Its all about the details!!

Thankfully, I had a great sleep last night. Why can one night be so different from another? I woke up at my ridiculous early wake-up time without an alarm and then decided to luxuriate in bed for another half hour, only to wake up again without the alarm. Then I decided it was time to get myself organized and out of bed. I have a lot of work to do today!!!

Remember the minor detail (the slot) on those bobbins? I decided that I am not keeping those old bobbins—the ones without the slot. Some of these bobbins had been wound many years ago, and well, I wasn't always careful when I wound them, and without the slot, it made a big difference in how nicely they wound. This is what I gave away yesterday. 

OLD bobbins that do not work! 

I've already emptied more bobbins, and I will have more empty and ready to give before the end of this retreat. One more small sewing supply detail that is being taken care of, and I'm thrilled. The second bobbin holder will go in the retreat bag for the next retreat (December), and I hope to get that used up as well. 

The ones still with thread will hopefully be dealt with before I leave tomorrow. The empty ones on the right side are the new bobbins with the slot. I'm keeping those. The ones in the bag? Well, I started a new bag. The person to whom I gave the bobbins had to leave, so I started a new bag!! And there's one more added since I took that picture!! 

The bobbin holder is getting empty!

And as I think about this, I need to do the same thing with my long-arm bobbins. I have a lot of work to do!!!!

As I was making breakfast this morning, I spotted this on the fridge, and it says it all about retreats. 

How true!!!!

I will tell you one thing -- and it has to do with my walks. I have been leaving my phone at the house because there was a minor incident with the Wi-Fi (all fixed now), and I stream the radio while we are here. I had to stream the radio on my phone data since the Wi-Fi was down. For the first couple of days, we saw NOTHING on our walks. No wildlife of any kind. 

So, imagine my surprise when I was clomping towards the little bridge in the morning and all of a sudden, I heard much splashing, and then a giant heron flew out of the creek. I don't know who scared whom the most!!!! Of course, my phone was at the house, so no pictures! On the return trip to the house, he was standing in the pond, far enough away from the road that he didn't budge while I walked past. Such a majestic bird, and I got to watch him fish for a bit before he turned sideways nd disappeared into the grass along the edge of the pond. 

Then yesterday afternoon, I spotted a garter snake on the road. Again, my phone was at the house even though the Wi-Fi was fixed. I hadn't switched the speaker over yet. This little guy had his head up as he probably heard or felt me CLOMPING along the road and wanted to know if I was a threat or not. He didn't move. I am not a lover of snakes, and I know these little guys are harmless, but I still gave him a wide berth. 

BUT, this morning, I now have my iPad set up to stream the radio, so all is good, and I can take my phone on my walks. 

Streaming the radio on the iPad

OKK -- back to sewing. How about his one for paying attention to detail? I was sewing these black on white pieces for my enders and leaders. Well, what do you think? 

Seriously?

Good grief -- I goofed up!!! I only needed TWO of the small pieces sewn together, NOT three. What to do, what to do? I will need those longer pieces when I add the second round on the black blocks, but that will be quite a while before I get there. 

So I decided (along with the collective opinion of the group) to rip off the third rectangle and sew the strips onto each side. 

This looks much better!

And so that's what I'm doing. It's not a big deal because the seam is short, and I hope to get all of these blocks finished this week. But I know that isn't going to happen as I'm going to run out of the small pieces. No worries, as there is a LOT more of that fabric in my black and white scrap box. I don't have that with me, but don't worry -- I have some small triangles to sew as enders and leaders when this project runs out. 

My progress

I did NOT overpack for the retreat either. I won't touch most of the stuff I had packed in my original bag, but my focus is on those eight dog fabric quilts. I knew I wouldn't touch the other stuff, but I'm making good progress, and there are two other quilt tops in that bag, and well, maybe..........

Here is number five!!!!!

Number five

And number six.

Number six

I know they look like a mishmash of fabric, but in person, they look just fine and will be even better when the quilting is done. 

I didn't go anywhere yesterday, but it took me all day to get those done. Why? Well, the others are very disruptive to my sewing time! 

OKK - let's be honest - I'm the one who keeps stopping to talk, and I'm not productive at all. How do I know that? Well, before I went to bed, I laid out the next quilt top, also made with these squares. I sewed 1/3 of that top in less than one hour this morning when everyone else was in bed!!!!OKy -- I need to get those two tops done, and I need to focus!

What I need to learn is to talk and sew simultaneously.

I got a bit more done on the puzzle - sorry - I forgot to take a picture in the daylight AGAIN! But I'm making progress. I won't come anywhere near finishing it, but I'll leave it up. I would love to walk into a retreat and find a partially completed jigsaw puzzle, so hopefully the next group feels the same way, unless the staff puts it away!!! 

Jigsaw puzzle progress

And here's one quilt that got assembled by someone else at the retreat. It's flannel and it's gorgeous. She just winged it and made up the elements as she went along. I LOVE that style of quilting. It's going to be quilted soon, and she'll be able to enjoy this fall!!! 

A flannel quilt

So everything is going great!!! It's my turn to make dinner tonight, so I have to zip into town to get that, and then I'll be back with my nose to the grindstone to get those two tops done and hopefully start on the extra one that I brought. Wait for it -- you'll recognize it when you see it as I laid everything out and got it prepped to sew at the last regret!!!

WAIT --- there's more!!!! I had forgotten that this week was my week on QUILTsocial, and I made a jacket!!!! So be sure to check out these blog posts, especially if you are signed up for my jacket class this fall. If you don't look at them now, don't worry -- I'll reference them again in class. 

Day One - Essential Supplies for making a jacket

Day Two - Prepping the pattern and the fabric

Day Three - Cutting the fabric for the jacket

Day Four - Seam finishes

Day Five - Finishing the jacket

As I look at reducing my schedule, I will not give up QUILTsocial. Can you believe I've been writing blog posts since 2014!!!! It's one of my super creative outlets - I get a lot of freedom to create what I want, and I learn so much from all my experimenting. 

I hope you have a chance to read them, as there are many great tips for making jackets. And then you can follow along in my class, where we're going to discuss a whole lot more details about jacket making. You can sign up for that class at Thimbles and Things. I believe the first class starts in October, and I have not looked at the registration list yet, so if you did sign up, a little more patience is required before I reach out to you. It will be in early October. 

And on that note, I'm fired up and ready to get the next 1/3 of my quilt done. Perhaps I can make that happen before I go for my walk. Just stop talking!!!!! 

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!!