A Week Well Finished

Well here we are, it’s Friday once again. Remember as a kid how the days seemed to linger on forever? Now it seems like I wake up Monday and when I go to bed it’s Friday. Time flies when you’re having fun!

Most of my week has been cutting the pieces for a quilt I’m making for a friend. The colors are really lovely, and the quilt will be fun to make. I’m hoping to finish, or at least get a good chunk of the remaining cutting done over the weekend so I can begin sewing next week.

In between the cutting — I need to take a break from that now and then, my back tells me — I have been sneaking some little projects in. I now have 5 Winter Solstice blocks done. They are truly an eclectic mix. I’m just making the blocks out of whatever turns my crank! Pictures coming in another post.

I’m still working on my blocks for The 70273 Project. These are such simple blocks and they are great to work on while watching a show. I think I have 14 made now. Next Friday I’m having a couple of friends down and we are going to stitch blocks for the day. It should be great fun!

One quick project I worked on this week was to make a knife holder for our steak knives. I don’t have a knife block, I don’t like all the clutter on the counter. (If you could see my counter, you would find that statement laugh-out-loud funny.) Anyway, I’ve kept the knives in a drawer, but wrapped them in a dishcloth because they are very sharp and I didn’t want anyone reaching in and cutting themselves.

Awhile ago, I ordered a pack of fabric for a quilt, and when the fabric came I realized it wasn’t what I had thought it would be. It is a mix of denims, some light, some heavy. Rather than return it, I just decided I’d keep it and see what I could create with it. I have some ideas, of course. One of them was to make a knife holder, so I finally go to it.

I decided to use a dark charcoal denim for the outer fabric and pulled a red/brownish homespun that I had in my stash for the lining.

I cut three pieces of fabric, 12.5″ x 14.5″, one from the backing fabric and two from the lining. I also cut one piece of very thin fusible fleece to the same measurement. Taking one lining piece, I folded it in half the long way, so it would now measure 6.25″ x 14.5″.  I also cut one strip 1″ x WOF for the tie.

I figured about 2.5″ for each knife pocket. That was actually a little wider than I needed in the end, but I decided to leave it as it gives a little room for the knives to shift. So that makes 10″ I’d need for the knife pockets. That left me with about 2.25″ on each end, so I marked that off, then marked each pocket off on the folded piece of lining. Once the marking was done, I sewed the pockets.

Once the pockets were sewn, I put the pocket piece atop the lining piece and tacked it on the left and right sides to keep it from slipping around as I finished the piece.

Then I ironed the fusible fleece to the wrong side of the lining piece. I probably could have skipped this step because of the stiffness of the denim, but I wanted a bit of cushioning for the knives.

Then I layered the lining piece on top of the backing piece, wrong sides together. I marked the pocket lines all the way to the top of the lining piece, then sewed through all layers on those marked lines, sewing over the pocket lines once again (for added strength).

Then I made the tie piece, folding and pressing the strip in half, then unfolding and folding to the fold mark on each side. I stitched that together.

Then I tacked the tie to the backing before I add the binding.

I rounded the upper corners of the piece before adding binding. In the end I wish I would have done so on the bottom corners too. The bulky fabric made the mitered corners a challenge.

I sewed the binding down by machine. And Voila — it was done!

It was a fun, quick project and it looks much nicer in my drawer.

So it’s been a good week with some fun projects in my quilt cave!

Happy Friday, all!

Wendy