No one to blame but myself!!

I say that with tongue in cheek! When bad things happen, I always try, very hard, to pass the blame onto someone else, but several things happened yesterday that - well, there was only me to blame. I'm good with that. Let's say that I had a few laughs over it and let's move on!

I was back to the dentist yesterday. Three weeks in a row! I hope that's the last of the dentist until my next cleaning in six months. This time, it was to get some work done on two teeth. Not really cavities, but areas that needed some build up? I can't really explain it, but anyway, I needed freezing. Of course, they tell you not to eat anything until the freezing comes out, or you'll chew up your lip. Right? My appointment was at 10:30, and I usually eat lunch at 11:30. By 12:30, I was getting hungry, so I thought it was OK to eat some soup. OK - so I had some cheese and crackers as well.

Well, as careful as I was, I managed to gnaw on the inside of my lip! So, while my teeth, where the dentist worked, feel fine, my lip is sore today! Yep - I should have listened!

While I was at the dentist, I asked a fundamental question. Should you floss before or after you brush your teeth? I had heard them chattering on the radio last week that you should floss BEFORE you brush your teeth. I wanted confirmation. I had to chuckle at the dentist's response. He said, "I'm happy to get people to floss, never mind that they floss and brush in the right order." Or something to that effect.

I said to the dentist, "If I'm going to put the time into flossing, I need to do it right to maximize my effort!"  So, I've been flossing before I brush my teeth to dislodge all the crude and well - I want a glowing report at my next check-up. I'm going to call them in advance to order champagne and balloons!!!

Maybe, I'll even start flossing and brushing twice a day! I'm determined. Of course, this is all a little too late. Well, not too late because better late than never. I just wish it was a habit that had been instilled in me when I was younger. Let's move on - we can't go back in time.

I cut out the blocks for the Vintage Christmas homework that is due today. I'm happy to report that the blocks are sewn together, and I'll be writing up the homework shortly. However, I did such a poor job of cutting. I would cut ONE of each piece and then realize after that I needed two or more. It was the worst cutting job ever! I must have been totally dreaming about the backyard at that point. The blocks are done - let's move on!

That's one advantage of having deadlines. If you goof up, you have no choice but to fix and move on!

I did NOT go in the backyard yesterday. No - that's a lie. I did eat lunch and dinner out there, but I did not go to the gazebo. That's just deadly!!

I did snap a picture of the pond with SEVEN flowers. Those lilies are flourishing with no help from me.

Seven flowers in the pond

Thanks to Pauline, I realize that the way my Mom pronounced "daylias," rather "daalias" is the British way rather than North American. Which makes sense as my grandfather was from London, England, and an avid gardener!!!

Here's a customer quilt that I quilted the other day. I still need to trim it so the customer can come and pick it up. I hope to get to that today. It's very dramatic! I believe this is a paper-piece pattern by Violet Craft.

Customer quilt - DONE

 I puttered to get some small stuff done. These are the flower buttons that I wanted to put on my Mom's quilt. Yes - I need to get that quilt in the mail. I spoke to her yesterday and told her it was coming.

Look at that huge shank on those buttons. That's just not going to work on my flat quilt.

A large button shank

I used the wire cutters and snipped off the shank. The little shanks from the four buttons went flying. I'm sure I'll find them around Studio B someday.

The flower button with NO shank

I used hot glue to attach the buttons to the wall hanging. The bird got a bead (sewn on) for an eye, and the heart button got sewn on one of the birdhouses.

The summer mini-quilt

The back is done with TWO labels no less. One with the story and one is my signature label. The two hanger triangles are on, and this one is DONE.

The back of the summer mini-quilt

I just need to find a box for it and walk to the post office. One thing that I'm noticing is that places that I used to think are far away to walk to are really not that far once you do the route once or twice. I've started on a new route in the evening. It's a HUGE block around my area. It takes me 1 hour and 15 minutes, and I'm going at a good pace. It's over 5 KM. I should actually measure the distance someday.

So, there I was back at the long arm and quilting the last of the Quilts of Valour quilts that I'm prepping for this month. I got ready to do the last row and NO WAY!!!!!!  I made the backing for this quilt, and I made it too short!!!!

Not enough backing for the quilt

Well, that put a damper on my positive attitude! Let's just say that I said a few choice words. And then I said a few more choice words. Then I just got the fabric out and cut more and added it.

I decided to try something different. I used the long arm to sew the extra piece to the existing backing. Let's say that was a challenge, but it worked. I must see if there's a YouTube video to get some tips. I know that if I pinned the two pieces together, it would probably have worked better.

Sewing some extra backing to the existing backing

Soon, I was back in business. So what happened? When I did my calculation, I cut 20" of the extra fabric to add on. Then instead of cutting a second piece that was 20" to add lengthwise to the first piece to make it long enough, I cut the 20" in half and then joined the two 10" pieces end to end!!!  Oh boy - my brain was in another world that day. No matter - it didn't' take that long to fix. But here's a lesson learned - before you put the quilt on the machine, just do yourself a favor and check to make sure the backing is the right size!!!!  After the air cleared, I did have a chuckle and thought - YEP - even you make mistakes! Well, we knew that anyway.

Now the backing is large enough for the quilt

And there's the quilt - DONE. It also needs to be trimmed. Amazing how that pile of quilts to be trimmed just seems to grow!! But once they get trimmed, I need to do the bindings! For most of the quilts these days!

Quilts of Valour quilt - DONE

I got the binding on this small wall hanging. I love the bright green. It really pops.

The binding is on the Christmas wall hanging

And there's the back. This one also got the little triangles in the corner for a hanger.

The back of the Christmas wall hanging

Someone asked me how this system works. Well, you take two squares of fabric and fold them in half on the diagonal. Baste them into the top two corners of your quilt. I would only do this for a small quilt. Then you can insert a dowel or a flat lathe into those pockets and hang the quilt on a single nail hole.

The triangle hanging system 

I joined Costco the other day. I went to get the membership and two things. I got 11 items, and that cost me almost $200! Oh well - it's stuff I need and will use. I didn't buy anything frivolous. BUT I saved three dollars (from my local grocery store) on a huge watermelon. Oh my - I'm enjoying that watermelon. It's delicious. I'm the only one who eats watermelon in our house, and I'm perfectly OK with that. No need to share!!

My watermelon snack

While I was working on the homework for Christmas Vintage, I managed to use my snail's trail blocks as my enders and leaders. I now have four blocks completed. Yes - I'm counting the one with no contrast.

Snail's trail blocks

Gosh - that bugs me. I can live with the one on the bottom left, but the one on the right? I may just take the silly thing apart and fix it. It drives me nuts.

Another box of goodies arrived yesterday!!  I won't need this for a month or so, so I'm not even going to bother opening it. OH - I should, just to check that it's the right thing.

Box of goodies

Oh - let me tell you how much I wish it was the box of fabric that I'm expecting. I double-checked the delivery date. I thought it might be the next day like the first package they sent me. Oh no - they put it on the slow boat, and it's not due to arrive until June 24th. The day I'm supposed to leave for a couple of days. Good grief. That means I'll work like a dog when I get home to get the quilt sewn and quilted in two days. It can be done, but just a pain to work that fast.

Add in several Zoom meetings with customers (including M) and that about rounded out the day. I swear, keeping up with all the paperwork is a challenge. But I'm doing OK.


Well, it's going to be another wild and crazy day at my house. Let's hope that there will be no blaming of anyone today! My lip feels better today, but it's going to take a couple of days to heal. Oh - I just shake my head!!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!