Twelve hours in October (derailed)...

     It's time once again (already?) for our monthly sew-a-thon! Once a month, I allow myself an entire day of sewing... this month, to add to the fun, Mr. SFO is not away, so let's see if he notices I'm not actually doing any work today! I will be responsible for dinner, though.

     I made a list of ten items that were very close to the finish line for "FFOctober"-- that's FULLY FINISHED OCTOBER if you have had a question mark over your head all month as to what it meant. So I did get three things completed-- today, I really want to CRUSH some more to be able to call this month a success. Three involve bindings, one involves borders-- these are all do or die today. If I have leftover time, I'm going to treat myself and start the Lighthearted Christmas tree I talked about in the last post.

9:00am. First up, Corn Pop Pillows. The table runner has been done for more than a couple of weeks, but I ran out of the binding fabric-- so lucky to have found more, still at Fat Quarter Shop. These are fully, fully, fully finished-- quilted front and back, and they are going to be a huge upgrade to my fall décor for years to come. You may recall how I sewed all the pieces together to be long armed as one piece-- my dear longarm friend advised me to do this, but has now created a monster as everything is getting stitched together as "two for the price of one" at this point! 

    I said I would show how I was doing this, so here it is. You need three pieces-- your front, and two backing pieces-- both are 2/3 the height of your front. You can also see the two backing pieces have been prepped with binding along one of the longer edges.

     Pin a backing piece to the front aligning outside edges as shown-- the wrong sides are together. Pin out of the seam line, as some of these cannot be removed as you stitch along. If your pillow front  has a top and and a bottom, start with the bottom piece  (Tip: If you insert the point of your needle back into the fabric after pinning, you greatly reduce your chance of getting pricked!)

    Then do the same for the top piece. Make sure all your edges are nicely aligned.

     Baste all layers together, all the way around, at an extremely scant 1/4" seam line. (That's 3/16" for those of you who like math!)  If you get "bubbles" as you go along, just use a stiletto to ease them in as you stitch along. It's great if your pieces are perfectly flat, but remember, this is ultimately a 3D object so if things get wonky, it may not matter. Check your work-- especially make sure the raw edges of the binding strips are caught in, as well as the parts of the underneath backing piece you can't see. Take out all the pins-- don't forget some are hidden underneath the top backing piece.

     Now make 2-1/2" wide binding strips--  just sew them on as you normally would for a quilt. I'm hand stitching mine down-- all the hand stitching is NOT part of the day today-- I'll get it done in the course of the week. I buy pillow inserts 2" bigger than my pillow tops all around-- it may be a bit of a wrestling job to get them in, but I really love an overstuffed look-- except in the mirror, of course!(One last tip: If you iron that binding up and around and in place before sewing, it is going to make it SEW much easier on your hands and avoid that bump, bump, bump look when hand stitching it down.)

     I absolutely LOVE this way to finish a pillow-- they look beyond professional. Fun and done and ready to enjoy this Thanksgiving-- unless my son's crew of two boys and a dog show up-- then I am HIDING them! Two hours and done-- that includes taking pictures and writing about it. It is amazing how one little thing holds a project up-- but when you actually DO IT, instead of just over-thinking about it, it gets done so fast!

11:00am Next up, my April tablerunner that's been sitting around for months. I don't like it. I keep reminding myself I do like the backing fabric and can just turn it upside down. I have considered gifting it, but I'm really not the type of person to gift stuff I want to get rid of. I just can't do it. I've had the oval template ready for months-- that was kind of neat idea-- so let's just cut already. (Mr. SFO has crossed my path several times this morning, with no notice that I am at my machine at an unusual hour-- but I may just take a minute to fold wash to keep up appearances. It says a lot about this piece that I'd actually rather fold wash that start it.)

     Since I'm working along a ton of projects right now, I have had the presence of mind to store all the parts in separate "cubbies" on cube shelves I have. So I can put my hands right on it--it's bigger than I remembered it as well-- big AND ugly!! My paper template is a bit crumpled-- I'm sure if I put some heavy books on it and stuck it under my bed for two years, it would straighten out. 

    Haha! See what I did there? A two-year reprieve. No, I'm soldiering on. So I flatten the template cut it out, ignore the fact that it's a little too big and draw an oval on my piece. Galileo, the champion of ellipses, isn't exactly going to be looking at this with his microscope is he? I basted a line on, 1/8" of an inch inside my drawing to stabilize the edge. Then snip, snip! I have some interestingly shaped excess pieces-- thank God they are too small for mug rugs, so I ditch them.

So here it is-- it took me months to do what really only took an hour. 

12:00pm That took a lot out of me-- it's lunch! And forget the yogurt and fruit I was gonna have-- it's roast beef sandwich time! All during my time off, I consider the fate of this unloved table runner--- could I just cut it into placemats? Just make it smaller? Cut out just the flower blocks and reformat it to something else? No conclusions are reached.

Lunch is going long,  and I turn on the news as I do, once in while, when I can face it. It is sometimes a mistake...

You know you're in trouble when the reporter in Israel is talking about Maine. If you didn't know, San Francisco Stitch Co. is now based in Maine-- mostly because of many job moves, and Mr. SFOs retirement dream. Yes, it was to set the clock back 50 years and live a simpler life. Not this. 

We are all gratefully safe. Sewing is usually such a balm for me-- occasionally, there arises a time when I. JUST. CAN'T. Twelve hours in October is over.

I did get back to my machine later in the week-- once again, I went off the list. I finished up my 64 basket blocks, and even started assembling the units of four... they look pretty.

Then I got my extra junior jelly roll in the mail for the Sew Sampler September box, remember it?

     The artist in residence helped me pick out new jelly strip pairs for additional blocks. In a moment of small joy, she said, "This is really fun!" and it made sense to her why I do love to sew as much. I'm making 8 more blocks to get a decent sized throw for a very special couple, newly married this Christmas.

I also dabbled away and got the November Bowl Fillers done.

My FFOctober list doesn't mean much to me at the moment. Here I am... feeling crushed and helpless. Some moments I can sew, and some I can't. Taking care of my small world becomes more important to me at times like this-- it is all we can do. Yes, the family will be getting some beautiful dinners this week. Push forward everyone-- we can't go back.

xox

Carol