Production is on the rise at my house

As I was working yesterday, I was contemplating my UFO situation. I realized that I have two kinds of UFOs. One is projects that are actually started and I guess qualifies as a true UFO. The other projects sitting around are those that have all the fabric purchased with a pattern (or not) and need to be started. They need to be stored separately. In some cases, those "kits" need to be disassembled and everything put back in the stash room!

I'm going to start with the REAL UFOs. I did take an empty box upstairs (oh yes - some UFOs are hiding in a bedroom) and I'll start there. I've got a clipboard and some paper to write down what goes in the box.

BUT - I decided to get back to sorting through the finished quilts since they're still all over the place.

Here are a couple more quilts that went on the bed. I could have an amazing bed turning! Should I want one of the quilts in that pile, it's going to be a challenge to get it.

Oh Canada quilt

Scrappy nine-patch quilt

Green syncopated quilt

Most of the quilts on the bed will end up being donated at some point. I'm not ready yet so don't ask. I might try to sell one or two of them. Yep - I'd take money!

Quilts that need to be added to the bed

Anyway, there are a whole lot more quilts to be added.

There's a huge pile on the floor and there are still quilts on the railings. I'll work my way through it - there's no rush.

Then I'll have to deal with the really big ones. Fortunately, there are only a couple of those. And I've got a bunch of small ones to deal with as well. Yep - a huge mess that I created in 20 years!!!


It's really hard to see in this picture, but that pile on the bed is getting quite high! At one, point, I may no longer be able to add more.

The quilts layered on a bed

That purple/green one is the bottom-most quilt - I think. But the pile isn't quite that high as the border of that purple/green one is hanging down a bit. Still, the new height of the bed is significantly noticeable.









One thing that I've noticed with this lockdown is that I'm much less scattered. I'm not running off in a million different directions. I'm not even sure if that's it, but I'm happy as a clam and the more organized I become, the happier I get. I know - I haven't touched the office and I'm OK with that. If I could get those finished quilts and the UFOs under control - that would be HUGE.

In my puttering, I'm finding little things to make my life easier. Where do you hang your measuring tapes? I don't like to roll them up - that takes time and then they are curled. I have a spot in Studio B, but not in Studio U. Then I found this little hanger. So I grabbed the hammer and a nail and found the perfect spot - right by the door. Now my two measuring tapes are very handy. I used them several times yesterday and it worked perfectly.

A hanger for the measuring tapes

Then I took the stuff that was on the counter from the panic packed bag for the retreat and shoved that all into the weekly laundry basket of work. It all fits and I'm NOT adding to it until all the stuff inside is done. It's just that simple. DO NOT - I repeat - DO NOT add anything new. I'm getting pretty good at disciplining myself. There's hope for me after all. This is all great practice for when we actually get to the real retreat house - hopefully, next month.

The laundry basket filled with the projects for the week

Here's a different angle and you can see my box of supplies as well. I need that and it'll get changed out if I need to add something like new thread or whatever.

The weekly basket of projects and the supply box

 OH - I did finish the magazine quilt. I had to laugh as there I was working on Halloween on Easter weekend!!! But the top, binding and the backing are ready to be loaded on the long arm today. I'll be working on stuff in Studio B this morning. But I need to find another laundry basket and do the same thing as I've done upstairs.

Time to dig into the laundry basket to see what I can get done. I grabbed the bag with the blue string quilt project. I needed to cut more foundations from a sheet that someone had donated.

The blue string quilt project

The extra foundations are cut and now placed in the bag with the fabric strings. It's sitting at the top of the stairs to go to Studio B later today. It's going into the next retreat basket. It's a great project to work on at the retreat and it's so super organized!!!  I can hardly wait to dive into that one.

Foundations cut for the blue string quilt

Then it was time to get the backing and binding completed for the Night Sky quilt. In case you've forgotten what it looks like - it's this one.

Night Sky quilt

I found a very bright backing with a lot of the same colors (not the same shades though). Net quite a match, but there was enough and that's all that counts.

The backing for Night Sky

Then the binding got made and it's going to be added to the "to be quilted" pile later today. It's also going to be added to the master list!!

Backing, binding and a quilt top - ready to be quilted

 I'm loving working upstairs. And for some reason, I'm being super neat. What is the matter with me? Oh yes - I'm finding out how easy it is to work when the tables are clear. I did pull out another project, but I'll share that with you tomorrow. I'm running out of time today. But this is how the cutting table looked when I shut down yesterday. Now that's super inviting to get back to this afternoon.

The cutting mat at the end of the day

I'm so trying to focus on one project at a time. Well, I will always have several projects on the go, but I don't need to have the cutting mat filled with CLUTTER. I'm also being much more responsible at putting stuff away when I'm done with it. That includes tools and fabric. I was never good at that before. Now, I'm obsessive about it.

I watched the first show of Season Two of The Quilt Show. I had some handwork to do and this is what the other side of the work stations look like in Studio U. I'm impressing myself!!!!

Watching a video on the portable DVD player

Yeah - there was more distilled water at the grocery store yesterday and my personal shopper picked up two more containers without it being on my list! OK - so I'm pretty lucky!!! I shouldn't need any for a while, although you can see that I'm already into the one that he got the other day. I use a LOT of steam when I sew.

More distilled water

 So I asked the Easter Bunny for some chocolate. This is what the Easter Bunny left me. One LITTLE bunny.

My Easter rabbit

There are only 170 calories in one bunny. Is someone trying to tell me something?

170 calories in the bunny

I'm happy to report that I'm well within my 5-pound range. I'm actually sitting at the bottom end of the range means that I've lost a couple of pounds. I have a routine for eating and I have a routine for snacking. I LOVE snacking. I'm still reading the book, Sugar, Fat, Salt and when he's talking about all those yummy things - I was starting to crave something yesterday. Well, not really but it would have been nice.

However, after you read this book and realize how artificial ALL processed food is and how the manufacturers INTENTIALLY loaded them with fat, sugar, and salt so we would get addicted to these foods. It's very sad. They care about the bottom line and not about the industry, although some of them have made efforts to help the health care industry. But when pitted against another company - they just dump more fat, sugar, and salt in the products to increase sales.

It's aggressive marketing as well - it just makes you sick. While it's easy to say we can control what we buy and what we eat, it's darn hard when their marketing efforts are screaming at us to BUY, BUY and BUY MORE. I remember back in Grade 7 Social Studies that we studied marketing campaigns and how they get people to buy. I don't remember what companies we studied, but I remember the lesson and it's stuck with me for LIFE. I always look at ads to see what tactics they use to reel people in. I try to ignore it all. Which is why I'm NOT a good consumer - at least for the good of the economy.

My girls are going to need dog food soon and so I did something I've never done before. I went shopping for dog food online! That was an experience. Finding the products worked just fine although I think it took longer to find the products than if I was actually in the store. It was my first time so that was to be expected. Then there was the question of logging in. That took a few minutes.

But when I went to put my credit card info in, the system didn't like my card. After several tries, I ended up calling and it appears it wasn't just me. The system was probably overloaded with people placing orders. I was happy with the answer and told that to the young person at the other end. Her response? "THANK YOU for being so understanding".  Can you believe that? She probably got reamed out by the other people that had already called. I got the order placed this morning and even though it qualified for free shipping, I couldn't make that happen for some reason, so I now have an excuse to go for a drive. When they e-mail me tomorrow, I get to go for a drive in my car!! I can hardly wait.

Well, I've got a load of things to do today and I'm excited to get to them. Isn't that bizarre? I hope everyone is managing OK. I'm seriously putting myself in a little hole here. I don't watch the news - I check online for any updates that I need to know about and I listen to the one-minute news on the radio a couple of times a day. I don't need to know more.

OH -- I want to leave you with this post from a sewist in New York City. He posted a bunch of pictures of downtown NYC. It looks like a ghost town.

On that note, I'm out of here.

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!