Yay, Progress!

There has been a significant amount of progress made over the past week. Yay for syllabus days and pre-planning actually paying off! 

I finished what might or might not end up being the fronts of the Halloween coasters I'm making for Potholder Pass. They had to match, but not necessarily in an identical way. I think this counts, but just in case, I made two of each so that I could make a more matching set and keep the leftovers. 

I do really like them all, and will probably just convince myself to send the whole set possibly plus a few extras in case my secret partner doesn't like these 4 together.

There was also progress made on the wedding quilt for my friends' wedding that is in November, not October. I am trying to trick myself into thinking it is actually taking place in October so that my enthusiasm doesn't have the chance to fade. I do have other quilts to make, brain!

This is the giant stack of finished blocks for the quilt with sashing already sewn on one side. Now I just have to put them into rows and spend at least 2 hours trying to make said rows look effortlessly random, stitch the rows up, make it to the quilt store for another 1/2 yard of sashing fabric, add more sashing, and put it all together. Excuse the really horrible picture. It was taken on my cell in a dimly lit room. The fabrics are actually quite vibrant and not nearly as dreary as they appear in this photo.

If I wasn't going out of town to scuba dive in an old Cold War missile silo this weekend, I might have a chance of actually making that all happen. 

But I am, so I don't. Darn. 

On to another project.... I. Actually. Finished. Something!

Pretty shocking, huh?

I finished the voile (voy-el? vwa-le?) bag that is needed for my boyfriend to brew a new type of beer. In case you are a home-brewer, the logistics of what I did are pretty simple. I bought 2 yards of plain white voile. Cut a 25" wide strip off of the fabric, and double hem with a scant 1/4" seam what will be the top of the bag to prevent fraying. I used a zig-zag for added strength. Then I stitched up the sides along the selvages using a zig-zag stitch. Since it was on the selvages, I wasn't too worried about fraying. 

Then came the difficult part... The dreaded French seams for attaching the bottom of the bag. Next time, I might just make the initial strip about 10" longer in order to just stitch the two bottom sides together with a French seam. 

But I didn't do that. So I had to try and guesstimate how big of a circle I needed to make. Did I mention in my initial post that voile is difficult to measure? Well, it is. So I ended up overshooting it with the intention of doing some extra trimming. 

This meant that I was now sewing a French seam for the first time ever doing all of the wrong things like sewing on a curve (every tutorial I studied hinted that only experienced seamstresses should use French seams on a curve and I definitely am not an experienced seamstress!) and adding in pleats to make it fit.

You have no idea how much my boyfriend was laughing at me for stressing out about the process. He kindly reminded me that the soon-to-be beer would not care how it looked. 

So, here is a picture of part of the French seam of which I am actually proud!

And this is the finished result in the brew pot, where it should be.

What this means is that we actually got to brew on Sunday! Yess!! Well, first we went out for German food, and then we got to brew. Yumm, delicious, delicious German food.

Oh, yeah, back to brewing! My favorite part of the brewing process has to be the delicious smells. I can't get enough of the smells. That is why I used to hang around when my friends were brewing (those friends now operate a small micro-brewery!!!) and I even learned a thing or two about the process. 

Another neat aspect of the process is that when you stir, it makes patterns that I thought looked like Starry Night by Van Gogh. 

Thus far, that is all of my WIP work for the week. How about you? 

Last Bit of Freedom/WIP

Sadly, this is my last day/night of freedom before this semester from hell begins. I'm expecting the worst, but hoping for the best. I will officially be teaching 15 hours of classes, and working 28 hours per week at my local Scuba shop. Once you add in prep and grading, this is going to be one beast of a semester.

I can do anything for 4 months.

...Anything but not quilting, that is.

I keep reminding myself that it will never be as bad as my last semester of grad school. That semester, I was teaching high school biology full time, teaching my 4 normal Astronomy labs as a TA, taking 4 classes, writing my thesis, AND co-directing the Vagina Monologues. If I can finish that with any semblance of a grasp on sanity, I can teach 15 hours and keep my other job.

Just in case I do start losing my mind, I have already come to terms with the fact that I might have to cut back my hours at the scuba shop. I do not want to do that, but winter is the slow season there anyways, so it wouldn't be too horrible for any party involved.

Now that I have gotten my "dear diary" mess out of the way, I can begin talking about my actual WIPs for the week. All of the old ones are still there. It seems like I am horrible at finishing projects. My goal of using these WIP posts as an accountability device does not seem to be attainable.

Sigh.

First things first: Potholder Pass! I am a little proud of myself for this one because we only received our secret partner info today and I have already finished my potholders! Procrastination is my best motivator. Well, technically, they still need to be bound, but they are pieced, quilted, and cute!

My partner requested Halloween themed potholders and coasters. No sign of coasters yet, though. Here is a horrible picture so you can see the fabrics and Japanese X Block pattern I used for the potholders.

My next WIP is something I am working on for my boyfriend who brews beer. Tasty, tasty beer. I love everything about home-brewing, but the amazing smell has to be my favorite part. This weekend, he is trying something new called all-grain brewing. In order to do this, he needs some kind of boiling liquid resistant but still permeable bag.

He did some research and found material that others have used to make such a bag to avoid buying an expensive, mass-produced version.

The fabric is 100% polyester voile. Apparently, people use this stuff for curtains and fancy dresses. I have no idea how to pronounce it. What I do know about voile is that it frays like crazy, it is nearly impossible to cut straight because it is so fluid, it bunches when you sew it, it should be sewn with a French seam, and it is difficult to iron.

Wow! I sure do know a lot about voile!

The bag that I am making has to fit inside a giant pot. So far, I have double hemmed the edge that will be exposed, and have sewn the cylindrical portion up along the selvages to avoid French seams. I forgot to trace the diameter of the pot to cut out the bottom that will be sewn on with French seams, and the material is too movey (sure, that's a word) to measure accurately. So I will get the diameter another day and finish it up in time for brewing on Sunday! Yippe! Here is a picture of one of the cylinders. (I'm making two in case something horrible happens.)

I have also made a teensy bit more progress on the wedding quilt for my friends. I strip pieced these initial bits that will eventually become half of the block. The other half of the block will be opposite the sashing and will be two squares of different fabric split by sashing to form another rectangle. This cute little "rainbow" shows the first halves pretty well.

Here is a mildly more close-up shot of the fabrics. I am loving these fabrics together.

Well, that actually feels like more progress than I was expecting to make this week. Now I am going back to my hole for more semester prepping!