With a little help from my friends

 There is NOTHING like a sewing day. Even if it's getting together on-line. I have a feeling that with the colder weather not that far away, people are going to embrace Zoom (or whatever platform they are using) a whole lot more readily. No shoveling the car out of the snow, no wet boots, no frozen butt on a cold car seat (even with seat warmers!), no frozen hands. Oh yes - I'm going to love sewing in my space this winter with Zoom!

A lot got done yesterday and a good part of it happened while I sewed and chatted. Even though I seem to chat a LOT and not sew. 

I got the disappearing nine-patch in one piece. That meant sewing that center seam and pressing it - of course, all the little seams are twirled. Those colored squares are 2" finished! The corner triangles are sewn on, but not pressed. I need to trim it and start working on the borders. 

The disappearing 9-patch in one piece

Then it was back to that double wedding ring quilt. I'm happy to report that all the B arcs are done!!!! I think there are 157 or something like that. The pile on the left needs to be trimmed and the pile on the right is done. I'm going to get them trimmed and labeled and back in the project box. Then I have to shelve this project for a week or so while I catch up with my other projects. 

The B arcs for the double wedding ring

This is my paper piecing station. A small cutting mat and pressing surface, although I did use the big iron. My trimming tools and the scraps which went into the scrap box to be used in a pet mat sometime soon since the scrap box is now overflowing. Once again................

The paper piecing station

I taught this class many years ago and so where's my class sample? Not done of course. It's actually on my Task Master list of UFOs to work on. I decided to dig out my project. I might as well work on it at the same time. I was going to focus on the B Arcs, but look - the A and B arcs are already done. 

The arcs for MY version of the double wedding ring project

Well, that's good news, but look at what I found in the project box. Yep - that's a cutting mat, a press cloth, and a ruler. This is why we end up with duplicates of stuff. The items are all back where they belong. 

Missing tools in the project box

So if you're into paper piecing, did you know that there are TWO Add-A-Quarter rulers?? The old one which was in this project box and the NEW one which is the one I was using. I don't think I'll ever use the old one ever again. The new one has a beveled edge along the one side that you use instead of the card stock for folding the paper. It's a brilliant design and I love having one tool instead of the ruler and a piece of cardstock. Yep - that old ruler could go, but it might be handy to have a backup in the event that I file the new one away somewhere which is totally a possibility. 

Add-A-Quarter rulers for paper piecing

As if that wasn't enough, I got half of the snail's trail quilt together. It's pretty easy to sew together now that all the blocks are trimmed. It's going to be donated to Quilts of Valour so I do need to add a border. This is one of my projects for my UFO meeting near the end of the month. Do I have the incentive to finish it? You bet I do. 

Snail's Trail quilt

Here's the thing about the UFO club. We pledget to get something done each month and if we don't, we lose $10. That's not a huge monetary incentive, but I find that it's enough. What I like about the club is that I MADE a commitment to get something done. I try to never renege on my commitments. I might be late, but I try to get things done that I say I will. Trust me - there are times when I would abandon these UFOs because something more important or shinier wants to be worked on. Having that incentive keeps me on track!!!

There will be a UFO club next year. Oh yes - it's going to be virtual and so if you want to sign up, you could send me an e-mail now and you can get on the list for 2021. Or you can wait until closer to the end of the year to get signed up. Trust me, this club works!!!!  With the new platform, I don't think that link to my e-mail works any longer. So it's just my first name and last name at gmail.com. elainetheriault@gmail.com

It's so nice to see the huge number of UFOs getting finished. Everyone works at THEIR own pace and sets their own goals so no pressure from any of us to get stuff done!!!

After our sewing Zoom call, I quilted a customer quilt. 

Customer quilt - DONE

I'll trim it and get the next one on the long arm later today. 

Then I decided that I should get some embroidery done. I've been doing a lot of machine embroidery this past week. Got to take pictures and write some blog posts. I do love the pre-wound bobbins for the Husqvarna Viking Designer EPIC 2. Once these bobbins are empty, they go in the garbage!

Empty pre-wound bobbins

However, at one point, we had a situation in Studio B and I almost gave Bear a heart attack. 

I had to change the bobbin and had taken the LARGE hoop out of the embroidery arm. When I grabbed the hoop to put it back on the embroidery arm, I pulled, not lifted, and CRASH!! OH - what was that??? 

Oh, shoot - an entire box of embroidery threads fell on the floor. Look - Little Bear was ready to run!!!! Oh fiddlesticks!!! Now I have a huge mess and spools of thread all over the place. I dare not leave them for an instant on the floor because Murphy loves to steal thread. 

A Box of threads fell to the floor

The container landed face up and totally empty. 

The spool box fell right side up

So I put everything back on the table and will deal with it later. Before long, I heard another CRASH although not quite so loud, and found that the vibrations from the embroidery machine had tossed the plastic case back on the floor. This time it came apart and landed upside down. 

The case fell on the floor a second time

Oh brother. I reassembled the case and put it back on the table. I had to laugh because all the dust and spool labels had fallen out. That was partly why I left it to deal with later. 

The case is now clean inside

So the case is back together and it's clean inside. I just need a wee bit of time to get those threads back into the box. I almost finished the embroidery - that'll happen this morning and it looks AMAZING. 

At one point, I was running (OK - walking since running is usually for those in a panic and I wasn't panicking) between the embroidery machine, the long arm, and the sewing machine. This is what my FitBit looked like at one point. 

My FitBit running!

I also needed to change the blade in my rotary cutter, but I was going to make a lot of noise to do that - it was very early in the morning and the blades are upstairs. So I just grabbed several other cutters hoping to find one that had a decent blade in it. You don't want to know how many cutters I have. Lots of spares! And since they have a life-time guarantee - well, I'll never have to buy another rotary cutter. 

Part of my rotary cutter collection

One more quilt pattern for the 2021 ongoing classes got decided yesterday! And I'm excited about it - I even have the pattern and the ruler! Now to get two chosen for my personal ones and I should be good to go!!!  More on that by the end of the week. I NEED to stay chained to my computer today and NOT go downstairs. 

Here's a couple of pictures I snapped on our walk yesterday morning. The sunflower is gorgeous. It's a little one but beautiful. 

A mini sunflower bloom

The painted rock is also cute and very small. Here's an article as to why you shouldn't be leaving these painted rocks in parks.  

A painted rock in the forest

Yep - I imagine that I'll be sitting at the computer for most of the day. I have a bunch of writing that needs to be done and while nothing is critical at the moment, it all needs to be done. Taking pictures, editing them, writing, and then editing the writing. I actually like doing all that - I also like sewing!! At least with sewing, I can listen to an audiobook. I can't do that with computer work!

Don't' forget the Virtual Retreat this weekend. Feel free to pass the information along to someone who you think would be interested in joining. I know so many people that are NOT getting out to their regular sewing days. This is perfect. Saturday, September 19 (Starts at 2:30 PM) and Sunday, September 20 (starts at 9 AM). 

Well, I'm off and running.  OH -- I'm putting long pants on and a down vest for the walk this morning. It's a wee bit chilly out there!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!