You need space to bind a quilt

I thought about the stride thing yesterday with my KMs, and it's NOT the stride. I did measure that way back when I got a FitBit. I tried to verify it last night, but do you think I could find that in the app? Nope! 

The big issue is the translation from my FitBit records to the data on the Virtual Challenge site. It's sporadic, and I have no idea what's happening, but have a look and see what I mean. 

The data from the Virtual Challenge website for the last two days

For comparison, my FitBit for yesterday says 12.23 KM (instead of 11.68 - so close), but what's with the number of steps? I had 17,702 steps, not 4,986. 

And for the day before, I had 11.9 KM (not 9.99), and the steps were 15,472, not 12,116.

So why is that all cockeyed? THAT IS NOT CONSISTENT!!

Look at the difference in the steps versus the KM for those two days. Does that make sense to you? It doesn't to me. I will be short if this continues, and who knows how long it's been going on. I've not been this close to the end and being slightly behind, so I never paid attention to it before. I will calculate the KMs that Virtual Challenge calculated and then count what my FitBit collected. Then, I'll add the difference to the Virtual Challenge, and hopefully, that will bring me closer to my goal. OR I can enter the data manually, which I might do for the rest of the year; both will take a bit more time, but I'm OK with that. 

Why am I fussing? I'm sure a few of you are saying, "Get over it and move on." And yes, I could, but it's the principle of the thing. If my FitBit says 10 KM, but I'm only getting credit for 9, I want that extra K. I set my goal based on the FitBit numbers, and I'm being cheated!!!

I'll check with others to see if they have the same issue. 

I promised my binding class that I would make a video to show them how I do some of the techniques in detail. That got done this morning—FINALLY. Now, I need to edit it and remove some spots where things went awry. I've not done much video editing, so that will be my learning curve today. 

The quilt I chose was tough to do for the video as it was a flannel quilt, front and back, with a flannel binding. But why not show them the most difficult one rather than the easy one? The thing is—the technique is the SAME! 

The binding on the quilt

But here's ONE TIP that I'll share with everyone. If you are putting a binding on a quilt, and I don't care if you are planning to hand stitch it or to sew the entire thing by machine, do yourself a favor and USE AN EXTENSION table and have loads of room to support the quilt to the left of your machine. I can't imagine attempting it without somewhere for that quilt to rest while manhandling it through the machine. 

You need SPACE to bind a quilt

I do not sew on a fancy table. This is a $50 wooden banquet table that I've used for over twenty years. It is the BEST investment for my sewing room. It's hard to find wooden tables these days, but there are options. Even for sewing, a larger workspace is IMPORTANT—I would almost say critical to the success of your sewing. 

The quilt got quilted, but I had run out of steam by then, so it will get bound and in the mail today. There's a potential mail strike, so it might have to go by UPS. I can't share the front, but the quilting pattern is so perfect for it!!!!

The quilting on my secret quilt

So DH and I are getting back into the EXIT Game with one of the small games—only ten puzzles. We need to be warmed up for December 1 when we crack open the Advent Calendar. We've done pretty well on this game, looking at the clue only once and only the first of the three parts of that clue. We knew what we should have done; we just didn't do it. DRAT!!!

Well, last night, we got lucky! But I'm sure we would have figured it out the correct way. This scenario required us to find three numbers from these materials. 

How do I find three numbers in this?

It takes a moment for your brain to trigger what you need to do. We did it, and I looked up the answer, and the code was correct. But it bugged DH because he thought our logic was too random, and we've learned that NOTHING is random in these EXIT Games. I looked at the clue to see if our logic was correct. Oops --- we screwed up in two of the three numbers, but both of them gave the same number, so we were good! He wasn't impressed because I came up with obscure words, which still worked. Well, it's tough to explain, but the logic was there, and we had the correct reasoning, but not quite the same way! 

This goes to show that there is more than one way to do anything! The bottom line is that we solved the puzzle without looking at the clues! 

I got my Trendtex challenge the other day! I've known what I will do with it for a while. So yesterday, I designed the quilt and got the measurements, and all I need to do is start sewing! I cannot leave this until the last minute! There is a solid beige at the bottom of the pile. I would NOT have chosen those colors, but this is what they came up with this year. If you're not aware, the Trendtex Challenge is part of the CQA (Canadian Quilter's Association) annual show. 

The Trendtex Challenge

As I was looking through the basket of flannel that is the backing for the next group of community project quilts, look what I found. A ticket from when Wal-Mart sold fabric. The date is 2008!!! I bought four meters of flannel for a total of $17.08. 

A fabric ticket from years ago!

With all the talk about irons lately, I decided to clean up my irons. I have four that are in good working condition, two of which are brand new. I'm saving them until I need them. 

My irons and supplies

It was time to clean this iron, which I was going to use. It's a great iron, but the darn thing has these bursts of steam that drive me crazy. So I poured a whole lot of vinegar into it, as it desperately needed to be cleaned. 

It's a steam generator. I sat it on the kitchen sink, and it continuously generated steam for 20 minutes! All by itself. 

Generating steam!

There was a lot of junk in it. 

ICKY!!!!

Then I cleaned it off, and it seems to be working OK. 

Nice and shiny

I can't find the manual, so I'm going to try to find it online. But one very important thing about this iron—DO NOT use it until it has heated up! Oh yes, if not, it just gushes steam when it's not supposed to. Follow the guidelines for proper iron usage! 

Most of us say that our sewing machines do not mend clothes, but I fixed a small hole in the back of a pair of pants. The seam had originally been serged with a 5-thread safety, so there were two lines of stitching, but now it's fixed. 

Mending pants

I felt good that I'm not part of this fast-fashion craze. I will fix my clothes rather than throw them out. I wore my socks and gloves that I repaired the other day, and you would NEVER know they had been mended. They are comfortable to wear, meaning you can't feel the mended spots. I felt good that I was repairing it instead of throwing it out. 

With all the wind we had in the last couple of days, not many leaves are left on the trees, although it's still pretty to walk through the forest and see the leaves falling all around. However, this tree did NOT get the memo that it's fall! I don't think any of the leaves have dropped. 

This tree doesn't know it's fall

Well, there are loads on the agenda again today. I do what I can in a day, and if it doesn't get done, it doesn't get done. I'm just keeping up with the priorities and working from there. There is no rush, and there are no deadlines, although I have to think about what's on the agenda for next week. It is nice not to have a single commitment this weekend! 

On that happy note, I'm off to edit and figure out why the KMs do not translate well. 

Have a super day!!

Ciao!!!

A first world problem

 

There are a lot of issues in the world. The biggest one right now is that the ENTIRE world is working its way through the pandemic. A lot of people are struggling with the stay-at-home order. It's a major inconvenience, to be sure, but it's not a hardship. I am extremely fortunate to live in a country where we have a pretty darn high standard of living and freedoms. Many of us have not lived through any kind of hardship. I wonder how society would cope if we actually suffered a major hardship?

I'm going to have to go into a no COVID discussion zone because I'm so frustrated by people complaining about the lock-down, about why or how the government(s) have (mis)handled everything related to COVID. Here's the bottom line - we have to be patient. We may disagree with what's happening, but we just have to be patient. It will pass, and soon, we'll forget completely about the lock-down and be on our merry way to doing things like normal. 

So that's it - NO more COVID discussions - I just can't handle it. 

Now here's my first-world problem. My microwave quit!! NOO!!!  I went to warm up my Magic Bag last night, and when I pushed start, there was a horrible noise and ZERO heat. So - the big question is - can I get a new one? And can I get someone to install the darn thing in my house? Is this an emergency? Technically no - but what am I supposed to have for breakfast? I'm eating a protein bar and a banana, too lazy to cook the oatmeal on the stove. 

Oh well -- I'll figure it out, and while inconvenient, there are other options. 

I couldn't help myself as I went out for a walk yesterday. It was 3PM, and I noticed that one of my neighbors was putting a couple of heavy bricks on the lid of her recycling cart, which was at the curb. Hmm - we had HIGH winds yesterday - gusts up to 80 KM. I said she needed to leave the cart next to the house until the morning. The truck doesn't come by until after 9 AM, so there's loads of time to put the cart out. 

She said it would tip over at the house. Well, it's more likely to tip over at the street, even with bricks. When I came back from my walk, the cart was tucked around the corner behind the garage. Their garbage cart and the compost bin were leaning over (she had put them like that). So why couldn't she think of that herself? I saw garbage flying down the street from open recycling carts. I get it that you don't want to miss the truck, but hey - if the darn thing isn't full, there really isn't a need to put it out. And if it is, there's plenty of time in the morning or do it just before bed. But 3 PM???? 

Oh boy -- they say that people get more crotchety as they grow older. Yep - that's me! I hate two things - lack of awareness of a situation and excessive complaining (although I do my share). Imagine how I'll be in a nursing home. Well, hopefully, my mind will be gone, and I won't notice things!

Anyway, enough of my bellyaching; it's time to chat about quilting. 

It was Monday sewing, and I was excited. I had four hours in which to work on my applique. Could I get it done? Well, let's have a look. 

Quilter's Patch quilt top - DONE

OH MY GOODNESS - the top is DONE. I did not get it completely done during Monday sewing, but I got it done after. I decided to keep sewing even after the call was over. I should have been working on other homework, but I was so close by this time. It's DONE!!!!!  And THREE weeks before the UFO deadline. WOW!!!!!  That means I get to pull out another UFO. Already done! 

I was on a roll and kept sewing. The binding got made, and I found some fabric to make the backing. So it got moved to the "to be quilted" pile! Yahoo!!!!!!!

The backing and binding are made for Quilter's Patch

I laughed when I was cutting the selvages off the fabric for the backing. Look at the date!! In case you can't read that - it says 2000. 

Look at the date on that selvage

I haven't had a chance to completely clear the cutting table. Everything on it is ACTIVE, but as I needed space to put borders on, I pushed everything to the back. 

Everything is pushed to the back to cut borders

Then as I needed to cut yardage, everything got pushed to one end. 

Everything is pushed to one side

That is definitely not the best use of my time. I've put a few things away and will try to get it back to normal by the end of today. 

Instead of sitting at the computer, I decided to forge ahead with sewing and completed this small wall hanging or table topper. 

Table topper - DONE

This was the start of the Kaleidoscope quilt, which is a huge quilt, and for some reason, I felt the need to make TWO of them. Thankfully, I had only made four blocks. I repurposed everything to make this quilt. The rest of the fabric for the quilt got put away. 

The binding and the backing are also done, and it also got moved to the "to be quilted" pile. 

Wall hanging move to the "to be quilted" pile

One of the things sitting on the cutting table (OK - so it was sitting on the ironing board) was a BRAND NEW IRON. This is part of the SINGER new GARMENT CARE line of products. Let's get that box open and see what this iron is all about. 

NEW Singer iron

WOW -- it's so retro looking; it reminds me of the iron we had when I was a kid, although it looks nothing like that iron at all. I love the style and the color. Notice, it's got a LONG cord - I think it's 10 feet long. 

Spiffy looking iron

I was making some flying geese, and it worked like a charm.  

Pressing flying geese

Why is that picture so blurry? That's the steam that was pouring out of the iron. It uses regular tap water.

Nice large point

And look at the tip of the iron. It's huge and perfect for getting into small corners. I love it!!! The temperature setting is in such a position that you can't accidentally change it. 

Since I was making flying geese, I had these little cut-offs. 

Cut-offs from flying geese

I'm happy to report that I did NOT keep them. I won't keep anything smaller than what is cut from 2½" strips. Unlike the mini-quilt I showed you yesterday, which was made from cut-offs from 2" flying geese units. 

Cut-offs in the scrap bin

OK -- so what happened with the weather? I was thoroughly enjoying the warmer temperature. The last two days, I even went out for the morning walk with NO HAT. And then - crazy weather. So does that mean that March came in like a lion? And it'll go out like a lamb? I don't know, but I'm debating if I should dig out my flannel-lined pants this morning. It's pretty cold out there! 

Here's one of those silly things that I feel I NEED, but I don't really. This is the Piecemaker's Calendar from 1988. It's the very first calendar quilt that they created. It's ugly as sin. I have all the others - this is the only missing one. If anyone has the calendar (1988) and doesn't want it - perhaps we can talk!

Piecemaker's Calendar 1988

This one belongs to my friend Carol, and she's going to leave it to me in her will!! I probably won't need or want it by then!! 

Well, I apologize for my rant at the beginning, but not really. I do try to keep rants to a minimum, but there are times when I can't help it. It's my blog, after all. 

On a happy note, it's a new day! Lots to do, so much to learn, and well, it's time to get the day started!! Oh - and I have to investigate buying a microwave on-line. That's the easy part - it's the getting it installed that's going to be the challenge. OH - I could have it fixed as I know what's wrong, but you know what? It's probably going to be the same price or more to have it fixed! I might pursue that avenue as well. If I were a bit more electrical-minded, I could fix it myself as it's probably the magnetron that needs to be replaced. I wonder if Shelly could fix it? 

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!

 

Wildlife sightings

It was a glorious day yesterday! I accomplished a lot, saw a lot, and well - just a great day!!

Often, when I go for a walk, I take my phone. Not because of the social media, which I'm hardly on these days, and I don't miss it a single bit, not because someone might text me or call me - I rarely get messages, unless it's from M who wants to know what's happening with Little Bear. Nope - I take my phone because it has a fantastic camera on it.

I stopped to take a picture of this beautiful flowering bush on my neighbor's driveway. Well, imagine my surprise when the flower I chose to take a picture of had this inside. That doesn't look like a bumblebee, but it doesn't look like a wasp. I'm not sure what it is. But I got this great photo of it.

A visitor in the center of this pink flower

At lunchtime, I went outside to look at the pond. The fish go crazy whenever I come near the edge of the pond, so I was trying to sneak around and WHOA - what's this in the middle of the pond???  A frog. Now I'm not sure what kind of a frog that is (is it a toad?). Anyway, he was sunning himself on the lily pads and quite enjoying himself. I was wondering if there was a frog in the pond as I thought I heard him the other night. Where did he come from?

A front in the pond

And then to top it off, I saw these two critters running away when I went outside. Where the heck did those geckos come from??

The geckos running away

OK -- the geckos are fake. I'll tell you about them in a minute.

I had a phone call to deal with, so I did miss part of the Monday sewing. I've decided that I have enough handwork to do that I'm going to do that during the Monday sewing session - just like when we met in person. I added a few more things to this pile, as I might as well get it all in one place. And it's incredible what you can do in four hours of dedicated sitdown time.

My HUGE basket of handwork

The first thing I did was to sew the sleeve on my Dream Big panel. The darn sleeve was made weeks ago, and it never got stitched in place. The Dream Big panel is pinned to the design wall as part of my film set. Now, if I want to actually hang it up, I can do that.

Then it was off to remove more papers from those string-pieced green 60-degree triangles. I still have a few to go, but I was happy with my progress. Remember that I used the pages from a Yellow Pages book as the foundation, so all that paper has to be taken out. And I found that it's better to remove it BEFORE sewing the units together.

Removing the paper from string pieced blocks

Little Bear thought it would be great fun to help me take the papers out of the garbage once I had put them in. He's a garbage picker and loves to play in the trash.

Little Bear removed some of the papers from the garbage

OK -- back to those geckos. These darn things have been sitting around for MONTHS. One needed to be stuffed (well, it needed to be finished being stuffed), and the other one just needed to sewn shut. I finished stuffing the one during the Monday call.

The geckos that needed to be finished

 Then I had to find some matching threads and put the zipper foot on the Designer EPIC 2. It's a bit of a hassle to sew that seam, but with all the space and the piecing power on this sewing machine, it wasn't an issue.

Sewing the geckos closed

And then they were off to play!

The geckos at play near the pond

I think they wanted to jump in and play with the fish, but I held them back!!!

I had to move this box from the bottom of the stairs. That white blob makes me think that Little Bear is sitting in the green box. In fact, that's my knitting bag!! Since those two items at the bottom of the stairs are handwork, they did get moved over to the laundry basket that houses the rest of the handwork.

That is my knitting bag, NOT Little Bear

Oh, here's my handwork basket again before I moved those two things over. Let's just say that there is a LOT of handwork to be done. I'm on a tear - let's get this stuff done. I want to have "new" stuff hanging out in the studio. I'm tired of looking at this old stuff!

The handwork basket

OK -- so then it was time to hit the sewing machine. I got the last two pieces of the border on Easy Street. Yeah!!! That's been hanging around for a LONG, LONG time, but now the top is done.

The Easy Street quilt top is done

I cut TEN strips for the binding, and that's made.

The binding for EAsy Street

Remember, that Easy Street was a mystery quilt by Bonnie Hunter from several years ago.

Time to make the backing. WAIT A MINUTE! Thankfully, I realized that a corner was cut out of this hunk of fabric before I started to cut the backing. I started from the other end, and this is what I had leftover. Now that labeling system works like a charm!! Did you get all your yardage labeled yesterday? You should - it saves loads of time.

The leftover from the yardage for the backing

Easy Street ready to be quilted

And I'm happy to report that Easy Street is now in the "to be quilted" pile. Yes - one more UFO has been completed!! This is not only a UFO for this month, but it was on the UFO list for 2019. One more bites the dust!!!  It's exhilarating to be making progress like this.

As for my UFO lists for The Task Master, there is one project left on the 2017 list, and it's on my target to get that done later this week. There are still four on the list for 2018. One will become my working UFO for September, and one requires some handwork. It's being prepped so I can work on it during the Monday calls. The other two will likely get rolled over to next year.

There are still 8 on the list for 2019. I'm working on one of the projects, and I hope to have it done for the UFO club meeting in a couple of weeks. I'll grab one or two of the remaining ones and see what I can get done by the end of the year. Some of those will for sure get rolled over to next year.

And there are still 11 on the list for 2020. I'm currently working on two of those and hope to finish one or two more before the end of the year. That's a total of 24 that still need to be completed. Now I could be a total pessimist when I see that number and feel like I'm getting nowhere, but NO - I look at it like this - there were a total of 48 (actually more because of the duplicates of some of the quilts on the 2017 list). That means I'm half done what I started out to do. That's HUGE, as some of these UFOS are very complex. Oh yes - I'm going to get those darn UFOs done! I WILL do it.

After I finished that, it was time to get to work on those community project quilts that need to be bound. I made contact with the Project Linus person who lives very close to me. Yahoo!!!  She will take EVERYTHING. So I want to get all the quilts bound so they can all be dropped off and the Quilts of Valour contact is not far either so I'll make one delivery! I need to get busy!!!

I had several bindings to make, so I used the laser guidance system on the Designer EPIC 2 to join those bindings. It worked like a charm—no need to mark and pin like I always did in the past.

Using the laser guidance system

Here's the stack of quilts still be to be bound. It's much smaller than it was!

Quilts to be bound!

I thought I'd share with you where I put those bobbins that I wound so I would know when to change the needle and clean the machine.

Two spools of thread

And here is a great place to store the bobbins. Actually, I should put them under the cone of grey thread!

Storage space for my five bobbins

I've already gone through one bobbin. I told you, I'm on a roll.

Three bobbins to go

I was busy sewing binding all afternoon, and I needed a small ruler and scissors to help with the final join. AHA - I have a drawer in that new Singer Ironing and Crafting station. So I put my ruler and scissors in the drawer, so they were handy!!! What a smart idea.

The drawer in the Singer Ironing and Crafting Station

And I LOVE this iron - a single touch to shut it off, a single touch to wake it up (at the same temperature as it was when it went to sleep), musical tones to get it to the right temperature, and no hassle with the steam buttons. I'm in heaven!!! I didn't realize how much I hated that orange iron I was using. This one is a dream to use.

The Singer SteamLogic Steam Iron

So here's the binding situation - I got the binding sewn to the back of this quilt for Quilts of Valour.

The binding is sewn to the back of the quilt

The binding is sewn to the back of this quilt for Project Linus.

A Project Linus quilt with the binding sewn to the back

I love having all that space to work. It's amazing!!! And great lighting as well.

Sewing on the binding

I had to make the binding for the quilt that I'm working on above. That leaves ONE more binding to make. Three quilts need the binding sewn onto the front and three quilts that I need to sew the binding on both sides. Yes - I'm making progress, and I hope to get them all finished TODAY. I have to start the prep for my new presentation tomorrow night, but it won't be nearly as bad as it was last week since most of the technology is set up. I'm going to add one more tech component each week. No one will notice the difference, but I hope it helps me when switching from camera to camera. 

One more binding is made

This was the sky last night! A bit of lightning, and it was MUCH darker than it appears in the photo.

The night sky

 And there's the little helper. He just loves to find a bag to plop his little butt in.

Little Bear hiding in a bag

Phew - that was a crazy day, but I'm motivated, and I want some of this stuff cleaned up! It's happening, and I'm thrilled.

I hope you're getting some stuff done. The best advice? Pick ONE thing that's been bugging you and just get it done. For me, it was the geckos! It took less than one hour to get them done. You can do it!!

Don't forget that there's a virtual retreat this weekend. I'll post the link for Saturday on tomorrow's blog. That's Saturday, August 22nd, and Sunday, August 23rd. The retreat starts at 9 AM EST and runs until 8 PM. It's going to be loads of fun, and I've got to get some stuff organized. Stop by and say hi or stay for a while and sew.

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!