Another Tote or two or three!

 

Still waiting for my background fabric to quilt for the hex piece!  Sigh......so now that the deck is finished...and I only have to paint the front porch (which I won't do until later this week), figured I would get some totes made for June gifts. 

this isn't the best picture of the first tote.  Picture is quite dark.  This was a deconstructed screen printing that I did rubbings with Neocolor and Gelato pastels. using one of my hand carved stamps.  this was back in 2017!

I sandwiched the fabric and free motion quilted around each stamped piece.  I think it turned out decent.  I almost decided to over dye to give more color but changed my mind.   

Inside lining...a batik I had in my stash.  I wanted to jazz it up so added the dark purple zipper with the pale purple.  Leftover from my hex project!  HA

I made this piece several years ago for the Quilters Around The World quilt group for our series 'Uniform' in September 2015.  Hmmmm  

I don't have a picture of the finished piece but you can see in the tote below where I added some embroidery machine stitches at some point.  I'm not sure why I did!  Funny, I was on a hex kick back then too.

So glad I added the embroidery stitches...it brightens up the piece.  Funny, Bob liked this tote best of the 3.  Hmmmmm

The lining is printed and looks nice inside.

I can't find a picture of this original piece.  On the back of the 9"x 12" piece had a date of 2008!!!!!  I know it was one of my dye pieces and experimenting with free motion. 

I wanted to jazz it up with the blue zipper...

The inside is some hand dyed pieces I had left. 

As I was looking through my blog for pics of the fabrics I used for these totes, I saw some pieces that I know I have stashed in a glass case in our LR or in my sewing room in storage!  Think I need to get some of them out and get making more totes!  HA

And my sewing machine is just sitting there!  STILL waiting for my background fabric!  Quilt Shop was ordering 3 yards for me of a Moda fabric that I think will work for the hex piece.  That was 2 weeks ago this past Monday.  Yes, I'm getting antsy!  But I did play with some free motion quilting designs on some junk fabric.  That's going to be the next hard decision!

Deck Project

Finally, I am done, done, done with the deck!!  OMG....this was one of the hardest projects to work on, other than when we first built our house and had to put in tons of rock/stones around our landscape area (front, back, inside fenced yard, out and sides!).  

I thought at that time either Bob or I were going to have a heart attack!  I felt that way when I finished this project! 

I started to scrap the deck on April 24!  Bob's painted a few years ago without scraping and then he rolled the paint on.

He said the other day rolling it he ended up putting on too much paint.   Some areas the thick paint just pulled up!

Bob had to replace a few boards several years ago.  That was fun too!!!!  NOT!  

Yes, the girls thought they could help out but......

It took me two solid hours to paint this area, which was about 1/4 of the deck.  I started out painting ONE BOARD at a time!  Dumb!

When I started to paint again this past Thursday, I started painting two boards (or more!) at a time.

That sure helped get this project moving.  And, I used my garden wheeled wagon to sit and scoot on!  That worked so much better than getting up and down constantly! 

Finally, I finished on Friday, May 22nd!!!!  I am so relieved and my body is as well. 

I actually felt sick when I finished.  Between my body, arms, knees...But I'm back to feeling like myself again!

Next time, we're calling THE GUY!

Still waiting for my background fabric for my hex project!  It's been two weeks since the owner of the quilt shop ordered it.  Boohoo

Project('s) Progress

 First up, deck is about 3/4 of the way finished - scraping that is!  I made it past the stop of the stairs to the 2nd level.  

We have rain just about daily...either in the early a.m., mid to late afternoon or evening.  Does give me a reprieve from scraping but I do want to finish it.  I still have to paint the deck floor after all the scraping. 

Monday I didn't do any outside work, although it was a beautiful 70 degree sunny day out!  I had my 'last' colonoscopy!!!  Years ago I had 8 polyps so had to redo.  This year only 3!  Woohoo!!!  That's it for me! 

 And Tuesday was dinner out with Donna for a belated BD dinner for her at our favorite Mexican Restaurant!

Wednesday was a busy day of Dog Grooming drop off, then met up with buds from our Friends group to celebrate our friend, Amy's belated BD.  Then over to the library to chat some more!  We usually have books to shelve but our bin was empty...hence, chatting instead!

We had a nice lunch at a restaurant across the street from the Library (Trio's in Goodrich).  Really good meal and Beth bought cheese cake for us to each try.  It was really good too!  Amy leaves for their house up north until September.  We'll miss her! 

Me, Amy, Cheryl and Beth

Today, Thursday, I scraped more of the deck floor!  I've got about 10-12 more planks to scrap.  Then I can start to paint, once the weather breaks and we don't have any rain!!!  I also did a 2 mile walk at the church with Donna and weeded the front landscape around to the south side of the house!  I quit and decided to do this post instead!  HA

I've made great progress on the backing for my hex piece.  I decided to use up all the remaining fat quarter pieces I had along with some yardage I had leftover!  

All done!  And I'll make sure not to have my toes in the backing!  HA

 

Now to get the batting sandwiched with the choice I made for the front fabric.  I'm still on the fence.  I did wash the fabric I purchased for the front fabric but not sure it may be too dark.  Hate making choices but I may just go ahead and sandwich and start quilting...hmmmmmm but maybe not!  HA HA HA