You had better sit down for this one. Even I was exhausted when I went to bed!
I'll start with the quilt report. Yes --- more quilts are done for Quilts of Valour, making numbers 5 and 6 of eleven. Can I get five more done by Thursday evening?
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| Quilts of Valour quilt Number 5 |
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| Quilts of Valour quilt Number 6 |
I know I will - - I'll make it a priority. Even with automation, quilting two quilts in one day is time-consuming!
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| Four of the remaining five quilts |
And I played bobbin chicken, and I won! I was getting close to the end of the row - actually, the end of the quilt and I didn't run out of bobbin thread. So it doesn't always happen.
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| Made it to the end without running out of bobbin thread |
Both quilts are trimmed, but not all the bits are tidied up. I ran out of time last night, so I'll get that done during Monday Sewing.
But the pile of trimmed quilts gets higher.
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| Quilts to be bound! |
As does the pile of scrap. I hope to deal with that today.
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| The scrap pile gets higher! |
I managed to get two more bindings done on the small quilts for Project Linus. That makes a total of TWENTY quilts finished and ready to go. I wonder if they do pick-up? I should contact her as the stack is getting huge in my living room! They are all sitting on top of Lexi's kennel, which I'm sure impresses her!
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| Binding number one |
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| Binding number two |
At the height of the day, I had the long arm going,
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| Long arm automation |
the embroidery machine was going,
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| Embroidery machine automation |
And I was binding quilts at the other sewing machine.
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| Manually adding the binding! |
Plus, I finished an audiobook! Yes --- my brain was about to explode at the end of the day, but things got done, and if you have automation, then one should make the most of it!
So what was I embroidering? I was back to the 150 Canadian Woman Quilt and got THREE more hoopings done. Each one takes about 2 hours to stitch out, even at high speed on the PFAFF creative icon 2. That's a lot of stops and starts, but thankfully, I can let it run on its own! And monitor the progress on my cellphone!
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| The last of three hoopings for the day |
So that makes ten of 15 that are done.
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| Ten of the 15 hoopings are complete! |
Technically, all 15 were supposed to fit on this piece of fabric, but I cut it about eight inches too short. DUH! Obviously not good with math! So I'll put them on a separate piece of fabric and sew them together. It's for the backing; who is going to notice that?
The eleventh hooping is programmed and ready to go later today.
So while the machines were working and the bindings were done, I thought I needed to dig into that stack of flannels to see what else was there and could any of it be used for backings. This is what I found.
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| Flannel for quilt backings |
Each pile will be sufficient for one backing or possibly two. That's a lot of quilt backings! So I put them with the six flannel quilts I have to quilt.
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| Six flannel quilts and their backings |
I can slowly piece those over the next couple of weeks and prepare them for my next community project quilt marathon.
And this is what remained.
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| Unassigned flannel for quilt backings |
So it all went back into the storage room. But not before I remembered one more tub in the storage room that held some flannel kits. Yes -- brand new flannel, still in kit format.
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| Flannel kits |
Good lord, why did I buy those kits? I kept this one for myself. It's a gorgeous bundle of brown flannel and includes the backing. I'll make something out of it - I put it in the retreat basket, and at the next retreat, I'll make something new for us! It was from The Quilt Patch in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. I LOVED that store!
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| A flannel kit that I kept |
So all this flannel will go to Diane after she finishes with the bright flannel. I'm grouping it by color as that makes it look less scrappy. No need to sort it just yet.
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| Smaller pieces of flannel to be sorted by color |
And this part of the shelf is the fabric that can be used for backings. OH -- the bags on the side are what goes to Diane next. That big stack of bright flannel is the backings for the colorful quilts she will make in the next round.
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| Fabric for quilt backings |
And more fabric for backings that didn't fit in that space.
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| More fabric for backings |
And everything is now stored neat and tidy on that shelf. This is my staging area for what I am sorting and prepping for Diane to sew, or the backings I'll use are also here! It all has to go! All the scraps leftover from the flannel backs or sewing the tops are going into a laundry basket (not in the picture), and I'll have enough to make some scrappy flannel quilts! I think that will be a retreat project. Or maybe a Monday sewing project.
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| The rest of the flannel to make quilts |
Instead of walking to Diane's house with the final bag of flannel, I took the girls to the dog park. It's such beautiful weather that how could I not go for a walk. Of course, Murphy was beyond herself with excitement, and when she got there, she didn't want to play. She just flopped herself down on the cool ground. That was because she got into such a tizzy on the way. That's how she rolls -- 200% and then drops! There is no halfway with her. On the other hand, Lexi just wanted to be petted by everyone!
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| MOM --- we're ready to go home NOW! |
But soon, they were ready to go home. When we first started going to the park, I remember they would NEVER come to the gate, and now they were waiting for me to catch up to them!
Here's a picture of the two of them on our morning walk!
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| Murphy |
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| Lexi |
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