Choose the books you read wisely!

It's amazing how many spam comments I get on the blog, and I delete them once a day. Some days are worse than others, and it's amazing how the robots can pick up keywords in my posts and then provide rogue comments. It would be so nice if those robots could be put to good use rather than create more work for everyone. It's not that there are tons, but probably ten per week. I know -- not a big deal, but still one more unproductive thing to take care of. 

Speaking of productivity, I was at the grocery store again and always use the self-checkout line. It's relatively fast, and I leave the three lines with an actual cashier for people with big carts of groceries. 

Some people in the self-checkout will have one or two items, perhaps a small basket of items, and occasionally, you see someone with a small shopping cart. But yesterday, a woman had a full large cart, which she had parked behind her. I'm not judging her, as she is allowed to do whatever makes her happy in the store. 

What was annoying was her behavior. She turned around to the cart behind her and took ONE item at a time, scanning it and carefully putting it in her boxes. Then she turned and got one more item. It must have taken a LONG time for her to get through the line. 

Meanwhile, I am pretty speedy through the line, although I never have many items at one time. However, the young store employee must have been beside himself as he supervised this area. One step on the opening screen is annoying, and I always try to bypass it. He was over at my kiosk and had touched that button before I could even register that the screen was up! I didn't mind, but he must have wanted to vent some of his frustration at her. 

The other lines were NOT busy, so the slow bagger could have gone to one of them, and they could have checked her out much quicker! 

I must still be fighting something in my body, as while I'm up and about, I don't have the same energy levels as before. Patience—it'll all come back, but in the meantime, I'm getting lots of downtime, which is what I need. I'm not worried. 

I did make it to Studio B, and I completed the machine embroidery that I wanted to get done by tomorrow. So that was a bonus. I managed to sort out some of the crap on the cutting table, and I'll put it away this morning. 

The best news is that I completed loads of paperwork. All that pending stuff was just building up, and most of it required just a few minutes to verify a date, payment, or whatever. And now there is another pile of paperwork that I must look at today. I just can't seem to get on top of this stuff. How the heck does it build up so fast? 

Part of the problem in the office is that the paperwork that never gets attended to is sitting in boxes, and I must deal with it. I'll eventually figure out a system to see what can be done. I try to deal with it as it comes in, but it has built up with being away and procrastinating in the past! In the meantime, I'll keep chipping away at it! 

In the afternoon, I went to the Oakville Fiber Art Show. Oh my --- I've been to the last several shows, and it's good. There are lots of great ideas, and it's the sort of thing I'd like to give a try, but it's not on my radar screen at the moment. 

On my way home, I stopped at Indigo to check out any new stuff. My first stop was the magazine section. Then I decided to check out other stuff, and OH MY --- who ever thought we'd see this in a store again? 

Vinyl!!!

The next thing you know, we're going to spot CDs, or how about an 8-track? Or a cassette? It's amazing how those media didn't make the cut, but vinyl, yes! 

It was another beautiful day, and honestly, I can't bear to be inside when it's so gorgeous outside. So I sat behind my tree on the front patio. It's amazing how this small tree provides a lot of privacy and will provide more as it grows. 

My privacy tree

I don't mind if people see me or if I see them, but the tree provides just enough privacy so that I don't feel like I'm in a fishbowl. 

So, I have a Halloween quilt on the bed, but I dug out my machine-embroidered one as well. It's hanging on a wall upstairs. It took me so long to finish that I'd better get it out and enjoy it! 

My Halloween wall quilt

However, there is one thing about these heavily machine-embroidered quilts—they do not fold well. So I have a tube from a batting roll covered in muslin. The quilt is rolled onto the tube and stored in a closet. It works for me, and the quilt lies perfectly flat on the wall. 

My storage tube for the quilt

So, the audiobook I'm reading right now is not my favorite genre, and I'm not sure how the heck I downloaded it. Oh -- I know -- I was starting my drive in the mountains a couple of weeks ago, and I wanted something to listen to. I did NOT pay attention to the genre, and this one was downloaded. It's a supernatural/horror. I used to like that stuff, but it's no longer my favorite. I'm over half done, so I'll persevere until the end. Next time -- be sure to check the genre!

I recently finished another e-book about someone's journey on the Camino. While I genuinely appreciate that everyone's journey will be 100% different from the next, this one was a bit much. The author is a best-selling author; she has a PhD in something, is a life coach, a spiritual healer, and much more than she claims on her website. 

I also get that many people may be extroverted but are really introverts and put on that happy face on the outside. So she is out there "healing" the world while she's falling apart inside. 

OK -- so she starts The Camino in a total mess. Every day, something spiritual happens to her. If you genuinely believe in the spiritual world, then that could happen. 

But what bothered me was her reference to various locations on The Camino. They were FALSE! She talks about arriving in Santiago and seeing the massive cathedral from miles away. That is false. Because of the lay of the land, you do not see that cathedral until you arrive at it. When you come to Leon, you can see that cathedral from miles away.

There were other instances as well, and I think she just embellished the story and mixed up the locations to make it look like the most spiritual event that could ever happen. This is wrong, in my opinion. If someone walks The Camino and doesn't feel anything, they are going to feel cheated if they think it's going to be like her walk! Or some of us are less in tune than this person. Also, she said she walked an average of 29 KM a day, when in each chapter, she put her mileage, and her average was 22 KM a day. Just lots of inconsistencies. Not a fan of the book. After reading the reviews, I found that many others were in agreement! 

I finished the book, but I was disappointed that she messed up the locations to suit her story. But each to their own! 

Well, it's time to start the day, and the girls are waiting. 

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!!!

Oh gosh -- I'm going to blab on about Farmer's Wife one more time today, even though I did NOTHING on it yesterday. 

Remember that duplicate block? The one that didn't have the values in the correct place? As I was searching for the final reveal in my blog, I stumbled across this post.  

Here's the link to the blog post about the coloring on that block that was wrong. But did I make a note of that? Nope. So let that be a lesson to myself -- if you make a duplicate block -- identify it as such. But I was on a roll in 2018. I had not finished all the blocks myself when I taught the class in 2012, and I got the remainder of them done in 2018. I had plans to sew it together and finish it in 2019, but we all know that didn't happen. 

It turns out there were nine people in that class. I never did put up the pictures from the final show and tell, but here's a link to one show and tell. 

I'm pretty sure that Diane finished her quilt top and probably got it quilted. Rose is working on hers as part of our UFO Club. She got 50 blocks done, and that's it for her. Now, what happened to the other 7 in that class? 

And thanks to Gillian, who sent me this link from someone who has a lesson plan for the Farmer's Wife quilt.   If you think you would like to make this quilt, read that link as it has some excellent information. Of course, if you've taken a class from me, you know most of what's on that blog page. However, this person provides rotary cutting instructions (for a price) rather than the templates we used. 

Alternatively, you could redraw each block in EQ8 (great lesson) and get your own rotary cutting instructions. And do what Rose did -- only make a certain number of blocks and choose the easier ones!

Lots of options if you want to make Farmer's Wife quilt. 

And hopefully, that's it for the Farmer's Wife quilt until mine is put to bed! Since it is Monday sewing today, I might just get it finished? We'll see. 

There is some good news at my house. Look what came off the long arm yesterday. 

My quilt -- DONE

The Halloween quilt is DONE. Well, the top is quilted, and I still need to get that binding on, as well as a label and a sleeve. That's pretty exciting. It took a long time, as does all custom quilting, which is why I won't do it for someone else. It's also intense. 

I quilted a line through the spiderweb in the sashing to give it some extra support. 

The sashing was quilted!

The next time I made one of these quilts that has the quilting as part of the machine embroidery, I won't do that quilting part. I will eliminate the thicker stabilizer in the quilt and just use a tear-a-way for the machine embroidery applique. Then when I go to quilt it, I'll do the background quilting with batting as I would for any other quilt. Hmm -- now I want to try that! 

That will help solve any problems with how to quilt it and keep all those thick layers out of the quilt. I'm not really a fan of these machine embroidery applique quilts that are quilted as you go - it's just not a good idea. While I can get away with it on this wall hanging, bed quilts done like this are too stiff!

I wanted to use the BORDER feature on my long arm software, so I read the manual and figured out how to program that. I did have a problem, but after going back to the manual and doing the directions IN ORDER, that helped a lot. And it was super easy to design the border and flip the motifs as needed. 

Designing the border motif on the computer

I'll definitely use that feature again. It meant that I had to turn the quilt on the long arm, which I'm not really a fan of. Apparently, you can do it all while in the original orientation, but I've heard horror stories of the math involved for that. Now, this is a computer -- why the heck wouldn't the program take care of all those details for us??? I see some room for improvement there!!!

If you live close to me, please tell me you took advantage of the glorious weather yesterday and got outside, even for a bit of a walk. It was a fantastic day, and the water was running everywhere. 

I got out my trusty shovel and managed to make a good part of the ice blocks in front of the driveway disappear. I shamelessly shoveled that snow and ice into the street. Hey -- it's not sitting in my driveway, so don't yell at me. I'm just redistributing what's in the road to another place in the street. There's still a little bit on the sides of the driveway, but so much melted yesterday. 

A prominent pedestrian and bike crossing

I did a different route yesterday and can't wait to get out and try the new bike path that they worked on last summer. Gosh --- those crossing for pedestrians and bikes are pretty well marked, but let me guess?? If you're distracted on your phone, you won't see a thing! 

A friend told me of a young guy who got his driver's license last year. He's already had THREE accidents. Seriously??? What is going on there? How can he be so bad? 

Ah, that Murphy! She loves her teddy bears. And she has more than enough to have one at each sleeping spot. 

Teddy bear ready to snuggle up with

And one for this bed as well

OK -- so I put these toys with her in this picture, but they were in her bed!

Murphy and some of her toys

I'm reading a much happier book these days. The book is called Dogtripping by David Rosenfelt and is about this crazy husband and wife, who decides to rescue dogs, goldens in particular. They needed to move their dogs (about 27) from California to Maine. The book is the story of their move. It's hilarious, and so many stories of good dogs!! I've laughed and cried in this book. 

I don't think I've read the book before (I usually remember that), but I've looked at the book or seen it online before. 

And that Lexi. I have a basket of clothes beside the kitchen table that needs to be sorted through. She had a good time removing the clothes from the basket and putting them on the floor the other night. Now, why is that? Maybe, she likes to do laundry!

Lexi empties the basket of clothes onto the floor

I had to laugh yesterday. When I walked the dogs, it was warm in the morning, so no hat and my jacket was open. I even switched to a vest when I walked Lexi. Then when I went out right after lunch, it was warm but windy, so I kept the vest on. When I went out at 5 to give the girls a quick walk to the end of the park and back, I wore the vest and no mitts. I almost froze to death. The temperature was still warm, but that wind was cold. 

Needless to say, in that 15-minute walk, Murphy proceeded to get muddy. Really muddy. That's what happens when you jump into the mud puddles to catch a leaf. Sigh.................

On that note, I'm off to spin class. And no need to carefully drive through the ice gates at the end of the driveway. I can hardly contain myself!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

Farmer's Wife Revisited

Thankfully, the basket of Kansas Troubles fabric is not a full sized laundry, but still! My guess is that there is enough for at least 10 quilt tops and some of those would have backings. That's shameful! But I had fun buying it, but now, to get it used up! I also found three patterns in the basket. I don't have time to start a new project, so all the excess went into the basket and back on the shelf. 

Look what I found when I went shopping for the border and backing fabric for Farm'ers Wife. 

Three brand new jelly rolls

OH -- and one charm pack. HEY -- it was on sale -- I NEEDED to rescue that. 

One charm pack

But this is what I pulled to finish my Farmer's Wife quilt. The rust one will be the backing, the tan is the inner border (if I decided to add one - there isn't one in the pattern, but I'm more concerned about the final size) and the green will be the outer border and the binding. 

Backing and border fabric for Farmer's Wife

I did NOT get any more done on the quilt as I was busy with something else, which I'll share in a bit. 

But someone enquired about making the quilt and how easy it is. Hmm--- Easy? This quilt is NOT easy. 

This is what all the patterns look like in the book. A diagram and on the left-hand side are the template shapes that you need to cut. It's basically been set up as if you were hand piecing it and were going to cut ALL shapes, including squares with a template and scissors. 

An example of an EASY pattern in the book

There's a CD in the book where you can download all the templates and cut them out. Obviously, you will use many of the templates over and over again, as you work your way through the blocks. 

But look at some of them -- tons of template per block and those seams? Not fun! But our group did it and I don't know how many finished, but I do know that some people did. 

A not so fun block to make

ACK -- look at those seams!!!!

Another crazy block

OH MY GOSH -- I was trying to find the final class show and tell for this quilt and I stumbled on this blog post from September 29, 2018. Have a quick peek and see what two quilts I was working on that day. It's hilarious and you'll see why in a second. 

Some else asked if there was another set of duplicate blocks in the quilt. Well, yes and no. This block is called Broken Dishes and only used two colors. This is the picture from the book. 

The Broken Dishes block

Here's the diagram from the book. 

Diagram in the book

And this block is called Old Windmill. Same piecing, it's just done with different colors! I guess there are only so many block variations and then they just started to recolor them to get a new block!

Old Windmill block from the book

Diagram of Old Windmill

If anyone is contemplating making this quilt, I would STRONGLY suggest that you go the Marti Michelle route. Of course, she did it to promote and sell her templates, but they sure made quick work of cutting the blocks. 

The Marti Michelle method of piecing Farmer's Wife

And every month, we used a chart that told us which templates were to be used for which blocks. That was super easy. There were only a handful of blocks that needed to be cut with a paper template. But you need Template Sets A, B, C, D, N, and S (I think it's S). 

The Marti Michelle template cutting sheets

There was even a template for the setting triangles and setting corners, but you do not need a template for those. 

A template for the corner triangle

OK -- so back to September 29, 2018. Did you see the other quilt I was working on? Yep -- that would be my machine embroidery applique Hallowween quilt. Guess what I was quilting yesterday? 

My machine embroidery applique Halloween quilt!

That's the Halloween quilt! Gosh -- when I go back and look at my blog -- I see so many quilts that I was working on and now those quilts are on my UFO lists. I just could NOT get myself to finish anything. Now why is that? But I'm trying to be really good --- I MUST get things completed. 

A lot of people have been curious how I was going to quilt the Halloween quilt. It's very stiff with all the stabilizer in it, including a layer of battilizer. The border has no stabilizer in it. 

I decided to stick in the ditch around each row. There are five blocks in each row and I contemplated stitching in the ditch around all the blocks, but then decided there was already too much definition in those vertical seams between the blocks. I also stitched in the ditch around all the sashings and corner stones. 

Next, I loaded a thin grey thread and stitched in the ditch (more or less) around the main shapes in the grey section of each row. It fits loosely around the shapes and I managed to make one sweep across each row. Then I loaded orange thread and did the same across the top part of each row.  

In the ditch quilting around the applique

I have one more orange pass to make this morning (it's intense to do, my hand kept cramping up!) and then I'm going to add a bit of stitching in the sashing and then I get the fun of trying to do that border with the computer!! I really need to get it off the machine today, so that's the focus of the day. 

I think it would be very hard to do this on a domestic machine because of the stiffness of the quilt. 

But I finished that audiobook -- One Second After, by William R. Forstchen. It's a frightening book, it's sad, so many morals, ethics. I don't recommend reading it. I mean I do, but it's INTENSE and it's very disturbing. But it kept me focused on the quilting. 

Trust me -- I have a much lighter book lined up to listen to next. MUCH lighter. 

Our little group of four is fast approaching our final destination on our virtual walk across Canada. We are at 90% and there are 13 teams in front of us. Something like that. We've made amazing progress. But look at the terrain. We are definitely above the tree line? or are there just no trees where we are? We're getting close to the border of Quebec and Labrador. 

That is NOT a very nicely paed road! But better than some that I've seen. 

On the road to Labrador

On that note, I'm out of here! More paperwork to get accomplished this morning. I was very productive yesterday morning and I hope to repeat that!

Then back to the long arm, where there will be some intense learning and math going on! 

Oh, someone is very happy that their bear is no longer trapped in the snow and ice on the deck. I had to give the bear a wee pull to free it. 

Murphy and her outdoor bear

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

For those of you still following along today - Merry Christmas! It's quiet as a mouse in our house today. Just the four of us for Christmas - even the girls are quiet. They are learning!

What blows my mind is that when I opened my e-mail there were e-mails from companies BEGGING me to buy stuff. Here's an online sale, here's a coupon (a gift), need a last-minute gift? We have a gift certificate for you. Can they not give us a break on Christmas Day? Somewhere along the line, this aggressive marketing needs to stop. I did get ONE e-mail from an online fabric store that was simply wishing me a Merry Christmas. Nothing to buy, no links to peruse. Just a Merry Christmas and thanking the readers for supporting them during the year. Now why the heck can't the rest of them do that?

The e-mails are deleted. I'm so thankful that I'm over that "stage" of my life. I had to laugh because shopping madness is something we instill in our children. I was chatting to M the other day and she was off to Chapters. She had set herself a budget - she could buy two magazines, but if she saw a book or two, she might buy that. Oh, dear......  I feel like I'm the one that instilled that behavior in her. However, she happily reported later that day that she didn't buy a thing! I'm so proud of her! Love her to the moon and back. In case you're wondering, she's spending Christmas in Mexico, while poor Bear (her wee dog) is at the dog sitter - totally not acceptable. I think Bear needs to come and live with responsible people, like DH and me.

It's hard - it's very hard, especially in some small independent stores to walk in and then walk back out without buying anything. We feel guilty or are made to feel guilty because we didn't buy anything. WAIT A MINUTE!! If I don't see anything that suits my purpose at that time (or even something that entices me), then I have every right to NOT buy anything. REFUSE to be guilted into buying something you don't like or don't need!

It was an interesting Christmas Eve. DH and I got a wonderful new present, but it took HOURS and HOURS to install. I'm very surprised that they (the gas company) would install something like that on Christmas Eve. The first crew didn't arrive when they said they were supposed to - one guy called in sick - I wonder why. The sales guy was here and said the replacement crew would be here at 10:30. There were bits of ductwork that had to be dropped off, an electrician who had to install a new breaker to accommodate the voltage of the new furnace. They didn't start working until 11 AM. Oh boy - it's going to be a long day.

The long arm had to be moved to make room for them to work. The first line of business was to move all the bags and boxes that reside under the long arm. Thankfully, the scrapbook area was neat and tidy so everything got moved there. Then the long arm got moved.

Nothing under the long arm

While the basement is in pretty good shape, there's still stuff that needs to be sorted through. Like the boxes and bags under the long arm. If the bits could find a home, that would be awesome. That'll be a goal for 2020. But since it's neat and tidy and tucked out of the way, it's not urgent. One bag at a time!

They started by dismantling the old system. This included the air conditioning unit that's outside. Murphy just has to be in the picture! Lots of debris was strewn all over the front yard.

Out with the old

Then it was time to install the new. I snagged a couple of pictures over the course of the day.

Installing the new

Now the furnace it back on its feet.

Installing the new

 And there it is - the new furnace. It's sitting on a small pedestal so it gets better airflow. The humidifier is in a brand new position (behind the furnace) and we have a small air filter that we don't have to replace. It just needs to be washed. Oh shoot - I'm not good with that. I must make a note!

The new furnace

I did learn a few things. There is a MASTER switch for the furnace. This shuts everything down, including the thermostat. Did you know that the thermostat is powered by the furnace? Yep - it's hardwired, but not to the house power, but the power of the furnace. Some little brown wire makes that happen. We've got a new thermostat as well. I'll say that the new furnace is MUCH quieter than the old one was. I can barely hear when it's on. Is it on? Oh yes - the house is warm!

The master switch to the furnace

So that's a job done and we shouldn't have any issues with heat for a long while. All that remains is to program the thermostat. That's a job for later today. The salle guy did turn on my pilot light (an easy job, but I hate touching gas appliances. The fireplace desperately needs to be cleaned so that'll get booked for the new year.

I felt a wee bit guilty yesterday. The electrician came and he was done about 2 PM. But the two fellows who installed the furnace did NOT leave until 7 PM. It's Christmas Eve. I felt bad for them, but the one guy said - they knew it was going to be a long job and they accepted it. They must have made a lot of money yesterday. I hope they did. We didn't even have anything for them. If I were a baker and we had cookies - I could have sent them home with a plate of cookies! Oh well - I thanked them profusely several times and everyone was happy.

While they were working, so was I.  LOOK!!!!!   The Halloween embroidery quilt is DONE!!!!  This is an embroidery design by Anita Goodesign. It's called Halloween Town. I'm thrilled to bits with it.

Halloween embroidery quilt - ready to be quilted

I tried the light green for the binding - didn't like it, so I used the dotted fabric instead. When I went to look for backing in the Halloween fabrics, I found this green spider web which is PERFECT and there was just enough after I joined two pieces. That was meant to be. It's now sitting in the "to be quilted" pile and it's crossed off the Dirty Dozen list for 2019. That leaves 9 more projects for 2019. No worries. That list, if nothing else, is to ensure that these projects do NOT get forgotten. 

The binding and the backing

I did take a quick (well as quick as one can be with two big dogs who are not orderly) walk to the library to pick up a book. Oh shoot - we missed the closing by three minutes! I'll get the book later this week. It's not that I need a book to read - there are many books in this house that need to be read. I finished the audiobook - The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Oh boy - I finished it last night. I was sitting in my chair and couldn't stay awake. Oh, shoot - so I went back and reread the last little bit. Good thing I did because that was the shocker! It's finished and included on my list of novels that I've read. I'm up to 556 (or something like that) since 2007.

I tidied up my audiobook reader - returned some books, placed a hold on a couple of books, and downloaded a new book to "read".

So what else did I do while I was listening to my book? I pulled out one more UFO project. This one is from the list for 2017. There are four projects still on that list and my goal is to get at least one of the four completed by the end of the year. And that's going to happen!!!!

I pulled out the pizza box and peeked inside. Oh boy - what a mess of stuff. OH - I'll have to tell you the story of the bits on the left side of the box. That'll be another day when I can fully evaluate what's there. But it's part of this project - sort of.

The UFO project

 It's a redwork project and all the embroidery (by hand) is completed. It's been done for several years. One of the reasons it got shelved is because I didn't like the layout of the finished quilt.

Holiday Redwork by The Stitch Connection

What I didn't like is that some of the white backgrounds of several blocks touch each other. I know - that sounds bizarre, but there wasn't enough red to balance it out. I wanted to change the layout but knew that it was going to take some finagling to make that happen and I was never in the mood to do that.

Instead of procrastinating (that word is NOT allowed to exist in our house), I plunged ahead and laid out all the blocks on the design wall. As I laid them out, I developed a sort of plan in my mind. The blocks went through several iterations before I was happy.

The redwork blocks

Then I looked at the fabrics that I had purchased to finish the quilt. Purchased several years ago!! I didn't like the third one from the right  - it was a bit too burgundy for my liking so it got nixed.

Third from the right - is an off-color

I debated about the middle red because it had white in it, but it was the outline of two snowmen in a truck. I had to include that!!!!

My reds to finish the quilt

It's been so long, I don't remember where I purchased those reds, but look what they did? They RIPPED the fat quarters. That means I lost ONE COMPLETE INCH (½" on either side). That's a tad annoying.

½" is lost when ripping fabrics

I did a wee bit of calculating on paper and then decided to wing it! I cut strips of red that were 1 ½" wide, 2 ½" wide and 3 ½" wide. All the blocks had to be trimmed and then I started to place the strips of red. If you look carefully, you can see that I've arranged the blocks in five rows of about five blocks.

Starting to lay out the red fabrics

Most of the red is now positioned (more or less). I'm not sure about the borders yet, but I'm certainly NOT doing that sawtooth border in the pattern. Really????? That's way too much work for this quilt. And besides, the math won't work since I'm changing the size of the quilt.  I do have four hand-embroidered snowflake blocks that are supposed to go in the corners of the border. But in the meantime, I positioned the leftover 2 ½" strips around the outer edge of the blocks to frame it. They are NOT sewn in place.

Ready to sew

You can't really tell, but in this next photo, the top two rows are sewn together! And it's working out just fine. I may need to trim a wee bit here and there to make it all fit, but thankfully, I didn't spend a whole lot of time figuring things out. Just go for it!!!  I may have some more juggling to do and there is ONE spot where two of the white backgrounds touch. Just for 1 inch, but I think I can live with that. Can you spot that spot???

The status of the quilt

This is my Christmas miracle! It won't take long to get this quilt finished and that's going to be one more off the UFO lists. In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm determined to get this place under total control and it WILL happen.

I think one task for later today will be to locate all the remaining UFOs on those three lists. That way they'll be handy when I want to work on one of them. If I can finish two of these UOFs in two days, I can certainly finish more of them by the end of the year and I COULD have them ALL done by the end of next year.

The best part - I didn't start much that didn't get finished this year. I have one more top of Lilla to sew together (the blocks are all sewn) and I want to finish the quilting on the second Lilla quilt top. I can't think of any large project that I started that didn't get done or almost done. That was my goal! I love having goals!!!

OK -- so the class list didn't get put up yesterday. I was busy! But it will go up tomorrow. I've already got the next UFO pulled to work on and I know that Shelly is going to be ecstatic about it!

On that note, I'm out of here. Have a wonderful Christmas. Enjoy the time with family and friends. Don't overindulge!

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!!

UFO day

Yesterday was a UFO day! The morning started off a wee bit slow - don't ask me why, but it did.

Then I was able to gather steam and I made up for the lost time.

Here's what I accomplished.

I started the day off by making the backing for this small wall hanging. Even though the wall hanging is small, I had to piece the backing. I had loads of fabric choices but wanted to find something that somewhat coordinated with the top. I think I did a great job matching the backing to the top. There's nothing left for the sleeve but I'm sure I can find something that'll work. That moves one more quilt into the "to be quilted" pile.

The backing is done - ready to be quilted

I then plunged ahead and made the binding for the Gingerbread Joy quilt. This is a Sue Garman block of the month. Sadly, she passed away several years ago (she worked for NASA), and her patterns were amazing! I just learned something very interesting. Her husband, Jack Garman was in the NASA program and saved one of the lunar landings. Anyway, the binding is now made and this one has also moved into the "to be quilted" pile. I hope to get this one done before next Christmas. It's all about setting priorities!!!

Gingerbread Joy quilt moved to the "to be quilted" pile

As each project is completed, it's time to tidy up what was left in the project box. There were quite a few of us working on that gingerbread quilt as it was offered by a local store (Jilly Bean's Pride - no longer in business). Someone made the quilt but didn't use the small blocks. I may have had an idea of what to do with them when I first inherited them, but I didn't write it down. I was going to make something from them - there are 10 blocks, but then I decided that they should go into the orphan block box for the moment. I may have more red/green/cream blocks in there - I may have a panel that will work or I'm sure I'll have something where they can be used. For the moment, they need a home and the orphan block box is where they'll reside.

Extra blocks moved to the orphan block box

Then it was off to work on one of the UFOs on those three lists. OH WAIT!!!  The Gingerbread quilt is on the 2018 list. It's now crossed off. There are still five more items on that list, but I'm working on one more from the list that I could have finished by the end of the year. I'd be very happy with that.

Time to move to one item from the 2019 list. I pulled out my embroidered Halloween quilt. I've been working on this forever! A while back when I was trimming the blocks, I noticed this. ACK!!! The last bit of the embroidery didn't stitch out. I must have run out of bobbin thread and didn't notice. The block got unhooped and well - it never got finished. Remember what I said the other day? NO PROCRASTINATION is allowed. If there's a problem - fix it and move on. (I noticed that I finished the embroidered blocks in July of 2018)

Half of the gold stitching is missing

To make life easy and also to test my new skills, I loaded the embroidery design into my embroidery software and removed all the colors except the one that didn't get finished. For some reason, I was having trouble getting the file transferred to the embroidery machine via USB, so I ended up sending it via WiFi. I should have done that first!! It was slick! That's all because of the WiFi capabilities of the Husqvarna Viking Designer EPIC 2.

The stitches of the missing embroidery

I carefully rehooped the block trying to get it lined up as best I could, although it's never going to be perfect or is it???

I took a picture (with a free app on my phone) of the hooped block and sent that to the Designer EPIC 2 (also via WiFi) so the hooped block became the background of the screen, replacing the grid that you can see above.

Hooped block shows as the screen background

Using the positioning tools, it was a super simple task to move the embroidery design so it matched up with the embroidery stitches on the block. This is MIND BLOWING. I mean - it doesn't get any simpler than this!!!

Lining up the embroidery to the hooped block

Here's a closer picture. It's really one of those things that you have to see to really appreciate, but holy - this is amazing!!!!

The embroidery design is now matched up with the block

Next up was to advance the stitching pattern to match where the bobbin ran out the last time. That's easy using the plus and minus keys to move forward.

Advancing the embroidery stitching to the correct spot

That red crosshair tells me where the needle position is so it's easy to see if it's properly placed.

The pattern is advanced to where the previous stitching stopped

I can also lower my needle to see if it's in the right position. I could also have used Design Positioning (but I didn't) to assist if I needed more precise positioning.

The needle is above to start where the previous stitching left off

And there's the FINISHED block. I was so excited - you've no idea. Excited about the technology and equally excited that the block is done and I can move forward to completing the quilt.

The block is NOW finished

Yeah - the block is done!!!!

The block is done!!!

As the stitching was happening, I thought I had better go through the bag where all the bits of this project resided. That's a LOT of stuff hanging out there. But all of it has been put away now - I found spools of thread, more fabric, and another Halloween embroidery pattern.

Stuff to tidy up!

 I put all the blocks on the wall that had been stitched AND trimmed. This is where I stopped the last time.

The blocks that had been previously trimmed 

Then I got busy and trimmed the rest of the blocks and sashing that were in the bag. Oh boy - the quilt is almost complete!!!

Here are all the blocks/sashings that had been embroidered

I see that I was missing four more sashing pieces and 12 cornerstones. I made quick work of that. I used Color Sort and Color Merge to do all the same sections at one time. You can't see that in this picture, but it was much faster to do that than do each one individually, especially when I had TWELVE cornerstones to do.

Making more sashings

I started to listen to The Haunting of Hill House while doing this. I thought it would be appropriate to listen to the scary story while making my cute Halloween quilt. I see the TV series is MUCH different than the book. I'm not watching any trailers to throw me off.

I didn't take a picture of the quilt with the cornerstones and the last sashing completed, but trust me - all the embroidery is done and I'm starting to sew the blocks together. I wasn't looking forward to that task as I thought the stabilizer and threads would add a lot of bulk. Nope - if the blocks are trimmed properly, there's no bulk!!! It's going together like a charm!!! I found the border fabric in the project box and once the quilt top is together, it'll be a question of the binding color. Do I make it that light green or the dark green??? I'll wait until it's done and it'll speak to me!

The quilt top - almost done

I found these fabrics in the project bag as well. A HUGE piece of that dotted fabric. It went into the basket of Halloween fabric. I kept the light green out just in case I want to use it for the binding. And the fabrics on the left? They had been pulled to make the second Halloween embroidery project. I put them back in the stash. Gosh - if I decide to make that second quilt, I'm sure they'll still be sitting in the stash!!! I may pull them back out again - I'll think about it today.

Extra fabrics in the bag

This UFO should be off the list by the end of the day. I've NOTHING booked for today. Yep - it's Christmas Eve, but we have no plans (well - we are getting our new furnace!) and I'm OK with that. I see others stressing and shopping and getting all worked up. Why do we do everything at ONE time of the year? If family time is so important, why not get the family together more often? I just don't buy into the trend of Christmas - because that's what Christmas has become - a trend. Do more, buy more, entertain more, and stress yourself totally out. Not happening at my house.

I'll post the list of classes later today - I've run out of time. And it'll be nice to have them all listed in their own separate post. One day - I'm going to have a calendar for you to browse!

I arrived at the gym this morning to the arrival of two police cars. No lights flashing so that's a good thing. Turns out there was an UNRULY member from a different location of the same club who got into a fistfight with another member. He was an older gentleman. Obviously had some issues about something. All was good when I left.

I also went for a long walk with the girls in the afternoon. It was such a glorious day - how could you stay in the house???? I need to move up and work in Studio U when it's so gorgeous. But I went outside instead which is better. Almost 16,000 steps yesterday.

On that note, have a wonderful Christmas Eve. If you're out - do NOT drive and drive. Do NOT let anyone in your presence drink and drive. Life is too short to end it so foolishly or to end someone else's life. Don't overindulge - you'll feel like crap both mentally and physically afterward! Enjoy your family time as I'll enjoy mine.

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!!