Third time's a charm

You know how it is - you have great intentions. You're all fired up and then BAM - it doesn't work out as planned.

Case in point - there's been several pot lights burned out in our house and I've ignored them. But when the last light burned out on the staircase to the studio, I could ignore the lights no longer. I managed to pop out the bulb - I even tried to replace that bulb with bulbs from the other pot lights in the studio that aren't being used. But many of them were burnt out (all the lights were switched over to fluorescent years ago but the pot lights remain). I tried two and neither worked - I decided to abandon that effort. I was off to the hardware store where I took the light bulb with me so I knew what to buy. OK - got it, I'll buy two packs of two as four lights are burned out. Got home and replaced the first bulb. Perfect - not there is at least some light on the stairs.

Then I pulled the second light from the staircase which was a feat in itself. OH drat - NOT the same bulb. Seriously? I think there wasn't room to put a full pot light (it's under the stairs to the upstairs) so they are smaller. Well, I don't need two packs of the other ones, so that was one of my errands to the hardware store. I returned one package of bulbs and bought two packs of the ones for the staircase. Looks like the one in the kitchen is the same as the staircase, so I'm good.

Back home with the new bulbs. DH who is taller than I am was able to replace the bulbs in the staircase and now I have brilliant light in the staircase to the studio! Yeah! So off to the kitchen to replace that bulb only to discover that it too is a DIFFERENT bulb. Are you kidding me? Back to the hardware store - one more walk and now all four lights are replaced! And I have spares with the location of each written on them.

Spare light bulbs marked for where they go

Good grief - that was a painful experience, but not really. I got three good walks out of the deal which was good for me. Trudging through the snow the last two days, my Fitbit was in its glory!

But that wasn't the only thing that happened in threes yesterday.

I managed to get not one, not two, but THREE quilts quilted. Granted they were small, but that's OK. They are part of the Ronald McDonald quilts. Our guild had acquired a whole pile of tops and I refused to hand them over until they were quilted. Now it's going to be someone else's job to bind them.

Number 1 community project quilt - DONE

 The next two were with the same backing so I loaded the back for both as one and then the first top and then the second top. All three are trimmed and ready for binding.

Number 2 and 3community project quilts - DONE

 The next one is already loaded on the long arm and ready for later today.
In my infinite organizing state of mind, I was looking at the "at bat" of my quilts. There are still four more community projects to be quilted. And doesn't this look messy?

The quilts that are next in line

 Even though I have customer quilts, I've decided that I want to get these quilts done and ready to go! There were two that didn't have backings and four without the batting. I scrounged in my backing stash and found backings - you can see them on the bolt in the photo above. This morning, I've cut the backings and organized the rack so it looks neat and organized. See - I can't help myself!

Much neater!

The bottom quilt is for my Mom which I'll do before I go out there this summer. I went through my leftover batting pieces and found these which I think will work for the missing battings. I'll have to join them as they aren't big enough, but that's OK. The batting pieces I was working with for the other ones were exactly 36 by 48 (crib size bats) and I had to add a wee bit to the side and the bottom in order to work with them.

Batting bits to be joined for the community projects quilts

 As if that isn't enough, I also made the last binding for the last construction quilt of mine. There are four in total, one is completely done and yes - THREE are left.

The binding is now on all three of them. I still have to sew one more seam on the binding, but at least the bindings are attached to the back of the quilts and I'll bring them to the front when I machine them down.

Three quilts with the first round of binding stitching done

 These constructions quilts are one of my UFOs so you can be sure that they're going to get priority over the next couple of days!!

Here's a little tip about putting the binding on by machine. I hated how the quilt would fall off the edge of the table. It would pull and make a mess and I was frustrated. So now, I'm using this machine where the quilt is "corralled" by the wall in the back and the extra table on the left. Perfect. No more quilts falling on the floor!!!

Quilt can't fall off the table

Yes - I did get that walk to the library to return a book and to the hardware store to get more light bulbs. I did NOT get to open those toys, but I need to open one this morning as I have a couple of errands to do and I need one of the toys for the errand. I can't walk - it's too far. I'm also well into the next book - a new author which I'll tell you about another day!

On that note, the long arm is ready to go, the embroidery machine is ready to go and I've got two very anxious girls ready to go. I must get myself organized and off to another busy day!

Have a super day!

Ciao!!!