Getting projects done

I have had a fairly productive week.  Last weekend I got the quilt for the music director finished... that is I got it quilted for my friend who pieced the quilt.  I will see her this evening, so I stitched out the label for the back this afternoon.  So that is one task completed.

I have lots of friends that want quilts done before Christmas, but it has probably been a month since my husband suggested that it would be nice if he had one of those scrap catchers for his remotes.  What he was referring to is a thread catcher that I have made many of in the past.  I don't have a picture of the one I completed for him yesterday, but I modified the bag from the way my tutorial shows and his "remote catcher" has 4 compartments.  He's very happy with it.

Two days ago he made another suggestion, and this time it was to replace the cover on the stool that I scoot around on when I am quilting from a pantograph.  It is a shop stool that works great for that purpose, but it had a plastic cover that has been split for quite some time.  He took the seat off and then proceeded to remove the hundreds of staples they used to fasten the plastic to the base.  I first took some fleece and covered the foam then I used upholstery fabric and cut a big circle and turned the edge over to create a channel for the cord that I cinched it all up under the seat.  There is not one staple in this setup and if I need to replace it down the road, I just untie it and cut a new circle.
Now back to quilting, I created a block design to use on a quilt I was quilting for my sister.  The name of the pattern she used was "Charming Lonestar".  I didn't get a picture of it opened all the way as I was without assistance to hold it up.

Now a few days ago I was watching a video by Linda Taylor that was for longarmers.  I pretty much have my technique all set, but you can always learn something new when you watch someone else.  It is a series and I only watched the first two episodes.  I have all the tools I need... but Linda was indicating that an apron was an essential part of the operation.  That way you can have all your tools at your fingertips when you need them.  I got to thinking that I didn't really want to put an apron on to do my quilting... but a quilter's vest would work for me.  I started digging for a pattern.  I have a book with some neat patterns and I scanned the pattern and enlarged it 285% like it instructed.  It was way wrong size.  I probably could have worked with getting it right, but decided to look through my patterns that were already sized right.  The only one I found was not the style I wanted, so I modified that pattern and ended up with my Quilter's Vest.

It has pockets on both sides that go across the whole front at the bottom.  The pockets are divided inside, but the dividers do not show on the outside.  I sometimes need to use a few pins or a needle randomly, so something I could park my needle in was one item I needed.  At the IQF show I got a needle holder from the Moda booth... the cupcake.  My husband said it would not be good as it was because I would stick a needle in my shoulder.  So I used a piece of clear stiff plastic and cut it in the shape of the cupcake, then I used double stick tape to stick it under the red felt needle holder.

I feel like I really accomplished something this week.  

Have a good week.