Big Little Project Done!!!

 What's a Big Little Project? For me it was a big project, of a lot of little things.

Here are the luggage tags I made for DH to do with as he pleases for his Scooter 'Zine business. I didn't want to be working on luggage tags all the time, so I made over 400 of them to buy me some time without making them. One luggage tag is definitely a little project, but over 400 of them? It's a BIG little project.

All of the fabric for these tags is upcycled denim. I had several people give me jeans they no longer wore, and for this batch of tags, I was mostly busting the colored denim. Yes, there is some blue denim in there, but I used several pairs of colored denim jeans for these tags. The fabric for the scooters is all quilting scraps, and when I could, I positioned the scooter template on the fabric in a way to make best use of the design on the fabric. The loops were mostly single fold bias tapes my mom gave me, that I doubled and sewed up on each side. I just finished sewing up ALL the bias tape she gave me, and how much do I have left?

A LOT, I have a lot left. Why did I double and sew all of that bias tape? Because it's the only way I ever use single fold bias tape. I ordered six circular hangers so I can sort the remaining bias tape into color groups, and hang it in the closet so it doesn't get tangled. What will I use it for? Most of it will be used for drawstrings in bags. If I need to make more luggage tags, it will get used for that, if I need to make loops on a bag or stuffie, I'll use it for that. I've definitely used up a lot of the colors I had, and now have a limited palette of colors. That's ok, because I use double fold bias tape all the time so I end up with scraps of it and I can use it for the same purposes. Are you wondering how my mom ended up with so much bias tape? She lives in New England, and back in the day, when a lot of fabric was made in the USA, New England was filled with fabric mills. A lot of the mills had stores attached, where you could buy directly from the manufacturer, before everything was packaged and pretty. My mom used to buy things for a fraction of what it cost in a store, and those store prices are only a fraction of what you'd pay today. 

There still are some USA companies making bias tape and other trims today, and they are still much cheaper buying from them directly than buying at a store. I buy bulk binding from both Home Sew or Dove Original Trims. I've had very good luck with both of those companies. Do the loops for luggage tags have to bias cut? No, they don't, this was a matter of using what I had that I wouldn't have used otherwise. I don't do a lot of garment sewing, so single fold bias tape isn't something I'd use much of, but my mom wanted to see what she had put to use, and I'm doing that. One of my next projects is a bunch of drawstring bags, so I'll be using more of these sewn strips shortly. 

Now that I'm done all of those luggage tags, I need to regroup and start prepping for my next projects. I have a deadline quilt that's not even cut out but need to be finished by late August. I have some quilts without strict deadlines that need to be finished and gifted, plus I need to get started on Christmas gifts. I must say, I am REALLY good at keeping myself busy! 

Fabric Blessings

A lot of my stash has been given to me over the years. I am always grateful when I'm gifted fabric, because it allows me to keep making quilts and other things for charity without going broke. Do I use all gifted fabric for charity? No. Sometimes a piece of fabric I've been gifted is exactly what I need for a personal project. I've made DH scrub tops from gifted fabric, I've made clothes for kids or grandkids from gifted fabric. I've used gifted fabrics in quilts that I've used as gifts or that are even in my house, BUT, the majority of fabric I've been gifted ends up in charity projects. 

This week I met up with a quilter 20 years my senior. She's got some health issues that are making it harder for her to quilt, so she's passing on a lot of her fabric, but keeping enough to do some projects when she feels up to it. Normally when someone gives me fabric, they pack up what they don't want, and I just take it home and sort it out. Usually, anything I won't use, my sister will, so we can put a lot of sewing supplies to work, whether it's quilting fabric or any other sewing supplies. This was a bit different, in that she wanted me to choose what I wanted from her stash. 

I have known this woman's husband for several years, because he rides with DH's scooter club. I had never met her until this week. I don't know about you, but going into someone's house whom you have never met, and just asking for stuff had me quite nervous. Add to that, I've recently helped my mom with downsizing her stash, and I know how emotional that can be. I really didn't know what to expect. 

As it turned out, she and I hit it off pretty well. Since I make a ton of scrap quilts, I asked it she had scraps hanging around. I know that most people do not use their scraps as quickly as they make them, so I figured that was a safe thing to ask about. She had two medium sized totes full of them, so I took them all. She had me look through her drawers of fabric, and I tried to pull out the smaller pieces. In my fabric drawers, I don't have anything smaller than a fat quarter, because once I cut into a fat quarter, I cut any leftovers into my scrap user system sizes. Once they are in scrap user sizes, they are stored with my scrap user system. I know all too well, that what works for me, is not necessarily what works for someone else, so in her fabric drawers I found leftover border pieces, squares of fabric up to maybe 10", plus fat quarters and larger pieces. She does sort her fabric by color like I do, and even has her repro fabrics stored separately just like I do! She keeps her solids separately too, and I don't, but it was fun to see how we were similar and how we were different. I have a lot more space for quilting than she does, so I have a lot more options. 

I did take a lot of her novelty fabrics, because I make a lot of I Spy quilts for kids, and then we got into her larger pieces of fabric. She didn't really have a good storage option for her larger pieces, so I told her I'd take whatever she didn't want. She kept out a few pieces she really loved and I took a lot of what was left. She also had a black track bag full of fleece, that was stored on a shelf so high you needed a big ladder to get it down. After thinking about it, I said I'd take the whole bag. I figured it if was being stored in that inconvenient of a location, it wasn't likely to be used, and fleece is a great backing for kids quilts. 

I tried to be aware about how she was feeling about things as we went through her fabric. I had asked early on about what she most liked to work with, and she immediately answered batiks. I didn't even look in her drawers of batiks, because I want her to keep what she loves working with. I mentioned that I work with strips a lot, and she dug out all the jelly roll strips she had, some of which hadn't been opened. She said she doesn't like working with strips very much. I chimed in with the fact that my least favorite pre-cut is charm squares. I'll use them if I have them, but I prefer other precuts over those. 

I haven't had time to go through all the fabrics I brought home and sort them, but here's an idea of how much I brought home. 

 This is pretty big box. the bottom half is all scraps, and the top is larger pieces.

This box is a lot smaller but massively overflowing, so it likely has the same amount as the larger box. I also have the black trash bag of fleece. 

This is one of my favorite fabrics I got, and there is enough for me to make myself an iPad sleeve which I've been wanting for quite a while. 

Did I take too much fabric? Did I not take as much as she had hoped? I can't tell. I can tell you I am looking forward to incorporating her fabrics into my projects, and I'd be happy to meet up with her again just to talk, no fabric gifting required. 

I'm still working on luggage tags, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! I think by mid- week next week I will be finished. Of course didn't I find a few more scooters I had cut out this morning, But I had enough of the main parts of the luggage tags leftover to use those extra scooters too. Once I finish the current batch of luggage tags, I'll dig out my poly threads to applique the found scooters and then I can finish up the last of this project. I'm not sure how long the luggage tags will last DH, but it should buy me some time at any rate. 

Finally Seeing Progress!

 Any time I'm sewing a bunch of the same thing, I have times where I'm going a little crazy. The last couple weeks I was definitely struggling with that. Although I'm not finished all the prep work for the luggage tags, I'm done enough that I can start assembling them, and alternate between prep work and assembly. 

Now that I'm in assembly mode, I'm seeing progress pretty quickly. I've got about 75 luggage tags completely finished. I'm busting a lot of colored denim for these tags. Most of this batch has the same color on the front and back, but a lot of the tags will have blue or black denim on the back, but various colors on the fronts. Basically, the luggage tags will get scrappier as I go along. These have loops that match the base color, but some of the colors of denim I had, I didn't have matching loop fabric for. In those cases, I'm going to try to match the loop to the appliqued scooter. 

DH and I both had Covid this week. I got sicker than I usually do with Covid, but still wasn't very sick. It was like having a cold, no fever, no aches, just runny nose and cough. Unfortunately DH was not so lucky, and he ran a very high fever for several days. He's still feeling pretty cruddy, whereas I am back to normal. We missed one of granddaughter's concerts, which stinks, but it is what it is. Next week we have two school promotions to go to, plus a birthday party, and we should be able to make those. Since I never felt all that bad, I still sewed every day, and with DH being so sick, we didn't go anywhere or have anyone over, so I actually had a lot of uninterrrupted sewing time. 

I've been doing some prep work for Christmas presents already too! Mostly just making sure I have all the supplies for what I'd like to make. I ordered a few things, and once they arrive, I'll start cutting things out so I can sew them up as I have time. It may seem early to think Christmas, but we've got a lot going on this year, so I need to fit things in when I can. 

Trudging Along

 I had planned on sewing the loops for the luggage tags on my Janome, but my Janome got all jammed up AGAIN! Last time this happened I had to replace the entire needle bar assembly. Sewing through some bias tape shouldn't have bothered it, but honestly, better it mess up on something like that than in the middle of the quilt like last time. It's now at the shop waiting it's turn for servicing. 

I'm still taking turns sewing the applique scooters and sewing the loops. I just unburied my Singer 201.

My mom gave me tons of single fold bias tape, which I normally never use. Since she's given me bias tape before, I've learned to use it for different purposes than it's intended uses. I sew two lengths together, then I use that for loops on luggage tags, drawstrings, loops on zipper bags or potholders. I don't want the single fold bias tape mixed up with my double fold bias tape which I use all the time, so I'm sewing all the single fold bias tape together like in the photo, which is how I will actually make use of it. For now, I'm just tossing in a large tote.

I realize this is a hot mess, but a lot of this will get used for the luggage tags, so I'm not going to try to organize this until the luggage tags are done, and I see how much I actually have left. 

I've now got this many fronts done, with the scooters appliqued on.

I only have this many left to do the applique stitching on. I didn't count them, but less than 50 I think. Per usual, I'm pretty lax about counting. I know I have over 400 luggage tag fronts. I think I have about 400 luggage tag backs with the interfacing pressed on. I actually overcut the interfacing, so if I need to cut more denim backs, I've already got some interfacing ready to go. I have about 400 clear vinyl pieces cut for the information sleeve. But I've got some some more clear vinyl cut to correct length, that just needs to be subcut. I'm thinking I'll be able to start assembling luggage tags next week. As I run of out precut pieces, I'll cut more of whatever I'm short on. When I decided on 400 luggage tags, I was thinking that would be enough for a couple years. Now I'm not sure it will be, but we'll see. I think DH is adding another big scooter rally to his plans for this year, and if we can arrange some smaller events at dealerships along the way, we may use all the luggage tags. 

DH asked me how much making the luggage tags costs, and the biggest cost is my time. The denim was all given to me, most of the interfacing was from stash, but I did have to buy more at $15. The fusible webbing was from stash and the fabric for the scooters was all scraps. I had to buy more clear vinyl at $30. The bias tape was given to me, and the thread was all from stash. There's really no noticeable dent in the thread. I have enough of all of the supplies to make another 100-200. Some of the supplies I'd have to rebuy at that point, but some I'd still have plenty of. Basically, the $45 I spent would cover 400-600 luggage tags when combined with what I already had in stash. The cost is not the problem, the problem is my time. I don't mind making stuff for him to give away, but I also want time to quilt, and make Christmas gifts, and play with the grandkids, and travel... you get it. If all I cared about was money, this would absolutely be the best option. 

I want to try experimenting with making a few other small things that he could give away. I've been watching batch sewing videos on YouTube for ideas. I saw a few things that are much quicker to sew, and I'm thinking maybe I'll make some prototypes of those and see what he thinks AND I'll see what I think. Perhaps I will stumble on a few things I could alternate sewing on that will give me more variety on tasks, possibly be faster to make, but still give him the quantities he needs. 

There are some things I really like about making the luggage tags. I like it when giveaways are useful items. I really like repurposing and upcycling stuff. Using up scraps, old bias tape, and cutting up old jeans is my kind of project. If you have any good ideas for me for batch sewing that I can make scooter themed, let me know. Bonus points if it uses scraps. 

Modern Technology Quilt

 I have a second finish for 2025, it's the quilt pattern called Modern Technology. I bought it in a quilt kit from Craftsy back in the day, and I made all the blocks for it three years ago, but it's FINALLY a finished quilt! I ended up making more blocks from stash to make it larger than the kit called for, but it was a very fun quilt to make.

This quilt doesn't have a set layout, you can just play around with the blocks and find something you like. I think the original kit was for a twin sized quilt, but by cutting as much as I could from the provided fabric and adding some solids from stash, I turned it into a king sized quilt. Since Craftsy used to give you fat quarter bundles in the quilt kits instead of exact cuts, you could often get more blocks than the pattern called for. I miss being able to shop their fantastic sales, but I still have several quilt kits from them I haven't made yet, so in the grand scheme of things, the fact that they no longer sell quilt kits after being bought out a couple times, doesn't affect my quilting life much. I am glad I can still watch the classes I purchased back then. 

I debated on basting one of the MANY quilt tops in the quilt closet, but I decided my time is better spent trying to finish the 400 luggage tags I am making. I've been cutting the rest of the interfacing I needed and pressing that on the pieces that need it in the evenings. I'm still working on appliqueing all the scooters on the front of the tags, but I'm about 3/4 of the way done with that. I've got two grandkids this weekend, so no sewing time. I am hoping to get more of the clear vinyl cut for the luggage tags in the evening. It may not be sewing, but it needs to be done so I may as well work on it. 

My vintage machine is buried in projects in progress, so I decided rather than starting to quilt another quilt, I will use my Janome to start sewing the loops for the luggage tags. Most of what has my vintage machine buried is all the fabric I'll be using for the loops, so by sewing those, I'll be one step closer to assembling all the luggage tags, and I'll be clearing off my vintage machine. Sewing the loops is BORING, so by going back and forth between sewing loops and appliqueing scooters, I give myself a bit of change. As soon as I have all of either job done, I will be ready to start assembling the luggage tags. 

My goal is to finish all of the luggage tags in May, and if I can get that done, I have two deadline quilts I need to start. One of those is cut out, and the other I am still in design phase. I have two quilts cut out that I could use for the second quilt, but part of me wants to start a new one. I've got the new one mostly figured out, and I have everything I need to make it. No matter what the two deadline quilts will not require any purchases. 

Life has been busier than I expected. I've had the grandkids quite a bit, and been feeding extras for meals. None of that is a problem, but it does mean I've had less sewing time than I expected to have. It will all work out in the end, it usually does.If I don't get something done, I guess it wasn't that important after all. 

First Finish of 2025!

Last year at this time I had 12 finishes under my belt. I knew this was not going to be a productive year for quilting, but only one finish is kind of sad. That said, I'm pretty happy with the finish.

I think the attic window with a panel turned out pretty well. It's funny how your brain can make things line up even when they really don't. This quilt is for a rally in Oregon.

I've also been appliqueing lots of little scooters onto what will eventually become luggage tags. All of these have the applique sewing done, but I have quite a few left to do.

The piles are loosely organized by color. Some you can see which color thread I'll be using on them because the thread is right on top of the pile. Some of the larger piles will be further subdivided when I get to that color family. I think I've probably got over half the appliques sewn at this point. I'm going to be working on cutting out the vinyl and more interfacing this weekend. 

I did start FMQ a king sized quilt this week. I've just passed the halfway point. Hopefully I'll finish quilting it next week, and then I'll need to baste something else, because I don't have anything else basted right now. I have a closet full of quilt tops, so it's just a matter of finding a backing to go with a top, and then I'll be ready to baste. 

DH is finally having some extra time, so he's started tackling his to do list. I asked for new lighting for the walk in pantry, and I'm loving it! There are two lights in there, but one had a short in it, so it rarely worked, and neither lights were very bright. I asked for LED lights instead, and it's like a whole new space! Now I can actually read the expiration dates without hauling packages into the kitchen. 

DD#1 sent me a pic of one of the new additions on the homestead. I knew they wanted to restart their chicken and duck flocks after the move, but this didn't look like either one to me. They had told me they weren't sure they would be able to get chickens this year due to the avian flu causing shortages, so they might start with ducks instead. I'm a city girl, so when she made me guess, I just thought, not a duck, not a chicken, maybe a goose? Turns out they got a couple baby turkeys (called poults, look at me learning stuff!) but they also scored some baby chickens as well! I am excited for them to see their new homestead working out so well. 

Baby Shower

DD#2 and I hosted a baby shower at my house on Saturday. It was a Disney Princess/tea party themed shower. The expectant mother is one of my "adopted" kids, not really adopted, but one of the family nevertheless. 

There was savory food.

And lots of sweets.

Cold drinks here, and hot drinks elsewhere because of course there were multiple types of tea! 

Here's a close of of the diaper cake my sister made! Isn't that awesome?

We had an area with baby safe paints and blocks for people to decorate, we played a couple games outside as well. 

We even had a photo booth for the social media posts. 

It was getting warm outside so we had planned to open gifts inside. Here's the guest of honor opening a teddy bear made by my mother for the baby.

And here she is opening up the baby quilt I made from leftovers of her wedding quilt. It made her cry, which wasn't my intention, but this baby was a long time coming and I think seeing parts of her wedding quilt in there, really made the long journey hit home. 

Don't forget to grab a shower favor on the way out! 

Now that the shower is over, Easter is coming right up, but DD#2 is hosting that! 

I have gotten some sewing in. I'm about 3/4 of the way done quilting that scooter quilt. I've also started sewing around the scooter appliques for the 400 luggage tags I'm making. I'm not sure how long it's going to take to get that many luggage tags done. Quilting the scooter quilt is the first FMQ I've done in months, and applique isn't something I do often, so I'm not particularly quick at it. Now that I can start getting into a routine again, I'm planning to FMQ an hour each day on my Janome, then work on luggage tags on the Bernina, and if I get to where I really need some piecing time, I'll switch to my Singer 201 and piece on it. It may sound crazy to have three machines set up to sew at all times, but for me, it works. 

Does Absence Make the Heart Grow Fonder?

 I know I've been MIA for a couple months, my last blog post was the end of January, and now it's April. In case you've been wondering, DH and I are fine, but there's a lot going on with other members of the family, so I really haven't been sewing at all. We ended up taking a lengthy, unplanned trip to see my parents, but a little bit of quilty stuff snuck in. 

I saw the world's largest quilting needle in Paducah, Kentucky. I went to Hanock's of Paducah also. I actually didn't buy anything there, which even surprised me! I've ordered from them lots of times. DH offered to take me to the National Quilting Museum, but I just wasn't into spending the time or the money that day to do it.

Not that I didn't spend any money on quilting on the trip. 

We went to Marshall Dry Goods in Batesville, Arkansas, and I bought a couple bundles of fabric at wholesale prices. I actually was waited on by Marshall himself, and he showed me the new battings they've just developed. I've been buying from Marshall Dry Goods for years, and this was the second time I've gotten to go in person. If we are anywhere near there, we detour so I can save the shipping fees.

DH took me to Paris two days in a row.

Paris, Arkansas

And Paris, Texas. Technically I have been to Paris, France, but only the airport, and it was so foggy we couldn't see any of the city. 

We saw a couple of our kids and several grandkids on the trip. We managed to miss the worst of the weather issues, but unfortunately DS the Elder and family didn't. Shortly after we left seeing him, they were hit by a tornado. They are fine, but their apartment building is not, so now they are picking up the pieces of their lives and in temporary housing. We saw a LOT of tornado damage on the trip, and it's looking like a bad year for weather. 

This tornado went over DD#1's house the same day, but thankfully, it didn't touch down. It was weird to have two of my kids in tornado's paths within an hour of each other, and they don't even live in the same state. 

We've actually been home for a bit, but I still wasn't sewing, so I didn't have much to blog about. I'm throwing a baby shower on Saturday, so I've been working on stuff for that. I did make a stack of burp rags for the baby, but funnily enough, I did not need to make a quilt. I had made a quilt from leftovers of their wedding quilt, and kept it in case they ever had a girl. Guess, what? The baby is a girl, so quilt was already done. One of my nieces is also pregnant, and I'm using a quilt I had already made for her baby too. 

DH wants another scooter quilt to raffle off, so I got to work and just sewed the borders on a few minutes ago. I started out with a panel and no plan. I've been wanting to try the Attic Windows illusion with a panel, so I started with that.

This is wider than tall, so I needed to add something to the top and bottom.

I auditioned several options on EQ, and decided on this. It was a lot of HST's to cut, so I decided to die cut them.

Is there waste with die cutting? Well, here's the waste from almost 400 HST's next to my 60mm rotary cutter. Perfectly cut HST's with no dog ears to trim? I'll take the waste. Sometimes I use my EZ Angle ruler to cut HST's, and I like doing that just fine, but this was faster, and in this case, speed matters.

Here's the quilt top, made in under a week. The baby shower is Saturday, and all my free time between now and them will be either house cleaning or other shower preparations. I'm hoping to baste this quilt on Sunday, and if I can, I should be able to finish it by next weekend. 

This year is shaping up to be a lot different than we had planned. I knew it wasn't going to be great year for quilting, but now it's looking like it will be a worse year for quilting than I knew. That's OK, life happens and sometimes things get put on the back burner. When I have something to show, I'll blog, if I haven't done any sewing, I won't. This year the blog will be sporadic, so please hang in there, I haven't lost my love of blogging, just lost the time to sew. 

A Little Sewing, A LOT of Cutting

I haven't actually sewn that much this week. I did get two quilts assembled. I only took pics while they were on the design wall. 

I had planned on adding a couple borders to this one, but then I stopped and thought about what size it was already. It's already a large twin-full sized quilt. If I add the borders I was planning, it will be queen sized, and I don't need a queen sized quilt in these colors. So, after quilting I'll just add a red binding and call it done.

This quilt is exactly the same size, but for some reason I never planned on putting borders on this one. Now both of these quilts are assembled and stuck into the quilt closet waiting for their turn in the quilting queue. 

So what was I cutting all week? I cut out one baby quilt, and I've got another one half cut out, I should finish cutting that one tomorrow. I also cut out 400 luggage tags from repurposed denim pants. I've got the fronts and backs of the tags cut, as well as the interfacing, but I still need to cut the clear vinyl. I really love upcycling old clothes into totally different things, extending the life of the fabric in a new purpose. 

I thought 400 luggage tags would make a bigger dent in the denim scraps than it did, but that's OK, because I have other denim projects planned. I'd really like to get a lot of that busted this year. No one has been giving me any denim lately, and neither DH nor I wear jeans, so it would be a great time to bust it all, and not collect any more of it. I have a lot more printed denim than I remembered having, and so I'll have to give some thought about how to use that. Most of my printed denim is yardage, so I could always opt for reusable grocery bags. 

New Project from Old Projects

DH has been an RN since 1993, before that he was LPN, before that an Army medic, and before his Army days he was an EMT. He's been in the health field for a LOT of years! He recently retired, and I offered to make him a quilt from his old scrub tops, all of which I made. I've been making all his scrub tops for over 25 years. 

He pulled his scrub tops out of the closet and piled them on the bed. The number of scrub tops he's had has gone up and down over the years, as some wear out and I make more. How many did he retire with? 66! 

I only wanted to use the backs of the scrub tops, so I didn't have to worry about pockets, or ink stains, or any other stains which I may or may not be able to identify. All those years in the Emergency Room had him exposed to a lot. 

Thanks to having lots of experience using men's shirts for quilting, I knew the fastest way to get this pile into a pile of usable fabric was to clip the seams and rip. 

Now I've got this pile of fabrics to work with. This is more than enough to make a quilt, though I do have scraps of other scrub tops that didn't make it to retirement I could add in if I chose to. I've narrowed it down to either doing a stained glass quilt, or making large bricks and making a brick wall quilt. I kind of like the metaphor of the brick wall for his years spent building his career, but I think he'll prefer a stained glass quilt so that's the more likely route to go. I won't know for sure until I start cutting! 

I got to spend more time sightseeing with family this week, since with the lousy weather where they live, and the great weather where we live, my SIL and BIL opted to stay a bit longer. I enjoy spending time with them, so it was a good time, and I got to see a couple places I haven't seen before, and go back to a couple I haven't seen in years. 

Life is always busy, but it's good busy!

I'm Going In!

 Overall, my quilting supplies are pretty organized. Even the part I'm getting ready to show you is mostly organized, it's just too much overflow. The stuff that isn't easily stored in my sewing or fabric rooms is put into time out "under the stairs" (cue spooky music). 

I've been putting off dealing with this area, but I need to cut my denim scraps up for luggage tags. For a while it seems like everyone was giving me jeans to use for quilting projects, but now no one is. I have three totes with denim in them, and of course they are at the very back. By the end of this year, I expect all three totes to be empty. I decided to make 400 luggage tags, instead of the 200 I originally planned. They will be giveaways at DH's business events. The luggage tags will take up a lot of the denim, and I have a big project planned for Christmas 2025 that should use the remaining denim. When I looked at this area, it looked pretty overwhelming, but at a glance I could tell there was actually several things that had a place to live, I had just been too lazy to put them away. Let's start there.

Just putting away what belonged elsewhere helped quite a bit, but that denim I need is still in the very back. 

Three totes of denim scraps just like I thought. I have more patterned denim than I remember, but I'll either use it in projects this year, or it will be donated for someone else to use. These totes will not be going back under the stairs. 

After taking everything out from under the stairs, I had to look at how to put things back under the stairs. I have several totes with men shirts to use for quilting, divided by color. I don't have any shirt projects planned right now, so those can definitely go in the back for now. All my flannel is in totes, because it's too bulky for me to want to store it one shelves. I will probably need to get into the flannel this year, but I still have room in the back, so I stack it in the back as well, but I'm very mindful what I put in front of that.   

I found one tote less than half full, with a few pieces of fabric from which I had meant to make DH scrub tops. Well, now that he's retired, that's not a thing (talk about procrastination!) so I left that tote out. The fabrics can either be put onto my fabric shelves, or be cut up for my donation pillowcases, since they are all novelty prints. Whatever I use them for, they aren't going back under the stairs. I found another tote that had yardgage in it that didn't fit on my shelves at the time. I do have some space on my shelves, but not enough for that whole tote. Again, I'm planning to make and donate 100 pillowcases this year, so I think I will have room for all of that fabric on the shelves soon. I decided to keep that tote out too. 

With three totes of denim staying out, and two totes with fabric staying out, putting things back under the stairs was easier than taking it all out. Especially since I had taken the time to put so much away that actually had a spot and just wasn't put it belonged.

It's still a lot, but not quite as overwhelming. Unless I stop using flannel and mens shirts, I'll always have a few totes. I do have a lot fewer totes that I used to, and I actually emptied two totes today. Not all the totes are full, so when I realized how little was in some of them, I did some rearranging. Come to think of it, one of the ones I emptied would be great to store the finished luggage tags in! It's a shallower tote, and should fit them quite well. 

Do I have some totes that are currently in my way? Yes, but they won't be in my way for that long. Once I get all the luggage tags prepped, I'll start sewing them up, and I'll start prepping the pillowcase project. As I empty totes I'll just store the empty ones in the storage room, in case we ever move, I could use them then. 

I've got about 250 scooter silhouettes cut out now. I told DH if he ever wants me to make a bunch of these again, I'm having a custom die made to cut out both the scooter and the luggage tags themselves. If he were paying me an hourly wage to do this, the custom die would pay for itself in no time at all. At least the denim and the interfacing for the luggage tags can be rotary cut! I rotary cut the clear vinyl too, but it can be tricky since it can stick to the ruler. Even with sewing around the appliques, sewing the luggage tags takes a fraction of the time prepping them does. 

The only sewing I've done this week is working on assembling some quilts, but none of those are finished. I haven't done any FMQ yet this year! We've still got out of town visitors in town, so we've been having fun with them. DH is getting his Retirement in Real Time YouTube channel channel going. He's learning a lot, and once that channel is going he's hoping to start a scooter channel as well, to go along with his scooter magazine. He's only really retired from nursing, not from working! 

My routine is all thrown off with him not having a schedule, so we'll both have to make adjustments, which we expected. We'll get it figured out!

The Christmas of Denim Jackets

I made a lot of stuff for Christmas 2024. One of the things I did was upcycle denim jackets to customized one of a kind jackets that reflected the recipients interests. I already showed my sisters jacket a couple posts ago, but here are pics of the ones I did for my grandkids.

 The Dragon Jacket

Star Wars #1

Star Wars #2

Horse Fan

Kitties All Around

Scooby Doo, Where Are You?

Video Games

When Bowser is your favorite Mario Character

Paw Patrol

For the denim jackets I bought as many as I could second hand. I started shopping for them in June. I did have to buy a couple of them new, but my goal was to upcycle when I could. The amount of clothes going to landfills is insane, and if I can give old wearable jackets a new life, I wanted to go that route. 

Two of my other grandkids got Minecraft quilts, and I've already shown those. All the grandkids got two pillowcases for Christmas, one holiday pillowcase, and one that went with their interests. 

 I also took some extra units and made big hot pads. I used one layer of cotton batting and a layer of insulbrite so hot pans and casseroles could be placed directly on top.

DD#1 even sent me a photo of her hot pad in action! She has the largest family, so she got a larger hot pad. 

I felt really good about turning finds from second hand shops and misc units hanging around the sewing studio into useful gifts. I'm hoping to be able to upcycle a few things for Christmas 2026 too! The grandkids liked their jackets a lot more than I expected! A lot of kids are disappointed when they get clothes instead of a shiny new toy, but the jackets went over really well. I've been trying to think outside the box on gifts, I like giving useful things or experiences much more than stuff that ends up as clutter. 

If any of you have some outside the box gift ideas, please share them with me! I'm trying to keep the gift budget well in hand, but also give nice gifts too.