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I officially sent off my book manuscript to the publisher about 10 days ago! Yippee! My last quilt (of 30!) is being quilted. All of the quilts will be sent off the week of July 9th. Then the technical and copy editing by Martingale editors begins. The schedule has page proofs for review in November, and book ready to ship the beginning of June 2013. So, it will be nearly a year before it’s available for purchase. But at least we’re making progress.
I was able to do some non-quilt sewing over the weekend. I splurged on a serger a few months ago and other than thread it and briefly try it out, I wouldn’t let myself do any sewing/serging. I bought the Brother 5234 Project Runway serger (which was on sale back in early April). It’s not a high-end serger – but so far  I’ve been really happy with it. I couldn’t justify buying something too fancy for my first one.

My first projects were two large “fat quarter” bags which are great for toting quilts around. Each bag can hold 3 small quilts or 2 medium/large quilts.


Rather than use fat quarters for the first bag, I dug through my stash and found this great fabric that looks like the outside fabric was pieced. It was pieced, just not by me. It came off the bolt with the squares actually sewn together (it’s not your typical cheater cloth). I don’t remember what I had in mind  for the fabric but I had enough of it plus a matching plaid lining fabric to make the bag.
I did use fat quarters for the other version of this bag. I had  left over fat quarters from a fat quarter pack that I’d used to make a wedding quilt for my nephew and his wife. I  also had enough of a coordinating fabric to use for the lining and the ties. Ta da! Another bag but with a completely different look.


I have a third bag nearly done – except for the handles/ties. For that one I used a couple Kathy Schmitz fabric panels that I  impulsively bought several years ago. I knew I’d never use them in a quilt, so now they are a bag. I made that bag bigger than the pattern so that I wouldn’t have to cut away any of the panel. The bags are fun to sew up and they each take only about 2 hours.
I’m slowly getting my sewing room back into some semblance of order. I like how I’ve been able to situate my new serger to the left (in the photo) of my sewing machine. But it’s actually to my right when sewing. And I can push the serger to the back of the counter when I need more space by the sewing machine. Very handy.

I’ve missed blogging, but especially missed spending time reading other blogs. You’ll be hearing from me a lot more than you have in the past many months.