With a little help from my friends

 

We had a great mini Sit n Sew yesterday. However, at one point during the day, I noticed that I got three e-mails in a row indicating that my reservation for the spin class next Wednesday had changed. I thought that was weird as it's never happened before. I went from bike number 11 to 25 (which I hate that bike because it wobbles - I had it last week), then to 41 and finally to 57. What's going on? 

After the others left, I realized that the class size for gyms in Ontario had been reduced to a maximum of 10 people. That likely means they spread us out in the room that can hold up to 70 people. Instead of being at the front, I'm in the back. That's OK - I got a spot. On a Wednesday morning, pre-COVID, there would be 35 people in the room. Since the gym re-opened in August, there's been an average of 15 - 20 people in the class on Wednesday morning. Apparently on Saturday morning, pre-COVID, there's a waitlist! It's going to be even worse now! Well, with only 10 allowed in the room, it's going to be even worse! 

Now, it's going to be even more important to reserve a bike the minute the class is over. I see there are waitlists for some of the classes today. We got a notice that if we don't show up - we can get blacklisted from reserving for future classes. I've never done that so I'm good!

Anyway, I did get some work done yesterday. Even though it was catching up on sewing my ongoing quilt projects, it was still fun to just sew and chat. I'm not sure what will happen next week - we might just have to keep that one under our hat! 

I didn't get a chance to do any writing yesterday - I had to prep for my classes today. I hope to get a bit more written later this afternoon, but otherwise, I hope to do a big catch-up tomorrow when I have only two Zoom events. One is a lecture/class and the other is a chat that requires no prep. Yeah!!! And no Zooming yesterday! 

Oh - I have to tell you what happened the night before in the class. Thank god, I have a level head and am cool under pressure. I had taken the ruler foot off of the PFAFF creative icon, so I could show the class the foot close up. I was going to put it on the creative icon later to do a live demo of the ruler work. When I went to put the foot on the machine, I couldn't find the screw. OH - was it sitting on the quilt that I just unceremoniously pushed aside? NO. OH DEAR  - I can't do the live demo without that screw! Where can I quickly get another screw in that Studio? Then, I turned my head slightly and saw the screw sitting on the ironing board right beside me. I had put it there in a safe place so it wouldn't get lost. ACK!!  

Level heads prevail in all situations! Thank goodness, mine is pretty level!

I received a package in the mail this week from a colleague of mine. An enabler!!!! Look what she sent me. Seasonal bike fabric - one for the fall and one for Christmas!!! 

Seasonal bike fabric

And then two more soft background with bikes. 

Two more bike fabrics

As if that wasn't enough, she made me a bunch of orange flowers!!! I think it's time to redo the flowers on my headband. I need to figure out a way to fix these to a headband!! 

Orange embroidered flowers

Thanks so much, Margaret!!!  I love it all!!

I also got some work prepped for my tote bag class this afternoon. This was a tote bag that I think M made years ago. For some reason, it got put in the pile of stuff to be redone. I don't even remember why that happened. The bag has been used because it had dirt on it. But for some reason, I completely undid the bag a number of years ago. And there it sat. So I resurrected it for this class. 

I took the handles apart, shortened them, and restitched them using a decorative stitch on the Husqvarna Viking Designer EPIC 2. I love the choice of fabrics! Just like a teenager to choose two different fabrics for the handle. But it looks just fine!!!

The handles for the tote bag

The outer sections had not been quilted, so they got quilted with an easy stitch in the ditch. Then they got a good press and trimmed up. 

The outer bag parts

The lining didn't have any stabilizer on it (GASP!!!) So the lining has now been stabilized and the pockets are made and pinned in place. I'll stitch them down after lunch. Then it'll be the assembly this afternoon. 

The pockets are pinned to the lining

So while this isn't on the official UFO list, it's a UFO. And it's going to get done! I doubt that I'll have time to finish it today during the class, but it's this far along so I can demonstrate how to put the bag together. It should take an hour or two to completely finish it. 

The coming week is going to be busy, but not nearly as bad as this past week so that's great news. The even better news is that Thanksgiving is coming up and NOTHING planned for that weekend. I can't wait!!

On that note, I'd better get myself organized for the day!!!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!