto each of those "lining" pieces.  You can always hack off the bottom when you sew the center seam to the outer bag center--adjust at that time so your pockets are where you want them.

I took a zillion pictures as we went.

 Above is the part where the pockets should be longer....and a different color!

My 

I was so excited that I knew how to use the walking foot to quilt better that I came home and figured it out on my machine.  Barb has a Bernina but not the same model as mine.  I have learned a ton from her showing me little things each time I sew there.  I told her she should give classes.  I first sewed my other mini leaf quilt (didn't upload picture this time) and then I went on to Tula Pink Stacks which has been waiting its turn forever! 

It is hard to see, but I quilted a few inches apart all down the quilt.  I plan to repeat that going in the other direction when I get time.

The very first mystery quilt I made was for my nephew Ben a dozen or so years ago.  I messed up some color placement but it turned out okay anyway.  This year on New Year's Eve I wanted to make a mystery quilt.  This was one of my favorite traditions but this year I did not find one I wanted to do.  So I got out the directions for this one and Kathy and I worked on it together.  I only had printed directions--no pictures other than my messed up one to help us.  There was some unsewing to do as I think there was an error in one of the clues--my guess is I followed the picture to get that right last time!  I read it many times, drew out what she was saying and still it did not match right...so in the end this is what we had.  It has robots on it.  Not sure if I will add a border or not, but another baby flimsy ready to go.

Meanwhile, Bonnie revealed the mystery!  Good Fortune blocks are getting completed today.  I have all the stars done already and half a dozen of the four patch blocks. SEW much fun!

March Sewing I Kept Mum

This morning I was cleaning out my emails when I found several pictures I had sent to myself in March (my dropbox is full so that is how my pictures get put on the blog) and in searching the blog I guess I never posted them!  So here are a few of the things I didn't mean to keep mum about sewing in March!

If I already did blog about this, I cannot find it but I am only on my first cup of coffee so...I had to make this block so I could complete this Tula Pink Stacks top.  I won the blocks at Nimble Thimbles  awhile back but did not have the right fabric to complete it..the other winner shared it with me later on and then it just hung out waiting.  It is all ready to be quilted, might have to talk Barb into doing it...too big for me!

 I also finished putting together the 35th Ave BOM so I can send it to Alycia.  I made a backing and binding too. Barb's joined it (I did blog about hers) and Kathy is almost done with hers so all three will go out together once Kathy is done.  Hopefully they will make some veterans feel our support!

 This is the March block for Pat Sloan's Children's Library BOM.  I have been keeping up on the blocks, just not the blogging about it!

My video relay interpreting job update.  So the company I work for bought out another company and I won't get into the reasons they are telling us versus the reasons we suspect, but they are shutting down all the Arizona centers on July 15th.  So since that is my main income in the summer that was a shocker.  Quite a few interpreters are scrambling to find other work.  I have applied for another high school teaching position...HR has my stuff and if the negotiations go well as far as money, I will accept the job.  I am kind of excited about it though my last high school teaching job was hell.  I do not think I was ready to go from University students to high school students at the time.  I have now taught community college and my expectations are more in line than they were!  Cross your fingers something works out for me please!
Yes it is about 120 degrees here in Arizona.  I have been grabbing all the hours I can get at my job before it shuts down, so today I will do the second nine hour day this week. It is not a nine hour type job...most people come in for two to four hours because it is so demanding.  I will be happy when today is over!
In better news, Barb is coming to sew tomorrow and I do not work at all tomorrow!  I plan to get borders on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler from 2015. Then I want to get a backing made so I can cross it off my list.  After that maybe back to my latest March on Green Bay Packers quilt.