Mondays Are Prep Days

I’ve fallen into a pattern of having Monday be the day that I prep projects to work on throughout the week. The system seems to be working, so I’m keeping it. I’m finding that doing so allows me to 1) clean up the mess that resulted from the previous week’s work, 2) organize and re-file anything I’m done using, 3) produce a pile of projects to work on throughout the coming week, and 4) make a shopping list if I am missing anything I need.

I’ve been making table runners here and there—instant gratification projects if ever there were any—and had half a dozen that needed to backed and basted. That was the first order of business yesterday morning. I pulled out my bin of leftover batting scraps and my bin of Christmas fabrics and got all of them ready to be quilted:

When I need a quick quilting project, I’ll sit down at the Q20 and knock out one or two of these.

I cut fabric for several more of these:

This is Jeni Baker’s Bear Paw Baby Quilt, although when I made this one, I used Essex Linen rather than quilting cotton, an idea I got from Anna Graham at Noodlehead. (The quilt in this photo went to my friend Susan’s second grandson.) Baby quilts are always handy to have on hand, and I had enough fabric to cut pieces for three of these. I’m using the Essex Linen again.

I am in desperate need of more aprons for myself. I went through my apron drawer a few weeks ago and culled some of the ones I don’t wear as much because I don’t like the style. Having a long torso means that waist ties don’t always sit where they are supposed to, and I hate when they ride up. I took the apron I reach for most often—because I love the way it fits—and traced a pattern from it. I cut six aprons from a pile of heavier-weight fabrics that I’ve been saving, including some twills, some canvas, and some linen. These still need pockets and ties, but the body parts are cut.

I ran more cotton fleece and terrycloth through the Accuquilt cutter for two more batches of makeup pads. I’m going to need the serger for another project soon, so I’d like to finish making these while it’s still set up for this particular threading.

And finally, I traced the Kristin dress pattern in preparation for cutting it out. I was a bit dismayed to discover that the instructions for putting this together are minimal, and that’s being generous. I first looked for them within the PDF, then realized that they were printed at the bottom of the sheet I was tracing:

Those are the only instructions. Fortunately, this is not a complicated dress. I also have enough sewing skills that I can figure out what needs to be done if it isn’t specified. I’m leaving out the zipper. This dress probably won’t get cut out until next Monday, because I’d like to cut several garment patterns at once and I need to trace two more patterns.

The only task I didn’t complete—because I need to get three yards of a red print fabric—was cutting the sashings for the Churn Dash and Sunbonnet Sue quilts. I want to do those at the same time because I’ll be cutting the strips on the Accuquilt cutter.

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I texted Kevin yesterday morning to tell him about the heater in my car shutting itself off. He texted me back and said he was not aware that it was related to the EGR cooler issue and thanked me for passing that along. The husband said that I should let BMW know that he is available for consultations on their product, LOL.

I made a salad last night with the first cutting of lettuce from the new system. The second tray isn’t far behind, and I started a third one a few days ago. I got a notice from Victory Seeds that my seed order shipped. I tend to stick to the same varieties every year—gardening is tricky enough without experimenting with our food supply—but I did add a few new items to try.