Bears, Borders and Beans

I had a busy busy Sunday. I whipped up a second bear using using a new pattern.  This time I used McCall's Craft's Pattern M5605. It was easier than my first but I am not too fond of the pointy nose. It only had 4 pieces instead of 10.  This time I used real teddy bear eyes. Each time I'll get better. Not sure what I'll do with all the experimental bears along the way. This one is 8" tall.

I finished the border on a T-Shirt quilt I am working on for a friend. The T-Shirt quilt has a band of squares in the middle that are made up of swimsuits. I just backed them with interface like I did with the T-Shirts and they cut well without stretching. The person was a synchronized swimmer. I blurred some of the TShirts because there were names on them. I used an offset corner block design for the corners.

Finally, I made Chili. That's a big feat for me. I am been frequently visiting a certain fast food chain for their chili. I thought, a similar recipe should be out on the internet somewhere. I found this recipe for Wendy's Chili (oops, I spilled the beans) on the internet. I bought diced tomatoes and chili's in a can. I used 1 & 1/2 cans of them instead of the tomatoes. I also added a small extra can of diced green chilies. It is really good. Tastes pretty close to the original. However, it made a large pot. I'm going to have to freeze some of this!

Thanks for stopping by!

~*~Trish~*~

Bold Binding - Simplicity's Bias Tape Maker Review

Well the votes are in and the bold binding has won. I cut all my strips and joined for approximately 290"+ of 2.5" strips. I pulled out the purchased, but not used yet, Simplicity's Bias Tape Maker. The directions weren't fantastic but they got me through. I rolled my strip on to the spool but realized the foam bottom was hitting that much binding so I took it out.

My biggest issue was trying to get the fabric into the biding clip to feed under the iron. I tried using the "window" to pull through, but, I could not get it so I was going to give up. Then I got desperate and taped the fabric to a thin piece of cardboard and fed it through. Worked like a charm for me but I was concerned the tape would come off and stick inside the binding clip.

I was able to test out the process with a single 2.5 in strip. When I got it set under the iron cover and then replaced the cover and pressed start on the machine. I had to hold the iron cover to get the strip to feed. Here it turned out I did not pull the iron cover left into locked position. Once I did that, the real binding strip fed through so fast!. I am in love with this machine now. Wow, that was fast!. Here's a little snippet I took. Also, here's the video from simplicity. Just click on the video tab, I could link directly to it!

Here's my quick video of how fast this item works. Not the best quality but will do. Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by!
~*~Trish~*~

Turning Twenty Quilt Finally Completed

It was such a rainy, rainy weekend here.  One that makes you want to stay in and complete a project at home.  I made the best of it because it gave me a chance to finally finish the my 2 year old Turning Twenty quilt.  I had forgotten how big this quilt was! 82" long and 68" wide.  DH had to stand on the couch and hang the quilt over the banister to get a decent photo of the quilt.  You can see a little of the banister in the bottom right.  Here's the finished quilt and a close up of the Moda binding.  The binding has such a great tone on tone pattern to it.

Thanks for stopping by!
~*~Trish~*~