Writing quilt patterns

There is one area of my life that won't get cluttered with digital stuff, and that's Zoom. I think I have 5 GB of "free" storage, enough to store a month's worth of video recordings—about 12 hours or something like that. I get emails from Zoom if the account is getting close to full. Do I want to buy storage? No, and then I go in and delete the older videos! Yeah, me! One area that will never become cluttered! They will shut down the ability to record if you go over! Or so they say! I'm not testing that. 

That area is easy since it doesn't have history! 

I'm trying to get ready for my two presentations this morning. I'm a wee bit behind, but I have time! One is done, and one is almost complete. It's a matter of sorting the slides into a logical order, and I sometimes take MANY photos, and I don't need them all. So all is good! And without Bear to walk in the morning, I have oodles of time! 

On my big walk the other day, I spotted these tulips. Yep, the tulips are almost done in Vancouver and just starting here. Different growing seasons!

The tulips are just starting

When I was at Indigo, I browsed the few remaining quilt magazines. The numbers are dwindling, and many we no longer get. I heard the other day that Quiltmania recently shut down. They published three titles:  Quiltmania, Simply Moderne, and Simply Vintage.

Remember when I said that Quiltmaker made a double issue for the summer. How convenient for us! However, the publisher (Golden Peak Media) also combined Quick and Easy Quilts and McCall's Quilting. Hmmm - are they trying to tell us something? 

MORE double issues by Golden Peak Media

I've managed to empty one of the three giant suitcases. I'm in no rush, and I have all this week to get them empty. Only two more to go!

Suitcases to unpack

I went to the Paris Quilting Bee's quilt show in the afternoon. What a treat, as I hadn't been to a quilt show in a long time. I rarely use cash, so I loaded all my loonies and toonies into my "purse" - a Ziploc bag and got rid of some of that! I did NOT win any of the door prizes or penny draws, but I heard that my friend won TWO pairs of applique scissors. Two separate draws, and she won both! Yeah!!! Scissors are so important to the success of machine embroidery. 

I had put my tickets in on a couple of jigsaw puzzles, and I guess the powers that be were telling me that I did not need more puzzles. However, remember the door puzzle from the other day? I already had someone say they would take it off my hands once I was finished with it. The only problem is that I didn't buy it! Perhaps I need to go back!!!

The show had many beautiful quilts, but I will only share one with you. OH  MY GOSH! What a surprise to see this quilt pieced by Lorna Z. 

Radiant Light quilt

Deborah Edwards (Design Director at Northcott) designed the quilt. She wanted to dabble in quilt design and used one of her Northcott fabric collections called Radiance. 

The pattern

I got the lucky job of writing the instructions. That task took forever and darn near killed me as I provided pressing instructions. There were a lot of arrows in that pattern! It was made up of nine blocks, and well, it was a nightmare to write! I'm glad to see someone made it! 

The pressing instructions

Then we had a virtual retreat last night, and I confess that I got barely anything done. OH -- I made a binding for my Heartfelt Sampler! That was it. I MUST be more productive today. Although I'm OK with slacking off last night. I needed some downtime, but I have loads that need to be sewn today, and I should have no problem doing that while chatting with the group. 

The binding for Heartfelt Sampler

So, if you're around today with nothing to do, be sure to pop onto the Zoom call to say hello. 

Virtual Retreat - Sunday - April 28 -- starts at NOON (or perhaps a little bit later if we run over on the digital cutter club) 

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82983517671?pwd=ODdsa1FJenQwdFNaQWFTNGd4bEhPZz09

Meeting ID: 829 8351 7671
Passcode: 117636

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

Have a super day!!

Ciao!!!!

How to shop for fabric!

It feels like I'm on a treadmill, and it's speeding up with no chance of getting off! But there's no need to panic - everything is fine. Just a tad busy. This is temporary, as December will be pretty much dead. DO NOT LAUGH! How do people do this all the time? 

The second day of training went well, and I think everyone walked out of the room filled with excitement, a bit of trepidation to remember it all, and so much work ahead of them to make samples!

I had all these plans when I got home that I'd turn on the machines and start making more samples, and well, I was tired! So, I made some samples this morning. 

But back to yesterday. I went for a walk in the morning. It was like a spring day -- warm but cloudy and windy. The perfect day for a walk. Nothing was too exciting to see in that neighborhood, but I grabbed a couple of geocaches. This first one was easy to spot - there's a small container right by the black post. 

Easy to spot geocache

I can imagine in the summer, with all the leaves on the trees, that this would NOT be so easy to spot. There are advantages to doing some geocaching in the fall!

The area around the geocache

OK -- so what do you think these are? Art? Bike racks? Benches without a place to sit? I've no idea, and they were on a street corner, so not exactly a place to park a bike!

Art?

And this guy was at our hotel. I'm not into selfies, but he was about my height. 

That's a BIG duck!

While I was out walking, I passed two Tim's. I didn't bother to stop, even though I was getting hungry as I had looked, and Tim's was very close to the hotel. However, when I arrived, it was one of those in the gas station, so there was no place to sit down. CRAP! 

I decided to go to the hotel to see what they had for breakfast options. No buffet, no complimentary breakfast. You ordered from an order desk, and they brought the food to you. Hmm! Not what I wanted, but I had no choice. 

I ordered steel-cut oats, which cost $10 plus tax. It better be good because I can buy TWO containers of steel-cut oats for $10. 

The bowl was HUGE. It came with a few blueberries and a small jug of maple syrup. Yes --- it was excellent, and I wasn't grumbling about the $10. If the food is good, I'm OK with the price (most times), but if the food is crappy, then I'm not so happy. This was great!

My morning oatmeal

I wasn't needed for the first part of the meeting, and I needed some fabric. Northcott wasn't too far away, and I still have an account with them. So off I went. I spoke to the warehouse manager when I got there, and before I knew it, a few people came to the back to say HI. It's like they put it on a loudspeaker in the front -- Elaine has returned! I haven't been back since my services were no longer required in 2017! I don't even remember if that is the correct year. 

I was looking at the sale fabric, and I heard that if I buy 25 bolts, I can get it even cheaper. NEVER say that to a quilter. So I looked around, and I evaluated the car space, and I calculated the budget, and well, this happened. 

Oops -- so much for sticking to the budget

I was curious to see if everything would fit in the car on the way home. But I'm good! This was the back of the car. My sample suitcase is on top of the embroidery unit for the Designer EPIC 3. NO -- I could NOT see out the window, but I'm OK with that. 

The back of the car

The side behind the driver's seat was jammed with bolts of fabric and thread. 

Behind the driver's seat

The other side was also jammed with more bolts and the Designer EPIC 3. Notice that it was protected with the cover AND a quilt. You do NOT want to damage or scratch that screen. Thank goodness I did NOT take the box!

The other side of the car

And the front seat was also full! I don't need a bigger car -- I can fit a lot into this one. 

The front seat

Knowing that there are MANY quilts to be quilted for Quilts of Valour, I picked up 11 bolts to help with the backings. I had better get myself organized and get some of those quilts done! That's a job for December and January. 

Bolts for Quilts of Valour quilt backings

And then, I got a few bolts that were not on sale, but I needed some neutral backgrounds to stitch embroidery on. 

Stock up on neutrals

And then, I got a variety of blenders, also to be used for embroidery backgrounds. 

My new blender cache

So that was a great haul! My credit card went OUCH when I checked out, but we had a talk on the way back to the meeting! It's OK! 

I must say that it felt good to be back in the warehouse! But would I still want to be working there? I don't think so. I much prefer what I'm doing now, and there are WAY MORE toys to play with! Yep -- I'm in my happy place. 

I went back to the meeting, and I helped out with the rest of the morning session and then the afternoon. OH MY -- there is so much new on this embroidery/sewing machine. My mind was blown about one hour into the first day! And now I have to pack all that into three hours! Even if you are NOT in the market for a new embroidery machine, why not attend one of the events -- we are going to have FUN!

Hamilton Sewing, Hamilton, Ontario - November 9 - Thursday

K&A Sewing Studio, Ingersol, Ontario - November 10 - Friday

Gem Sewing - North Bay, Ontario - November 15 - Wednesday

Gem Sewing - Sudbury, Ontario (part of a retreat) - November 17 - Friday

Brampton Sew and Serge, Brampton, Ontario- November 24 - Friday (905) 874-1564

Carellen Sewing, Winnipeg, Manitoba - November 27

I couldn't sleep last night. Of course - I'm tired, but I can't sleep. So, I got up and started sorting and prepping all the samples for this morning. That takes oodles of time -- do I have fabric, stabilizer, bobbin threads, top threads? What about the design? Is that ready? Lots of things to get organized. But when I went to sleep on the couch with Lexi, everything was done. 

This morning, I had one embroidery machine working while I stitched on another, and wouldn't you know it --- BOTH machines had issues simultaneously! Of course, they did, because I was in a hurry!

However, I got both fixed and back working and completed almost everything I wanted to get done. The rest will be used for demos! I know -- how clever is that? 

Everything is now back at the front door -- the sample suitcase is rejigged. The machine is by the door, along with the bags of projects and supplies and several bags of technology. WAIT -- do not forget to pack a few clothes. That's always the last bag and the least important! As long as I have something on, I don't really care, but I do want to clean up a bit for the presentations. 

M and Bear made it home safely, and Dillon picked them up. Nothing is sweeter than seeing such a big, happy smile on your kid's face. OK -- Dillon brought flowers - I'd smile as well! And Little Bear was on the floor --- dancing around like a madman! So cute!

On that note, I'm out of here. I'm off to a seven-day quilt retreat. I know -- don't ask. It's going to be weird as I'll be working, and well -- it's just going to be weird. 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

Trying new things

One must always be open to trying new things. I know that I'm guilty of doing things the same old way. Or we sit in the same spot at the table, on the train, we drive to work on the same road. Nothing wrong with it - it frees up our brains to think of other things. But it's also nice to shock the brain into trying new things!

So you all know that I've been doing a lot of quilts for magazines over the last couple of years. That means working with the fabric companies and I have to say that Northcott has been very accommodating and their fabrics are beautiful to work with. A HUGE thank you to Northcott for your support and to Susanne who fulfills my needs. I truly appreciate the support.

In case you didn't know, Northcott has a line of batiks as well. The brand name is Banyan Batiks. Karen Gibbs is the lead designer for the batiks. She's been working with the folks in Indonesia to come up with some unusual techniques to produce new patterns/styles of batiks. Check it out.

I've actually made quite a few quilts using Banyan Batiks. However, a while back when we were discussing fabrics for the latest quilt which will appear in Jan/Feb 2020 of McCalls Quilting, Karen asked me to do something different. We got the OK from the publisher and I ended up with rayon for the backing of the quilt.

BTW - in case you think, I'm spilling the beans - you're not going to see the front of the quilt - just the back and everyone is OK with that.

It was with a bit of trepidation that I made the backing for the quilt. I had to join two pieces of the rayon and if you've ever worked with rayon, it's VERY slippery compared to cotton. OK - so that seam is done. I pressed it (it presses beautifully) and then I loaded it on the long arm with the selvages pinned to the leaders. OK - so that worked just fine. So far - so good.

I put a new needle in the machine, loaded my quilt top made from the Baralla collection. Then I loaded the 80/20 batting. OK - here goes nothing. Let's see what happens.

There was no difference quilting with the rayon on the back. I could have been quilting cotton for all the long arm cared.

The quilt is quilted and time to unload. WHOA!!!!!   What just happened here? The quilt is beautiful. It's very LIGHTWEIGHT compared to a quilt done with batik or cotton on the back. And guess what else???  It's incredibly soft!! Oh my GOD - I might just become a convert to using rayon for the backings of quilts. Never in a million years would I have chosen rayon for the quilt backing. THANKS, Karen for the push in that direction.    Hmm - I have a couple of pieces of rayon that need to be made into garments. I need to make that happen real soon.

Rayon as a quilt backing

It seems to be a Northcott day. I did spend some time in Studio B to get it ready for today. There will be 6 of us sewing and it looks awesome. Although there are still boxes and furniture sitting in almost every corner. I'll work my way through it. It was such fun last night as I spread out stuff to work on to get ready for today.

This quilt now has a backing. The backing is an older Northcott print by Jane Spolar called Saturday Afternoon! But the color (you're seeing the wrong side of the fabric) was perfect.

The backing of a quilt top

I went shopping Chez Elaine. Seriously??  This is just way too weird. The way that stash room is set up at the moment, there's no tripping over anything. While the floor isn't completely clear of stuff, it's pretty darn good. I was able to put away some scraps in the scrap bins and not have to stretch. The blue basket of fabric came off the shelf and onto the work tables with ease. I know -- I HAVE to keep it that way. It's such a pleasure to work in all that space. It may mean that some stuff gets packed into WELL LABELED boxes and stacked out of the way. NO - I'm not ready to get rid of everything at this point - don't even suggest it!!!!

Anyway - I did find some fabric that'll work perfectly for the binding.

Found a fabric that'll work for the binding

I came across this little basket that I made from the leg of a pair of jeans. I didn't put any stabilizer in it and I didn't like it that way. Too limp. So last night, I took it apart and one of my jobs today is to put stabilizer in it and put it back together. I know - who would have the patience to do that? But what else was I going to do with it? It really needed a stabilizer for it to be used by me or someone else. I should have put it in when I originally made it, but I didn't. That dot fabric, by the way, is a Northcott - Colorworks Concepts.

This denim bucket was a project that I did on QUILTsocial a while back. Here are the instructions. HEY -- you should be checking out QUILTsocial more often. There are all kinds of projects, tips, and tricks on that web site. Just type in denim and see what you get.

Bucket made with cotton and a denim pant leg

Here's another Northcott project. I believe this was the first project I designed when I went to work for them (for the record, I'm no longer an employee). It's also an older print - the collection was called Happy Hour.  It's a table topper. The fabric and pattern have been sitting around for a long, long time. I popped it into my retreat bag and I was able to make it up in a morning. The colors are a bit bleached out in the photo. The blue and pink are much more vibrant in real life. And I have enough of the border print and the stripe leftover that I think I can make a set of placemats. That's for another day.  The binding and the backing are also made so that one moved into the "to be quilted" pile.

Table topper

Over to the long arm where I got another quilt done. This one is for Quilts of Valour. It's completely made with my leftovers of Toscana from Northcott. It's a log cabin block and was the pattern chosen by Canadian Quilter's Association this year for Quilt Canada. I had the fabric precut for the 48 blocks and took it to our quilt retreat earlier this month.

The top was completed at the retreat. Thanks to all the ladies who sewed blocks. I emptied a bolt of Northcott fabric (Stonehenge Oh Canada) for the backing and the binding. Now it's quilted and my goal is to get the binding on so it can be delivered next week.

Community projects quilt

Since not all of you can be with us today as we sew, here's a quick glimpse into the main sewing area of Studio B.

I laid out the worktables a bit differently. We're going to be 9 on the weekend so this configuration won't work then. But we each get our own 5-foot table. Yeah!!!!! You can't see much of the messy corner to the right! The design wall is accessible and clear.

Work tables set up in Studio B

This is the cutting table. Half of that is stuff that people will be picking up today. The other half is my stuff that needs to be trimmed or sewn today. I have my cutting mats, a cutter, and some rulers there so I'm back in business. I said to Miss Murphy who had come down to keep me from getting too lonely that it felt very good to be back in business in Studio B. She agreed. Oh - there's the Stonehenge Oh Canada on the back of that quilt waiting to be trimmed.

The cutting mat

And here's the ironing board. I've got my "spare" ironing board set up. I wasn't going to bring the big one down from upstairs. This one will just have to do. I'll have to bring my iron down that I'm using upstairs as I have NO idea where my other irons (3 of them) are. They're somewhere but haven't surfaced yet. I have a wee bit of pressing to do this morning to get started. Yep - there's more stuff just shoved into a corner. It'll be dealt with slowly. That storage room is going to fill quickly so I'm ensuring that what goes in that space is well labeled and sorted properly. I'll share that with you another day. There's still loads of room at the moment.

The ironing board

I'm so excited about today. It's been months since we had our last Sit n Sew day.

On that note, I'm out of here.

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!!

Sleepless in the city...................

Can you tell me why it is that we can wake up at 1 AM which is way too early to get up even for me! But I'm wide awake at that moment thinking (with zeal) about what I'm going to do today. Then I finally fall asleep and wake up at the right time - totally exhausted? Drives me crazy when that happens. No worries - I'm up now and excited for the day ahead.

Today, I was hoping to post the pictures from our $25 classes this past year, but what I have to say is more important. I'll start posting those pictures tomorrow.

YES - the magazine quilt is on its way!  Yeah! I think I was at the UPS office at 4:00 PM. I wasn't all that happy with the results as I was quilting it, but when I hung it up on the wall for a photo? Oh yes - I like it and it's exactly what I had planned. That makes finish number 72 for the year. Doesn't look like I'm going to make 100 but I don't really think that's a problem. I do have some stuff lined up for more finishes so it won't be a 100, but close.

On top of all the customer quilts I did this year and the ones that I added to the "to be quilted" pile, I'm more than thrilled with the results of this past year. I'm looking forward to next year when I hope to be even more productive. As my space gets cleaned up, productivity gets better. Not having to search for things makes a huge difference and I feel that I did less searching this year. More focus, less searching.

I should mention one thing about shipping quilts. I've shipped a fair number and received a fair number back this past year. It costs a FORTUNE to ship overnight. My quilt was 50" square and weighed 7 LBS  (I don't believe that). The box size was 14" by 13" by 5". Overnight was going to cost $130. Three day was $100 or something like that and 5 day was $34 (with tax). I sent it 5-day. I couldn't bring myself to pay $130 to ship the box. I think back to how slap happy people are when prepping things for shipment and NO REGARD for the cost. Well, I'm guilty of that as well as I had NO IDEA how expensive it was. I think that any company that does a lot of shipping should educate all their employees on shipping costs. If companies were careful, they could hire at least one or two more people by what they save on the shipping bill. It's a whole lot different when the money comes out of your pocket versus the company you work for!!!

Once the magazine quilt was out of the way, I loaded a customer quilt and that got finished last night.

Customer quilt - DONE

This quilt will keep its owner nice and warm. Flannel on the top, fleece on the back (notice the excess Toronto Maple Leaf fleece on the left) and there's batting in there as well. Thankfully it's not too big otherwise it would be very heavy. But my kind of quilt!!!  And guess who gets the lovely task of sewing the binding on? Yep  - that would be me! One of my fun jobs of the day. Oh, the things I do for my customers - but I charge them of course!

I was hoping to have the next quilt loaded last night, but it didn't happen. Big deal. I had to piece the backing and it's now together, but needs to be ironed. That's a job for this morning.

But here's the MOST exciting news of yesterday. Last night, I decided to tidy that messy corner a wee bit so I wasn't jumping over stuff to turn the radio on and off.

The messy corner is a wee bit tidier

Hm - remember yesterday when I said that there were TWO boxes of stuff for the Misty Pines quilt? Well, I found the second box in a stack of project boxes and guess what was inside??

The missing box for Misty Pines

My two missing baggies of fabric!!!!   YEAH!!!  Christmas came early at my house. Speaking of Christmas, I ordered my Christmas present to myself yesterday. I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself. It won't come until December 27th, but it's going to be worth the wait and worth every penny.

The missing baggies of fabric

I also found all the paperwork for the kits. I bought bolts and bolts of this fabric from Northcott. It's from their Stonehenge Woodland collection which of course is now long gone. It's not even in the archive section of their website.

The paperwork

I think there were 20 people who bought kits. There was the option to buy the kit and take a class or just buy the kit. I know that some people finished their kits a long time ago, but I would bet that there are still a few out there who haven't even started! Well, I'm going to get mine completed and tidy up those boxes and if someone is missing fabric - too late!!!!  It's time to put this quilt to bed.

I'm working on my classes for 2019. Almost got everything finialized and I can start posting them. It's a lot of work to coordinate my schedule with the various stores. I'll also be hosting some classes at my house. So once I've got the pictures posted from last year's classes, I'll start posting the classes for next year. I still have to write descriptions for some of them and for a couple, figure out what specific pattern I'm going to teach.

On that note, I'm out of here. Off to press that giant backing and get it on the long arm before my guest comes today. It's a sewing day!!!!  And I get to work on finishing stuff. All the quilts that need binding are sitting on the "binding" table with the sewing machine set up for bindings. I wonder how many I can get done in a day?

Havea  super day!!!!!


Ciao!!!!!

Why do I work best under pressure?

I don't get it - I have deadlines. I'm very aware of the deadlines. My brain just doesn't seem to work unless the clock is ticking!

I'm working on a project - one that I can't share with you at the moment. I had a date in mind when it needed to be done. That was yesterday. Oh yes - along with everything else that had to be done. I had done a bit of preliminary work on the project, but I was overwhelmed. It's not quite my normal kind of thing to do - yep - my own worst enemy in that regard. As the deadline approached, I was working on the project but didn't seem to be committed to it. Well - at the ninth hour yesterday, I finally realized how I should be tackling the project. I didn't get it completed for the date that I wanted, but now that I have a very solid plan, it shouldn't take long to complete.

But why is that? Why won't my brain function that creatively when there isn't a deadline? I've no idea. Something I'm going to try and work on this coming year. While I don't mind the pressure and I seem to thrive on it, it can be a wee bit stressful if there is more than one deadline looming in the same time frame. I don't like that - I eat bad things when I'm in that situation. Still maintaining my "buffer zone" weight so I'm not complaining, but I don't like when I eat too many bad things!

So here's a situation I can share with you about being creative. Remember that reversible quilt I was working on? Well, it's being picked up today. That means I need to get it trimmed. I was tempted to NOT trim it, but I knew I would be helping this customer out a lot by doing so. We did have a chat yesterday and she is good for future (I hope!)

The quilt has been languishing on a set of work tables since I took it off the long arm. How to trim? Remember that the side edges of the front are wider than the back and the opposite is true for the other two edges. Does that make sense? If not - here's a better way of saying it. Suppose the side you see is the back. The sides of the back are wider than the front of the quilt. But the top and bottom of the back are shorter than the front. Don't ask how or why I quilted it like that. A challenge to myself I suppose. That does NOT allow you to give me a quilt like that!

The quilt waiting to be trimmed

How to keep the edges straight? I decided to get out my 20-inch square ruler and the medium size cutting mat. I used 15" as a guideline from the edge of the light green to the edge of the quilt maximizing the amount of fabric that was in the quilt. Very little was trimmed away.

Trimming the large quilt

I didn't touch the corners, yet. Just focused on the long edges. I trimmed one side and then moved to the other side of the table to trim the other side of the quilt.

One side almost trimmed

Then I flipped the quilt over so I could see how much fabric there was on that side. I think the measurement was something like 15 ½" from the outer edge of the center panel. So now all four sides are cut, but the corners are not. Is it going to work out and have nice square corners?

Surprising, those corners were PERFECT. 

Getting ready to trim the corners

See those corners exactly matched up!!!  They were perfectly square. All four of them were like that.

Corners are perfectly square

Now I realize that I was making it square with the method I used to trim. Despite the issues with the size of the two pieces, the customer had done a very decent job of measuring the width of all the pieces so I have to give her credit for that.

Anyway, it's now packed up and ready to go. Yeah!!!!!


Then it was onto the next customer quilt. And despite the fact that it was a large lap, it was a breeze to quilt. It was perfectly pieced. There was a striped fabric on the back and it was perfectly straight throughout the entire process.

The only problem? It seems that the bobbin loves to run out when I have this much quilt left to stitch. 

Bobbin runs out with this much left!!!

Here's the final quilt. It's now trimmed as well and ready for pick up later today.

Customer quilt - DONE

I'm down to six more customer quilts this year. I know - one more got into the line and I knew that - I was just ignoring it for the moment as I still don't have the actual quilt in my hands. I'm going to beg off doing one until the next year as I want to do something different on the quilt. But I have to ask the owner first. I don't see a problem - that one has only been sitting in the pile for a couple of weeks. One extra week or two won't make too big of a difference.

The big question will be - can I fit two more quilts in before Monday? The next one (which again is HUGE) is already loaded on the machine and I'll be working on that one today. I'm going to drive my Sit n Sew group crazy while I quilt the other one tomorrow. It's a wee bit noisy and normally I wouldn't do it, but I really want to get that one done as well. I'm on a schedule.

Did I mention how much I love my Quilt Path (the computer on the long arm)? It's my new best friend, to say the least. I have BIG plans on clearing up a bunch of stuff in the studio. BIG plans. Customer quilts are under control and since there's not a lot in the funnel for next year (but there could be if you call me!), then I'll be working on clearing up the community projects quilts that are sitting here waiting to be done.

That's exciting and each day I wake up ready to go. That truly is a great thing. I can't imagine getting up and dreading getting out of bed each day! And thankfully I'm one of those people that get out of bed and within minutes can be working. I don't need coffee, I don't need time - I get at it!!! That's all good because this "hobby" of mine has turned into more than a full-time job.

I have a story to share with you about a new quilt store in my town. Technically, it's not new, but a lot of people don't know about it yet. Michelle works out of her house and has a long arm business (but don't go to her for quilting your quilts - come to me instead!!!!)  OK - it's a free country - you can go to whomever you want and I know that I've been super slow in the past and I hope to change that this coming year. The turnaround has to be faster and will be faster, now that I have a plan.

Anyway, back to Michelle. I knew that she had fabric and I knew that she stocked a lot of Northcott. Would she happen to have some of the fabric that I needed for my quilt??  I had already tried another store a couple of days ago and they were out. I sent her an e-mail late the other night and I got an early morning phone call - she has the fabric. She's about a 15-minute drive away and I got half a meter. Thanks, Michelle.  The shop is called Quilted Memories. She operates out of her house. She's got a decent amount of fabrics - lots of blenders, wide backs. She also has a LOT of kits. Things like Riley Blake (Lori Holt) baking sew along, the Halloween quilt by McKenna Ryan, and the Elizabeth Hartman - the North Stars.  OH - I wanted to buy a kit, but then my right brain said to the left brain - "Are you CRAZY????   Don't even think about it!"  Check out her website for the fabric/patterns only - remember!!!!

Oh - I should mention how I knew that Michelle had purchased that missing fabric. If you go to the Northcott website and select the fabric collection that you're looking for. Under the Product Finder title in the top right-hand corner, use the drop-down menu to choose your province/state. A list of the SKUs (fabric numbers and a picture) will appear along the top - you may have to scroll left and right. and a list of shops that purchased the fabric. Now keep in mind - PURCHASED is NOT the same as still having it in stock, but it's an amazing starting point. Be sure to keep that in mind if you're looking for something. A GREAT tool - thank you Northcott for that.

Thanks to Michelle, I was able to finish cutting out the magazine quilt and it's ready to sew together today. 

Then I was off to teach a class last night at Oh Look Fabric. It was the last class of the year at that store, but we've got a HUGE line up of classes for the coming year. There's a partial list already on the website under Workshops. More will be added. While some of the classes are for beginners as the shop gets a lot of newbies (which we LOVE),  we have some amazing design classes and other fun stuff planned. I'll be posting ALL of my classes next week so you can pick and choose what you'd like to do. FUN FUN FUN!!!!!

I had two ladies in the pillowcase class who had attaempted to sew before, but with very unsatisfactory results. Both of them went home with a COMPLETED pillowcase. What's the best part? They were excited like crazy and so happy to have made something themselves. That's what teaching is all about and hopefully, we'll see them back for another class.

Two amazing pillowcases - DONE

While I was at Oh Look Fabric, I found this wild panel by Guicy Guice (Andover Fabrics). It's pretty cool. What to do with it? Well - I thought I could quilt it up and make a cushion cover or a wall hanging with it. Or it could become a block in a quilt. Not sure yet.

Wild panel

 And here's one of the corrdinates.

The panel and a coordinate

I'm not sure why designers are making these kinds of panels rather than letting the quilter do the work, but the pieces are so small, that you wouldn't want to piece it. Anyway - it's interesting and could become a great challenge. Oh yes - I can think of a few things to make with it. Now to find the time!!!

And look at my cute new pouch. I love it - nice and bright!  I love that it has a side pocket! Thanks Andi!!

Nice new pouch

I see that the Pantone color of the year has been announched.  Oh my - It's called Living Coral - let's face it - coral is in the orange family. I love it!!!

On that note, I'm out of here. Got some paperwork to do before I hit the long arm.

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!

Let the flood gates open

Wow - another intense day. Well, not really - I'm still pretty relaxed but then I'm almost always pretty relaxed.

Before I get to the quilting, let me chat about the weigh-in first. So one more pound has gone! That leaves three to go and I think there are two weeks left in the challenge. But that's OK if the three pounds aren't gone when the two weeks are up, I'll just keep going. I ran into someone yesterday who said that they have also given up sugar because of what I wrote on the blog. Hopefully, more of you will as well. It's not that hard IF you want to.

Here are some observations:

1. I only lost one pound this week because I cheated. There was a container of yogurt covered cranberries that had been purchased way before all this started. I hated to throw them out so I slowly ate them over the course of the week (yes - ONE WEEK). But those things are laden with sugar. On top of that, I had two hot chocolates (prepped at home with water). Both together in their serving size is not huge amounts of calories, but both are totally laden with sugar. Thankfully both items are now out of my house. While I can have those items, it's like everything - have it in moderation. I shouldn't have eaten all those cranberries in one week! But I did start having a half portion instead of a full portion and I was OK with that. 
2. Protein - that's a pretty important part of any meal. It's what fills you up and makes you feel less hungry. When I don't have protein with a meal, I'm very hungry soon afterward and that's when you want to start snacking! 
3. Fiber and water. When you eat a lot of fiber, it's very important to drink a LOT of water. Not going any further with that one. But we should be drinking a lot of water every day regardless of what we eat. 
4. Eating out is possible, even when you are trying to lose or maintain weight. The last two weeks, we've gone to restaurants that do not have their nutrition information on the menu. So I sit there and look it up on the internet. On the menu last night, I don't think there was any meal under 1000 calories and most were around the 1200 calorie range.  That's not far off my total daily intake. That's outrageous!!!!  So I had a burger - I never eat the bun - EVER and I gave the onion rings away. I figure I shaved about 300 calories off the meal by doing that. Maybe more???  I had a glass of water to drink. No dessert. I walked out of the restaurant feeling great - not stuffed. The woman beside me had a MASSIVE plate of ribs. I almost got sick looking at it. 
5. The other thing about eating? SAVOR your food. Sit down and enjoy it. I never used to do this. I would eat on the run. Then when I was finished, I would still be hungry because my brain didn't even acknowledge that I had eaten. Now I savor my snacks and I sit down for my meals. 
6. I wish I would have tracked the calories I consumed on a normal day before I started all this. I would bet that I easily consumed 2500 calories a day. Way more than I should have been eating which is why those silly pounds crept up on me. But they are gone - banished! Again, not so much the number of calories as the amount of sugar and fat. 
7. I think the bottom line is easy - it's all about choices. It's not about eliminating one food from your daily intake. It's not about liquid diets or fancy fad diets. It's about making choices of what you put in your mouth. Writing down the calories (or in the case of Weight Watchers - they have points), makes you accountable for what you eat. The Smartphone app called MyFitnessPal makes it a snap to keep track of what you eat (and how much sugar and fat you eat) and takes about 2 minutes in total per day to input everything. And I can't say enough about portion size. Start measuring your food and you would be surprised at what actual portion sizes are!!!!  

OK - that' my thing on weight this week.


Yes, I managed to get the next quilt quilted. Yes, it was mine and that's OK. Yes - this was one of my UFOs from 2017. It's now quilted and thrown on the table along with all the others that need to be trimmed.

My quilt - quilted!!!

The next one (oops - mine also) is loaded on the long arm. Just needs a piece of batting. I hope to get two quilts quilted today. I had a few errands to do yesterday and Ronda came, although we both worked while she was here. She made a binding and I was sewing.

I did get some pictures taken yesterday, however, there was a LOT of prep work before I could start taking pictures. I hope by the end of today to get four days worth of photos loaded on the internet and get a bit of writing in as well. Three days of pictures are already loaded so it's not that bad.

I did manage to finish not one, but TWO projects yesterday. More on that next week. But here's Finish Number 15. Just simple squares - easy. It's the beginner quilt project at Oh Look Fabric. So if you know anyone who wants to learn to quilt, I'll be teaching a beginner class at Oh Look Fabric. The dates for this class haven't been set yet, so get on their mailing list (or get your want to learn to quilt friend on the list), so they will be in know when the dates are announced.

Project finish Number 15 for 2018

Of course, while I was there, I had to buy some fabric. Look what I got. This collection is adorable. Since I have now figured out what to make with it, I'm allowed to buy some. I told Ronda what I'm going to make, but she knows that she's sworn to secrecy about the project until it's done. It's awesome!!  And I'm going to kill three birds with one stone with this one!

Purely Canadian Eh? fabric collection

 I got this at Oh Look Fabric and hope to find more of the collection at the Etobicoke Quilt Show this coming week. Oh shoot - just realized they did flannel as well. OK - looks like I have to find the flannel for the backing.

Here is my project finish Number 16 for the year!!!!  This one has been sitting around for a long time and just needed the binding sewn on. Well, the binding is now on as well as my little label and it's done!!!  This was one that I made with a Northcott panel (Fields of Gold) for Fall Market two years ago. The edges of the quilt were serged as the quilt did travel, but there was zero time to get that binding on.

Fields of Gold lap quilt - Finish Number 16 for 2018

I noticed something the last couple of days. There seem to be bits of red thread everywhere I look. On quilt batting, on bindings, on fabric and yet there aren't any red threads in the project. Why is that?

Mystery red threads

I'm down to seven projects in five days. I've got them all listed on my white (orange board) - I'll show you a picture tomorrow.  I also got one prototype block done on the test quilt. I've got all the fabrics laid out and two blocks completely cut and ready to go. That one is going to be touch and go, but let's see what we can do.  I think it's all doable - going to be tight, but doable. It's a wide open week this week. There is NOTHING on the agenda (except my spin class) and Monday sewing between now and Friday morning. Heads down and focused in the studio is the forecast for this week.

On that note, I'm out of here to prep and load more pictures.

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!!