Other people's quilts

Yesterday was a very productive day! And I had fun!  Well - almost all day!  I've got a few things that I'm working on - there are the quilts that have deadlines for magazines. This month, there are three of them. There are quilts that I need for my presentation at Quilt Market - there are three of those, technically four, but I managed to farm out one entire quilt yesterday to someone. Phew - that was a huge relief!  Then there are the quilts that we need for our display.  There are a number of those - let's say about 15. I don't know the exact number.  ALL of those quilts are being made by the designer.  Top sewn, quilted, sleeve and label on - the whole deal. I just have to receive the quilt and OOOH  and AAH over it.  However certain circumstances have happened and I seem to have received one quilt and three minis to go with it that are NOT bound and have no sleeve. Then there are two others that I received with no sleeve and no labels.  And let's not forget that huge project that I also have to have done before our crates leave.  Thankfully the numbers of that project have been reduced.

Ok taking all that into consideration, here's where I stand this morning.

First things first - I was working on the cutting table and getting thoroughly frustrated because of the lack of space to lay out borders.

Cutting table, yet again - not entirely useable!

I didn't dare do a clean sweep like I did the last time because that stuff is still sitting on the floor.

Stuff from the last clean sweep!

Nope - this time, I cleared a wee space on the work tables - actually, these are no longer work tables. They're just for storing things at the moment!  Yes - one day - I'll get there!

Once I cleaned the cutting table off, I lined up the projects that I'll be working on in the next couple of weeks. But I've left the front of the cutting table clear so I can easily work on the borders. Do you know how much that helps?  Not just in terms of physical space, but psychological space as well.  It's HUGE.

A useable workspace!

I've added two bags to the table as that project needs to be worked on as well. Let's not forget my laundry basket full of that massive project, but it's still on the floor.


Now let's see what I accomplished.   I worked on Florence Flamingo by Elizabeth Hartman at our last retreat. I had all the blocks together except one because I miscut one of the pieces and had no extra fabric with me.  And of course, it's sat for months.  Now I NEED the top finished and so yesterday it was a pretty easy job to finish the one block and sew the top together.   Isn't it a fun quilt!!!

My version of Florence Flamingo

Next up was to make the binding which took no time.  No backing at the moment. I'll go shopping on Tuesday for that or try to find something in my stash later this weekend.

Binding for the flamingo quilt

 Time to work on OTHER PEOPLE'S QUILTS!!!

I got the bindings made for the three mini quilts. That was easy - two strips each.  Happy to report that all three bindings are completely stitched to the pieces!

Binding for three mini quilts

 And then I made the binding for the lap quilt that matches the mini-quilts. Yes - this binding is also completely stitched to the quilt!

Binding for the lap quilt

 Next up was to make sleeves. I could have gotten away with little triangles in the corners for the sleeve on the minis or even nothing at all as I imagine they will have to be pinned to the curtain because of their size?   But not taking any chances, I made a sleeve for each of them. The sleeves are pinned on and waiting for hand sewing!

Three sleeves for the mini quilts

Next up was a sleeve for a quilt with a scalloped border. Yikes - not an easy task, but I made seven small sleeves and those are also pinned to the quilt and ready for hand stitching. Guess I'll be watching a movie tonight!

Sleeves on a scalloped edge quilt - ready for stitching

I have two more sleeves to make today - one for the lap quilt with the orange binding and one more.  That should finish off all the other people's quilts.  Then I can get back to focusing on my own stuff.

But I was even more productive yesterday because as my ender/leader project while doing all that sewing, I got all the half square triangles for one of the magazine quilts sewn.  Not just sewn, but I trimmed as I went along. A bit more cutting and I'm ready to sew the blocks together.

Some of the trimmings from the HST

I even popped out to do some errands yesterday - I had forgotten to mention to DH that we needed icing sugar in order to make the whipped cream. Finished my book while I sat outside and enjoyed the weather with the girls. Then we went out to dinner and when we got home, I was too tired and not hungry to even eat my pumpkin pie. I went to bed!

So yes - prioritizing and focusing means I'm getting a huge amount of stuff done. Today and tomorrow are going to be more of the same. It'll all happen - it's just a question of watching those deadlines and getting stuff done to meet the dates!

On that note, I'm out of here for today!

Have a super day!

Ciao!