It's a good news day!!

Wow -- this month (like all the others) is marching on and waiting for no one. If we don't take advantage of today, well - it won't be there tomorrow! I try to take advantage of every minute, but don't worry - I do get some downtime in there. I actually picked up a REAL book yesterday. I had let three audiobooks expire without reading them. I just couldn't bear the thought of reading. And I certainly had not picked up a physical book to read in weeks.

Why? I bet it's because of all the time I've been spending on Zoom and watching BluPrint classes. There's only so much stimulation that my brain can take. I'm OK with that. I've read a ton already this year, and it's OK to take a break. And yes - almost the moment I sat in the gazebo, I was asleep. I had woken very early in the morning, so I knew that was going to happen—what a calming, peaceful space. I just love it!

I have a couple of peonies in the backyard and oh shoot - I completely missed those blooms, but I see there are a couple of buds. And the lily pad had five flowers yesterday. It's glorious!

The peony

Every morning on our walk, I pass by a couple of blooming rose bushes. For some reason, that makes me think of dahlias. When I grew up, my Mom had a TON of dahlias. Now, here's the thing - she pronounced them DAYlias, not DAAAlias. Who knew that all those years, I was pronouncing that flower name incorrectly.

We had our Monday Zoom sewing session yesterday. That was four hours of sewing. In my case, I was ripping the paper out of my paper pieced blocks. I had been lazy and photocopied the patterns onto regular printer paper, and the pieces were small, so it was a hassle to take out. But it's all DONE. I was hoping to get the mini-quilt for my swap partner quilted yesterday, but that didn't happen. However, it's loaded on the long arm and ready to go this morning. It requires custom quilting, but at 19" by 24", it shouldn't take long.

I love how our Monday sewing group just keeps on sewing! I almost think our Zoom meetings are better - GASP!!!!!  No need to worry about the traffic, no need to worry about packing up supplies, setting up tables, and forgetting something at home. It's great, and I swear, it's almost like being there!! People can pop in and out if they have an errand or want a cup of tea.

Joyce sent me this little quilt she made for the NICU of her local hospital. She used her scrappy half-square triangles (OH MY - another convert!) and made the center block. Then she added some borders and got a cute little quilt. It's completed as well, so I know she was sewing all afternoon as when we closed the meeting, she only had the top done. But now it's completely finished!!! How's that for motivation???

Joyce's little quilt

 I swear - these Zoom things are fantastic!!! In case you want to give it a try, don't forget the dates in July. That would be the 18th and 19th of July. Just saying - we get a LOT done, and it's loads of fun.

I got another community project quilt done. This one is just a bit small for Quilts of Valour so it'll go to another organization. Someone donated the top, and we added borders.

Community projects quilt

Whoever gets it is going to be extra happy because the back is PLUSH!!! I'm not sure how that got included in the giveaway pile, but it worked and seriously - if I was the one that donated it, it's easy enough to get more purple plush.

The backing of the quilt

It's a lot of work "feeding the beast" that's also known as the long arm. I try to have everything prepped for the next quilt instead of trying to prep and load on the same day. I had to prep the batting for the last Quilts of Valour quilt for this month. I used three pieces of batting and got the batting ready to go. I love this method of joining batting. I use strips of fusible tricot (a stretch interfacing). I buy it by the yard and cut it into strips. Super easy and cheap.

Joining batting

I also had to prep a backing for a quilt. I found a piece of green in MY backings stash. As mentioned, NOTHING is sacred in that stash room now. The more I grab stuff, the happier I feel. I'm over the "it's all mine" feeling. HOWEVER, before you ask for something, I'm happy to DONATE it to my community projects, but NOT to sell or give away just for the sake of getting rid of it. I bought it - I want to have fun with it. But nothing is sacred. That is such a FREEING mindset that I wish I had it years ago. But I had to evolve to get there.

Anyway, I was prepping the backing and found this. Oh, shoot - a JOIN. I did not want this join in my backing - well, I'm OK with a join, but not one that looks like this.

A join in the fabric

Upon further investigation, this join was done BEFORE the design was printed. I sure hope the manufacturer paid LESS for this. It would drive me crazy to find this in my fabric. This is the manufacturer of the greige goods trying to save money by joining two rolls of fabric to get a large enough roll of fabric to print.

The join from the back

You can see in the photo that this was done BEFORE the printing was done.

And look - even got a nice tuck in the fabric that didn't get printed. The fabric came from a good fabric company. So it wasn't them that scrimped, but I sure hope they got a discount on this role of fabric. I was annoyed. This is the back of a community project quilt, so I'm not overly worried, but if that were for me, I'd be mad. I would have lost about 6 inches if I cut that off.

A pleat in the fabric that didn't get printed

All in the fun and games that is the fabric manufacturing business.

So two GOOD things happened yesterday. I was searching for a fabric that I had used in the magazine quilt that's in the current issue of Quiltmakers. I've used up everything that I had. I used the leftovers to cut out my backpack. I decided to change the way the straps were made. But that required a half yard of fabric. Where to find that? So I went to the Northcott website (in this case, it was their batik division - Banyan Batik) and searched out the fabric line. Then I hit product finder in the top right-hand corner. I found several shops out west that had ordered this fabric. Now I've had my fabric for months, and I think this is a second run on that fabric.

Product Finder on Banyan Batiks and Northcott website

I had sent an email to one shop and never got a response. So I cheated a little and contacted the designer and asked her. NO - she had nothing as she was madly sending out all that she had for samples. So I went back to the product finder and decided to send an email to ALL the shops on the list.

Within MINUTES of sending the emails, I got a phone call from Fabricland in Vernon, BC. It was a gentleman and YES - they had that fabric. As a matter of fact, it had arrived THAT DAY!!!  Perhaps, that's why the other store didn't respond as the designer told me it was only just now being received in the shops.

So now, I have a yard of that fabric winging it's way to me. I wonder how long that'll take? I doubt that I'll get it before I'm planning on sewing the backpack. That's OK. Just knowing that it's on its way is good enough for me.

The crazy thing though, is the price. The store in Vernon is a franchise store - the Fabriclands in Western Canada are mostly franchise stores (I think), and of course, the prices are crazy. That was $34 a meter!!!  Yikes - but there was a 50% sale! Thank god!

And then, of course, the original store that I had sent a note to also responded that they have the fabric. Perhaps, they didn't respond because they hadn't received it yet, but knew it was coming???

The second piece of good news is also about fabric. Remember that missing fabric for the quilt that's due very soon? I just couldn't find it, yet I didn't remember putting it anywhere. As I was standing near the long arm, I looked up. Hmmm - I wonder if it got shoved UP. Then I started to think about that.

See that blue container? It got shoved up on the bookcase to help hold that quilt in place (for my backdrop when shooting videos). I pulled it down, and guess what????  I found my fabric!!!!!!

A blue box on top of the bookcase

Oh yes - I was a very happy camper yesterday. It was a great day all around!!!!

The missing fabric

I took a walk late in the day and walked past the mall. OK - I don't understand what's going on. They have a wall built now, but still all that rough concrete hanging on the outside. What do I know about construction? But I hadn't been near the mall in a while, so I thought a photo was due.

Construction at the mall

 So instead of cutting what I should be cutting, I decided to work on my Let Sleeping Dogs Lie quilt, which is my UFO project that's due on Sunday. So I guess I'm allowed to work on it, but should I be cutting extra blocks??

Cutting extra blocks for my UFO project

 


However, I was missing a piece before I could move on, so all is good.

A piece of fabric is missing

 Let's see - I also got a quilt concept off to the magazines ON TIME. The idea had been percolating in my head and just needed to be put into a format for them to see.

I found a couple of other pictures sent to me. This is what Sheila worked on during our Virtual Retreat. They are four placemats. She said that she would NEVER have got as much done as she did if she hadn't been sewing along with us!!! Dede said the same thing to me yesterday!!!

Sheila's four placemats

Thanks for sharing, Sheila! They are gorgeous!!! Good luck in getting them quilted!!!!


And we got to share vicariously in some birthday celebrations. I'm not going to remember the type of cake that this was, but it was chocolate, butter, something, and it looks yummy!!! Happy belated birthday Sharon!!!

Birthday cake

And that's a wrap for today. I've got loads to get done today - some small stuff to finish up. Another porch pickup to finish arranging and well - just another typical day.

WAIT!!! I forgot - people send me links to things as well. The other day, I was lamenting about the amount of water and time that people spend on their lawns. It turns out that lawns have a practical purpose. Granted this web site is from the Lawn Institute, but still, they have some excellent points. I have no objection to lawns per se, but I do have an objection to the amount of water that is used on lawns when grass basically doesn't die. And I hate when people do not know how to water their lawns. It just seems wasteful.

OK - now that's it!!!!

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!!!