I HAVE to cook!

 ACK -- I'm a bit behind in responding to your comments! I need to do that every day as I love to get comments from you all, and I feel bad when I don't comment back because often, that's the only way we get to stay in touch; otherwise, it's a one-sided conversation! 

Can you believe it's the last day of September? I've felt a bit "nostalgic" all week as this would have been the week I would have arrived in Santiago! I've been thinking about the people I met and figured many would be arriving this week. Well, it wasn't meant to be this year for me, so let's move on! 

In the meantime, I wisely used my downtime and quilted a ton of quilts for community projects. Here are two more for Quilts of Valour. 

Quilts of Valour #9

Quilts of Valour #10

That leaves one more to complete the goal of eleven quilts for Quilts of Valour. I'm happy to report that I got the backing made, I joined some batting bits, and it is ready to quilt later today. 

The eleventh quilt on the frame

Can you believe that all that Oh Canada fabric was in my house? The eleventh quilt is also made from the Oh Canada fabric, and there are FOUR more quilts in the "to be quilted" pile. Plus, we should have one scrappy quilt with all the leftovers. That's OBSCENE. 

I was able to get seven backings from that pile of black flannel. This is all that remains, and it is likely enough for backing a small quilt when I get back to those. 

Leftover flannel from the backings

I had two batting bits from the other Quilts of Valour quilts, and rather than cut a brand new piece, I searched my batting bit closet and found a piece that would make that last batting. 

The batting bit closet

There are a LOT of batting bits in the closet, and I'll be using that for the NON-Quilts of Valour quilts when I get to those; plus, there are two partial rolls of batting for those smaller quilts. I shouldn't run out of batting for a while. 

And that leaves this much of the batting roll for the next eleven. I think I did very well at being conservative with it. There's still quite a bit on the roll. That is good, as I wasn't sure how many quilts I could get from the one roll. It's back in the plastic bag to keep the dust off and labeled so it doesn't get used for something else. 

The current status of the Quilts of Valour batting roll

Finding the right size of batting bit is so easy, with each piece being labeled. Labeling will save you so much time for anything you do!! I never used to be a label maker, but I'm pretty OCD about it now! 

The other thing I'm OCD about is cleaning up the bits. The bits of backing and batting are all sorted into their respective home. I try to have that all cleared up before going to bed, and I usually watch an episode of The Great British Baking Show (Masterclass) while I do that. I'm almost at the end of those episodes, so I will have to find another way to entertain myself. 

I am listening to an audiobook and reading a physical book simultaneously. I always have a physical book on the go, but not always an audiobook, which can be tricky when you are trying to sew something or need to do some calculations! Both are good books, and I hope to finish the physical book tonight. I'll give you the name tomorrow -- it's an interesting story. 

So DH was away last night, and I had to forage dinner myself. He was all worried that I didn't have anything to eat. Good grief --- I know how to cook -- he just chooses to not like what I cook. Our neighbor had given us some kale from her garden the day before, so I went to the grocery store to pick up some supplies and made a yummy stir fry. I also used some red peppers our neighbor gave us that needed to be used up! I thought it was quite tasty!

My kale stir fry

Murphy is the weirdest dog around. What has she done now? She loves rocks! And she loves to bring those rocks into the house. Look at the little collection she was accumulating on the floor in the living room. Murphy! -- Rocks stay outside. Sigh................

Murphy's rock collection

Lexi was beside herself last night. Her Dad wasn't home, and how could she sleep on the couch? She won't do the stairs, so she decided to lie on the mat in my office. Silly girl!

This is NOT the same as the couch! 

Yesterday was a glorious day, and I hope you all got a chance to be outside for a bit. I'm back to walking (well, I never really stopped) about 12 KM a day. And when I get back from the afternoon walk, I have a snack. My schedule is so routine that it throws me into a tizzy when I travel! I sat outside (not in the gazebo) and read my book while the girls entertained me, and I had my snack! But it's pretty cool in the shade these days, so I didn't fall asleep!

A glorious day

Don't forget to check out QUILTsocial, where today's topic is tips on raw edge and invisible machine applique. You can never have too many tips on that. If you have the right tools and supplies, this can be a deal breaker if you do applique. 

And I'm off to a quilt show this morning. I'll be at the Brant Heritage Quilters Guild show. I must remember to bring CASH for the entrance fee. Gosh -- when have I used cash last? It should be fun to get out and see some quilts and vendors. I don't need anything as I've found what I needed, but there might be something there to peak my interest. 

Regarding the quilting marathon, by my best count, I completed 41 (possibly two more -- not sure -- I lost count) of the smaller quilts -- the largest being 50" by 60" and the smallest being 37" by 37". I quilted one for the RCMP; after today, there will be eleven for Quilts of Valour. The grand total is 53 (possibly 55). I started on September 7, so that's just over 2 quilts per day for 24 days! I think I can take a break! 

I still want to do another eleven quilts for Quilts of Valour by November 11, but it's a lot of work to get the backings made and prepare the batting, so I need to give that a rest for the moment and focus on customer quilts! I have no idea why I became obsessed with this quilting project or where the discipline came from to continue day after day! But it did, and that's all that counts. 

It proved to me that I could actually get all those quilts quilted in a relatively short time if I put my mind to it. Was that the purpose of my Camino? To prove that I can focus when I need to? We'll never know, but it has been a great experience, and I'm happy with how the events turned out. 

On that note, I'm out of here! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!