A picture is worth a thousand words

 

What can I say? I LOVE Zoom, and I LOVE teaching on Zoom. Why? Because I can take pictures as I work, and then I can assemble the pictures into a VERY detailed slide presentation. I could never do that in a class unless I took a slide projector with me. Well, I guess we don't call it a slide projector any longer, but you know what I mean. 

I even took videos and embedded them into the presentation. Oh yes -- I'm having a fabulous time as I marry technology with sewing. 

And the best news? I was 100% ready for the presentation last night, and I'm 100% ready for one of two this morning. The second one is almost ready. I've got to edit photos and make up the slide show. That doesn't take long, but it does take time. I think the girls will get shortchanged on their walk this morning, but that's OK because it's COLD outside this morning. 

Last night the class was Urbanologie by Sew Kind of Wonderful. When I got the blocks completed, I was a little disappointed as part of them didn't look right, and I was dreaming up ways to tell the ladies how to change their blocks. Well - wouldn't you know it as I went through the DETAILED slides on trimming, I found my mistake - I trimmed using the wrong line on the ruler! DUH!!!  I would have denied that, but the proof was right there! I had a good laugh. I'm not sure I'm going to change the part I messed up on; I'm working with minimal fabric - a layer cake, so I might just fix one to retake the photo and see if I like it. 

Urbanologie by Sew Kind of Wonderful

Here are my five bird blocks. Notice two have tails and three do not. 

The birds from the Urbanologie quilt

Seriously -- in the picture, you can't tell there was a wee mistake on my part. There's a bit more background showing just above the legs than there should be. As I told the group - we must NOT dwell on this kind of thing, but move on and learn. Well, as I mentioned, I might fix ONE because then I'll have the proper picture to send to the group, and then YES - I must move on. If it really bothers me, there are markers to color in the area. 

But aren't those birds adorable???  Oh yes -- if you have this book or have wanted to make this quilt, I STRONGLY suggest you sign up for the class. It will be worth every penny as we walk through the book, which I'm not going to say is riddled with mistakes. It's not. But their method of sewing curves? Hmmm. And that's all I'm going to say. 

I was struggling with choosing a colorway for one of the quilts that I'm teaching this morning. I know - nothing like the morning before to choose a colorway. And all I can say is THANK GOD for the stash room. I had something in mind, and I had the fabric pulled and was ready to cut. Then I really looked at the quilt and decided that NO - those colors were not going to work. So I went through the scrap containers to find a colorway that would work. I grabbed the teal box. I know - who has a box of teal scraps? Anyone else???

Speaking of the stash room, do you want a laugh? I found this video yesterday of the stash room as we were getting ready to rip it apart so the floor could be repaired. It's a hoot. 

But the teal scrap is going to be perfect. I hope to make the entire quilt, except for the sashings and the borders from the box. You'll get to see those blocks tomorrow. But I had a HUGE laugh when I started sorting through the fabrics. Remember the other day I said that I was willing to spend big dollars to get a specific fabric? Well, that's what happened here. I made a Blooming Nine-Patch quilt, and I really, really wanted that floral fabric. You see how these three blend into each other?

Scraps in the teal box

That's what you want to happen when you make the Blooming Nine-Patch quilt. Well, I could NOT find that fabric anywhere, except for a Fat Quarter or whatever small amount I had in my possession. I remember buying a kit JUST to get that floral fabric. I don't even remember what kit it was or whether I kept the kit together, which would be silly since I pulled that one fabric out. Anyway, the Blooming Nine-Patch quilt got made, and well - I should dig it out and show you. It's a gorgeous quilt. 

I love having the quilts in that row in the living room, but it's not good that all that weight is sitting on the bottom quilts. It was super easy to find this quilt, although it took me as long to figure out to get behind the chairs blocking them than it did to dig the quilt out. The quilt is big. I didn't bother to measure it, but I'd say that it's close to queen-sized, if not queen-sized. 

My Blooming Nine-Patch quilt

A detail of the fabrics in the Blooming Nine-Patch quilt

And see, there are some of the fabrics that I showed you above. The scraps that have been in my teal scrap box FOREVER. Wait for the date! 

And here's that darn floral fabric. Funny how I can't remember something that happened yesterday, but I very distinctly remember that floral fabric. But it was a traumatic experience for me! Well, not in a bad way, but it caused me great angst. 

More fabrics from the Blooming Nine-Patch quilt

It was quilted with fish and not by me as I didn't have a long arm at the time. Kathy Dranse was my quilter at the time. She moved away years ago!

The edge to edge quilt pattern

BUT OH MY GOD -- Look at the label. This is why we label quilts. See the date??? 2003. But you have to read the story. 

The label on the Blooming Nine-Patch quilt

So you know what your job is going to be today in the organizing category? Make a label for a quilt and tell the entire story!!!! This was so fun to reread that story. I LOVE it. 

I got some mail yesterday, and I was so excited. I got my medal from The Conquerer for my 2020 challenge. This took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. OK - Maybe not tears or blood, but blisters and sweat? You bet. 

I got some mail!

And there it is - my Conquer 2020 medal. I rode my bike for about 800 KM (which is not much!), and I walked about 4,000 KM for a grand total of 4,828 total km traveled last year and NOT in a car. As a matter of fact, it was probably the first year in my life ever that I walked more than I drove. 

My Conquerer 2020 challenge medal

This is pretty exciting, and I'm so glad that I got into the walking thing. I do have to thank Ronda for that. See - I don't always pass the blame to someone else. I do thank people as well. She alerted me to these challenges, and now I'm hooked. You bet - I can walk without a challenge, but it's fun to log the miles and "see" where you go on the Google maps. 

Now I have TWO medals, and I want to display them. I really want to buy one of the gorgeous hangers that they have. 

I see a few of them online at that big warehouse store, but I'm going to try and find it at the source. Then I'll buy. And I have one more medal coming from a short (60KM ) walk that I finished at the beginning of January. And I'm currently working on two more. On our group walk across Canada, we're just over 70% of the way to Victoria. Just passed through Winnipeg. We're going to make it, and we're going to make it by the deadline of one year!! Go team, go!!!

And guess how many KM I've walked so far this year????  Yep - it's something like 216.6 - OK - so I'm obsessed with numbers!  I just passed the 20% mark on the Appalachian Trail, and I'm at 6% of my 2021 goal of walking 4,200 KM. So it's going to be an interesting year. I'll be taking a wee bit of a  break next year and will NOT set such an aggressive goal, but it's fun!

One more customer quilt - DONE. 

Customer quilt - DONE

I have a couple of quilts that need to be trimmed, so I must get to that, but that won't be until this afternoon when the classes are done for the day. 

So here's a question about vitamins. I'm terrible. I buy them and just can't get myself into a routine to take them - EVEN when they sit on the desk in front of me with a glass of water. I'm Ok with that. Apparently, it's a thing with Virgos. But if I don't take Vitamin D, but I'm outside a lot, I wonder if I need to take vitamin D??? 

Well, on that note, I'm out of here. REMEMBER your assignment today. Find a quilt with a great story and MAKE a label for that quilt before you forget what happened. My quilt was made 17 years ago, and while I remember the story, when I'm gone, no one would know what happened, and I love it. I also didn't remember where I found the kit. 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!