Labor Day Weekend Doings

Ah, the Labor Day Weekend--always anticipated and enjoyed.  I was free after 12 noon Friday so got an extra half day's start on the holiday, pottered about in the sewing room playing with more log cabin blocks, cutting scraps and did a little embroidery on Sue Goes to the Orient while watching TV.  Saturday morning we went to grandson Cove's soccer game.   

It was hard to get a good shot of the moving objects.  Cove is the yellow Tiger on the left of the group.  The rules for the little players works well, they meet once a week at the same time for a 30 minute practice and then the 30 minute game follows immediately afterward.  The field is a lot smaller and they play at most 4 on a side, switching out players.  

Little brother Hunter got in some plank exercise while the action was on the far end of the field :)  The Tigers scored 4 goals and Mama Elaine had snack duty this game.  

Pretty cool banner, one of the other moms designed it, if I recall correctly.  This age group plays a very short season but they are learning and having fun.  It is pretty entertaining to watch, too!

After the game we took a drive and then it was back to the sewing room.  I was intrigued by a WIP busting idea I saw on a stitcher's blog: She proposed for the month of September working on one project for 3 days, then change to another for 3 days, etc.  While I don't think she decided to do that after all,  it sparked for me.  There were certainly plenty of choices in the sewing room!  I jotted down 10 WIPS but numbered them only for reference and will pick and choose the next as I go.  

#1 chosen is the Tea Time Placemats already started and destined for my nephew and his new bride. I figured the binding strips needed, cut and sewed the binding, then cut batting for the four placemats.  I played with specialty stitches on my sewing machine before spray basting the batting to the placemat backs and fronts.  I like to press the sandwich after spray basting to remove any wrinkles.  The Hera marking tool worked great for the few registration lines I made, mostly I just eyeballed it. 

Each placemat was trimmed after quilting.  They went pretty quickly, I only had to rip out one row of stitching where the first scallop pulled out.  That necessitated removing the walking foot and cleaning off the accumulated sticky fluff from the bottom with an alcohol wipe.  I also changed the needle and wound a new bobbin during that break. 

They were  soon finished and I took this photo before setting them aside for the day.  The binding will go on tomorrow and they will be finished.  The newlyweds have moved and I'll need to contact my nephew to get them sent to the proper address.   I did some figuring for other projects and will use some parts as leader-enders while sewing the next 3 day pick.  While I don't expect to completely finish much, just moving a bunch of projects along will be satisfying. Hope you all are enjoying some late summer sun and fun this weekend.