THE double wedding ring quilt

 Oh gosh -- while I was out walking Murphy, I remembered my other thought! When I returned from the gym, I drove past Tim's, as I always do. And I didn't give it one thought of stopping in to get breakfast like I would have in the past. I haven't been in quite a while and would certainly not classify myself as a regular any longer. Amazing how quickly I gained that habit and amazing how long it took to break it!

It's not tea weather right now anyway!!!  September is coming. 

It's amazing what you can get done when you put your mind to it. It was Monday sewing, and yes - we chatted a lot, but I was also focused on a project, and I'm happy to say that it's complete!! Well, one part of it. I wanted to add the names of all 111 blocks of the Farmer's Wife quilt to the sashing that will be sewn to each block. I used the built-in fonts on the sewing machine. 

Let's just say that it took a couple of false starts to get going. The first time, I forgot to program a STOP into the line of letters. Then I realized that the previous lettering had been done with a 7mm machine, and I was now using a 9mm machine, so I had to reduce the lettering to match the others. I also had to find out where I had stopped as I last worked on this in 2019. The blocks, however, had been made a few years before that. Ooops  -- I actually taught this class in 2012. OK -- so it's time to get working on it. Besides, it's on the UFO list for 2019, and we MUST be clearing those projects up!

I had made 70 of the sashings, which left 41 to finish, and I'm happy to report that ALL of them are done!!!

I'll try to get a close-up picture of that sashing so you can see what I mean. 

A sashing for the Farmer's Wife quilt

But here - they are all done!! I was going to take a break and do something else, but the ladies were chatting away on our call, and well, I said - get er done! And I did!!!!  They need to be trimmed to size and the stabilizer removed. What focus!!! And that set the pace for the remainder of the day. 

All the sashings are done

I finished before we ended our call, so I dug out the double wedding ring quilt and trimmed it. I had been putting it off - who likes to trim a quilt like this? I used my rotary cutter and scissors. It wasn't that hard after all! 

Trimming the double wedding ring quilt

Although I had made the binding before, I, for whatever reason, made REGULAR binding, when in fact, I needed BIAS binding. DUH!!!  Thankfully I had enough fabric to make more binding. So I made a giant square, sliced it, and sewed it back together again to make continuous bias binding. 

Cutting the bias binding

And before I knew it, the binding was made and pressed in half and ready to sew onto the quilt. So I did! Again -- it wasn't that bad when I sat down to do it!

Sewing the binding to the quilt

By this time, the others were gone. So I cranked up my new speaker and opened Spotify to get the playlist that Susan generously shared with me, and I was off. 

Listening to Spotify on my new speaker

A good healthy snack, and what more could one ask for? That's peaches and yogurt, in case you were wondering. My favorite yogurt? OIKOS - Greek yogurt. The vanilla flavor with 0% fat. It's relatively thick and delicious. 

A healthy snack

And there was the computer in the background in the event I needed to check anything! Hmm - it appears that everything in my space is bright. I'm OK with that. Although I noticed that several fluorescent light tubes need to be replaced!!

In my happy place

Well, it was not enough to stop there. After dinner, I got out the hand stitching supplies and started to hand stitch the binding in place. 

The binding is stitched in place by hand

I'm slow when it comes to hand stitching, but my stitches are very nicely done! It's worth the extra time to have a good finish. Normally I do bindings by machine, but I thought I'd do the curves by hand. Just for a change, and I get to listen to my audiobook while I'm doing it. I'm OK with the speed of doing a binding by machine, but NOTHING beats the look of hand stitching!

The neat hand stitches on the back of the binding

After every session, I have to spread the quilt out to see my progress. 

Good progress was made on the binding

I made good work of one corner and will keep plugging away. I wanted it to be done by September 1st when I said I would have it done. Wish me luck!!!!

Here's one of those nasty horse fly bites I got. The darn things are itchy like crazy. I haven't scratched them, but slathering on lots of  Benadryl cream to keep my hands off. 

My horse fly bite

And here we are on the home stretch of the Appalachian Trail Virtual Challenge. I have less than 100 KM to go. The trail's end (or the start) is in northern Maine, which is super remote. Good grief - the only roads in that area seem to be unpaved, but some of them are mapped by Google. 

The end of the line for the Appalachian Trail

Almost at the finish line!!!!

My distance for the challenge

My time for the challenge

I have averaged almost 11.7 KM per day! That's quite an accomplishment. That wasn't the goal I set for myself on this mission, but my cross Canada one is aggressive, and I have to keep up!! 

So I should be able to finish this off in eight days, with 30 days extra! Then what? I need to pick another Virtual Challenge. Which one will it be? A short one? or a long one? 

Oh my -- I think I mentioned this before, but putting your phone into another language? Well, e-mails from the apps or anything are in French!! I even had to reboot one of my Alexa speakers in french! 

All apps are in French!

It's time to finish off the distribution lists for my fall classes. So hopefully, I can get that done today - it's quite the mess, to be honest, but I'm done with the input - now comes the verification process. Did I get everyone in the right class? Then I can send out the first e-mail with the information they need. No rush -- the classes do NOT start for another five weeks. I just want it done!

And I have three classes this weekend, so I must get myself organized and complete that homework!

Lots to do, and I must clean up my calendar and some paperwork on the desk. All in a fun day's work!!!

Remember -- PRIORITIZE, FOCUS, WIN     It really works!!!!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!!

REMINDER - Virtual Retreat this weekend  --- I'll post the links tomorrow. 

Saturday from 6 PM - 9 PM

Sunday from 10 AM - 8 PM.