What I’m Working On…

First off before I tell you about today’s post I have to tell you that Gary from SewPad extended the sale into cyber Monday. YAHOO!!

These pads are heavy and free shipping is a real bonus. You need to use the code “Peace” at the checkout. The sale runs now through the 30th-that’s today so order quick. Your bottom will thank you!! Click THIS LINK to order.

Now that I have mine I couldn’t imagine sewing without one.

Here’s a short video they put together about how Sewpad and their wonderful pads came to be.

Now, onto today’s post.

I had a busy week with family. I had Thanksgiving and then over the weekend, Buck came with the kiddos. Lora works retail and was scheduled to work the whole weekend so rather than hang with the kids at their house he decided to come to visit me.

Buck did an awesome job helping me in the sewing room but I’m going to save that update for another post that includes a complete sewing room reveal. Yep…The sewing room is about done!! I’m sure I’ll do a few tweaks as the months go on but for now, I’m calling it done. Stay tuned for that. I’m hoping I’ll show that later this week.

As for what I’ve been working on, I was busy trimming up some Spider Web String blocks. Notice I flipped the cutting mat over and used the backside. I do that regularly if I don’t need to use the mat’s lines. It saves wear and tear on the front side of the mat.

Karl and I spent an evening chatting around the kitchen island while we ripped the papers off the back.

Karl and I had a good laugh as he looked down to rip the paper off the block and saw Kramer, Roger and Jo (That’s me!) listed in the phone numbers on this page. Seriously. See?
What are the chances that the paper would have been oriented so this side of the paper was facing out and what are the chances that Karl would look down at that exact moment to see my name and number? We have since moved from that address. It’s an older phone book as in January, I’ll have lived in this house for six years.

I did get more of the spider web string blocks sewn. Thanksgiving morning I got up early and sewed for about an hour before Kelli came. Kelli had worked overnight and Georgie was going to stay with me for Thanksgiving day while Kelli slept. Georgie was staying over that night too as Kelli had to work Thanksgiving night. I ran all the papers I could before Kelli came. Then I packaged all the spider web string papers and a bunch of half-square triangles that I had sewn into a basket and took them downstairs. Over nap time on Thanksgiving day, everyone had left or was sleeping so I got out the iron and wool mat and ironed away.

I switched gears a little bit. I pulled a different UFO to start working on. I’m not really serious about working on it…just wanted to sew something different. I pulled Holy Toledo as it seemed like there wasn’t a ton of piecing and something I could work on quickly.

If you aren’t familiar with this quilt it looks like this…

I LOVE the border on it. You can find the pattern in Bonnie Hunter’s book Scraps and Shirttails II. Here’s an Amazon link for the book.

I am making mine entirely from men’s recycled shirts. I had it cut out but not a stitch more has been sewn. I cut this out back when I was doing childcare and had time to cut things like this out over naptime.

From my numbers, it looks like my intention was to make this bigger. I don’t remember for sure but I think the quilt was supposed to be 72″ x 92″ or so. I cut out enough that the quilt will be square.

As I was sewing, I filmed a new “Sew with Jo” episode. You can watch it here in the blog post or you can find it HERE on Youtube.

In the video, I explained how I do my half-square triangles…and chatted away as I sewed. It was fun to be working on a different project.

Some of you who are subscribers already got a chance to watch the newly released video over the weekend as I’m sure Youtube notified you that I had a new video out. If you want to be notified when I have a new video out, all you need to do is be a subscriber to my Youtube channel. You can find the channel HERE. If you hit the subscribe button there, you will get a chance to see the videos before I announce them here for everyone else on the blog. It’s a fringe benefit of being a subscriber.

I’ve had an amazing response to the “Sew with Jo” videos and I plan to continue doing them.

That’s about all I got done this week. It wasn’t a lot of sewing time but, a lot of family time and if I had to choose, family time always wins!!