Start your engine!

This morning started me with a short interruption to take pictures of a friend’s house she has for rent.  If anyone is in need of a 3 bedroom, 2 bath rental in a nice gated community in the southwest area of Las Vegas, please check it out here.  In addition to a beautiful house, my friend is a super landlord, paying for the gardener, the pest control, and a home warranty for repairs!

But today I did get to fire up the old sewing machine!  YAY!  I put together the panels for the front and back of the Rooster Bag:

The hard part for me when sewing something other than a quilt is to remember to press the seams open. 

The band across the top of the panels is where I am using the polyester brocade.  My hands are so dry I have to be careful not to touch the cut edges or it just frays like mad.  I was very careful to overcast this seam well, then I pressed it toward the band.

Next came the interfacing for the front and back.  The directions call for heavyweight interfacing, which I used, but I was a bit hesitant of what it was going to do to the brocade, so I didn’t use as high a heat.  Of course, it didn’t fuse to the brocade.  I tried a most pressing cloth and made the iron a bit hotter, but I was afraid of melting that polyester material.

You can see how it started to wrinkle in the brocade area.  I decided to leave well enough alone, and just stay stitched close to the edge around that part.

The front and back of this bag are quilted, so next comes the padding.  The directions say to baste it all around the edges, but I made an X across the middle as well to make sure it says down during quilting.

I trimmed the padding up to the basting stitches.  Then I had to figure out how to do the quilting.  I have never been terribly successful at machine quilting before, but I know it is a fear I must face.  I did several tests on scraps to see what I liked, and finally decided that it is fairly easy if you mark the straight lines first, and use the zipper foot to keep the stitching straight.

The directions show quilting all the way up into the band (red), but when I did that part, I didn’t like it.  I have spent probably 2 hours testing and ripping stuff out to get it where I like it.  I have only gotten this half of one side finished so far- it’s only 4:30pm but my sewing space is getting dark and I am beat.  And I guess I really should work on the 1,500 word paper I have due for my English class tomorrow, since I haven’t started it at all.

I have Harry all day tomorrow, so I hope I get some free time.  Sometimes he takes a 3 hour nap – dare I dream?  J