When you can't sleep.......................

I had the best day ever! Well, that seems to be a theme around my house most days! But I hosted a mini-sewing day. Yep - most of us are totally cooped up in our homes with tiny social bubbles, and we have a group that we went to retreat with. So Claudette and Lynn came over to sew. Yes, Zoom keeps me sane and in touch with everyone, but it was so exciting to see and chat with actual people.

So you're not all panicking, here are my thoughts on this pandemic. We will ALL get COVID at some point. It's a variation of the flu - we've all had the flu. None of us want to get it, but we do. People die from COVID, people die from the flu. We have to learn to live with these viruses because guess what? There's more where these ones came from. Hopefully, this pandemic has taught us all that we should be practicing good hygiene ALWAYS, sneezing into our sleeves, staying home or isolated when we are sick, and washing our hands.

And staying healthy! Yes - I realize that some people have health issues, and that's OK. They just need to be a bit more cautious. Don't get me wrong, I'm careful, and I'm sticking to home for the most part, but I don't want to live in fear, and I don't want to live in isolation forever. Wash your hands and move on!

What did we work on yesterday? Claudette has had a jelly roll rug prepped since February and waiting until she could use my table set up to make it. Yesterday was that day!!

She hasn't lost her touch as that center is VERY flat. I was quite impressed since she's using one of my machines so not used to it.

The flat center of the jelly roll rug

There she is -- down to the last bit to sew on.

The tail end of the strips

And voila - a jelly roll rug.

The finished jelly roll rug

She made it with a Christmas jelly roll. But once it's all together, you don't really notice that it's Christmas fabric.

A closeup of the fabric in the rug

Just because this pattern is called the jelly roll rug, do NOT feel that you have to make it with a jelly roll. A jelly roll is just an EXPENSIVE pack of 2 ½" strips. Cut up some hideous coordinating fabrics that you have and use those. Cut up the remaining yardage from a project and make 2 ½" strips. All you need are 40 or 42 strips and the big pack of batting, and you're ready to go.

Lynn is working on the Border Creek Let's Be Friends Sew-Along quilt. All the blocks are the same, which always amazes me since most sew along have different blocks each week or month. This block is a LOT of work, and well, there were a few design challenges that needed to be dealt with. But it's together, and it looks fantastic.

Borer Creek Sew Along block

I got the two blocks for Vintage Christmas done! Only one week late. Good grief. I've been so good at keeping up and then - well, stuff just kept getting in the way. The best news - the homework has also been written and sent out.

Block from Vintage Christmas by Lori Holt

A second block from Vintage Christmas by Lori Holt

The Christmas Fig homework was due yesterday, so I worked on the two blocks for that. I made good progress and got all the cutting done and the components - flying geese, half-square triangles, and all that silly nonsense. It shouldn't take too long to finish off the blocks later today and get the assignment written and sent out.

I finished the article for the magazine. I LOVE Grammarly for writing. Yes - my skills are decent, but I find huge improvements since I paid to have the full version of Grammarly. I'm getting better with the passive voice and dangling participles and whatever other things I do. It's like a challenge to get the document to be totally error-free. But not only do I have to worry about the grammar, but I need to make sure that what I'm saying is clear and concise, especially in the homework assignments. The last thing I want is for people to misinterpret what I'm trying to say, and that's a HUGE challenge.

I did get a few things tidied up, but not much. But in the middle of the night, I was wide awake! I had received an exciting e-mail in the evening, and I needed to find something that I've been looking for for a couple of days.

I decided that I would get up and search since I knew I was close. I was looking for a book by Jen Kingwell. I started off by finding three patterns by Jen, none of them the one that I wanted. I found this basket of fabric that I think I was going to use as a starting point to make one of the quilts in the photo below. I shelved the patterns with my other patterns, the polka dot fabric went in the black basket, and the rest went in the modern section. I'll use the fabric at some point, but since the fabric isn't even all pulled, I'm not putting this into the box of new projects.

Jen Kingwell patterns and some fabric pulled for one of them

So I dug out the Gypsy Wife project. I still couldn't find the book.

Gypsy Wife by Jen Kingwell project

This one is already on a shelf, so it doesn't need to go in the UFO box. It's on the shelf that I said I should deal with once the mess on the floor is contained.

From the mess at the bottom of the stairs, I dug out a plastic box that had an assortment of stuff in it. AHA - I found the book for Gypsy Wife. Now the book is back with the project. One problem was solved. I still didn't find the book I was looking for.

The Gypsy Wife book

OK - if the Long Time Gone book is NOT with the Gypsy Wife book, then it has to be on the bookshelves. I had started to search the bookshelves but only searched one of four sections. I began in section two and VOILA - I found the book!!! This is what kept me up last night. I had a vision of where the book was, and while it wasn't quite enough for me to walk straight to the book, it was enough to jar the memory to search for it.

Long Time Gone by Jen Kingwell pattern

What's hilarious is that I bought the book on July 2, 2018. How do I know that? I was chatting with Ronda last night, and she has a note on her phone about this book. We saw the book at a quilt show in 2018. I was on the fence about whether to buy the book or not. I eventually decided to go back to that booth to buy it, and guess what? The book was gone. So I ordered through the store and went and picked it up from St. Catherines - Kindred Spirits. Ronda has had the note every since that she wanted to make the quilt.

So why did I want the book? Well, there's going to be some exciting news coming soon. This is going to be an online class. Sooner than you think!!! I'm giving you the heads up, and if you're interested, I'll point you in the right direction to get signed up. We're just working out all the details at the moment. If you have the book and weren't courageous enough to do it on your own, then start pulling fabrics and get ready. You'll be able to follow along from the comfort of your sewing room, so no matter where you live, you can work on the quilt with us.

That's all I'm going to say about that for the moment. But the Zoom classes have been loads of fun this past year. And trust me, when I do a Zoom class, you get a written homework assignment that is worthy of the book itself. However, you need the book - my notes are not enough. And YES - sometimes, they are late - that's just life!

I'm in the process of writing one more homework assignment and hope to get that out by 9 AM this morning. That leaves two more to write, and I really want those out of the house by tonight. I'm going on a wee road trip this morning, so the homework has to wait!

Oh yes - I have to tell you about my stack of quilt tops. I saw a picture of my god daughter's little boy. He was off to his first day of school in Quebec. Just the cutest little guy ever. He had a Spiderman backpack and lunchbox, which made me think of one of the quilts in my "to be quilted" pile. I grabbed my master list, and within seconds, I had located the quilt that I wanted, right on the bottom of Tub Number 6. It's going to be quilted tomorrow and then back to customer quilts next week. Just wait until you see this - he is going to freak out!!!

And on that note, I'm out of here!!!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!