Merry Christmas

 

It's Christmas Day!! How did this happen? Where did the year go? OK - we won't go there! It's been an extraordinary year!

Here's a family photo to share with you. And why do those dogs outshine the people? 

Merry Christmas from Lexi, ME, M, Bear, and Murphy

Yes - a family member is missing, but he'd never opt to be in the photo. We'll just pretend that he's taking the picture - NOT! 

At first sight, this looks like a normal photo. But notice that I'm holding onto Murphy, so she doesn't bolt to grab the cookie that has her attention. Bear had to be photoshopped because, well - it's hard to get two people and three dogs to all look at the camera at the same time. But he looks normal. 

Let's say that M and I are NOT smiling for the camera. No - we're in hysterics at the photos as someone did NOT want their picture to be taken. 

Lexi is MAD

OH MY GOSH -- Lexi looks MAD. She did NOT want to be in the picture. Murphy was just happy to be part of the whole thing, and Bear - well, he's getting tired! 

When I tried to shut things down, he wasn't having any of it. He loves to have his picture taken!

Where are the lights? Where are the cameras?

Why did we do this? It was for you, but not just you! And trust me - it was a LOT of work to get all those quilts downstairs. We had to move a LOT of furniture in the living room to make it happen. And those quilts basically stretch from one wall to the other. We had to do the photoshoot on the main floor because Lexi would NEVER go upstairs. So instead of carrying her upstairs, I tossed all the quilts over the railing. Then I had to fold them all. Let's say that it was quite a task! 

Speaking of carrying, I had to carry Lexi to the photoshoot - she doesn't like anything out of the ordinary! Oh no - NOTHING can change. 

I must grab one of the other photos with her MAD face. It's hilarious. And Bear? He's asking - where are the cameras? I'm waiting!!

I'm waiting!!!!!

The upstairs hall was empty. 

Not a single quilt to be seen

See - the entire wall is filled with folded quilts. Ten quilts were missing from this stack, and all the small things were not here either. 

Wall to wall quilts

Can you guess how many quilts there are?? Way too many for one person to be sure. I'm going to actively start selling them. Not all of them, but as many as I can. So that's partly another reason we had the photo shoot and more on that in the new year. But let's just say that M and I, the girls and the boy, had a great time setting it up. Now I have to slowly tear it down and put everything away. 

I'll wait until M leaves in a few days, and then I can put things back on the Princess and the Pea bed. 

The sad thing is that there's also THIS wall at my house. 

TWENTY tubs of quilt tops

These are the tubs of quilt tops (with binding and backing) that need to be quilted. I did a quick count this morning, and OH MY. If I were to quilt ONE a week, it would take me FIVE years to get through what's here!!! Well, that's a sobering thought. 

Let's not even go to the number of UFOs in the house. That would be equally sobering as it's probably in the same neighborhood as the unquilted quilt tops. I know - how the heck did that happen?? 

But in the finished department, there are about 180 quilts in the photo. I know - that's obscene!!! And I'm going to guess another 50 smaller ones strewn around upstairs and downstairs. I've no idea how that all came about. There are a few that I purchased or won (especially in the small ones), but I still made the majority of them. 

I haven't made many to give away. I make to keep, or so it seems. Wouldn't it be awesome to have a catalog of all my stuff? Well, I might just do that! It would be fun, and it really isn't difficult anymore with all the digital books you can make. I can make books with 50 items in them, and that way, there's always room for the new projects because YES - there will always be new projects. But the catalogs would be a great idea. I can start with the small ones as they will be easy to photography. 

Whoever asked for a white Christmas got their wish! It started to snow about 6 PM last night, and well, it snowed. I don't think there's a lot to shovel this morning, but it sure looks like a winter wonderland out there. 

A winter wonderland

And here are my Christmas cards. Not strung up on a string, but placed on the mantle. I'll show you some of the cards and envelopes another day. Thanks to everyone who sent a card. It was so much fun to walk to the mailbox to see what new surprise awaited me!!! 

My Christmas cards

There was even overflow, and those went onto the bookcase. It really was a lot of fun, and well, some of you will be getting a card from me - it might be a day or two late. I don't know why I can't be on time with anything!!

More Christmas cards

Don't forget that it's our mini Zoom Christmas cheer this afternoon. The Zoom session runs from 1 PM - 3 PM EST.  Here's the link. You can just pop in to wish a Merry Christmas, or you can stop by and sew for a bit. I'll dig out some handwork that needs to be done. And while I'm Zooming, I'm going to try out my Christmas present to myself. You have to wait until tomorrow to see, but I'm pretty excited about it.

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85071932657?pwd=cWtIYXFPZkw3WEhNdlVKVjVXaTlWQT09 Meeting ID: 850 7193 2657 Passcode: 872754

We went out last night, and I'll share what we did tomorrow. We followed pandemic protocols, so don't think we were getting out of line here!

But we decided that Christmas should be about PRESENCE, not PRESENTS. We spent the day doing things together as a family - well, DH did not participate in the photoshoot, but that was his loss. I did NOT buy a single present, and M didn't either. DH just had to be the rebel in the scheme of things.

Today, we'll take it easy, and I have nothing on the schedule. OH - we're going to rent a movie and watch that since we can't go to the theatre!

We're a small but mighty group!

On that note, I'm out of here!!! I hope to see you later today, even for a quick HELLO.

Have a great Christmas Day!!!

Ciao!!!

A HARSH reality

 So things are going well. I'm on a roll to get the last of the stuff in Studio B sorted and put away. I swear, I've swept that floor a thousand times in the last couple of days, and I still can't eliminate all the dust bunnies! Never mind the Minky that is floating around. 

I was a few days late for some Christmas cards, but they are all in the mail now, and I even delivered one by hand. I was scrolling through some photos on Facebook and stumbled on this oldie. It's hilarious, but do you remember doing this?? 

A great way to display Christmas cards

Yep - My Mom used to do the same thing with all the cards she received. She had penpals all over the world, and so we got a LOT of Christmas cards. 

When I was in the post office the other day buying a couple of stamps for the US, the lady told me that she didn't' have any, but she could print me a label with postage. I'm OK with that. Apparently, they can't keep stamps in stock. It would appear that MANY Christmas cards got sent this year. She has ordered the US stamps FOUR times, and she still ran out. 

I'll share my cards with you tomorrow. I got some great cards, fun envelopes, and great messages. Thanks to everyone who sent one!

Back to the long arm to get the LAST Christmas quilt done. 

Customer quilt - DONE

The binding is made, but I was too tired last night to bother putting it on. It's trimmed and ready to go this morning. 

And I got the binding on the third quilt for another customer. Those quilts will be leaving the house later this morning. 

Binding on a customer quilt

I have to say that it feels great to have all that stuff done, and I won't have ANY customer stuff to do tomorrow! It's a day off! I still have a few customer quilts that I want to get done before the end of the year, and I'll load one of them later today. But no rush to get it quilted!

I was in FULL decluttering mode yesterday. OK - not quite in full mode since I'm not throwing anything away, but rather just reorganizing and packing. 

I started by getting out my book and making a list of ALL the projects sitting on the table nearest the sewing machine. OH - that was an eye-opener. So I decided to move everything off the second table as it would be sitting out for a LONG time before I could touch it. More on that home finding tomorrow. 

Then I moved the stuff from one table to the other. I know - a LOT of shuffling, but hopefully, this is the LAST time. I decided that I should set up the studio in the way that I want it to be. That means the sewing machines and sergers that I want to use are out. The projects that I'm currently working on are out (in one area), and everything else is out of sight. What's the optimal number of current projects? Probably two or three?

So, I'm close to that scenario. Well, I'll take better pictures in the next couple of days. This is the CURRENT project table. Yes - it looks a bit fuller than it was in the previous spot. I did have to add a few things. 

The current projects

OK -- so here's the thing. I wrote down EVERYTHING that is on this table. EVERYTHING. Do you know how many projects are on the table? Can you guess? Oh my - there are THIRTY-FIVE projects on that table. How does this happen to me?? 

After the list hit 25, I decided to shelve everything that was sitting on the second table. Imagine that I could accomplish ONE project a day. That's over ONE month to clear this table. That's obscene. 

The trick now is to NOT add anything else to the table. NOTHING, unless it has a deadline. 

Oh - don't worry - I have loads to share with you on my journey through that clean-up. I still have a bit of stuff to put away. I'm running out of storage room. I said that I would start giving away when that happened, but I was kidding. I still want to finish these projects. 

Holy - how could I even justify buying ANYTHING (well, a totally new project) without getting some of this mess cleaned up. I need to keep track of what I accomplish to reflect back and really feel good. I do know that not much got added to the mess this year. That's good news, and I did finish a fair number of projects. That's also good news. Now to figure out how to finish even more!

Here's one of the projects that I uncovered. Way back in 1998, I took a class with Jinny Beyer. We were using border prints to make placemats. Notice how beautifully pieced this is. I did that years ago. 

Christmas placemat

In the project box is her Christmas book, the templates, and instructions from the class. This is all the fabric that remains from this piece. 

The remainder of the fabric

I, for sure, can make one more placemat, perhaps two or even a third one. 

I guess that wasn't enough for me as I also found a HUGE hunk of this Christmas border print. 

A Christmas border print

 Oh, yes - I was going to make MORE. Why? Because!!!

I put the border print and the backing fabric in the Christmas fabric basket fabric. The pizza box is in the empty container pile, and the book, the one placemat, and the remaining chunk of fabric made it to the current project table. I know - I shouldn't have done that, but this would be a good project to pass an afternoon. And that's why there are so many projects on that table. I think that it'll only take an hour to finish and well, I never seem to get that hour. But NO MORE!! 

Oh, trust me - there's going to be a whole lot more confessing over the next couple of days. I'm perfectly OK with that. It's time to get this place EXACTLY how I want it and TRAIN myself to keep it that way. I've learned so MUCH over the last couple of years. I've learned to put stuff away when I buy it. I've learned that things need to have a home. I've learned that there are things that I shouldn't buy and, well, a whole lot more. 

This exercise was a very sobering one. And you'll see why tomorrow. Just think of that table with 35 projects multiplied MANY times. Yep - I'll never need to buy anything new for a LONG, LONG time. 

Hopefully, this link works. It's a very moving commercial from the Netherlands. Did you notice his change when he realized he had a purpose in life? That's what we need each and every day. If you don't have a purpose, let me know. I'll find a project or two that you can work on!!

As soon as I get everything done, I'll be hosting "open houses," so I can share what Studio B looks like. I can't wait!!!!

I had trouble sleeping last night and got up in the middle of the night to declutter. Not only the studio but my brain. So many things to do, so I wrote out a huge list of paperwork things that need to be tidied up today. ICK!! But it's got to be done. 

On that note, I'm out of here!!!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!