There just isn't enough time!!

 I'm going to try and think of one thing each day to be grateful for. We live in a great country with great resources and well - I think we have loads of things to be grateful for that we should NOT take for granted. I'm sure I'll be repeating myself as I won't remember that I've already mentioned something.

Today, I'm grateful for my two girls. They are a huge source of entertainment each and every day and I think they are definitely helping us cope with the crisis. They are also a great reason to get out and walk, although I would have no issues with walking by myself.

Although what's with the weather? One minute it's warm, then it's sunny, then it's snowing, then it's freezing. I would love a tad warmer weather, please! But I get bundled up and I'm off and by the time I get home, I'm warm! And ready for a nice hot cup of tea!

I've come to the realization that something is seriously wrong with me. OH - I'm becoming my mother! NO!!!  My Mom is a homebody and well - so am I. I've known that for a while, but was in total denial. I have to confess that I'm enjoying this isolation time. Don't get me wrong - I like my friends, I love teaching, and I love to get out, but I'm equally happy to just stay home and do whatever needs to be done.

So yes - that means another crazy productive day at the sewing machines.

But first - I got to out for a wee trip! I had ordered food for the dogs and it was ready for pickup. I had not experienced curbside pick-up so I kind of wondered how it would work. I had the general idea as it was outlined in an e-mail that I had received from them. But as I arrived at PetSmart, there was a big sign outside with the instructions.

Curbside pick-up

I called the phone number listed on the sign outside. I spoke to a staff member and I opened the trunk of the car. She brought out the food and loaded it into the car. I closed the trunk and I was off. It took mere seconds to complete that task. I noticed that someone was doing a curbside pickup at Micheals' which is just beside PetSmart.

Imagine if we had that kind of service all the time! Well - I know some stores do. While it was convenient, I would have picked up a few other things if I were browsing - things I need like poop bags. But we have enough to last for a bit longer. The girls were thrilled with their treats I bought them.

Then it was back home and I unloaded the car. And that was my big adventure for the day.

Time to head downstairs and get some work done. More organizing. Honestly, I can't believe how much stuff on those worktables just needed to be put away. While there are projects on the tables, there seems to be more stuff that just needed to find a home.

I found these two gorgeous sewing pins. I'll put them with the rest of the jewelry that I don't wear. I should wear more jewelry more often. It's just that I don't think of it. OK - got to come up with a plan to make that happen. I have some nice pieces and it would be fun to wear them more often. I could wear them around the house, but I don't see the point in that. These scissor pins would also be fun to put on a bag so I might do that with one of them.

Two scissor pins

I have a pack of weaving needles. Much smaller than the ones I found yesterday. These were acquired (thanks to Margaret) to weave a ribbon into a flatlock seam done on the serger. It's a beautiful way to jazz up that seam. The needles are now in the container with other hand sewing needles. Hmm - maybe that's where I should put Ronda's weaving tools until we find the project we were supposed to make with them.

Weaving needles

I also found two packs of FLAT sequins. These are very hard to find. You can find all kinds of cupped sequins, but flat ones are a challenge to locate. These are now stored with the other sequins. I mean - how hard would it had been to do that months ago when I got them?

Flat sequins

All the stuff that was on the walls in Studio B had to come off when they did the repair work last year. The wall art was sitting around upstairs for months. However, when I wanted a clean slate to work in Studio U, the pieces had to come back downstairs and got plunked on the worktables. So one of the inspiration boards got hung up yesterday.

Inspiration board got hung up

By the time, I was done puttering, this is the state of the worktables.

The worktables

Isn't that super exciting? Oh my - I can see more and more clear space every day. There was actually room for me to spread out some fabrics so I could make some decisions for an upcoming magazine quilt. Now that's exciting!!! It would have been fun to see a time-lapse of that table clearing but I'm OK with still photos.

Choosing fabrics for a magazine quilt

The best part of choosing those fabrics - I'm going on blind faith. They are to coordinate with a print that hasn't arrived yet! Oh well - I'm sure what I chose is going to be just fine!!!

Slow and steady - that's my new motto and I MUST, MUST, MUST put things away when I get home. That will keep things neat and tidy - I'll be able to find them and well - there'll be no need to keep moving things when I want some space to work. But since I'm only planning on working on one project at a time (more or less), there'll be no need to completely use the entire space on those worktables, unless it's a group thing! Let's see how long that lasts - but I'm SERIOUS this time and really, really feel that it's going to work.
 
I got another quilt done for Quilts of Valour. This is the second of five for this month. This is one of the quilts that was made with the pieces of men's shirting that I received years ago!! I'll be glad to see the last of them. I know there's at least one more quilt and maybe one or two more tucked away in the stack of community project quilts. 

Quilts of Valour quilt - DONE

I dug out some fabric and made the binding for this quilt and got it sewn onto the back of the quilt. I'll sew it to the front later today. I also got the binding completely sewn on the magazine quilt. The sleeve is cut and I'll get that finished later today and dropped off at the UPS office.

Binding is partially on a quilt

Then it was time to move upstairs! I got lots of work done on Night Sky quilt. I finished all the blocks and this is what it looks like.

Night Sky quilt

It's not bad considering that I didn't have even numbers of the block colors. Now that I look at it, I should switch the oranges and purples in the bottom row. Too late, I already started to sew it together. And only in one spot with a half block, did I have to put two of the same color side by side.

I managed to get four columns sewn together and then the first two columns are sewn to each other. A couple more hours and the top should be together. I must remember to look for backing fabric today.

The Night Sky quilt is partially sewn together

I have to say that I was very happy with the matching of seams. I DO NOT pin. I hate pinning. Pins slip and cause all kinds of issues. I just visually match up seams as I go. And then I "pin" using my stiletto. Yep - that works for me. And there are no nesting seams either as all the seams are pressed open.

Nicely matched intersections

But now here's the sad thing in all this. I've become obsessed with keeping the sewing spaces clean. I put all the cutoff scraps from trimming the Night Sky blocks into the scrap container. Then I actually got out the kitchen sponge (that I use for this purpose) and wiped the mat clean of all the small debris. Now the mat is super clean!

Kitchen sponge to clean the cutting mat

Even worse? I have a Swiffer in that room and I'm buzzing around every day or so to pick up all the lint. And I have a dust cloth as well.

My dust cloth

Oh boy! If only my mother could see that. I remember telling her when I was a kid that I didn't like housework and would always have a cleaning lady. Well, there's a huge difference between keeping your Studio clean and the house. Who wants to do house cleaning? But to have lint near the sewing machine? No way!!!!  Yep - my mind works in mysterious ways.

I received a request yesterday from someone close by. They were looking for some reading material in the form of books. Did we have any we could lend? Well, of course, we did! Then I thought of the box of books in the office that I was going to donate. We were finished with them and now they are GONE. Well, I'll take them back so I can donate them. but in my mind, they are gone!

OH -- in case you think the laundry baskets are going away - they are. Well, I hope to physically get rid of the laundry baskets, BUT not the laundry basket concept. You see, I have several decorative baskets that are equal to a laundry basket, but are much prettier. And what would I do with them once the stuff in them is packed into boxes? My plan is to use the decorative boxes as my new laundry baskets. I'll see how that goes - I'm not there yet, but I have to plan as I go along!

So I use Grammarly to check the spelling and the grammar of my writing. And I get weekly updates. Not just on how well I'm doing and how much I'm writing, but now they've added a TONE chart. I'm happy to see that I'm pretty positive about what I write. Amazing how we feel so much better to see things in tables or by the numbers. Well - I do, but that's part of my supposedly ordered mind!

A chart with the tones of my writing

On that note, I can't wait to get started today. I've got a lot of things on the list that I want to do, but I have a phone call and some e-mails that have to be done today. Oh let's not forget that sleeve has to be hand sewn to the quilt. Whatever I get done will be something that wasn't done this morning and that's really all that counts!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!