I haven’t made much quilting progress over the last week. While I am still hand-quilting the Norah quilt, this might take me the rest of 2020. Not complaining–it’s nice to have my hands busy while watching stuff on TV and I’m still spending just as much time in the sewing room.

I have about six rows left to quilt all around this giant square log cabin. I thought my stitching was getting better, but then I saw this closeup. Hmmmmmm. Room for improvement! But I’m okay with it. I’ll get better!

So what am I doing in the sewing room? I continue making face masks. I sent some to DC kids then decided I should use some of my fun Cotton & Steel fabric for a few. They will be fashion statements! Here’s the first one. More to come!

I had a former neighbor ask what I would charge to make her a shopping tote. I get asked this a lot. Also about selling my hand made quilts and dishtowels. I don’t sell anything I make. I prefer to teach people how to make them and I have done that many times in our Sew Cool! Workshop that we hold at the Old Homosassa Learning Center. Then I decided to figure out what it does cost to make a tote. Just using a rough estimate using all new fabrics and cotton webbing for the handles, the materials alone would be about $25. It takes at least three hours to cut the fabrics and put it all together. Minimum wage is about $8.50 here in Florida. So to actually make any profit from these bags, I would need to charge over $50. No one is going to pay that. So I just made her one. I’m calling it a housewarming gift!

And since I had the denim out on the cutting table and the sewing machine all set up with the jeans needle, I made me one too! Pretty in Pink!

(I have to admit that the pricing was based on all new fabrics. I usually use old jeans for the exterior that friends and family give me or I pick them up at yard sales and thrift stores which would drop the price about $3.00.

One more project that I finished this week. I thought this toiletry bag would be easy. I’ve made them before and even taught members of the Sew Cool! Workshop. I wanted to change the size up. It was a bad experience! And the size is not at all what I had intended. Some times I have wins. Some times not!

It’s pretty! But I’ll be doing some more research on it before I post any tutorials!

Hopefully I’ll have some quilting news and project finishes next week!