Why sewing is like riding a bike!

Prepping for this Quilt Market reminds me of when I rode my bike across Canada in 2013. Along the way, we stopped in lots of places and chatted with a lot of people. When we were on the west coast of Canada and we told people that we were riding to St. John's in Newfoundland, people looked at us like we had lost our minds. As we moved closer to our destination, the attitudes of those we chatted with changed. They went from - "are you crazy?" to "WOW - you're almost there!"

It took 10 weeks to ride those almost 8,000 KM.  Well - I feel like I've been sewing for 10 weeks and I'm sure that I've sewed more than 8,000 KM of seams!!!

There is one major difference - I did NOT reveal to anyone exactly how much had to be done.  I'm an idiot, but I'm not that much of an idiot.  I know what people's reaction would be.  Can't be done, you're crazy, etc.

I leave tomorrow evening - late.  While I'm not out of the woods yet, I'm making excellent progress and you know, I might just get it all done.  There is zero time for mistakes, well major ones anyway.  I'm not even sure if I'll remember everything that I did - it's all a blur as I was sewing like mad!

This is what my cutting table looks like this morning.  Actually, I think absolutely everything that still needs to be done is on the table.  I have to finish putting the binding on that big quilt and hand stitch the sleeve. I'm thinking that it will get tacked on which I hate to do, but there is no time for hand stitching unless I have a few moments tomorrow before it goes into a box.

Cutting table

I had ONE more quilt for a magazine that was due by the end of the month. Since I'll be away, I had to rush to get these three (yes THREE) quilts done this month for the magazines.  The last one is all cut. There are 30 blocks in total, 4 of which are completely assembled, 10 which are plain squares of fabric and the rest just need two seams each and they are done.  I can't put them on the design wall as there is something else on there.  Yes - ONE MORE QUILT.  This one doesn't need to be quilted.  Has 18 blocks in it. When I arrived home last night, three blocks were already pieced, everything else (except one block) was cut.   Now there are four blocks left and then to sew in the pieced background which is also cut!

I still have those darn tote bags to finish up - the handles, the bottoms and the pocket lining.

Oh yes - almost had a major SNAFU yesterday. I got home a bit earlier than usual and realized that I didn't have enough of the background for this next magazine quilt. Thankfully Ruti's Needlebed, which is eight minutes away, had the fabric and I was over there and back in 20 minutes!  Last night, I realized that I had forgotten to buy WHITE batting.  I think I'll be making one more trip to the quilt store this morning as soon as it opens.

So there is still loads of work to be done but I'm sequestered in my studio today and I'll be attacking that sewing machine.  It won't know what hit it!

On that note, I'm out of here so I can get to work.

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!

By the way, I think Miss Lexi has something to say this morning.