Quilt retreat woes

Yesterday, I was up early and got some sample-making done. Everything was bagged and ready to be sewn later on at the retreat. Dogs walked, clothes packed, and it was time to pack the car. 

Look who slipped by the closed door. She did NOT want to get out of the car. 

Murphy -- you can't stay in the car!

She's not often in the car, as she barks like mad, so it's stressful for anyone. But she is feeling left out. In the same way that Little Bear likes to be right there, Murphy is the same. Although she's a bit large to fit into the suitcase, she hates to be left behind. Poor thing -- if I could bring her, I would. But alas, she has to stay home. Lexi? She couldn't care less! 

I managed to get all the retreat stuff into the car and had plenty of room to spare! There are a few things that won't be coming home with me. It's time to do some cleaning, and since I don't see everyone often, it's the perfect time to make that happen. 

Car packed for retreat

See? The front seat is clear! I could still pack a lot, but I'm trying to be very good about how much I bring to a retreat. 

Plenty of room still

It's only one hour from my house to the retreat, so it's a nice drive. EXCEPT for the tailgaters. I set my cruise control to 20 KM over the speed limit on the main highways. There are two construction zones, so lanes get narrower, and there's a lot of transport truck traffic on this road. 

I'm in the left lane because there are two lanes of trucks, and I have a car in front of me. My cruise control keeps my car a certain distance from the car in front of me. It's not a huge distance, but enough that I have room to stop if they need to brake suddenly. 

There are some EXTREMELy aggressive drivers on the road. I had a white Volvo on my tail. I can't move over because of the truck traffic. The cruise slowed the car down to match the speed of the cars ahead of me. But this man or woman was on my bumper. Seriously? Why? So you can ride the bumper of the person ahead of me? 

I know I did a bad thing, but I braked suddenly because I was ticked off. Well, they almost hit me and had to swerve to avoid me. Too bad -- that's why there should be a distance between us. I did it about 5 times because they would not back off. They finally did back off - slightly. But at this point, I could tell they were fuming! Yep -- so was I! I would have gladly moved, but I couldn't. 

At last, the traffic opened up, and they were able to pass. There were a lot of "gestures" happening between both vehicles. He passed me on the right and then proceeded to cut me off. I knew he was going to do that, so I was prepared. Like -- get a life buddy! Then, he proceeded to speed up and tailgate the next person. I moved to the right lane, and life goes on. 

I will tell you that using that adaptive speed control is a lesson in patience! We want to go faster, but then the gap between the car in front is going to get closed! So --- wouldn't it be nice if our cars all had adaptive speed control and everyone used it? Patience, people -- there is zero hurry to get anyway. Or if you plan properly, there should be no issue. 

I HATE people who drive fast and insist on filling in the gaps between cars, switching lanes like mad to pass a car. It's terrible at the best of times, but when we are in a traffic pattern like yesterday with nowhere to go -- back the h*** off my bumper!!!!!! Sigh.

So I was trying to be good and bring only the necessities, but in the same way that I bring stuff for people, people bring stuff for me! A jigsaw advent puzzle!! This is one that I can actually do each day with zero issues. Those EXIT game ones scare me! But I CAN DO IT!!!!

Jigsaw advent calendar

I also got a stack of books to read! Yeah!!!! 

Books to read

And then everything got unpacked, and I got ready to sew. EXCEPT -- I realized I forgot my sewing machine's power cord. ACK!!!!!!! OK -- so no need to panic -- let's see what else I brought. 

I had to do some work on today's presentation on the Husqvarna Viking DESIGNER EPIC 3. Remember, I'm at Hamilton Sewing today!! I'm super excited!!

So, the presentation was done. Then it was time to help someone finish their tuffet. By the way -- my spellcheck on the phone autocorrects that word to TAFFETA. Shoot -- we needed a hammer to get the LONG needle through the foam to make the tuffet with a fabric-covered button. 

The retreat house is on a working farm, so before we knew it, we had a hammer. 

Sewing the button onto the tuffet

Then we "begged" them for a stapler, and well, they kind of did the stapling. My hands are NOT strong enough to handle those heavy-duty staplers, so we got them to do it. And the tuffet is done!!! It looks fantastic, and getting that out of the way was excellent. I knew we were going to finish it, but I wasn't planning on doing it yesterday, but it's done. 

The tuffet

That was from one of the kits that I sold a while back. I wonder how the others are doing on completing their tuffets? I have one more at home -- it's a square one, and I should really finish it. 

OK -- so what can I do now? I remember unplugging that power cord but then never took it off the table. Thankfully, I threw in my Green Tea and Sweat Beans (Jen Kingwell) quilt. I had ONE more block to make, and it's applique. I needed some supplies to turn the edges under, and I had thrown all that in my bag. 

So I started making clamshells. 

Making clamshells

And before I went to bed, the entire block was done!!! You don't know how exciting that was. Now, I need to stitch it in place, and then I can sew that section together. I think there's a little bit more fused applique to finish before I can get the entire top together. But I will have progress to show at our next Jen Kingwell remedial class. My plan was to complete one section! I didn't think it was going to happen. 

The clamshell block

My goal was to finish (quilted and bound) all four of the Jen Kingwell quilts this year. And you know what? I might be able to do that! Three of them are completely done! So, with some time on my hands, I now have all the bias strips prepared for the border. YES -- I am going to do that border as well. 

I have to go home this morning to get that power cord, and I now have a huge list of other (small) things to bring. Thread to stitch this applique in place and a few other things. 

If I could get the border bias strips in place and FINISH the inside part of the quilt top this weekend, that would be amazing!!!! And so, if the quilt wasn't quilted for our final Jen Kingwell in December, it could be getting close to that point. YES -- I might make a push because it would be awesome to have this thing done. 

I'm going to do fused applique on the border - I thought about machine embroidery, and I might still go there now that I have access to a VERY long hoop. I might be able to do each border with three hoopings. Hmmm --- that sounds like a plan, and with the NEW tools on the DESIGNER EPIC 3 -- it would be amazing, and everything would be EXACTLY where I want it. Hmm -- I might just contemplate that. I'll use the mySewnet embroidery software to create the shapes and use the digital cutter to cut everything. Yep --- I'm going to do it!!!

It'll be a good experiment and shouldn't be difficult to do!! I have the tools, and I have the know-how!

This morning, I finished rejigging the fabric requirements for our Tequila Lime quilt. I have not calculated how much fabric I saved by rejigging how the quilt gets cut. WAIT -- I just calculated it. The original pattern called for 12.875 yards of fabric. We really only need 8. Seriously???? Yep, FIVE extra yards of fabric in the requirements because of how they cut the pieces. That's a HUGE issue as far as I'm concerned, but now everyone in the group knows how to regroup and save money. I'll be sending them an e-mail when I stop at home. I can't access my group distribution lists when I'm away. 

Yes -- there is a bit of work to make that happen, but I'd rather have large pieces of scrap or no scrap than five yards of little pieces that I can't use for anything. That's like taking $100 CDN, cutting it up with the rotary cutter, and throwing it away. I'd rather take a bit of time and save the money. It's more environmentally friendly as well!

On that note, I'm off to find something else to do by hand before I leave to go home and then head out to Hamilton!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

A cold shoulder

It was one of those days. I have an issue with my phone. I will be chatting away, and then suddenly, the person on the other end can't hear me. If I go outside, then they can hear me. However, on one call yesterday, even that didn't work. Last week, I was in the car and chatted for an hour, and no issues. So why is being in the house causing the problem? 

Is anyone else having this difficulty? I had been to the Bell store in the mall, where the people are really salespeople, and they had directed me to the service department or Samsung. 

I was so ticked off yesterday that I got in the car and drove to the Samsung service center. Thankfully I arrived when I did, as the number of people who came in behind was incredible! 

I talked to a woman in her 30's? And well, I didn't like her. It's not so much that I didn't like her; I did NOT like how she spoke. She started blabbing that this was a provider issue and talking about something so fast that I could not catch what she was saying. And she kept talking, so I had to rudely interrupt her to ask what she was saying. Voice over LTE. OK -- now let's continue the conversation. I HATE when people are not actually talking to the customer but giving a prepped answer.  

She offered to run a diagnostic on the phone to see if it was the phone. She returned and told me that this was a provider issue. Look at the data -- dropped calls (a tiny amount of dropped calls) in the time frame she tested. Then she proceeded to say that I had a tower issue. The calls were not going through properly because of the towers, which is NOT Samsung's problem. 

So if this is a tower issue, why can I keep hearing the other person crystal clear, yet they can't hear me? That is no more a tower issue than -- well, I just hated how she brushed the entire thing off onto Bell. I'm not saying that Bell is a saint, but it's the way she said it. And she kept calling me MAAM. Good lord --- I'm not a MAAM. 

I'm going to go to the repair service at Bell and ask them about this Voice over LTE. It's something to do with 5G --- according to the Samsung lady, there is no real 5G yet, they are trying to get it up and running, but it's not working correctly. Now that could be true. So I'm going to get the round around on this issue -- I just know it. And this is a phone still under warranty! Today, I'll open a ticket with the Bell repair center, and let's see what happens. 

As if that weren't enough woes - I had a large customer quilt to quilt. Please do NOT get me wrong. I do not put this information on the blog to shame any quilter, and I put it here so you don't make the same mistake. The quilt worked out fine, but there are better ways of doing things, and a couple of them arose yesterday. PLUS, I made a mistake which you'll hear about in a second. 

The quilt is huge, which isn't a problem -- it got loaded, and the customer sent batting. It wasn't until I was halfway through that I realized this was happening with the batting. One side was smooth, and the other side was quite ruffled. This is a result of joining the batting. One must take great care when joining the batting that one side does NOT get stretched or gathered compared to the other side. It's really about the two sections not feeding evenly through the machine. 

The batting is unevenly joined

Is it a problem? Technically no, but in reality, this happens when it's on the machine. And I have to try and smooth that out and not get wrinkles or tucks in the batting. I did my best. 

How it looks on the long arm

As I got closer to the end, I knew I might be in trouble as one side was significantly shorter than the other. I would guesstimate that the short part was at least 6 inches shorter than the long side, which is a LOT to hide in a quilt. I did have to make a small join at the end as I had run out of batting. 

The join causes the batting to be uneven

So if you need to join your batting, I have zero issues with that. But try to feed both sides evenly through the sewing machine. Make sure that both pieces are the same length and use clips to hold them in place, so they don't shift. It'll make the quilting process easier, and there will be NO ridges of excess batting in your quilt. You wouldn't know that until you run your hand over it. I think I got rid of most of those, but there are likely one or two small ridges. 

This is a huge quilt, and its center was pieced impeccably. The seams were straight, and the top was flat. It was great.

The quilt center is perfect

However, there is a VERY wide border which I suspect was stitched on without measuring as there were lots of rippling along all four sides. As a matter of fact, the top and bottom were 2 whole inches wider than the center. This is usually the result of NOT measuring the borders BEFORE you cut them and ease them onto the quilt. 

The excess fabric along the sides

While that fullness can be worked into the quilt, there is a chance that ripples or small tucks will occur. There are no tucks (to my knowledge) but lots of rippling between the quilting lines. This will not be noticeable when the quilt is washed, but it makes it more challenging to quilt. 

Ripples of fabric between the lines of stitching

The back of the quilt was heavily pieced, and it seems to be OK. I left one inch at the top of the backing, and you can see there wasn't much left at the end. Thank goodness I load the quilts with pins as there wasn't much room to use any other method. I still swear by my pins! 

The backing was JUST large enough

Again --- this is strictly to inform you of what you shouldn't do when prepping your quilt for the long arm quilter. 

Be careful when joining your batting and attaching borders to a quilt! This could have turned out bad, but I managed to make it work. 

Well, this quilt wasn't done with me yet. As I approached the LAST row, my computer gave me an error message which I dread getting because I know it's going to shut down, and that's precisely what it did. I MUST download the new version of the software, and hopefully, that won't happen. 

Anyway, I shut everything down and restarted. When I redid the pattern, I miscalculated the number of repetitions. I have no idea why I didn't count the number manually just to check. So I started the final row, and BAM --- the pattern was too big. GRR!! Thankfully I was standing right there, so I knew there was a problem right away. 

It meant a bit of ripping was in order, but I was too tired physically and mentally with this quilt that I shut everything down. It's now ready to be finished the first thing this morning because I have one more that needs to be done today. 

It's all fun and games with the long arm! I need to get my small backlog out of the way before next weekend, and I should be able to almost clear it. Then I'll have some time to work on my own stuff? NO -- I'll have time to quilt some of the quilts Diane has made. Baby steps!!!

I also managed to finish some machine embroidery that was partially finished and was driving me nuts. I didn't take a picture, but I'll share that tomorrow. Then I started on another project for machine embroidery, and it looks AMAZING. I brought a design into the software, modified it, and stitched it out. I LOVE it. I can't wait to share. And that gave me a ton of other ideas. And thanks to Margaret, who, via text, gave me another idea. So many ideas, so little time!!!!

We have all been madly working on our Jen Kingwell quilts. Well, I had someone who mentioned they wanted to make this quilt, also by Jen Kingwell. 

The Circle Game by Jen Kingwell

Each of the blocks has a circle in it. Someone actually decided to go forth on the quilt and look what they bought. 

YES -- it's a kit for the quilt. 

The kit for The Circle Game quilt

And not only did they buy the fabric, but the templates as well. Yikes --- that's a serious kit. Look at all those templates. 

The templates for The Circle Game

And then there's the kit for Boho Heart. 

A kit for Boho Heart

And one for Long Time Gone! 

A kit for Long Time Gone

Let's just say that this person is going to be super busy!!!! And the person who originally wanted to make The Circle Game? She wasn't so keen on it anymore when I showed her the many small pieces in each block! 

Notice that no names have been mentioned to protect the innocent! They know who they are, and thanks for sharing!! 

I'm still walking and averaging about 11 KM a day. Here's the status of my Pacific Crest Trail virtual walk. It is 4,000 KM, and I started on August 25 last year. I now have less than 500 KM to the finish line, and I still have 85 days. I gave myself one year to complete it. I should finish in about 45 days at this rate, but we'll see how it goes. I need to shift gears and maintain my morning walk with the girls, but I need to get out on my bike. 

I have another challenge that I set for myself -- 8,000 cardio miles for the year, including biking and walking. I'm about 500 KM behind on that one, so I could take my bike and make up a lot of that quickly instead of the afternoon walk. 

And what's with the weather? We were sweltering in humid, hot weather two days ago, and I think I have to put long pants on this morning to walk the dogs. It's totally crazy!!!

More paperwork is done, and I have more to face today, but those two quilts are now a priority, and trimming them will be the focus. 

But all is good, and I'm enjoying "the break" where I'm not running like a mad person to fit stuff between classes, etc. It's kind of nice to have this "free time." 

Don't forget the Hamilton Quilt Show this weekend. Friday and Saturday! 

For those that have inquired about the Chunk of the MOnth (the blue and orange) quilt, I have an idea so hang onto that thought!

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

Have a super day!!

Ciao!!!

A Jen Kingwell love affair

OH -- I have to get back to responding to the comments!! Someone is also reading The End of Her. I finished it while walking the dogs, and well -- I don't want to say what happened, but I was a bit surprised. That's all I'm going to say! This is NOT the sort of book they talk about in a book club, but I want to discuss this with someone! 

I've started another book -- Looking for Jane by Heather Marshal. Someone recommended it to me. OH my -- what a fantastic premise. Who dreams up this stuff? I have to shake my head when I read this book. The subject of unwed mothers is covered in this book, and how SHAMEFUL unwed motherhood was, and these girls were trundled off to church-run facilities to have their babies. "What will the neighbors think?? 

Those words echo in my ears, not because I was shuffled off, but because my mother often used to repeat those words about other things. What will the neighbors think? Perhaps that is why we are distant from our neighbors now. Do I care what my neighbors think? Nope! 

Actually, it's pretty timely to read this book because of the turmoil about legal versus illegal abortions and women's rights. My headphones died this morning and it takes a long time to recharge, and I may have to revert to earbuds to continue to listen to it!

Well, it's been an intense week, but what week isn't. But it was well worth all the hard work and long hours. Something happened this week that hasn't happened in a long, long time. I've been teaching these sew-alongs for almost 20 years, and the number of quilts I've taught is huge! I must dig out that list one day, but it's well over 50. It's been rare that my quilt was finished at the end of the class. For some reason, I got busy with other things. 

So for this to happen is a miracle. 

Boho Heart

This is my Boho Heart by Jen Kingwell, and I'm thrilled with it. It turned out exactly as I wished - a bright and cheerful quilt. It's made with pinks, oranges, and some purple, and the background strips are black on white. All I can say is that there is a tremendous amount of work in that quilt. 

But that's not all. This also happened. This is my version of Wanderers Wife (formerly known as Gypsy Wife), also by Jen Kingwell. I am absolutely thrilled with this one as well. I LOVE the clear definition of the blocks in the blue background. This one was trickier to assemble than Boho Heart but worth all the effort. 

Wanderers Wife

All I can say is slow and steady and LABEL all those strips well. It worked like a charm, and presewing some of the background strips together, saved a lot of time during the final assembly. 

And here they are together -- Wanderer's Wife is considerably shorter than Boho. Both patterns are by Jen Kingwell. 

BOHO Heart and Wanderers Wife

I started Wanderers Wife several years ago, and I got discouraged with my color choice and progress. It got shelved. But thanks to these sew-alongs, it got resurrected, and for some reason, some SMART person (me) said, "Oh -- it will be nothing to do these two quilts in the same class." What was I thinking?? 

Let's me say that I love Jen's "puzzle" quilts, but the patterns? A lot to be desired from the instructions and layout diagrams. She should have used our group as a tester group because we had loads of ideas to make it easier to sew together. We developed cutting charts and handy layout diagrams!

I can't wait to see the final show and tell in June. Repeatedly, I've heard the participants say that if it had not been for this class, they would also have abandoned their quilts. Me too!! To all those brave participants (some of them are making both) -- thanks for the push! I couldn't have done this without your help!

But that's not all. We were also working on Long Time Gone (the one on the left), also a Jen Kingwell pattern. So between Zoom calls, I whipped down Boho Heart and put up my Long Time Gone. 

Long Time Gone and Boho Heart

I taught this class last year (and again this year), and despite an entire year, my quilt is still missing the borders. That HAS to be done by next month for the show and tell. 

As if that wasn't enough, Jen Kingwell, we're in the middle of making Green Tea and Sweet Beans. Seriously??? Are we groupies or what? 

And I've decided to offer a "remedial" class to those who have fallen behind for whatever reason. Any four quilts (heck, ANY Jen Kingwell will qualify) to get in the group. But it won't start until the fall or January of 2023. But whether you were in my class or not and have one of those quilts in progress, this is the LAST resort to getting them done! We'll all be motivating each other. Well, I hope to be up-to-date with Green Tea by the time this remedial class starts, but just in case! We'll cheer each other on. 

I don't know if I'll do another Jen Kingwell quilt, although I am intrigued by "It's a Small World." NO -- Just say NO!!!

I'm going away for a few days. If I was brilliant, I'd throw that Long Time Gone in the car with some white, grey, and black, and I'd get that darn border on. OK -- I might have to rethink what I packed. 

All this show and tell will be done in June! And then what will I do with all my free time? 

It was funny to say that I will NOT be booking anything new until October. WOW -- I may book something, but it won't' happen until at least then! I'll be positively bored in that tidy Studio B with nothing to sew. HA! I have many community project quilts to quilt, tons of UFOs, and LOADS of ideas. I'll never run out of things to do. 

There was an interesting story in The Globe and Mail yesterday entitled The Great Junk Transfer. You have to sign in to read the article -- sorry, but these newspapers have to make money! It had to do with my generation inheriting our parents' mess! Oh boy --- I can so relate to what the article said. It's mind-boggling the amount of stuff that is languishing in people's homes. And it's the attitude that "I'll let my kids deal with it" that drives me CRAZY. Why should we deal with their crap? I am mad at my parents for that, although they have progressed in ridding themselves of stuff - mostly my Dad and certainly not my Mom. But we will still need to deal with many things when they are gone, and that's why I'm trying hard to do that to M. 

Excellent read in The Globe and Mail

Here's the thing --- all that beautiful old furniture? Worthless. The china and silver? Worthless. NO ONE wants this stuff. Royal Doulton collections? Worthless. I know that sounds harsh, but it's a reality. NO one has room for it, and because it was made in such quantities, there is no value in most of it. There may be some value in some pieces and undoubtedly sentimental value, but no monetary value. 

It's harsh -- very harsh, but that's reality. Thankfully, no crystal, china, or silverware came into my house. I'm taking the article for my Mom to read, although I'm sure it will go over her head. 

There's nothing she can do about it now -- well, she could as she has a LOT of stuff in their apartment that could be gotten rid of, but she won't let it go. I know she won't, and I also know that it's a disease of their generation. My Mom grew up in a log house that was insulated with mud! When you have NOTHING, you value every little thing you get! But to leave it to your kids to deal with is WRONG, but their brains aren't wired that way. 

Yes -- I know I'm guilty of mild hoarding, but I'm doing what I can to deal with it. And perhaps what I should be doing this summer is tackling this office. I need to put my money where my mouth is. Thankfully it's only one room, but if I didn't come home one night and someone had to deal with this mess? Well, it would be intimidating, and it's only one room. 

I MUST make myself a note to start working. No slacking off. 

Here's a book that I think is interesting - I need to find a copy of it. The Stories We Leave Behind by Laura Gilbert and an interesting way of dealing with our crap. Here's another link about Laura. 

And ENJOY everything you have or get rid of it. The other thing mentioned in the article was the jump in storage units. Instead of dealing with stuff, people rent storage units to put the stuff in. That is just wrong! Deal with it - NOW!!!! There's a HUGE amount of guilt involved in all this, so it's not easy. This is a topic I could go on about -- I have some interesting thoughts, and I really like Laura's ideas. 

OK - I've gone on long enough! It's time to get the day going. Two things need to be done today, and I'm on track to get both completed. I did accomplish all that was on the schedule yesterday. Another long day, but that's OK. 

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!