Sewing the Night Away

It's fairly regular for me to sew in the evenings, but with Paul gone so much, I find I'm getting more done than ever before. Although I'm also more tired now, so I have to motivate myself. I kicked into gear last night after Survivor was finished. I always think I can accomplish way more than there is time to do. I started by finishing the other 4 bags for retreat gifts. I now have 6 bags done. I decided one would be part of a gift for another friend.

But one little bag just isn't enough of a gift for her, so I made this tote bage out of the leftover fabric. It's pretty big, but I figure she'll find a way to use it for her sewing stuff.

This is an up close of the "girls" on the fabric. I had three different pieces of this fabric line and mom did too. We bought it 2-3 years ago on the sale rack at the store. I've made her and I each a jacket, a recyclable bag for me, a sewing apron, and now a tote and 6 sewing bags out of it. All I have left is some of the sewing "words" fabric. I have an idea to use it for a block roll up, so hopefully I can get it done tonight. Then I think it will make the perfect gift, a tote bag, mini bag, sewing apron, block roll-up, and a quilty gift certificate. As a quilty friend would you like this gift? Who knows you just might get it!

In the last 10 min.or so of sewing last night I worked on this teal/purple project. I'm trying to finish up another UFO, so I can use the batiks I have left for other quilts. I bought a lot of fabric almost 2 years ago to make a queen size quilt with the bear fabric as the border. I was going to do a bunch of big 12.5" thangles blocks, but I decided I didn't want to do that. I really don't like the stars I was going to make. So I'm making up blocks and sashing to put between them. I tried one block last night and it's too small and I don't like how it's made, so I'll remake it different, but I need an opinion on which fabric to use for sashing. I'm leaning more toward the one on the left for the saching.

This is a close-up of the one on the left.

And the one on the right.

Do you like the dots?  I also considered using the light teal where the dots are, the dark purple on the right where the lt. teal is, and using the muted purple as the sashing, but I'm just not sure. Any thoughts or suggestions?  I don't care how big this one ends up, I just want to get it made and out of my sewing room. It's been 2 long years in the making and I want it finished. Plus, all that excess fabric is calling out to be used in something else.

Yesterday I received the prettiest little girl outfit from my co-worker friend Sandy. She can't make it to my shower on Sunday, so she brought it down early so I could open it. She's patiently waiting for her 11th grandchild to arrive today. She said it has some purple on it. I said yeah, but it's pink! I'm so excited to have a girl and dress her in pink.

Tonight I'll be getting ready for the weekend sewing retreat with friends. I have to prep the stuff to make Omelets in a bag for breakfast/brunch for Sun. Then I'll work on the block roll-ups, pack my clothes, and finally add the final touches to my packing of projects. I have at least 8 already packed, so we'll go from there as to what else needs packed.