Monday Meanderings 12 - 11 - 2023

What a week!  I normally write my blog Sunday evenings although I date it with Monday's date. Today I'm way behind and it's nearly noon 5:00 pm on Monday as I type.  It was concert weekend.  Set up and tech rehearsal was Friday night. We dragged in nearly 6 hours after we left the house. Pat and I generally help with getting equipment from our rehearsal location to our concert space.  That amounts to a lot of the extra time. Rehearsal went well. We tried to rest up on Saturday and Sunday to save energy for the concert.  I can now show you one of the things I've been working on in secret. (I know, you wouldn't have told anyone.) 

The surprise act for the show was "Sister Act" from White Christmas, the 1954 holiday movie starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen.  The set up in the movie was Bing and Danny took the place of sisters Rosemary and Vera-Ellen for one show. (I forget why the girls couldn't go on.) Here's a link to their version. And, here's the link to Bing and Danny's version. 

I was asked to make some aprons that could stand in as dresses.  I hit my back closet and happened to have some slinky turquoise fabric. (Best part is I picked it up at the guild's free table!) I realized the slinky fabric would just fall straight down. So the closet coughed up a decent piece of netting that I could put under the aprons. After a full day of sewing I had two of these done.

Our director was able to borrow some feather fans. One of the wives found some outrageous hats at a thrift shop. Voila! Here's one of our "Sisters." 

And how about seeing both of them? 

And a candid of a group of sopranos.  I'm the one with the silver hair....

I imagine parts of the show will show up on Facebook and YouTube eventually --  Look for Spotsylvanians 2023 Concert.  

Moving right along -- Here's last week's goals. 

12/4/23

✅Bind Christmas present - done!  

✅Sew on ornaments ✅✅✅3 of 4 are done…Wow!

Make more placemats — didn’t do anything on this. 

Quilt small quilt — the backing is loaded, the batting is seamed, next load top & quilt.

✅Wash, dry and fold some fabrics — 1 box done; 1 to go (see pictures below).

✅Concert Weekend: ✅ Fri rehearsal,  ✅ Sat nite and  ✅ Sunday afternoon show 

Yea, except not a lot of sewing got done. I've got a lot going this week too although most of it isn't really time consuming. Here's this week's list... 

12/11/23

Quilt and, maybe, bind small quilt 

Sing with carol group

Quilt customer top

Finish last ornament 

Wash, dry, and fold some fabric

Make more placemats

Make more happy blocks 

Regarding those boxes of fabric here's what I've already done. You can't really see the size of the box, but it's generally called a banker's box.

One box of low volume fabric that's been washed and folded. It was fun to see what fabric was in the box.  Most pieces were less than 1 yard or fat quarters.  Surprisingly most pieces had a square cut out of them.  There were a lot of what looked to me to be 30s fabrics.  Many of the fabrics were small animals with a little geometric figure.  Most were blue and cream.  They'll be great as a background. 

My next box is reds and pinks.  Here's what it currently looks like on the guest room bed. 

In the front are the pieces I've already washed and folded.  The background is a jumble of fabric.  I try to open each piece all the way and trim any longer threads hanging off.  I've been throwing in several Color Catchers and Color Grabbers with each load.  Before throwing the washed fabrics in the drier the loose threads get trimmed again.  I'm trying to prevent a lot of extra wrinkles.  After drying I try to get the warm fabric smoothed out on the counter so I can fold it once it is cooler.  

It'll be fun to see what charity quilts we can make with all of this new-to-us fabric. 

If you're doing presents this Christmas are you ready?  We have been making donations in the name of some family members and asking the same in return. But we still give our kids and grands presents.  I'm slowly finding gifts and getting them purchased.  Hopefully everything will be in hand by the end of the week. Then there is the wrapping!  Sigh... It's time to get back to work on present finding. 

I'm linking up with the following Linky parties this week. Hope you have time to check some of the blogs out.  

Oh Scrap

Stitching Stuff at Life in Pieces

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musing

I'm hoping I get a lot more stitching time this week. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie