Good news/bad news!

Thanks, everyone, for the comments. I will get them answered; I'm a tad busy at the moment. I didn't even get a chance to open my Adventure advent calendar yesterday. 

However, I'm happy to report that I finished everything I had planned, which was good!

I sent Zoom links to everyone who wanted to sign up for the EQ8, mySewnet embroidery software and digital cutter discussions for TOMORROW. If you have yet to receive an e-mail, let me know. Some people put everything in the same e-mail, and it's hard to catch everything. I'm NOT printing anything anymore, and I work strictly with the computer and extensively use the filing systems. But when ONE item needs to be filed in MANY places, that becomes a challenge. 

So if you think you are saving me time by putting everything in one e-mail, you are NOT! And most of you are very good at placing the topic in the subject or at least in the e-mail. I get some e-mails that say "block 3". For what?? 

My e-mail if you need to get in touch is elainetheriault@gmail.com. 

The discussions tomorrow are NOT the actual class sign-up, as they are strictly a discussion -- the official sign-up will be again put on the blog shortly. I put all the links at the end of this post. 

So what happened yesterday? Well, there was good news and bad news, and the good news is that another giant customer quilt is done. 

This one was very wide! 

That's a big quilt

But the quilt is beautiful, and the colors are stunning in real life. 

Customer quilt - DONE

However, we had a little problem near the bottom. 

Oopsy!

This wasn't a case of the seam not being sewn, it was a case of NO seam allowance in that area, and the machine just pushed into that opening. I stopped it as quickly as possible, but the quilt will need a minor repair when it goes home. You CAN NOT sew a seam and not have a seam allowance. I checked the rest of the quilt and found another spot in the same block on the other side, and there is ZERO seam allowance there. I watched the long arm, and it went right over that spot, but I held the fabric down, so it didn't catch. 

NO seam allowance

This is not just for the quilting process but for the integrity of the quilt. The moment the quilt gets washed, that raw edge will start to fray! And if you know you did that and are hoping it will work, then at least let me know so I can watch that spot. 

So fixing that delayed my timing, and I went to dinner and said I would finish the last row when I got back. 

I returned to find this on the screen. 

What? The program closed down! 

Sorry -- so much reflection, but the program basically shut down! And I still had one more row to do. I don't know if the power flickered when we were out. Sigh.............

However, the good news is that I had saved the design for this quilt when I started. You get prompted, and I never used to use that feature. Most quilts are smaller and easier, so I never saved the quilting setup. But I'm trying to get in the habit of saving, especially for the larger ones. So within mere minutes, I had the program opened, the file loaded, and the registration marks positioned the design, and I was back in business. 

What the screen should have looked like

So that was a good news/bad news kind of day for quilting!

More good news -- I found another storage spot I could take over. This wine fridge no longer works and should be moved out! That would give me room to store those plastic containers of paper! 

A storage spot!

Although they are too tall with all the paper sticking out, but I can fix that! Because of my schedule for the next week, I will have little time (well, I could make time) to sort through them. But I started today and grabbed one item. Remember, this is stuff from when I went to the textile program at Sheridan Collage --- in 2001~~~ Here's the printing for my selvage! 

The selvage of my fabric design

Here are the acetates I used to create my screen to print the fabric. 

Acetates for creating the screen 

OK -- so that's hard to see. Here's what the design looked like. Yes -- I'm not a good artist for freehand, so all of my stuff is somewhat geometric. 

My fabric design

And I still have the yardage!!!

The yardage that I designed and printed

I was going to use it for a quilt back at some point, but a chunk had been removed, and it wasn't large enough for that particular quilt. I'll move it to the backing section. 

However, all the acetates are gone. I threw them out. I will never use them, so why keep them? I've documented it all here, and that's good enough for me. 

I plan to grab one or two more pieces during the day and quickly deal with it. Some of the stuff is design stuff, and others are brand-new rolls of paper. 

I will do the same thing with the laundry baskets of clothing, and I'll take a couple of pieces a day and deal with them. YES -- I know it would be better and faster to just focus on it, but I don't really have time to focus right now. I need to get customer quilts to them so they can be bound for Christmas. I should have everything out of the house by the end of next week!

Here are the four T-shirts to work on today. I may keep one or two of the backs to use as practice for machine embroidery. 

T-shirts to be cut up

Here's one more item that I bought when I was in the US. I know -- I do NOT need another Kimberbell project, but this was adorable!!! And this was why I wanted that small pie dish -- someone had made a pincushion with the pie block as the top. So technically, you just need a small dish -- it doesn't have to have anything written on the bottom! 

Kimberbell embellishment kit

Now let's look under the table. OK -- so this is the long arm. This is what it looks like underneath while quilting a quilt. The top part moves back and forth, and the bottom section moves side to side! And that's how the quilt gets done! 

Underneath the long arm

But now, let's look under my sewing table. Remember, I wanted a drawer, and a drawer won't fit as a bar is under the table. 

A bar under the table

However, I found a drawer that works with that kind of table. 

It may not work, as the lip under the table is further back than shown here. But the concept is pretty cool. 

I love putting my stuff away every night. Well, the machines stay up, but I just tuck things away, making the space look neat and tidy. I can't wait to get the space completely in order. So close now! But I didn't make a mess overnight, so I don't expect it to be cleaned up overnight!

My three presentations are done for today! How did that happen? 

To make my life easy and not miss anyone, I will post the Zoom links for the three discussions HERE. 

If you want to join us and haven't signed up -- just log into the call. All these one-hour zooms are discussions to discover your level, what brand you have, and what you want to learn. There is no cost and zero commitment. 

Sunday, December 4 at 10 AM. zoom opens at 9:45

Digital Cutters  -- Brother Scan and Cut, Cricut, Silhouette

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86553551005?pwd=OERLRVhObTZFRUtLUTlHc0ZLR2RKQT09 Meeting ID: 865 5355 1005 Passcode: 675303

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Sunday, December 4 at 11:15 AM. Zoom opens at 11:00

EQ8 (Electric Quilt 8 -- software for designing quilts)

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84750425875?pwd=R015NWkrMURSYXNvQ21HdXRzRG1ZZz09 Meeting ID: 847 5042 5875 Passcode: 388459

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Sunday, December 4 at 1:00 PM. Zoom opens at 12:45

mySewnet Embroidery Software

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87534524274?pwd=ZmNiNmFMSUdkVDQvWUM4cjlYZXhIUT09 Meeting ID: 875 3452 4274 Passcode: 355283

On that note, I'm out of here! Another busy day and I need to get 110 geocaching points by Monday, so guess what I'll do later today? And I have another quilt to quilt, but it's much smaller than the ones I've tackled the last couple of days!!!

Have a super day!!

Ciao!!!