The definition of a good day

 Yesterday was a PERFECT day! Well almost! But let's just say that I see a LOT of light at the end of the tunnel, and it's coming pretty fast!

First - I've been madly listening to audiobooks and just finished The Billionaire Murders - a story written by a Toronto Star reporter about Barry and Honey Sherman who were murdered three years ago in their home. Hmmm - an interesting read, and why did the police seem to mess up this case so much. The murderer is still on the loose, but with BILLIONS of dollars on the line, it almost seems that a family member did it. 

But next on my list is another thriller, and well - I want to listen to it today, but it's Virtual Retreat day! Oh my - not what I expected at all, but I'm already a quarter of the way through. It's called Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier. Hmmm - another Canadian author! Well, I'm intrigued and may have to read some of her other books. My author list is HUGE!! Thank goodness for expanding beyond the standard authors that I was reading. 

Now - I know you want to know what happened yesterday. Is the customer quilt finished? And the answer is YES. I turned on the long arm and fired up the computer. 

Let's just say that there were a few more learning curves to go through, but I managed them myself. The design has to be set for EACH of the setting triangles separately. Sometimes the pattern was on the ends - like in this photo. That was easy. 

The design stitching out on the right of the quilt

Then it had to be rotated (easy peasy!)! However, the first time I rotated the design, it didn't fit. Why not? Same height and width as before? No?  AH - the height is now the width and vice versa. That took a few minutes of thought process, and all was good. 

Stitching along the bottom of the quilt

I even removed a few more stitches from the design when I got to the corner. It's a scary-looking screen with all those buttons, but I think I know how to use most of them now. At least the ones on the right. OK - who am I kidding - I know how to make this work, but what about next time? 

The PatternCAD screen

Once the Christmas craziness is over, I plan to dig out a couple of quilts that I can play around with. As a matter of fact, I have a couple of on-point table runners. OK - I MUST dig those out and play with them. 

Anyway - here's the quilt - done! It's trimmed and already picked up by the VERY PATIENT customer. 

Customer quilt - DONE

I would have liked a bit more coverage in the block, but I think part of it is how the block was designed, so I'll be experimenting with that next week. 

The setting triangle - the design was cut and placed

The design in the alternating blocks

The setting corner

The bottom line is that I learned a TON, and now I'm excited to learn more. I told the customer that I didn't know whether to thank her or curse her for "making" me do this for her. Now that it's over   - I thank her a LOT!!!  Don't worry - I did NOT charge her for my learning curve. 

Then it was on with the next project. I loaded the next customer quilt and the PUFFY polyester batting that she gave me. ICK! Here's that quilt - DONE. 

Customer quilt - DONE

I still have to trim it - a job for later today. And then I need to find some fabric to put a binding on it for her. 

I have a couple more quilts for the same customer. I had to make the backing for the next one. That's done, and the quilt is loaded and ready to go later this morning. 

Then I got to work on the T-shirt quilt. Even though I have a slight reprieve, that's NOT an excuse to set it aside, something I would have done before. NO - get it done. 

This is how it looked when I shut things down last night after our retreat. All the T-shirts are cut - I may have to trim the height from a couple on the right-hand side. I had to do some applique, goofed on the width of one when I was trimming it, but it's all fixed, and NO one is going to know what happened. The left-most column is sewn together. It shouldn't take too long too long to finish this off today. Hmm - I might move some of the dark T-shirts - too many dark along the bottom. That's easy enough to fix by swapping the positions within the columns. 

The T-shirt quilt

And while doing all that, I managed to clean off the cutting mat and keep it clean, so it was ready to trim a quilt this morning. The ironing board is also clear, and the sewing table isn't bad either. The trick is to keep them that way. I'm actually pretty good at keeping the cutting mat and the ironing board clear. I've got it down to a science now. Everything needs a home! No home - it's clutter. 

The cutting table is ready to go this morning

There are really only two main areas in Studio B that still need some work. That's the TWO tables of current projects. I don't need that many current projects, but I need to visually see them for some reason. It's an issue I've had for years. I'm tempted to get some storage boxes from the garage and put everything in the boxes (well-labeled, of course). The boxes can then be stacked in a corner - nothing can be added to those boxes until they are done!!!  

Then I can allow myself ONE or TWO projects to sit on the table. The rest needs to stay in the boxes. And if I have a PRIORITIZED list - that might help. OK - I might try that. I've just not been successful with that stuff ever since I started to quilt. Partly because there was no room to store the projects. Now I have room. I'm better  - but still, a long way to go. It's like going to the buffet and seeing all the tantalizing food and taking too much to deal with at once. Why is that? 

OK - so I'm getting the boxes out right after the girls go for their walk, and I'll see how it goes!

It's hilarious at our house. I walk around the house with my noise-canceling headphones as I listen to my audiobook. DH walks around the house with his noise-canceling headphones while he watches TV because something happened, and the only way he can hear the TV is through the headphones! I told him we need walkie talkies that work through our headphones! 

Remember, today is the second day of the Virtual Retreat. We had so much fun last night, and so many people joined in. They could have stayed on until the wee hours of the morning, I'm sure. Me? Well, I had to walk a dog before bed, and I need my sleep! It's a great place to connect to others as we all stay isolated in our houses. 

Here's the link for today. It starts at 10 AM EST and runs until 8 PM tonight. 

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83501535963?pwd=aXNvRXdzZG02NllIenB3V0M5NUpxUT09 Meeting ID: 835 0153 5963 Passcode: 032336

I was so excited last night that I had trouble sleeping! I couldn't wait to get today started - isn't that silly?

Anyway - here's wishing you a super day!!! And don't forget to pop in to say HI!!

Caio!!!