It's all about the UFOs

Yesterday was a pretty productive day. I worked on TWO of my UFOs and I'm very excited that getting those UFOs done is a reality!!

It was great to get back to Monday sewing and catch up with all the ladies and what happened over the holidays.

Here's the first UFO.

This is a Block of the Month that I did through Jillybean's. Since that store has been closed for a long time, we know that this is an old project. Yep - the shop ran it as a monthly class in 2006/2007. Each month we had to make one applique block, one large pieced block, and one small pieced block. I was keeping up and getting all the homework done ON TIME. Then disaster struck! The store closed when we were working on Block 9. And well, you guessed it - nothing got done after that.

Have a look at where I am.

Gingerbread Joy by Sue Garman

The picture on the right is the pattern cover while the picture on the left is what someone did with their blocks. They didn't use the embroidery blocks nor the large pieced blocks.

Here are my pieced blocks. There are 9 large ones and 11 small ones. A total of 14 small blocks are needed for the quilt and it looks like I got those two extras completed. Yeah!!!!

Pieced blocks for Gingerbread Joy

Here are my applique blocks. That's a LOT of circles!!!

Applique blocks for Gingerbread Joy

There's also some embroidered blocks and those are finished as well. All that writing in a STEM stitch. 

Embroidery blocks for Gingerbread Joy

So that leaves four applique blocks, three large and small pieced blocks. The pieced blocks for Block 9 are already done.

Here's the pattern for the Block Nine applique.

Block nine for applique

I opened up the package to find that my gingerbread boy is already prepped and ready to be hand stitched. Well, I did have to do a bit of work on the white trim bits, but for the most part, he is ready to go. I didn't get any stitching done on it yesterday, but it's all in the little bag and ready to work on when I get tired of sewing by machine. Or next Monday!

Block Nine - ready to stitch

I started to work on the applique prep for Block 12. Oh yes - let's just skip ahead. Well, there were 44 circles that had to be prepped. And they take time. So I spent the day making circles. I didn't get a picture but it was on Facebook. Oh - here's the picture.

Making circles for Block 12

I'm bound and determined to get this quilt done! I remember about 4 years ago that I resurrected this quilt to work on. Lynn and I had been doing the same quilt although we weren't in the same class and she had also abandoned it. She got her quilt done, mine is not!!!  OH MY GOD - you have to go back and read this blog post from 2013. Scroll down until you get to the Gingerbread Joy part. It would appear that the store closed during Block 7 or 8, not 9.

Someone also gave me their small blocks as they did a different setting and did not need them. Not sure how those will get used, but they are in the box.

Extra blocks that were given to me by someone

I found this striped fabric in the box. Oh my - this is supposed to be the border/binding. It would sure look good on the Jingle all the Way quilt that I'm working on. I might need to steal a piece from it! But NOT before I measure it to see that I have enough.

Perfect fabric for the border

That's what happened at Motivational Monday sewing. Then totally ignoring what was in the Task Master for me to work on, I opened up another UFO box. This was a class that I taught at Ruti's Needlebed (now also closed also) YEARS AGO.

Stonehenge meets Jamestown

 The fabric is Stonehenge from Northcott and the pattern is from Marti Michell.

Thankfully all the fabric is labeled. This is another one of those projects that if the fabrics weren't labeled? Well - it wouldn't be pretty.

The fabrics are labeled in the project box

The pattern was originally for a queen size quilt using 35 blocks, but you could also make it a king sized quilt which needed 36 blocks. I was certain that I had made the extra block, but couldn't find it anywhere. Seriously????  Where is that damn missing block? And this has sat for YEARS because of that missing block.

Rows of blocks

More rows of quilt blocks

Yep - when I laid it out on the design wall, four of the six rows were sewn together and two rows were even sewn to each other. You can see where the missing log cabin block needs to go. There were two blocks that needed to be sewn to the end of their respective row.

Quilt blocks/rows on the design wall

So I got to work and cut the missing log cabin. Enough of this trying to find it. It's gone or perhaps I never made it!!!!

Log cabin block ready to sew

And now it's together

I also found a layout for where I wanted to place the 12 blocks.

My quilt layout form EQ7

I rearranged the rows and sewed everything together. The top is now in THREE sections.

The quilt in three sections

Isn't that super exciting???  To think that it didn't require a whole lot of time to get this thing done. There are three borders to put on. That will slow me down a bit as this is a very large quilt, but nothing that can't be done in a day. Then to find something for the backing - it's going to need a lot of backing, but I've got bolts. I'm sure I'll find something. And the binding - let's not forget the binding.


This is the update on Jingle all the Way. Here are those three blocks I made on Sunday as well as all the other blocks I had made earlier.

Blocks for Jingle all the way

There are some pieced blocks as well and those are all cut out. Some of them are sewn together - they were ender/leaders for the log cabin block. No picture yet. 

Blocks are cut out

A quick note on the diet. Again - no issue with sugar cravings although at some point in the day I was hungry so I need to get checking on the calorie intake to make sure I'm eating enough. Thanks to drinking lots of water, my weight is back in the buffer zone! Already got my supplements in me for the day and two full glasses of water. Here's one think about this program that bugs me.

This is the container that the shake mix comes in. It's BRAND NEW and is less than half full. Can they NOT put it in a smaller container? The cost of transporting this huge container and the EXTRA plastic required to make this huge container - well it's very wasteful and I shall be writing a letter to them. I did last time, but nothing changed. The company is supposed to be very carbon footprint conscious so I shall remind them of this mess. But the shakes are good and I'm happy.

A brand new container of shake mix - less than half full

I got home to this wonderful news.

I guess you can figure out what that is. I was pretty certain that this was going to be the response to the damages on my car. I'm guessing I was hit hard enough that the frame was damaged. I had a little chat with the insurance company, but I didn't get all my questions answered as I was passed onto the personal injury people - the left side of my neck and upper shoulder are stiff as a board and I'm going in this morning to have it looked at. Hopefully, I'll get an offer on Wednesday. I've got a test drive booked for Thursday AM. Oh, the joys!

It's not that I don't like shopping for a car - I like shopping on my own timeline. And I wasn't ready yet. But it must be done.

On that note, I'd better get ready as I have to be at the clinic at 8:30 AM.

Have a great day!!!!!

Ciao!!!!

The weigh-in

I honestly went to take pictures this morning to help explain my story about last week and the camera battery died. Seriously??  And today, I'm just busy! Patience - it's not that big of a deal and I'm not saying anything more until I can get to it.

Yesterday I went to see the program person for the DTOX program. The first thing we did was the weigh-in. The worst part. However, it was all good news. In the first week, I lost 2.1 pounds and 3% body fat. In the next two weeks, I lost an additional 3.3 pounds and another 3% body fat. It would appear that whatever weight I lost - it was all FAT and I'm OK with that!

This is the week to reintroduce foods.Guess what I won't be reintroducing?  Yep - SUGAR! BAD! BANISHED from my diet. Forever? I'm not sure, but I worked hard (mentally) to not eat any refined sugar these past three weeks - why ruin a good thing. I had an omelet last night and so far so good. And I would have to say that yesterday was one of the first days where I didn't really have major cravings? Or was that because I was too busy and too tired to even crave food?

It's crunch time yet again. I'm working on our Modern Guild's charity quilt for Quiltcon which is at the end of next month. The quilt needs to be in California soon. It has to be in a box on Thursday - obviously completed!

Quilting our Quiltcon charity quilt

Yes - I've had the top for a while, yes I should have done it sooner, but honestly it's not like I'm sitting around doing nothing. There were just a few too many things due all at the same time. I changed my mind a thousand times on how to quilt it. There's a LOT of negative space on that quilt and I decided it wasn't the time to try something new so I went to my default pattern. But I added a few twists in there. I'll take pictures when it's done. I got almost all the background done yesterday which hopefully accounts for 80% of the quilt. I have one more row of the background and then the colored bits. My goal is to get it off the machine today, trim (which is going to be fun - there is NO border and some of the ends were not necessarily straight) and get the binding made, leaving tomorrow to put the binding on and pack it and take it off to the UPS store - the new one, not the other one!

Did you notice the backing? Yep - that's a SOLID BRIGHT ORANGE! It was in my stash and I thought, let's be bold. It's bold all right!

My back was pretty tired by the end of the day and while I had planned to get that last row done, there was no way! I retired to the sofa to read a book. Still, I made great progress and hopefully won't take too long to do the colored bits.

Here's that UFO that I'm working on as well. I have the bottom right hand corner sewn together and I had better get it finished and off the wall before the next sit n sew day although it's a full house so we won't be able to access the design wall.

2017 UFO project partially sewn

While I'm sure you're not all that interested in stuff at the gym, I thought I would share it anyway. I was at Joseph's spin class this morning. Seriously - he should get an award for being the toughest teacher around. My legs feel like spaghetti. Limp spaghetti!  A while back, the gym brought in all new bikes. There's a speedometer of sorts on the bikes which shows the speed, the distance and how many watts you're producing. Apparently, there's a function that allows the instructor to see the speed and the watts for all the bikes in the room. He wants us all to be above 100 watts all the time which isn't that difficult to achieve. Then he put all the numbers on the screen for all of us to see. Amazing how some of them perked up once those numbers were shown. You know - the macho guys who have to pump out 400 watts. Yea - big deal. That's not sustainable for the hour. Show-offs!

Now each of the bikes have a number and apparently you can reserve a specific bike on-line and at the end of the class, the bike will e-mail you your stats. Seriously???  I never knew that although I had seen the "register" link on the class list. I'm going to try that for next week.

That's pretty cool. And now I have a ton of paperwork that needs to be addressed before I get to that quilt.

Have a super day!!

Ciao!

One by one.............

One by one those things that need to be done before I leave for my weekend getaway is getting done. I finished one project last night and that one was HUGE so that felt really good. Almost to the extent that I didn't know what to do with myself. Seriously???

I did a little bit of cutting last night in preparation for the weekend classes. I'm super excited about those classes and can't wait to get the projects started. It's going to be loads of fun. Those are the on-going classes at the Hobby Horse quilt shop that I mentioned the other day.

Here's a question for you all - for those of you in the area - is anyone interested in doing an applique quilt? As part of my ongoing classes in the past, one of them has been an applique pattern. This year, both projects are pieced or focused on quilting. I've had a request from past students to run an applique class. If anyone is interested, drop me a note and I'll see if we can arrange something.  Here's the pattern that we were thinking of doing.

Autumn Quilt by Heart to Hand

I got the one pattern written that needed to be written. I'll verify it tonight and that will be one more off the list. I love lists!

I'm enjoying my training class, but at the same time, I'm wondering if I've gotten myself in over my head. It's going to be interesting. Right up my alley, but a lot of prep work. And lots of learning! But I'm super excited about the opportunity. I shall let you know on Monday what's going on. It's all good - only part-time so I won't miss out on my Monday sewing days! That's a good thing.

The DTox thing is going great. I'm sure some of the food combinations I'm eating for lunch may not be approved, but that's OK. I'm doing the best I can. Actually, I'm not doing that bad considering how bad of a sugar junkie I am (was?). I really don't mind the decaffeinated tea with no sugar. It's fine and it's HOT. I just have to figure out how to not cave with the sugar thing. I need a trigger or something. Think about how many times you pop a mint in your mouth after a meal. Or a little nibble on something. And have you noticed how many food commercials there are EVERYWHERE that advertise EATING and most of it isn't healthy! No wonder we have a hard time to resist.

We'll come to that bridge next week when I chat with the program person to see where and how to go next. There's lots of talk about symptoms that you could get - headaches, bloating, blah, blah, blah. More energy or less energy and lots of other things. I haven't really felt much change but I know eating less sugar is good for me.

On that note, the week is almost over and life will get back to normal, whatever normal is around here.

Have a great day!

Ciao!

Quilter's Patch - Take Three

I made a list of things that I need/want to blog about. I'm working my way through that list and I'm still working on the Quilter's Patch quilt. I found another set of photos and there is still one set missing - I think. Could be on the phone. Let's see, that will be for another day! Just checked the phone. No pictures, but I just remembered there are TWO folders on the camera and I only looked in one. I bet the other pictures are in that second folder!

I see that I NEED to reboot my PC on a regular basis. Of course, I've been having trouble printing again! And the system was very slow this morning. I'm in and out of a lot of programs in a single day. So I rebooted this morning and guess what?  Yep - everything that was waiting in the cue to print - printed!  Note to self - reboot the computer at least every second day!

Had loads of fun at Sit n Sew yesterday and you'll see more about that in the next couple of days. I've been editing photos this morning.

But let's revisit the Quilter's Patch quilt. This was one of the ongoing classes at the Hobby Horse this past year.

Quilter's Patch by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts

The coil binding was put on by the UPS store - yes THAT store and that was a bungled job!

Let's see what progress was made from the last group of pictures.

One of the flower blocks

A house block

House block

A group of three blocks

Another group of three blocks

One of the rows

Someone else's row

 Don't you love how the same row or group of blocks look different depending on the choices of fabric? This was definitely an interesting quilt as there were MANY different techniques covered in the book. Paper piecing, English paper piecing, 8-point stars, applique, diamonds, curved piecing and a whole lot more!

More assembled sections

Two groups of sunflowers

Flowers and fence and the cat

Working on the very bottom border - look at that pink poodle

A little more progress on that bottom row

Blocks can be put together in different order

The top is together minus the top and side borders

 You have to check out this border. When Jennifer first pulled it out of her bag, I thought she had appliqued a green leaf and then a white leave on top. NO - this is HAND embroidered with a satin stitch that is impeccable.

Hand embroidered leaves and stem - beautiful

We had Jennifer give us a small lesson at the last class. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but wow - her work is amazing!

I suppose you're wondering how my quilt is progressing. As usual, I didn't finish before the end of the class. I don't think I've ever finished before the end of the class. EVER!  But I had most of the quilt cut out. So on Monday, I worked on two blocks. Some of the blocks are tricky. Lots of little pieces and if you don't label them, you have to remeasure each time you grab one to make sure you have the correct piece. I got one done on Monday and I had to finish the second one yesterday. It needed some paper piecing and I didn't have the supplies to paper piece with me on Monday. Note to self - check to make sure that you have all the supplies needed to do something! Don't worry - I've already checked the next two blocks for next Monday and nothing special is required.

Here are my blocks to date. Yep - I have nine blocks completed and I LOVE them.

My blocks

 Oh, look -  Lexi and Murphy are hanging out in the garden! I found patterns for those dogs online and bought the pdf. They are so cute! However, I had run out of the background fabric so I found something in my stash that I thought would work, but I don't like it. It doesn't look too bad in the photo but in real life, it's not great. And I need more background for the borders anyway so that item is now on my shopping list as well. There are three things on that list! I guess it's time to go shopping. But there is ZERO time for that so I'm going to try to get my shopping done next weekend when I'm teaching at a store. See how efficient I am.

I have three URGENT things to do today. Which will I choose first? I've no idea, but there is one more quilt that I'd like to get in the mail today so I might flit from one to the other to take a break! Yep - no focus whatsoever!

I'm so far behind on paperwork that it scares me. I was doing so good for a while. But after next week, there are no imminent deadlines - I hope to catch up then. As if that will ever happen!

I'm about 10 days into this DTox program. I don't feel any different. No worse, no better. I still have the same amount of energy as I always have. I almost caved yesterday but that was simply because I wanted a snack and well I ended up grabbing some fruit. This is a very good learning experience for me! I can make good choices! And I even have lots of temptations in the house - I didn't get rid of anything. It's all about mind over matter!

On that note, I'm out of here to start my crazy day!

Have a great day!

Ciao!

Sit n Sew

If you've been following me long enough, you know that I used to host Sit n Sew days at my studio. That was a number of years ago. I used them as fundraiser days when I did The Ride to Conquer Cancer. I used to do the pressing and seam ripping for the group. And I even made them lunch!

Well now that I'm a free agent, I'm back to hosting the Sit n Sew days and this past Sunday was the first one of 2018. We had a full house and it was awesome to sit and sew and chat with everyone - some I haven't seen in a while. I do thank everyone for coming! Loads of fun and lots of laughs and lots of work got done!

I have room for 11 people to sew in the studio and all the tables were full. I'm having another one this Thursday and there are a couple of spots open if anyone is in the area and wants to have a fun day.

Now that the days are not fundraisers (I don't want to commit to a huge event like The Ride to Conquer Cancer), I get to sew along with the group and they have to do their own pressing. It's not that hard!

So what happened?

Well - I can't reveal all - you know - what happens at Sit n Sew stays at Sit n Sew, but here are a couple of shots of everyone working away.

Hard at work

Intensely at work

And more hard work

 I think Ronda got in every shot - how did that happen?

I need to get my act together because I didn't get a lot of pictures of what they were working on - in fact, I only got one picture of what the others were doing! And that happens to be Ronda's. Well since she is giving this project to me (as if!) but it's the cutest little log cabin project ever. Those little blocks are 2" finished. The blocks are itty bitty! And I love them!  It turns out that quite a few people bought this same kit - now how come I wasn't invited to buy that kit? Well, no worries - I can recreate those templates in EQ8 in seconds and I think I have enough fabric to make this up!  Thanks for the "offer" Ronda, but I don't need your blocks!

Ronda's log cabin blocks

 I managed to get a little bit of embroidery retraced onto those snowmen blocks. I think I mentioned that a while back.  Used that darn blue wash-away pen and it disappeared with the humidity in the air (after MANY years of sitting), so now I used I fine permanent marker. More on that another day.

Then I got out the sewing machine and started to piece. All 48 blocks are made for one of my UFOs from last year. I need to buy some cream flannel to put between the blocks. I now have a shopping list - actually there are three things on my shopping list. That means I can go to a quilt store. BUT - I'm only allowed to buy what's on the list.  I mean - really - do I need another kit or pattern or fabric. I think NOT!

Flannel blocks - DONE

 Do you know what this little gizmo is?  Liz made them for us - it's a pipe cleaner tool to clean beneath the bobbin case in your sewing machine. Awesome - I was wanting something like this. I use Q-tips which are not good because of the fiber on the ends and sometimes, those ends come off in the machine. My service tech would have a field day with me if he knew! Now I have a great tool for cleaning and I think that both machines I'm using are due for a good cleaning. Actually, I'm using three different sewing machines these days!

Pipecleaner cleaning tool!

 Isn't that weird - using three different sewing machines. As quilters, we get asked from time to time, how many machines we have. You see people with multiple machines, but how many do they use? Well, I have five sewing machines myself and one loaner and I use two of mine on a regular basis and the loaner all the time. So three backups - that's good!

Once I finished piecing (and those flannel blocks are trimmed as well), what's up next? I didn't want to touch my Monday sewing bag because then I'd have to prep something else, so I dug out a UFO for 2018. A Bonnie Hunter mystery from 2013 - Celtic Solstice. This picture doesn't do justice to the brightness of these blocks. I'll take a better picture later today.

Let's just say that I struggled with the first two blocks and sewed one of the four patches in the wrong orientation. But I got those fixed and now I have five blocks correctly sewn.

Five blocks of Celtic Solstice

 All the components of the quilt are in this box. I'll be glad to get this one done as with all the extra fabric (in case I need to make more components), this project is taking up a lot of real estate on my UFO shelf. I think I'll work on this at the Sit n Sew days, but I have to pay attention or I'll be ripping again!

All the components for the blocks in Celtic Solstice

This quilt is one of two Bonnie Hunter mysteries that I have on the go. These two will be the only ones. Too much repetition for me and I've done my fair share of mysteries - time to move on.

After everyone left, the room was quiet and empty! Normally I would start cramming everything back in, but not this time. Nope - I've left everything where it got stashed and this is how the room looks this morning.

Sewing studio this morning

After I got home from Monday sewing (more on that tomorrow), I needed to get a quilt top done (don't ask but it's urgent for a magazine - it's on the long arm ready for quilting this morning). It was fabulous to lay the top out and measure it, cut the fabric and pin the borders on and not have to move anything! Yep - going to try and keep it this way. I think my Virgo tendencies are kicking in - in high gear.

I did notice that Ronda left her big quilt top behind once again! The quilt is becoming a permanent fixture in my studio. Maybe she is leaving it for me?

Ronda's quilt top

 I love how she tried to blend it into the magazines!

Blending into the magazines

However, it needs the backing put together and then I'm supposed to quilt it for her! I'm guessing she's left it for the next Sit n Sew day. It's kind of funny when you think about it. This quilt top is HUGE and then she was working on her little log cabin blocks!

It's been ONE week on the D-tox program. NO chocolate and NO refined sugar and NO caffeine. How did I cope? Pretty well actually - I'm meeting with the Program Coordinator at the gym this morning. She had better be damn proud of me! I'm proud of me. I've barely had a cup of tea all week. And it was green tea or herbal tea if I did manage one with no sugar of course. Could my habit be cured? I don't think I'm out of the woods yet. But I'm a convert for a smoothie for breakfast - that's the best thing! 

Well - I'd better get my act together - I've got an insane day - well the entire week is insane.  I still have room in some of the Sit n Sew Days so if you're interested and in the area, send me an e-mail and I'll provide you with the dates. The cost is $5.

Have a super day!

Ciao!