A well organized quilt studio!

 No quilts got bound yesterday! I swear - I had everything ready to go, and other things got in the way! How does that happen? At least I got lots done, so I was happy at the end of the day, and the number of quilts to quilt before Christmas is getting smaller every day. I hope to be done by the weekend!

I want to ensure that if there is stuff on the cutting table, I focus on that! That is how my system is supposed to work. So two quilts were sitting there that needed me to find border fabric. 

These are quilts for Diane to finish up, and I had ZERO qualms about going into my stash to find something. Nothing -- not even a twinge, and you know what? That felt amazing! I am FREE of this huge stash of mine! Technically, it's still there, but I'm free to use it all instead of keeping it for a special quilt! That is huge. 

I pulled out a basket of bright fabrics, rifled through it, and found several candidates. 

A basket of bright fabrics

I settled on the one I liked best. 

The border fabric

While going through the basket, I found six fabrics that were at least three meters each. They got pulled for backing. Oh yes -- I'm dead serious about using this stuff up! They all got measured and labeled. Notice how uniform they are? That's just eyeballing it! There's no need to put a ruler or anything else in there (unless you want it to stand up). By this time, I just eyeball many things, and everything works fine. 

Six more backings folded and labeled

Of course, there was no room on the shelf, so I piled them up where the excess backings go. 

Excess backings 

Then I looked at the backing shelf and found a few holes for the smaller pieces. It feels good to have a few spots here and there. 

A smaller pile of excess backing fabric

And now the backing shelf is full! Once I make a few more holes, and those loose pieces have found a way there, I'll go through another basket. I'll keep doing that until I have gotten all the large pieces out of those baskets! 

The backing fabric shelf

I found the border for the other quilt in my other storage area, so that was a task done. And it cleared two things off the cutting table. I walked both quilts over to Diane so she could put the border on and make the binding! Job well done!

At one point during the day, the cutting table looked like this. But that is OK -- this is what this surface is for. It's my cutting table and my work table. So now I have a clear space to sort things. It looks pretty clean this morning. Not completely clear, but close. Oh, so close! 

The cutting table as a workspace

Here are a couple more things from the shopping bag. I know -- you're just dying to jump in and empty those bags - I know you are! I'm almost done! This is a large piece of swimsuit mesh. I've got an idea of what to do with that! It's now in the appropriate spot for this kind of fabric. 

Swimsuit mesh

Two spools of metallic thread are now in the box with all the other metallic threads. 

More metallic thread

Speaking of thread, as I was sorting through a box of stack and whack (one block wonder) stuff, I came across a spool of the Bottom Line Thread. Oh yes -- I bet that is one I thought I was missing. 

A spool of thread

And so I bought a new one when I had the chance. Sigh.............. The problem with keeping threads in the project box. I have no idea how much more thread I'll find, but this won't be the last spool I find. I need to finish the stitching and put the thread back in the thread box. That quilt isn't even on my UFO radar at the moment. 

A brand new spool of the same thread

Speaking of UFOs, I'm also working on this project that is not on my deadline list of UFOs. I still had three more hoopings to embroider, and there's no time like now to make that happen. Each one takes over two hours to stitch, and that's at the fastest speed. 

One more embroidery stitch-out

And as the day ended, I was tearing the stabilizer out of the other piece I had done. What a job! But I watched the baking show while the other one was stitched, and I was happy. I need something to do while I watch those shows. 

Ripping and stitching

Since I have quite a bit of stabilizer to remove, I have lots to do for a while. You can tell where I've removed the stabilizer from the top left, as it no longer has this white shadow behind. 

The front of the huge label!

And it's evident on the back, as you can see in the top right. 

The back of the huge label

Then I need to embroider the project's title, and I've got a spot for it. And I wanted to use the SAME font that Kat did in her book. This is going to be easy. I have 245 fonts in mySewnet Embroidery Software, and drat -- that particular font is not there. 

The title of the quilt

WAIT --  I went into QuickFont and created my own! That took all of about 10 seconds to do that. The font is called Algerian. And now I have to design that title in the software (easy peasy), figure out the sizing, and then get it and finish off the last two hoopings! Can I finish that this week? I hope so!! 

The font was recreated in mySewnet embroidery software.

And this is one more hooping done - only two more hoops of names and then the title. The last thing is to assemble the quilt. 

The embroidery is complete

All the names were supposed to be on ONE piece of fabric, but I miscalculated, so there will be a join. No one will know that! 

I should mention that I picked up three more quilt tops from Diane. I'm so happy to see this flannel used up! She said she got 17 tops from it or something like that! Now when would I have had time to make seventeen tops? 

Three flannel quilt tops

But that's not all. One more customer quilt is done! And the next quilt is loaded on the long arm, ready for later today. 

Customer quilt - DONE

Yep -- as I mentioned, while no bindings got put on, I accomplished a lot, and let's hope that one or two bindings can be put on today. I swear that managing this stash is almost a full-time job! Well, I only found and folded six backings! But I am so happy with the way things are organized! 

Oh yes -- we had a software class in the morning for the mySewnet Embroidery Software. Oh -- I just love teaching the software. It's capable of doing so much!!! And I'm learning so much every time I touch it! If only the students would touch it more! 

On that note, I'm off to spin class this morning! Yeah!

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!!