Snail's Trails

 Another great day! Although, I was so keyed up that I couldn't fall asleep last night! Grrr!!

I know you're all wondering if I got that quilt quilted. Don't forget that I was still piecing the darn thing in the morning. Let's see what else I have to share with you first. 

Thank goodness for rain gear. I didn't think it was raining very hard when I left the house to walk the girls, but when I was finished, I was wet. My pants were wet, so it was a PJ pant day! Yeah!! I never wear my PJ pants around the house, but I dug out a fleece pair and wool socks, and I got warmed up real quick. 

Of course, the worms and the snails were out in full force. I spotted this guy close to home, but he had tucked into his shell before I could snap his picture. 

A snail on the trail!

And the blossoms are out. I'm not sure what type of tree this is, but it's all exciting. 

A tree in bloom

I had a great conversation with Diane, who is madly sewing up quilt tops (for community projects) during the pandemic. What would I do without Diane? We got to talking about what else I have for her to sew. I bet she thinks that we might run out of stuff for her to sew. Ah - that is NOT the case! I have two boxes and a laundry basket that are waiting for her. And then we got to talking about the binding for a quilt that she is finishing up. 

Well, one thing led to another, and now I have this gap in the boxes of fabric under the long arm. 

A gap in the boxes of fabric

In this particular bucket, I found brand new packs of strips - never opened. About four or five panels, and then I thought, rather than sort this out, I'll give Diane the entire thing. She can sort and kit to her heart's content and well - I just got rid of one box, which I promptly filled with fabric that was sitting in an open box under the long arm!!!  There are a "few" more boxes of fabric under the long arm that'll go her way. As long as she is willing to sew, I'm willing to donate stuff to be assembled into quilts.  

Bags of fabric to go to Diane's house

My goal is to get all the fabric into the stash room or the donation storage room. I could rearrange things to make that happen, but there is no need. Everything has a home. Actually, the only fabric that is NOT in either of those two places is the seven boxes under the long arm. And since everything is neat and tidy - there's no need to panic. The best part is that we're making huge progress, and that's all that counts. I need a wee bit of downtime so I can get some of these quilts that she's made quilted, but that's OK. I'll make it happen! 

I may have some string quilts or scrappy blocks that will need to be sewn if anyone lives nearby and wants to give that a try. 

This was my cutting table in the morning. Not in bad shape at all!! There's a couple of projects on the table that I need to evaluate. I'm good these days at not starting anything that can't be finished or getting excited and pulling out many projects that I can work on. I'm chipping away at the current projects table. Slowly - very slowly, but progress is being made! I'll take a picture to share with you at another time. 

The cutting table is in good shape

I watched a few episodes of The Quilt Show. I'm laughing as I watch it. I swear I have every book that they have talked about. There was one history book, and I thought that would be a great book to own. Then I thought really hard, and I searched the bookcases and YES - I have the book. As if I doubted myself that I wouldn't have it! But I've seen so many very cool techniques, and I want to try them all, but I can't - I must be good. Do I feel sad that I can't try them now? Not at all. My mission right now is to get some of this stuff cleaned up and keep up to date with my classes. That makes me happy, and that's all that counts. 

Speaking of keeping up, I managed to get five more Snails Trail blocks done. I think that makes 12 or maybe 13. That means I'm one-quarter of the way! YEAH!! That's progress, and that's all I care about. Crazy to get excited to get over five little Snails Trails blocks! Remember that we need to celebrate every SMALL task - we get more of those done in a day than we do large ones. 

Snail Trail blocks

The design wall is empty! You know what that means. The quilt top that needs to be in the mail later today is finished! I was going to put another set of quilt blocks on the wall yesterday (they were sitting on the current projects table), but I thought better about doing that. NO - I have other things to focus on this week, so I'm leaving the wall blank for the moment. 

The design wall is blank!

Here's a hint at what else happened yesterday. There I am, watching The Quilt Show as I'm at the long arm. I'm amazed at how many steps I get in while I'm quilting a quilt. I zip from one end of the studio to the other, and I must have done several KM doing that. I no longer count steps - I count KM. But if you want to know - I walked over 20,000 steps, which is over 14 KM. Oh, by the way - when I took that fabric to Diane? I walked the two bags to her house. It was a bit heavy, but that's OK. I vow to NOT use the car for errands that are close to my house. What's hilarious is that if I went out my back gate and down the path a wee bit, I could wing those bags over the fence to Diane's house!

Watching The Quilt Show at the long arm

I trimmed up some half-square triangles that had been pressed. 

Trimmed half-square triangles

Then I pressed another batch, so they are ready to trim. Oh yes - I'm determined to get this stuff under control, and it WILL happen. Part of that is there is no huge mess in the sewing space that makes me overwhelmed. Those days are gone!! I'll be doing some further tidying today, and I can hardly wait. Isn't that insane? 

More half square triangles are pressed

I made the binding for that other quilt top I finished last week. The backing is cut and ready to sew together today at Monday sewing. I had a quick peek at the calendar to see what's on the agenda for this week. Oh my -- there are a few things - a couple of classes that I need to prep for and five or six presentations. So it'll be a busy week, but that's OK. 

Binding for a quilt top

And there it is -- the quilt that is supposed to be in the mail this afternoon is quilted! I was hoping to trim it this morning, but that didn't happen since I slept in because I couldn't get to sleep last night. I'll trim it and make and attach the binding this morning. 

The quilt is QUILTED

It took a LONG time to quilt it as the pattern is pretty dense, but it looks amazing! I'm thrilled with the quilt. Now to write up the pattern. It's pretty satisfying to make something and not have to follow a pattern. Now the quilt is straightforward, and technically, it's not anything new. But I changed it up to make it even easier!!!

So, I'm now at 50% of walking the Appalachian Trail - virtually, that is. I'm in Pennsylvania, so I've been through a few states. Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and now Pennsylvania. Well, look what's ahead of me!! We've run out of mountains and now have to walk through a major populated area. I may or may not be over this area by tomorrow. It's hard to judge the distance some days!!

Well, I just went down a rabbit hole in the organizing area, and I'm so psyched to throw stuff away or get rid of it - hey - that's a job I could do in the gazebo! Take a box of junk and sort it out. OK - so where's the sun? I was NOT out in the gazebo yesterday, although we did get some sun in the afternoon. I was a tad busy in Studio B. 

Here's your task for today -- do you have a cabinet or box that is half-filled, but you know you could use that cabinet in another space? I have TWO cabinets, and I'm in the process of emptying them and moving them. More on that tomorrow. And I found a container that I want to use for something, and it was filled with paper. So I dumped the paper, and I'll try to deal with that later today!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!