The eleventh quilt is done!

Oh my gosh!!! I'm so excited!!!! The eleventh quilt for Quilts of Valour came off the long arm last night, trimmed and ready to be bound!

The last of the grouping of eleven quilts for Quilts of Valour

I feel like I've just run a marathon and beat my personal best! I'm excited about accomplishing so much in a relatively short time. Yes --- there was a reason the Camino sent me home early. Perhaps I didn't need to walk the entire thing to learn about myself! 

I now have a binding marathon ahead of me, but that's OK. Binding (by machine) is somewhat relaxing, and it doesn't take long to get a finished quilt, which is always a sense of accomplishment. 

I got one more of the quilts bound this morning. 

Quilt number 7 is now bound -- four to go

And that leaves four of the eleven to bind. And then all eleven can be delivered!! I will forge ahead and try to complete these this weekend. Wouldn't that be nice to get these out of my house and into the hands of a veteran? I think so! I have to say that I will need a break from these -- getting everything prepped, quilted, trimmed, and bound has been intense, so it will be nice to quilt something (customer quilts) and not have such before and after prep. 

Four more quilts to bind

And I THANK Diane profusely for prepping the binding in my figure eight, so it's easy to sew on. No twisting and no further prep on my part. That is so easy to do but makes the sewing on of the binding so easy. If you want to do the same with your binding, there's a video in this blog post to show you how. Check it out --- it's so easy! 

And have you noticed how far away from the edge of the table my sewing machine is? Good grief -- there's practically a foot in front. Now, why is that? 

Figure eight for binding

I still have the RCMP quilt to bind, but I now have fabric. When I unearthed that partially completed QofV quilt -- the one I designed, I found a yard of binding fabric, half for that quilt and half for the RCMP quilt. And after that -- I will have bits of Canadian fabric left to make one quilt backing and the bag of scraps, which is going to Cathy to make improv blocks. Yes --- the light at the end of this tunnel is BLINDINGLY bright! 

The RCMP quilt needs binding

I still haven't finished the binding on my sweatshirt, so I hope to accomplish that this weekend. 

The sweatshirt needs binding

And I pulled one more small quilt to make a round number of ten, and I want to finish the binding on the first group. I aim to get all 41 or 43 bound and out of the house SOON. That task will have to fit in here and there as I need to start prepping homework, more samples, etc., for October and November, which will be busy months. Not crazy busy (I hope), just busy!

Ten small quilts to be bound

Lorraine asked if I couldn't speed up the quilting process by doubling up those small quilts' backing (on the long arm). And YES --- that would help, but the problem is that most of the backings in this first round were pieced individually. For the next batch, I'm going to hold back the backings (I have HUGE yardage for the next round), and I'll have Diane piece the tops so I can use the yardage and hopefully quilt two or three at the same time -- either sideways or lengthwise -- depending). 

But the larger ones must be done separately or depending on the backing; I could do two, one after the other, as I did with two Oh Canada quilts. Thanks for that, Lorraine --- it just didn't work out this time, but when I saw all that flannel yardage I pulled, the light bulb went on. We didn't have that luxury in the first round! Well, the luxury or the smarts!

So yesterday, Kathi and I zipped off to the Brant Heritage Quilt Show, which was in a hotel convention center. And we ran into Katheleen, Ruth, Helen Anne, and Lynn. It's so nice to see people in PERSON again! 

And at a quilt show. I found the perfect quilt for me!

A very orange quilt

Here's the label, which has an interesting story. It was her first sampler quilt that she started years ago with traditional blocks, as you can see above. Then she completed it with some modern blocks. I should have asked the white glove ladies to open it up so we could see the entire quilt. Shoot --- if anyone goes today --- can they get a FULL picture of this quilt and send it to me? 

The label for the orange quilt

Gwen?? Can you help out? 

I hate to show pictures of people's quilts when I don't have their information to give them credit --- I am bad sometimes, but I spotted some attractive quilting. And yes, there was the usual suspect -- the local longarm quilter who quilted numerous quilts we saw. Although some of this work was done by the quiltmaker or other long-arm quilters. 

This first one must have been done on a computerized long arm -- the lines are too perfect. But I thought it was interesting to have that motif in a different color, so it really stands out. I CAN do that with my long arm -- I'm just not good at it yet. 

Interesting quilting

This was the perfect quilt to practice quilting. I LOVE going to shows and taking pictures of the quilting, NOT the quilts. This quilting is very SIMPLE, yet highly effective and extremely well done! I suspect it was done freehand. 

Each row has a different quilt motif

I love how each of the backgrounds of each block of this next quilt was quilted with a different pattern. So neat, and I love the pattern in the bottom right-hand corner. VERY easy to do.

Different quilting patterns in each block

And here's a great example of refrigerator coil quilting, but look how wide that border is! A great effect!!! Miter those corners by drawing a single reference line before you start to quilt, and it will be perfect every time! 

Refrigerator coil quilting

I LOVED the welcome banners that greeted you as you walked down the hall to the show. The welcome signs were made in different languages, and this one is Ukrainian. They were beautiful and made me feel very welcome. I forgot to take a picture of the entire grouping! 

Welcome banner in Ukrainian

This quilt was inside the display room, and it's in honor of the indigenous people, but I do NOT believe that word means welcome. But I'm unable to find a translation. Perhaps someone can help? 

All lives matter panel quilt

I looked at the vendors and the quilter's boutique, and there was lots of eye candy, but honestly, I didn't buy one thing! How can I justify buying something when I'm trying desperately to get rid of what I have? I am NOT against buying but will only buy to help use up something I have, like a border or a background. 

I did support their tombola (the draws for finished items or kits). I bought a couple of dollars worth of tickets, and should I win something, I picked things I could find a home for! They did have some very NICE prizes! 

OH --- the other thing they had was a president's challenge, and they had to use all of these items (see below) in their piece, which was small. I LOVE this challenge, and if you get a chance to participate in one --- you MUST. Oh my gosh --- that would be so fun to organize one. I could prep small kits so they wouldn't cost much to mail, and anyone who wanted one -- I could send it to you! Thoughts??

The rules of the challenge

And here's what each of them had to work with. I'm NOT going to share the photos --- you must go and check it out yourself, but the quilts were extremely creative, and since they were small --- it wasn't a big deal to get them done!!! What a fun project. 

Items that had to be used in the challenge pieces

Then Kathi and I went to lunch, and I snapped this photo in the restaurant in case we forgot where we were. That was a lighted sign, in case you can't pick that up in the picture!

OK -- so it's time for a foot update. I have no idea what is happening to my feet, but I will say that the toenail is gone. How did that happen? Well, it was such a nice day that I decided to take Murphy for a walk in the afternoon. Lexi was in the backyard, and she wouldn't know that we were gone; otherwise, she would also beg for a walk. 

I was going down a small incline in the forest, and we happened to be passing another dog that Murphy desperately wanted to get close to. I dug in my toes (on the incline) to control that lunatic dog, and I could feel that SPOT on my toes hitting the top of my shoe, just like the day it happened. I thought that the toenail was a goner at that point. Sure enough, when I got home, I took off my shoes and socks, and it was literally hanging by nothing. So it's gone. I'll spare you the gory details, but the new one is there -- ugly as sin, but there. 

But here's the deal about my toes --- they are all peeling on the bottom. I propped my foot on the bathroom counter to see the bottoms in the mirror, and almost all of the underside of the toes is peeling skin. Even where I didn't have blisters. So they must have had some damage as well? Calluses that are falling off? I've no idea, but I feel like I need a good foot spa --- just soaking the darn things for days, slathering them in cream, and wearing socks for days to make them soft and smooth again. They don't hurt, so I'm not concerned. 

But Miss Murphy thinks she must help them by licking them when I take my socks off. She's insistent, so I try to keep my socks ON! 

However, when I got home with her, I got caught. DH had let Lexi in, and she was waiting at the door with this expectant look on her face -- where's MY walk? And so I had to take her for a walk. Now the thing with dogs -- they can't tell time or, I should say, the duration of time, so I was able to do a short walk through the forest, and she was happy! 

Lexi, on her afternoon walk

I have a customer quilt waiting to be loaded on the long arm today, and then I'll tackle that stack of bindings. It feels good to switch gears today and work on something different! I did NOT finish my physical book last night -- I was too tired, but it's called The Cemetary Keeper's Wife by Maryann McFadden. We haven't been able to find it electronically, but it's a good book if you can find it. I'm giving my copy to someone when I'm done. 

The audiobook I'm currently reading is called The Murder Rule by Dervla McTiernan  --- it's got a very twisted plot, and I feel for the main character who is systematically destroying her life as she tries to save her mother. It will keep me entertained while I bind quilts today!

OH -- and don't forget to check out the last day for QUILTsocial!!!  There are some tips for quilting your quilts!!!!

On that note, I've got e-mails to write, phone calls to make, and quilts to bind! I'd better get myself organized and get to work! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!