More community project quilts

 So much to say, so little time! 

I'm going gangbusters with these community project quilts, and I have a goal in mind as to what I want to accomplish with my downtime. That sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, but you know what I mean. Then once those quilts are done, it'll be time to get back to customer quilts -- there are a "few" waiting to be done. 

Here are the two quilts from yesterday. I know -- some of these look like the same quilt, but they are NOT. 

Community project quilt - DONE

Community project quilt - DONE

Anyway, both are trimmed and ready for the binding to be attached. 

Here's the stack of trimmed quilts waiting for binding! 

Quilts waiting to be bound

Here are those piles I mentioned yesterday. There are two (or, in one case, three) quilts in each pile. Diane very conveniently labeled the sizes on each quilt top which was super handy! Good thinking, Diane! I tell you, a label on anything will save enormous amounts of time!

Quilts waiting to be quilted

Here are the two quilts that are waiting for the next day. Usually, there is only one quilt there overnight as the second one has been loaded on the long arm. 

Quilts pressed and waiting to be quilted

And there's a pile of two quilts at the ironing board waiting to be pressed for the following day. I did NOT take a picture of that. 

To be fair to the computer software on the long arm, I decided to do stuff in Power Panto so I could get familiar with it so when I needed it, I would be good. I worked on a couple of circular patterns, and yep--- you get perfect circles using Power Panto. You cannot do that in Basic. You can get close, but you can't get perfect. 

Perfect circles in Power Panto

Doing these small quilts has been a super place to learn all the ins and outs of the software, and I had zero glitches yesterday. That makes the day go faster because you don't have to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. So it must have been an operator error those first two days. 

I will say that the software is much more accurate in measuring than before. There was always significant runoff on the sides or sometimes the bottom. I've not had any issues with the bottom, although I still fudge the numbers to compensate for the quilt rolling, and I'm bang on with my measurements! 

However, there's a new feature in the software that you can crop the pattern right at the bottom, but I don't need it! Yep -- this is not my first rodeo with that software! It gets a bit more complicated with larger quilts so that cropping feature will come in handy later. 

And you can see in this picture how skimpy I am with the batting --- it's almost the same size as the quilt. This is NOT what you want to do with customer quilts - a little bit of forgiveness on the sides is crucial to perfecting the edges. Again, I've been doing this for a long time, so I know where to skimp and where not to skimp!

I'm skimping on the batting

OH --- here are two more piles of community project quilts sitting out -- one is a basket of the eleven Quilts of Valour quilts I want to do, and the other is lap-sized flannel quilts. I have some goals, and well -- let's see how much I can get done in the allotted time! 

More community project quilts

I already took advantage of the fact that DH isn't home this morning, and one of the quilts for today is already done. It's still on the long arm, but it's quilted! Only one more to do today. 

I'm down to batting for two more quilts - maybe three since a couple of them are a bit smaller than the others and then I have to start on that bag of batting I found. Those battings are so compressed in the plastic bags that one must get them OUT of the bag and let it decompress. Getting it out of the bag was a challenge, and I'm guessing I can get seven quilts from this batt. 

Compressed batting

Letting it relax

Have you noticed the plethora of quilted jacket concepts these days??? It's on the cover of two recent magazines. 

Quilted jackets are big!

My cousin, the "expert" in genealogy, is amazing. She has been able to dig back to reveal BOTH sets of my great-great-great grandparents on my Mom's side. We even have headstone pictures of one set of them and still working out some details for the others. It's a challenge, to say the least, and I've been saving all the attachments she has sent into folders that are labeled by name! I have some information on some members, like when they emigrated to Canada, family members alive for several censuses, gravestones, etc. 

She suggested I take a trip to England and I might have to! In the meantime, I've contacted people in Owen Sound and Durham (Ontario), and well, I think a trip is in order. The library in Durham has digitized a bunch of stuff, and they have books on family histories. I'll call them today to find out if it's online or if I should make a trip. It's not that far, and what a hoot for a day trip!

My cousin is so modest about her ability, but she's amazing! Thank you, Shirley!!!

This is the dog situation at our house. This is Murphy, who loves to play ball and will fetch the ball and then sit outside the door and gently bark, "play ball with me.". "Play ball with me NOW!" She's so cute! 

"Waiting to play fetch here!" 

And then either I throw it in the pond, or she does, but she stands on the rocks and barks! "Help me -- the ball is in the pond, and I'm NOT allowed in! I'm such a good girl!"

"Mom, HELP!"

Meanwhile, the princess just lays on the deck and ignores everything. 

Princess Lexi

Since DH wasn't home and the TV wasn't on, I sat in the kitchen and read my book. Guess what? "MOM -- you have to play ball with me!" Yep, there was Murphy and me, playing ball, and it's pitch black outside. I would throw the ball into the bushes on the far side of the pond, and she had zero problems locating the smelly thing and bringing it back!

Playing ball in the dark!

Oh, shoot --- that darn e-mail will NOT sync so I can add two more pictures, and I'm live streaming the Queen's funeral, so it's with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to her. What a dignified and lovely lady; whether you believe in the monarchy or not, you can't deny what a wonderful person she was. And some stories about her "wicked" humor just make me laugh! What a lady! RIP Queen Elizabeth. One of my middle names is Elizabeth, and I believe my mom used that name because of the queen. 

This is why you walk around the neighborhood. You get to see all kinds of cool things and how they change. It's all how you look at it. So many people opt for these black metal signs with the house number and the street on them. They look nice, and this one got installed several weeks ago, but I had not paid much attention to it until yesterday. 

What's wrong with this picture?

Do you see what I see???  OMG  --- the FONT of the letters is NOT the same as the numbers. Ooops!!!!  I'd be sending that one back. I wonder if anyone noticed, particularly the homeowners??? 

Well, that's it for me. It's Monday sewing, and I have the perfect project to work on so I can talk and work simultaneously!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!