The mystery is solved!

I see Torry is ripping through the fifth book of The Seven Sisters series while I'm still on number three. OK -- so neither of us really liked one of the sisters, but perhaps she will grow on us. I was surprised this morning to see that I'm almost 50% through the third one, and the historical fiction part and the character-building just pull you in. Yep -- they are romantic, no doubt about it, and that's OK. It's very healthy to read outside your usual genre. 

And here's some GOOD news. I just checked, and the FINAL book will be released on May 11, 2023. Lucida Riley died in 2021 before she could finish the final book about the father, but her son took over, and the book is done! The theory of the secret driving force behind the series has been in all the books? OK -- I need to put my puzzle-solving hat on for that one. I couldn't put the new book on hold at the library, so it's yet to be available for ordering, and I imagine there'll be a long wait for it. I still have FOUR books to read! 

I can see where book three is going, but I'll just have to wait and see how right I am!

So to keep up with my goals, I got the binding on TWO quilts yesterday. This first one is my quilt - The Among the Stars Again. 

The binding on one of my quilts

The second one is a quilt for Quilts of Valour. Yeah! That leaves ONE more for Quilts of Valour to bind. I'd need to make arrangements for the huge stack to be delivered. I want them out of the house by the end of the year!

The binding on a Quilts of Valour quilt

And the stack is getting smaller by the day! It will be a super exciting day when that entire table is clear! But that will only happen after the end of the year as there are some sleeves to make, and well -- that will take some time. But it's all progress. 

The pile of quilts to finish gets smaller

Here's a bit of a shock! I mentioned on my blog that I wanted to teach a class called The Barn Star Sampler. 

Barn Star Sampler book

 It looks like an amazing and fun quilt, and I know several of you have already purchased the book. Just before Christmas, I was told we couldn't proceed with the class because the book was SOLD OUT. Seriously?? How can a book that is released in August be sold out? Well, we now have the answer. The book was published by Martingale, who I'm sure many of you are familiar with, as they have been a dominant force in the quilt book publishing industry for 40+ years. Well, guess what? They are closing! Yep --- mid-2023! 

The publisher did two short runs of that book, and both sold out, and they decided not to tempt fate and run a third printing due to money issues. HOLY!!!!

If enough people are interested, we can TRY to find time to make this quilt. The book will be available soon directly from the author. 

All industries are changing rapidly, and who knows what 2023 will bring. If anyone is interested in this quilt or bought the book after my initial announcement, send me an email so I can see the interest. elaineteheriault@gmail.com.

OK -- so I will have to start shopping in disguise. I went to the drugstore yesterday to buy some hard candies for my throat after I decimated the box of lozenges. Besides, Werther's taste is way better than those lozenges! Many of you know that David's Tea stores closed during the pandemic. Well, this is the first time I have noticed this, but there is a mini David's Tea in the Rexall drug stores. They even sell empty tea bags if you have loose tea! I was wondering where to buy them!

Mini David's Tea

So while I was taking this picture and studying the offerings, an employee sauntered past me, and she wasn't stocking the shelves! I'm in my bright orange coat, red scarf, and hat. Hardly trying to be incognito! So that was a good find, and I bought some tea to try - a nutty tea. I also snagged some honey as per my nurse friend Diane, who says it's good for a dry and raspy throat. 

It was another 16+ KM day yesterday, and the weather is still somewhat nasty. Well, it's not bad, but it's below zero, and we still have wind, although it is way warmer than it was a couple of days ago. However, it keeps getting warmer each day, and starting tomorrow, we're supposed to have an entire week with NO temperatures below zero. Now that is just weird! I should have no problem getting my last 94.2 KM before the end of the year!

It was time to tackle those puzzles within the jigsaw puzzle. I managed to identify all eight puzzles without too much difficulty. Then it was time to get some paper and a pen to solve them. Many didn't need paper -- just some thought. 

Solving puzzles

And I ended up with seven answers corresponding to some specific border pieces. I couldn't figure out the answer to the final puzzles and looked up a support page on the internet. I went through all the puzzles to ensure that my logic was correct, and yes, it was for all seven. When I looked at the first clue for the 8th answer, I went, OH!! I should have figured that out. It wasn't hard, but it was unusual. Next time, QUESTION everything. 

The answers correspond to specific border pieces

Then it was time to find the FINAL solution to the mystery. OK -- so my theory didn't work, and I ended up guessing. Then I looked at the final clue. OK -- so I get where they were going with it, and I suppose I should have questioned one of the positions of the eight puzzle pieces that would have proved my theory wrong, but seriously -- I thought their solution was a bit lame. They could have made it much more interesting, which is what I thought it should have been. I'm way ahead of my time! 

I bought one of these puzzles myself when I was at the puzzle store, and I wonder how different each one is from the other? Once you understand how to find the puzzles, once the jigsaw is together, that shouldn't be hard, and the eight puzzles were relatively evident in this one. They have 6 or 8 puzzles in each, and that final answer. Will it be the same process? I can't wait to find out!!!

Here's the final puzzle. I really enjoyed the entire process. And although I shouldn't, I might crack open another puzzle to finish off this week. Not one of these -- just an ordinary puzzle. 

The final puzzle

And this dog - I mean this princess is taking total liberty of the couch. DH moved the cushions out of the way, and now she thinks it is her place to snuggle right into the corner of the sofa. ARRRRGGG  -- the dog hair is everywhere, and I am NOT vacuuming that couch. I didn't let her up; not my responsibility. Just before I snapped this picture, she had the tip of her nose poking up as if to say -- hey honey -- can you bring me a biscuit! 

MOM -- get me a beer! 

The worst part is that DH says -- she takes all the room. DUH! Make her move, but she has him wrapped around her finger. This is not good for discipline measures -- she thinks she can do whatever she wants when she wants. I told her sleeping on the couch is a privilege, NOT a right, and that she is NOT allowed on the sofa at night. Only when her dad is there! Murphy couldn't care about that couch, but if someone leaves a basket off the sofa or chair in the front room? Murphy has no qualms about curling up there! Sigh............. Our house has gone to the dogs! 

Oh gosh -- I dreamt about the Camino de Santiago last night. Yep -- I'm going back. This time with cheap BIG shoes and cheap socks! I'll put more thought into it than that, but I'll be back!

I did some other sewing yesterday but didn't take a picture, so you will see it tomorrow. I have to start a writing project today, so that will be the day's focus. Holiday sewing is over, and it's time to get back to work!!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!

Productive day!

I'm feeling pretty relaxed this morning! I'm going away AGAIN for a couple of days and I have to confess that I didn't run around yesterday trying to get a ton of stuff done and that feels AMAZING. 

I still have some paperwork to do, but could it be there's a light at the end of the tunnel? At least to get caught up on all the mundane stuff that has to be done? I doubt it because it seems the more you do, the more administrative stuff needs to be done. Or there is something that needs to be taken care of for the house and I'm trying very hard to keep up to date on that. 

I've also become OCD - OK. I'll admit -- I've just become my true self. 

When I get in the mood and the decluttering has happened in an area, do NOT put anything on the counter! While outdated, my kitchen has not much sitting on the counters or the kitchen table. 

The kitchen is pretty tidy!

The worst part is that I can't leave anything out now. If I come home, I immediately unpack whatever I brought home and put it away. If I have dirty dishes, they immediately go in the dishwasher. There were times when most of the surfaces in that kitchen were covered -- OK -- not the counters, but the kitchen table and the island would be covered with my crap. No more! And you know what? It feels exciting! 

It's easy to unpack stuff for two reasons. I'm doing mindful shopping, which means I don't buy anything that I don't have a home for and second, stuff laying around looks so out of place that you want to put it away - it doesn't matter how busy you are! 

I unload the dishwasher as part of my morning routine. But do you think DH could load his dishes in it? Nope -- they sit on the counter until later in the day. That's one thing I've discovered about men (after talking to my friends) that the husbands want things to look nice, but they cannot multi-task. It's one job to get the dishes to the ktichen and requires a whole different mindset to actually put them away! 

That's one thing I LOVE about Zoom. We have discussions about many things and sometimes our signifcant others are the topic of conversation! 

The bottom line is that if I got this one area tidied up, it's possible to get others done as well and then it'll be a breeze to keep it that way! I'm excited!

So I took my own advice and set aside the customer quilt that was going to get done and loaded my own. 

That is probably the fastest turnaround I've ever done on one of my own quilts! There were zero issues with it (I would HOPE so!) and it turned out super nice. 

My Among the Stars Again quilt

There's the quilting pattern on it. 

The quilting design

And there's the crazy back, but I don't care -- I'm just happy that I got to use up some of the extra bits. It's funny with that print on the left -- there's a rather promininet repeat on it which I never noticed until this photo! The quilt is trimmed and I'm waiting for the binding to come. There is ZERO rush for it. 

The back of the quilt

That took up a great deal of the day as that quilt is HUGE. BUT, not as large as this next one. 

I decided to attempt to get the two borders on my Farmer's Wife quilt. What a job, as this quilt is massive and you had to lug around that quilt top. It was a challenge to measure and I took everything off the cutting table to make it easier. I said EASIER, not easy!

Putting the borders on the Farmer's Wife quilt

But listening to a good audiobook to distract oneself is a good thing and by the end of the day, I had the two borders on the quilt. I think it measures 86" by 106". 

The two borders are on the quilt

That leaves the binding and the backing and to clean out the project box. I had two options for the binding, and have decided to go with the dark green. 

Binding options

But that will have to wait until I'm back next week. Don't worry -- I'll still be blogging and I'm going someplace new, so you can share in our "new" experience. 

The car is packed, something, I don't normally do until the morning I leave, but I'm taking my bike with me and I didn't want to deal with that this morning. So I ended up putting almost everything in the car, but I still have to walk the girls and have breakfast. Thankfully the drive is only one hour!

I have to say that when I put my mind to something, I can get a lot done! Amazing how that hppens, but I also think it's having the space to work properly and something to distract. Anyway, if I could have ONE day a week, like the last couple of days, I'd get so much done! I might actually get caught up! HA!!

On that note, I'm out of here! Before I go, how is the decluttering coming along? It's a long, horrid job, but if you don't start somewhere, it'll never get done. I can't begin to tell you how good it feels to have some tidy spaces in the house and can't wait for the day when the entire place is like that. Every little victory is another weight off my shoulders. My posture will love me for it. 

Speaking of posture, everyone tells you to pull your shoulders back, chin down, lower your shoulders, but people forget a very important step. Your pelvis and your hips. If you tuck your pelvis in and try to align your shoulders with your hip bones, your shoulders automatically go back and I find it's way easier to keep that posture than just do the shoulder thing! I'm trying! 

And Mary -- my new morning routine includes that Vitamin D! Thanks for the encouragmenet!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!

Back to back to back

So before I tell you all about the back, let's talk about the firsts! 

As you are probably aware, I love to find geocaches. Now I'm not a huge geocache person as I haven't hit 600 yet, but I like to do it from time to time. And it's something fun to do in a location you are visiting. As with all things I love, there are many ways to measure what you do - the number of caches you find, the level of difficulty, the size of the container, and many other things. One thing that has eluded me is the FTF, which stands for FIRST TO FIND. 

What does that mean? After someone places a cache, if you have your e-mail notifications set up, you'll get a notice that a new cache has been placed. It'll tell you how far away it is from your location. I checked my e-mail this morning to find one that is .19 miles from my house. OH - has anyone else found it? 

I checked, and so far, no one had logged it. Let's just say that I breezed through that blog post yesterday morning, grabbed Murphy, and we did the walk in reverse so we could get to the cache quicker. I was practically pulling Murphy instead of the other way around. OK -- so that's a lie, but thankfully, she likes to hustle. 

We arrived and quickly found the cache in the forest, and we were the FIRST TO FIND it!  Yeah, me and Yeah, Murphy!!!!

FTF!

I will say that Murphy was way more interested in the squirrels than she was in the container. That dog needs better training! Oh -- she's good with training, as long as you have a treat! 

Murphy and the geocache

And it's a good thing we did what we did because as I found it, someone was on their way and logged in shortly after I was there!

So this brings up a shameful moment. Years ago (TEN years ago - August 18, 2012), I was in New Brunswick and picked up this travel bug from a geocache. What's a travel bug? There's a tracking number on the back of that little frog, which is attached to Bart Simpson, and the idea is that the bug gets moved from cache to cache. This little guy has traveled close to 20,000 KM across the US and then it came to Canada. 

A travel bug

I brought it home and promptly lost it in the office. Sigh...   In my decluttering, I found the travel bug, and I contacted the owner to ask if he wanted it back or release it back into a geocache. He said to put it back into circulation. So I plan on taking a picture somewhere in particular before I release into the geocaching world! 

OK -- enough about geocaching. It's time to talk back! Not my back, not your back, but QUILT backs. 

I'd sit down before you read further because you'll be exhausted. I know I was -- just getting this all together. 

Let's start off with a couple of the backs of customer quilts. This was a sports-themed quilt, and the backing is large pieces of sports fabric. 

The back of a customer quilt

I finished this customer quilt two days ago.  

Customer quilt - DONE

The back of it was pieced with extra blocks. 

The back of the customer quilt

I finished this customer quilt yesterday. 

Customer quilt - DONE

While the back wasn't anything too out of the ordinary, I had to make the backing. The quilt is race car themed and the customer couldn't find anything she liked for the back. 

 

Race cars

I said I might have just the thing, and this is what I found in my stash of quilt backings. So I sold her the fabric, made the backing on her behalf, and it's quilted and trimmed and ready to be delivered later this week! Now, how is that for service? And I used some of my fabric!

The backing of the customer quilt

Then it was time to work on some quilt backs for me. The quilt tops were piling up a wee bit, so during the Virtual Retreat, I decided to get to work. I had searched and couldn't find something suitable for my Wonderful Woodland, which is very strange. So I checked out the baskets of flannel to see if something would work. I found this pile of fabric. As I mentioned, it was in strips and lots of it. 

Fabric pulled to make a backing

I measured, sliced, and diced until VOILA -- I had a quilt backing that was the right size. 

My pieced backing for the Wonderful Woodland quilt

You can't see it, but there are a lot of seams across the width of that backing, and I'm perfectly OK with that. You'll see the top later, and I made the binding the same day I made the backing. 

Lots of seams in that backing!

This is all that was left of that pile of fabric, and it went into the flannel scrap bin and will go to a good home. 

The leftovers from making the backing

Then it was onto the backing for the Among the Stars Again quilt. I couldn't find anything suitable in the stash, but I did have LOTS of leftover fabrics, so I figured, let's go for it, and pieced the backing from several different prints. 

The pieced backing for Among the Stars Again

I still had all this fabric leftover, which is now in the appropriate stash bin. Green or grey? I put it in the green bin. That would be the bin with the green fabric, not technically the green bin for compost! I should qualify that as well, this is NOT left over, meaning the pattern was overly generous, it means I had a whack of this fabric and make the quilt top and the backing and still have left over. I could make a small coordinated quilt from it. Hmmm -- perhaps I'll dig this back out and send it to Diane! I should quilt the darn thing before I do that! 

Left over fabric from my project

And I'm still working on the little triangles cutoffs to make half-square triangles. This is the quilt that I'm waiting on for the binding, but it's not like I'm going to quilt that quilt tomorrow, so no rush. Even if I quilted it tomorrow, there would be no rush to put the binding on!

Half-square triangles in progress

Phew -- that's a lot of backings, but WAIT. I'm not done!

I had this stack of backings ready to put on the shelf, but they had NOT been measured. 

Backing fabrics - not measured

That won't do, so they got measured and labeled. Now, this is much more useful! Even though I don't have a ton of room to store those backings, it might just be the time to start going through the stash ins and pull anything that is huge yardage that can be used for a backing. I seem to be needing backing fabric more than anything else these days. Maybe, I'll start one basket at a time. See what I mean by there always being something to organize. The more you have, the more time it takes to manage it and make it useful! But it's so much better than it was!

The backings are now measured and labeled

My Long Time Gone has been sitting here forever without the backing or the binding made. The backing fabric was pulled, so I also measured and cut that. 

The backing fabric for Long Time Gone

I found some fabric suitable for the binding, and that one got moved to the "to be quilted" pile. 

Long Time Gone in the "to be quilted" pile

That left these two projects that still needed to be tackled. 

Two more projects to tackle

I found the perfect backing for my All in a Row quilt, which was a sew-along in 2021. It has cute owls on it, and it is bright. It's not just owls, but they are very prominent. 

The owls on my All in a Row quilt

Look at what I found. I mean, is this not perfect???? 

The backing fabric

And so the backing got made for that one as well. 

Another one hits the "to be quilted" pile

I'm working on the second quilt in that photo, but there's no time to tell you about that one right now. 

So much can be done when you're on a roll and have nothing to distract you. I got one more writing assignment out the door, but I must start another big one and soon! I've been puttering around with other paperwork that needs to be done and I'll get a bit more done today. 

If you want to see a really intense pieced quilt back, check out the back of Darlene's quilt. This is the BACK. That's intense -- I think she used every little leftover scrap she had, and I swear it took her longer to do the back than it did to make the front! Thankfully, I don't get that intense!

The BACK of Darlene's quilt

An FYI about my quilt backs -- I piece then vertically or horizontally -- whichever way makes the most sense. Sometimes, you have no choice if the print is directional. Once that seam is done, I fold it up and put it with the quilt top. I do NOT press it at that time. Why bother, when I'll likely have to repress it when I load it on the long arm. There is ZERO double work in this house if I can avoid it! 

Phew -- I'm off for another productive and busy day. Oh, I did grab a few things from Studio U and put them in their proper place. I WILL get through that, but I needed to take a break. Spin class -- it's time for spin class! 

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!

Among the Stars Again Show and Tell

We had Monday sewing yesterday, and I was so productive, but you'll hear about that tomorrow. 

Today, it's all about the show and tell from one of the sew-alongs at the Hobby Horse. We started the class in January and finished in July. There were some very new quilters in this group who did an AMAZING job at finishing their quilts!

Let's have a look. 

Here's the book we used. 

Among the Stars Again by Its Sew Emma

Here's something to think about -- I encourage the students to change up the pattern if there is something they don't like. Even though this is a 100% pieced pattern, they didn't disappoint. 

There were 16 people in the class, and I think we got an almost finished quilt or a finished quilt top from everyone! That's very impressive. 

First up is Cathie, who used a Christmas collection for her quilt. 

Cathie

Cathy tried a layer cake in a colorway that isn't her thing. She usually works with brights, and this is a great exercise to learn about color - move out of your comfort zone! She is working on the border. 

Cathy

Darlene is a brand new quilter and wanted to make her quilt larger, so she added an extra row and an extra block to each row. She's working on getting the final border on the other side and the bottom. 

Darlene

Donna made her quilt larger as well but only added an extra block to each row. Something you have to remember is the way the layout was done; it wasn't an easy thing to just add an additional block. The sashings were different widths, and the blocks were not all the same size, so it took a bit of figuring to make the extra blocks and rows happen. The original quilt layout was symmetrical, so adding the additional blocks and rows was tricky! 

Donna

Jennifer was another brand new quilter and chose to keep the center part like the book but changed the border. Can you believe these quilts? I'm so impressed that they are learning from Zoom without meeting in person and have achieved great pressing and piecing skills!

Jennifer

Judy also kept hers similar to the book and is working on that final border. 

Judy

Karen made her quilt larger by adding an extra block to each row (the original quilt is 64 by 84, in case you are wondering!) and then went crazy with that border! If ever you are going to do a border like this, it's best to follow Karen's example. The likelihood of those diamonds fitting exactly into each side, top, and bottom is pretty slim, so if you center them along the border, it looks fantastic every time!

Karen

Kelly is making TWO quilts from her blocks, but she hasn't finished sewing them together yet, and we are waiting to see how she arranges all the blocks into two quilts. 

Kelly blocks

Lucy also made extra blocks, and her top is almost together. Then she can work on that border. 

Lucy

Margaret was having fun with her blocks and did not need another large quilt, so she was making the blocks from kid prints and is going to make them into small quilts for the NICU units. How sweet is that? 

Some of Margaret's blocks

Maria also worked in a colorway that was NOT her thing. She started with a floral print as her focus fabric, but not much of it ended up in the quilt. 

Maria

Sandi, another relatively new quilter, also decided to make the quilt larger by adding extra blocks. 

Sandi

She did the spikey border as per the original, then went rogue. She added an extra strip of black to finish off that border nicely and added some white to the edges to make the quilt larger. 

The borders on Sandi's quilt

Shelly was a little bit behind in her blocks, but this is the colorway that she chose. 

Shelly

Val kept true to the book but also changed the last border. 

Val

And can you believe my quilt top was finished at the end of the class? Yep -- I'm trying to be very good about finishing up. 

My quilt

However, I will confess that when I saw what Sandi did with her quilt, I really liked the effect of making that border more pronounced by adding a little bit of the same fabric to the edges. Remember, that grey is the fabric I plan to use for the binding, and I didn't have enough. However, now that I have found the fabric and had some of it left, I could cut 2" strips and sew them on. 

The extra border added

I have to say that I like this version much better! Thanks to Sandi for that! See -- I learn as much from my students as they do from me!

If you counted, one person audited the class and didn't make any blocks! 

Now I need to contact the store that has the binding and get them to send me a bit more than I originally requested (good thing, the store owner couldn't attend to it until this week!), and then I'll have this one ready to quilt as well. More on that tomorrow!

Next week, I'll post ALL the classes and clubs I have on my list to teach in the fall of 2022 and 2023. There will likely be a few one-time or two-part classes that haven't been decided yet, but you'll get to see which sew alongs I'm teaching. All of them will be on Zoom! 

Some of you might be saying, I don't need another quilt, and that's probably true, but we are MAKERS, and makers gotta make! If you want to be part of the group and have fun because that's what it's all about -- I don't teach rocket science in my classes, and a lot of people know just as much as I do, but we're all together for fun! 

And if you don't need another quilt, do what Margaret is doing -- make blocks, change the size of the quilt, and donate them. One of the other ladies in this class will donate the entire top (or the finished quilt). She doesn't need another quilt, but she enjoys making it, and let's face it -- we have loads of fabric that needs to be dealt with. I think it's a fantastic win-win! 

Plus, making stuff is cheaper than therapy; we get to chat with each other, tell stories, and learn from each other! I love it!!

On that note, I'm out of here. I did not get out on my bike yesterday, and I'm not sure about today. I have some urgent paperwork to do and I'm on a roll in Studio B, and I don't want to interrupt the momentum!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!