Day 30 - Quilt Procrastination No More

It was a short eight years ago when I bought a pattern in a quilt shop. We were visiting Sisters, Oregon when I picked it up and, not surprisingly, I even wrote about the day (and posted a picture of the pattern) on the blog back in 2012.

Over the course of the last eight years I've occasionally pulled the pattern out. I've looked at the minimal directions. The multiple pages of huge pattern pieces. I've looked over the fabrics in my stash to see if I had enough to start the project. Since that day eight years ago, I've continued to collect even more fabrics in the hopes of someday tackling the pattern. But year after year, I fold everything back up and put it into the plastic sleeve and tuck the pattern away for another day.

Not any longer. Today my quilt procrastination ended.

I took the pattern out of the package.
I opened up all six huge pattern pages.
I read the limited directions.
I started pulling out fabrics.
I began cutting pieces of fusible web.

This one quilt just might take more time/energy/effort/brainpower than any other quilt I've done so far. Crossing my fingers it'll be worth it.

So complicated!

Day 29 - A Refrigerated Hotpad

I am not a soup person, but my husband is. Big time. So much so that he makes it several times a week. Sometimes it's completely from scratch; other times he uses a can of soup and adds to it. With all the soup he makes we almost always have a pot in our refrigerator. At times I might even find two pots of soup in there. 

I was getting tired of seeing pots sitting on a couple mis-matched potholders (dirty ones at that because he can't keep anything clean) every time I opened the door. So today I fixed that. A new, made-to-fit hotpad - with enough space to hold two pots - is now a permanent fixture in our refrigerator. And wouldn't you know, the hotpad is already being put into use.

I do believe fabric can solve almost any problem.

Day 28 - Spicing it Up

As I've said before, when we're not traveling we're cheapskate, boring, stay-at-home people. Our lives are definitely more exciting when we're cruising! We get to visit with crew members we love, see new places around the world, and eat and drink things we wouldn't get to at home. While I'm sad cruising is off the table now, I'm realizing we need to spice things up around here. The Mystery Treat Bags were a start. But I'm kicking it up a notch.

With alcohol.

We don't keep alcohol in the house. We don't go to bars and very rarely have we ever had an adult beverage outside this house. But when we're cruising? We I drink on three occasions:

• When our favorite bartender is on a ship. He makes sure these rheumatoid arthritis joints feel pretty darn good. (Not surprisingly, we follow him ship-to-ship.)
• When we're in a warm weather port. Having an alcoholic beverage on a beach - or near a beach - can't be beat.
• On a snorkel boat in the Caribbean. As soon as the time in the water is done, the rum punch starts flowing freely. And that stuff is strong.

Maybe it was all of those things making me decide to go to the liquor store today. I've only been in a liquor store four times in my life. Today made number five. I figured if I was going somewhere I never go I might as well go big! As I finished checking out the cashier said, "Have a Good Month!"

I think I will.

How to Sew Scrub Laundry Bags for Medical Personnel or Essential Workers - Tutorial Tuesday

It's Tutorial Tuesday (yep, it really is Tuesday this time) and I have another easy project you can make for others. It's called a scrub bag. We've all heard about medical professionals and their worries about bringing COVID-19 into their homes. Well, scrub bags are something we can be making for them or for other essential workers. It's basically a laundry bag just for their work clothes. Throw dirties in the bag, cinch it up, and toss the whole thing in the wash.

Looking for more sewing and crafting projects? 
Click here to see all my tutorials!

For this project you will need:

• 1/2 yard of fabric, 100% cotton
• Shoestring, cording, or twill tape measuring at least 42" long. You can use one long piece or two shorter pieces. Ribbon may be a bit too flimsy to stand up the multiple washings.
• Iron
• Rotary cutter
• Cutting ruler
• Cutting mat
• Sewing machine
• Matching thread

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You'll find the step-by-step how to tutorial for sewing a homemade drawstring fabric laundry bag right here:

Check out my face mask tutorials here, too.

Day 26 - Sack Lunch Mystery Treats

When we were teaching I used to pack school lunches for us. But now since we left work we only pack lunches for traveling. It's always nice having something prepared at home for those long flights to wherever.

Now there will be no flights. No cruises. No road trips. No travel anywhere. No leaving the house ever. Which is probably why this sight in my sewing room was probably so unexpected.

When I did my grocery pick-up a couple weeks ago, I wasn't questioned about why paper lunch bags were coming into the house. No strange looks when all these individual serving size snacks - chips and popcorn and cookies and mini pies and more - were being piled into the sewing room. If he had asked, I would have told him about this idea I had. Something completely out of the ordinary for us.

Mystery treat bags.

I put two salty snacks and two sweet snacks in each bag, mixed all up so no two were the same. Now each night after dinner but before bedtime (during those times the munchies hit) we pick out one bag to share.

It's a surprise every night and a welcome distraction from our ho-hum stay-at-home life.