First up was finishing off the hooking of my newest purse. Needing a project for Georgia, wanting a bigger purse, and discovering one of the handles had detached from the purse I've been using, all conspired together to encourage me to design a new bag. For the longest time, I didn't think that I would ever hook another purse.....but you know what they say about never.....LOL!
Anyway, I got a new design put together for my trip, and hooked all of the pocket side and almost 2/3 of the solid side while I was away. Riding the momentum, the rest seemed to go quite quickly on Friday night and Saturday morning, such that I was able to finish all of the hooking within a week.
Yesterday afternoon, I pressed the hooking with my amazing steam iron, the Rowenta DG5030 Pressure Iron & Steamer (now there is a purchase without an ounce regret!) and while it was out and ready, I also dug out a cardigan I finished ages ago and blocked it (pictures forthcoming). I don't know why I procrastinated getting out the steamer 'just to block the sweater', but in hindsight it was just laziness meets thinking it was more of a hassle than it really is. It is not a big deal, nor does it take very much time.
While both lay to dry, I hauled out the felted mittens I stared in Georgia. Started sewing them together....and then steamed the outsides after turning the right sides out. Lay them to dry.
With all of my various project pieces needing to dry before I could proceed, I was forced to wait a spell. So I decided to play with some of my batik strips. I've been crushing on the scrappy around the world quilts that are popping up everywhere these days (simple tutorial here).....and remembered that I had cut all of those 2" strips for binding my ewe-fuse projects. But what to make? I settled on making some shams for my euro pillows, quickly calculated how many squares I would need for my dimensions....and started picking and choosing. Before long, my idea had morphed into just an 'around the world' and I was stitching up a storm. I finished up my first complete top this morning, but when I put it on my bed, I realized that the colours are too similar (blendy) with my quilt. A far better choice would be to concentrate on a colour or make more of a value statement (darker?) that would provide a better contrast. Waaah! I will have to begin again for the shams....but in the meantime, I think I might adopt the quilted piece to use in sewing my purse lining.
I'm off to go and start stitching the purse together....and finish off the mittens....and try to figure out a plan for the lining. Everything is dry now, so it's time to buckle down....and stop procrastinating! ;-)
