All in a Day's Work

The other day, several of the Monday sewing group talked about their screen time and how they felt they weren't necessarily the most productive they could be. Now, if you are retired, does it matter how productive you are? Not exactly, but if you want to spend more time on your hobbies - quilting, reading, gardening, exercise, or chatting with friends or whatever, it does make sense to see how you're spending the day. 

So one of the ladies is using a tracking app to track what she does in a day. I can't remember the name of the app. 

I thought I might have a look at what I did yesterday - just for fun. So I'm going by memory here. 

• Zoom meetings: 3.5 hours
• Morning blog writing/e-mail: 1.5 hours
• Walking: 2.5 hours
• In Studio B but not sewing (trimming quilts, loading a quilt, prepping some work): 2 hours
• In Studio B in the afternoon (no sewing - but prepping): 2 hours
• Writing: 3 hours
• Reading: 1 hour
• Dinner: 30 minutes

I know it's bad to admit this, but I eat lunch and breakfast with the computer, so I didn't count that time. I don't' think I even had time to check IG or Facebook yesterday. If I did, it was perhaps a few seconds. I did listen to an audiobook for a couple of hours while I was in Studio B. 

Oh well - so looking at my day- the amount of time spent on various things doesn't surprise me. I wish I had more time for sewing, but yesterday I had meetings, which took up some precious sewing time. Today, I'm on my own, so I expect to do the same amount of writing and then spend the afternoon prepping for the next writing session and getting some sewing/quilting done. 

The best part is that I've become super focused. When I'm in front of the computer, I don't end up surfing the net. I get the information I need, then move on. I've ZERO time for random surfing, and I'm glad. I'm creating good habits for when I don't have to work! 

Games and TV?? Nope - I'd have to give up some sleep for those activities, and that's not going to happen. But for whatever reason, I insist on checking the weather app before I go to bed. This is a bad idea since I had a crazy dream about a HUGE accident. We were running when I woke up and not sure what happened. 

Speaking of writing, I'm addicted to numbers. I love looking at them but am not obsessed with them. I just quickly glance at the e-mail when it comes in. Here's the latest update I received from Grammarly about my writing. Such fun facts. 

That's a lot of writing!

Holy -- that's a LOT of writing and 40,000 words last week? What the heck was I writing?? I know the blog takes up lots of words, but the rest? 

And now Grammarly measures the tone of what you write. I'm happy to report that most of what I write (according to Grammarly) has a good quality to it! 

The one area that bugs me is this. So I'm more productive than 98% of the users. Seriously? Well, I'm OK with that. But it's the mistakes that drive me nuts. Some of the errors that Grammarly shows are stupid and result from my personal choices. I don't like putting the period at the end of a caption, for instance, and sometimes Grammarly wants that. Thank god for hitting delete on the suggestion, but then it gets marked as an error. Oh well - I don't care!! 

OK --- so I was a crazy person at school. I loved getting my marks and seeing where I went wrong, and learning how to fix it. I think that's why I'm such a stickler in the quilting world. I'm much more relaxed, but I want to know WHY something doesn't work. Then I can make a choice to fix it for next time or let it go. 

The inbox is out of control, and MORE people keep signing up for all the classes. I'm good with that, but soon all signups are going to be shut down! It's a huge job to keep everyone on the right list. Well, not keep them on the list, but GET them on the right list. I have two more assignments to write, and they have to be done TODAY. 

Then it's time to start the prep work for this weekend. But I love it, so I'm not complaining. Writing it out makes me calm and helps me to focus. And you get to read about my idiosyncrasies!! And I can't say enough about that little green folder I found. It's a GODSEND!!!

So here's something to contemplate. When I first started to quilt, I HAD to follow the pattern instructions to the letter. If they used a particular green fabric, I searched and searched until I found that same fabric. Oh - you do NOT want to hear the stories of what I did and how much I paid to get certain fabrics. Someday when the kits emerge - I might confess then. 

But if I couldn't find the exact fabric, then I had to use the exact color. And god forbid that I change the pattern. When I started teaching and trying to keep ahead of the students, I started to experiment with how things looked. I was learning that just because the designer made the pattern in a specific way didn't mean that I had to do the same thing, especially if I didn't like the result. 

Here's a case in point. This is NOT my quilt, but I was given permission to use the photos. 

Sophie is working on the Grassy Creek Mystery quilt by Bonnie Hunter. I have to say that I was very impressed that she kept up with the assignments, and we watched the blocks building as the weeks went by. Remember, Bonnie releases a new clue every week, and there is a LOT of work in each clue. 

As she finished the blocks (I think Bonnie always has two blocks in her mystery quilts - well, many of them do) and the sashing, she put the pieces on the design wall. Hmmm - while it looks great, Sophie wasn't happy with it. She felt the grey sashings took away from the blocks. 

Round One - using the original blocks and sashing

So she started to play, which is totally out of her comfort zone. But look what happened!!!  When I saw this last Monday on the design wall in her studio (you gotta Zoom to get a peek into our personal spaces!), I was totally blown away. She did NOT change the blocks. All she did was change the sashing and WOW. Look at those circles that got created with the new sashing. The new quilt looks like a very intricate tile floor in some ancient European building. 

A new sashing 

I love this, and I'm so glad that she persevered (it took a few iterations and mistakes in drafting the new sashing) to come up with this. 

An amazing secondary pattern is formed

The moral of this story? If you don't like something, think about how you can change it!! A new sashing made a very nice quilt into a show-stopping quilt!!!!

So how is the cleanup situation coming along? Are you still setting that time for 10-minutes? I'm not going to get to touch any cleanup for quite a while now that I'm back to work in full force. That's OK as I'm happy with the progress that I did make. Let's see - what about magazines?? You don't have to get rid of them today but make a plan. I'm sure there are some that you want to keep. Then get them organized. And for those that you don't care about - perhaps they can be tossed or put by your cozy chair so that you browse through one or two a day INSTEAD of playing games or trolling through Social Media!!

On that note, I'm off for my walk and then back to the computer. 

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!

Making Waves

Two more classes - DONE!!!  There's one more this morning and then I get the afternoon to deal with the aftermath. The studio looks like a hurricane went through it. And I spent an hour this morning pulling samples for the applique class so all that will have to be put back as well.

There's some good news to this - I did find a tub of half quilted items. Seriously??  How hard would it be to sit down and finish up a couple of those? Thank goodness because I'm going to need some fast finishes this year. It would appear that I'm working, but not finishing a whole lot......yet.

I found table runners and quilts and wall hangings - basted and half quilted. That's sad. So we'll get those done. I may have to have a marathon day (OK - days) for quilting.

I received a very nice e-mail about book buying last night. I don't have time to share that story today (I'm NOT anti-book buying, however that's not how I made myself appear yesterday!) so that'll be a topic for later this week.

When I got home yesterday, I felt like sewing - actually trying to tidy up a wee bit. So I decided to work on the mystery quilt that was Friday's class. Not allowed to let those class projects slide - they MUST be done. Since I was able to find more of that red, and there were bits left over from the initial quilt cutting, I decided to make my quilt larger. Of course!  But the original size was 43" by 61" or something like that. That's too small for my liking. Anyway - I managed to scrape together enough to make 6 more blocks of the churn dash.

In case you've forgotten, here are the two blocks that made up the mystery quilt. A framed block and a churn dash.

A corner of the mystery quilt

The original pattern called for 12 churn dash blocks. Now I have 18 of them. Notice what's beside my design wall?? Yep - the design wall is in the bathroom. And yes - that's Mickey on the other side!

There's a huge space in that bathroom and I might as well use it. This is my portable design wall - the one I carry to class. Well, I've started to carry it to class where appropriate. It was on the studio wall but had to be removed when the new bookcase went in. Now I want to make two more portable ones. They'll work great in that bathroom. I don't think there's room for three panels, but two for sure.

Portable design wall in the bathroom

Never mind that I had to stand in the tub to take the picture!


I went back to my quilt reference library (that should be a hint about where my book buying priorities are) to try and find the pattern for those scrap quilt blocks that I'm making.

Remember those????

Scrap blocks

I found the book by Sharyn Craig (published 1991)  that I was looking for, however, it's not the pattern for these blocks.

Designing New Traditions in Quilts by Sharyn Craig

The book is mostly "what ifs" for designing quilts. Sharyn calls this pattern Ocean Waves. But to me - that's not Ocean Waves. And my block has four half square triangles, this one has three.

The pattern in the book is called Ocean Waves

Pulled out Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Quilt Blocks and looked back at the references to Ocean Waves. Hmmm - many, many different versions of Ocean Waves.

If you see the block that I've highlighted below - that's the block that I'm working on and in Barbara's book, this is called Ocean Waves.

Ocean Wave block identified in Barbara Brackman's Block Enclyclopedia

I made an Ocean Wave quilt years ago - it doesn't look like this at all. Back to my quilt reference library and pulled out a book on Ocean Waves. Totally different look!!

Ocean Waves book by Fons and Porter

Shoot - I looked this up days ago and I remember checking the copyright date. I want to say that it's 1989. Yes, confirmed - 1989 - I didn't even start to quilt until 9 years later.  Let's just say that I have a lot of OLDER quilt books and I LOVE them all. Have a look at the photo of Fons and Porter on the back cover. Don't they look young!!!!!  Of course - we all did back then.

Photo of Fons and Porter on the back cover of their book

Then I had to find the Ocean Waves quilt that I made. I have to say that took a wee bit of time. I searched through the quilts piled on the bedroom floor and the ones on the banister. Couldn't find it. Hmm - it has to be here somewhere.

Then the next morning, I went back to the banister and it was right there. This is not the first quilt that I made, but it was close. The fabric were bought at Fabricland because I didn't know that quilt stores existed. I was going to make a Baby Block quilt for M. She was two and moving to a queen size bed. No middle ground at our house - go big or go home! The year was 1998.

Anyway after making a couple of placemat sized "quilts" and lots of leftover blocks, that was it for me. I switched to the Ocean Waves pattern. Not sure why I picked this pattern. I must have seen the book in a store and thought it would work with my three fabrics. God forbid we waste anything - even then.

Two Tumbling Block (Baby Block) placemats

Here's the quilt. It's queen size and I'm not sure that she ever used it on the bed. Who in their right mind would make a quilt like this for a two year old?

One quarter of the Ocean Waves quilt

I had Carol Cunningham quilt it. At that time, she was one of very few long arm quilters around here. Now we're a dime a dozen and wait times have been drastically reduced.

She stitched in the ditch on all the small half square triangles (as per my request) and my intention was to hand quilt something in the white squares. I ended up machine quilting the centers. 

Center squares were machine quilted by me

Is there a label on that quilt? Yes, as a matter of fact there is a label. It was stitched on (including the whole story) in 2018. Oh dear! But it's on!

When I was cleaning up a while back, I came across some books that very heavily influenced my quilting when I first started. I have them sitting here by the computer to share with you one day. Hopefully, I can do that soon. But I have so much show and tell from recent classes, it's going to take a while to get through it all.

On that note, I'm out of here. Got to load the car and I'm off to class.

Have a super day!!!!!


Ciao!!

Shopping local

Yesterday was a pretty exciting day as far as classes go. 

I have some pictures to share with you this morning and the rest will come in the next day or so. I love when the students jump outside the box. 

Now the first class was a mystery so there was no opportunity to jump out of that box. 

If you remember, I goofed when cutting one of my fabrics or I would have had the top done - or almost. I had tried to find which stores bought the fabric by using the manufacturer's product finder on their website. This particular collection wasn't on the web. Hmmm - it's old, but it should be in the archives. So I contacted them. Got an immediate (or same day) response and they actually located a shop in the US that was selling it on their website. 

But I know that I've seen it locally - but where???  So when I went to The Hobby Horse for the class, I searched the store. Yep - they bought this collection or parts of it. The one I wanted was an overall red print and I found it. You won't believe where. It was hiding amongst another collection that has the IDENTICAL print on it. Let me find a picture of the fabric for you as I forgot to take a picture in the store. 

This first one is the fabric from the Glam Girl collection by Northcott. 

Glam Girl by Northcott

This second one is from Speckles by Patrick Lose.

Seriously?????   Those are the same prints. Whose came first????  OK - there may be a slight variation of the placement of the dots - but you'd never know unless I showed you! They do look slightly different because the scale of the pictures isn't quite right. 

Anyway - doesn't matter. I found the fabric and I bought enough to cover the miscut and perhaps make the quilt a wee bit larger. I also found this other print from the Glam Girl collection so I bought some of that to make the border and binding. 

A border print for the quilt and the missing fabric

I love shopping local - I get stuff right away!!! And I'm supporting my local quilt shop. 

Here's what the mystery quilt looks like. It's a combination of churn dash blocks and a framed square. It wasn't a mystery pattern, but I broke it up so they didn't know what was happening until near the end. 

A corner of the quilt 

Now we had an interesting discussion on shopping at the class. It was about shipping costs/duty/taxes and shopping local versus shopping online. 

I get it that some stuff can't be bought local and needs to be shipped across the border. So I'm willing to pay the price if I have to. In most cases, the cost of shipping is enough of a deterrent that I won't proceed with the shipment if I think the shipping costs outweighs the value of the item. 

The other day, I wanted a tripod bracket for my phone so I could take some videos. I went online to see what was out there. Oh yes - I found it, but my local Best Buy did NOT have them available in the store. I could shop online and then pay to have it shipped or I could have it shipped to the store. 

I want it NOW. I checked out the massive online store. I'm not even going to mention their name because I hate them with a passion. Single handily, they have changed the way we shop and it has meant death for a lot of small businesses. Yes - they had the item that I wanted. 

DH had a book that he wanted and so together the two items hit the $35 mark which allows me free shipping. I would have to wait for a couple of days (the fulfillment center is a couple of miles from the house) for delivery. Anyway, I placed the order on Tuesday and it arrived on Friday with free shipping. It was scheduled to arrive next Tuesday. 

A part of our discussion was the subscription that you can pay for to have the privilege of getting free shipping from this company. I believe you can pay annually or you can pay monthly. I'm not sure of the details. But I learned that if you place several orders in a month, you get discounts!!!!  Talk about incentive to make you buy more. 

I asked what kind of things were they buying online? Dish soap, laundry detergent. Yes - we buy those, but it lasts a long time at our house. We are two - they are six with two young children so I get it that they use more. Instead of waiting for the large jars of mayonnaise to go on sale at the local grocery store, they can buy it on this website at the "sale" price any day. 

Of course, this membership also provides you with music and videos and a whole lot more stuff. 

There are two things that are disturbing about this. First - the amount of stuff that a household purchases. If the country depended on our household to sustain the economy, then the economy would fail very quickly. We don't buy a lot of clothes, furniture, appliances, beauty products, or unnecessary groceries at our house. We just don't! We don't spend the afternoon shopping for the sake of shopping. Like large jars of mayonaise - god forbid that we would have mayonaise in our house. Nor ketchup, nor mustard or relish. We don't eat hot dogs. We don't eat bread. I mean the list goes on and on as far as what we don't eat. We eat healthy stuff. We don't buy in bulk because we don't use enough to justify buying in bulk. 

The second thing that's disturbing is that people are buying online becauuse it's convenient. I get that - you might be stuck at home or live in a remote area. But there's nothing like kicking the tires and getting out to the shops and experience what you're buying. It's also "cheaper" on the environment. The carbon footprint for all those online deliveries is greater than if you went shopping for yourself. 

Besides  - what the heck are people doing with their time? Watching TV or all those moves that you can watch because you subscribe to this service!!!!   I'm also shocked at how many people buy books rather than get them from the library. People are in this instant gratification mode and instead of waiting a couple of weeks for a book - they need it NOW. OK - so I needed my tripod holder NOW, but I was happy to wait. No big deal. If I read the latest James Patterson years after he's written the book - will I die???  Heck - I haven't even read the last two Harry Potter books. I'm OK with that. 

I'm not knocking anyone's lifestyle. It's a free country and we can all do what we what with our time and our money. It just seems a shame that we are allowing a huge conglomorate to get bigger, get more data on our lives and before you know it - we're going to have a BIg Brother situation (gosh - how dramatic I can quickly become!). 

Anyway - I hated the W store when it came to Canada. I don't shop there either on a regular basis. Only if I need something that I can't get anywhere else. 

All that to say that I want to support the little guy. The one that struggles each day to make a living because someone came to their shop. The ones where I'll get personal service - like the used book stores that I visit. Or the quilt stores. Or the bike shops. That's where I spend my money and I like to shop at the same grocery store where I know the cashiers. I think I need to move to a small town and fast!!!

Ooops - sorry about that - but it's just fascinating to me how much people spend on things and I wonder how the heck they can afford it. We can't afford it. I guess it's all about setting priorities. 

Speaking of what people do with their time - my MOM is a TV junkie. I swear she watches TV 24/7!!  Seriously - she goes to bed at midnight and it up at four. Probably because she can't bear to miss what's on the TV. I'm not kidding - every time I call, she's watching some show or sports. Good grief - this coming from a woman who severely limited our TV watching time when we were kids. But it also shouldn't surprise me because my Mom spent her afternoons (when we were kids) watching the soap operas. Anyway - what else will she do with her time. But it's frustrating talking to her. How do you like the new phones? Yes - we managed to get cordless phones in the house. Do you think that just ONCE, she could say "thanks - these are helpful"? No. It drives me crazy that she's so ungrateful. Sorry - I know it's my Mom and that's she is old. Just ONCE - a thank you would be appreciated. 

She had a flip answer for everything we talked about yesterday. Let's just say that I rolled my eyes through the entire conversation. And then I wonder why I don't call her more often. 

On that note, I"m out of here. I'm still prepping for classes (I've got two different classes today) - I'm going to make it, but it's going to be tight and there's no time to tidy up in between so once the last one is finished at noon tomorrow, it'll be back to the studio to do some tidying up!!!

Have a super day!!!!!

Ciao!!!

Should I be doing this?

I have lists, I have deadlines and what did I do last night?  Well, I did a little bit of what I was supposed to do, but I really, really wanted to get this quilt off the design wall, so I could put something else up!  So I finished it.  The inner green border was on and ONE of the sides with the pinwheels. So technically I had to cut and trim seven pieces of border in order to finish it.  

Quilt top - DONE

This is the mystery quilt from my guild for this past year.  Not bad to get it done within the same year that it was offered!!!   Once the quilt centre was complete, we were on our own to figure out the borders. I decided to use up every little piece of leftovers and made pinwheels for the border. The quilt needed some relief from the busy centre so a 2 1/2" strip of green was added.  Why green?  No idea, but it looked good at the shop so green it was!

I wanted to balance that inner border and not worry about the binding at the edge of all those seams, so I added another 2 1/2" border.  This border was cut, but not together.  Now the top is DONE!!!!  It actually felt great to work on something that had no deadline. I think I needed that little boost.

I found some backing fabric in my stash and made the binding (which was cut, but not sewn together). This is larger than I normally make quilts, but that's OK.  It's fun and I love the end result.

Backing, binding and top - ready for quilting

I did get some work done on the deadline quilt.  The backing is done and the binding is done. Yahoo!!!  I was thinking of custom quilting it, but seriously - I don't feel like it so an overall design it is.   It's not as big as I normally make them so I'm good!  Should be no problem to get it quilted and bound tonight and in a FedEx box tomorrow.

Then onto the next deadline project which is July 10.  By actually writing down those deadlines, I'm not sluffing them off.  They are very real and that's the point of all this list writing.

I had a bunch of errands to get done after work which I accomplished last night.  Errands take up a lot of time and when you work - well there just isn't a lot of time.

I had to stop and pick up something that someone got me.  Oh my god -- I just love it.  Another Row by Row license plate!!!! Jeanette was on vacation on the west coast and thought of me when she hit a quilt shop!!!    Thanks so much Jeanette!!!! That makes three for 2017.  She took a very interesting trip to the west coast via Amtrak!!!   It sounded like such a cool idea. Something to look into (trips by train and how relaxing that would be!).

Row by Row license plate

I do have a day planned for row by row. Can't reveal the details yet. Oh no! But it's going to be fun. That I can guarantee you!

On that note, I HAVE to get the pattern finished today for Coast to Coast to Coast.  So many enquiries!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!

Motivational Monday - I'm making progress!!!

After my SECOND 5-day sewing retreat in 4 weeks, I would certainly hope I could report that I'm making progress. It's amazing how much time everything takes.  A simple task of making flying geese takes hours, cutting and trimming -  several more hours and before you know it - the day is over!

I did get most of my stuff unpacked last night, simply because I need to continue to work on it. The disappointing thing was I was certain that I had tidied up the studio before I left, but alas I had not!

But I'll worry about that another day.  Here are some of the things that I worked on at the retreat. 

The first one is the mystery quilt from our guild. Normally I wouldn't post it until the actual reveal, but the organizers revealed their quilts at our last meeting so I'm not going to hide it!  Remember that I had sewed that block backward?  Because these blocks are batiks, I took it apart, flipped the pieces over (that triangle business that I said was backward? nope - the piece was backward - wrong side out when I snapped the photo!). So I got that block finished and then sewed the top together. 

Mystery quilt top

Now you'll notice that you can't see the edges of the quilt. And that's because I'm working on the borders.  Yes - I spent a lot more time hacking and slashing with some leftovers and part of the border is on. BUT you won't get to see that until the reveal at our June meeting. Gosh - there might even be time for me to quilt it?  I'm not sure, but the top should be finished - I hope!

For those of you who did the batik exchange years ago - this quilt is the FIRST of many projects that I plan to make with those strips.


Then as  my enders and leaders project, I got the first two little pieces sewn together on 120 blocks (I think that is the number)

Step One done

This is my February UFO - a little behind, but I'm making progress and that's all that counts. It's no longer shelved and because of the Task Master - I will continue to work on it.

The next section is almost finished. I say almost - I haven't counted the number of units already completed so I may still have a few more to go.

Step Two is in progress

Then I became obsessed. The final class for Fancy Forest is on Saturday.  Wouldn't it be nice to get all the blocks done  - heck - it would be nice to get the quilt top done!

All the pieces (MOST of the pieces) were cut out. The Owl blocks were already sewn together as were the Bunnies.

I took ONE group per day and focused on it until they were done!

Fancy Forest blocks

This was an incredible amount of work. I did production style sewing of the blocks, but there was a ton of stitching and flipping. And dealing with a LOT of different fabrics.  It was a challenge and I worked mostly after dinner when my brain was already tired!

The butterflies were the worst for me. I mixed up the colors in two rows and I was going to leave it that way, but then common sense prevailed and I was able to fix it with little fanfare, but it still took a lot of time.

Bottom line - all the blocks (except ONE) are done!!!!!

One hedgehog needs to be finished

I didn't have enough fabric when I was cutting. And no time to find a substitute before I left. So last night I went through the orange bins and found something.  I laughed when I found the fabric on the right - same pattern - different color.  The one I'm going to use is not quite the same, but CLOSE enough.

Substitute fabrics

I will be teaching Fancy Forest again at The Hobby Horse.  The dates are May 28 and June 11th.  The shop is closed on Monday, but I would call soon to get a spot - I hear it's almost full.

Then I got up-to-date with Quilter's Patch.  I now have five blocks done.

Tulips from Quilter's Patch

I did get another block done but it's the homework for this week so no posting that before the class!  And the second block is cut out but it will be ready for class on Saturday. And please don't tell me that there is a mistake in the above block. That is my way of personalizing the block! 😊

I did other things at the retreat - like sets of flying geese for some upcoming quilts for magazines, another small quilt for another magazine and probably a couple more things that I've forgotten.  But it was great.

The Task Master and I had a little chat. She is NOT happy, but she is happier!  I need to book a day that I can go back and get caught up on all those silly things that have been languishing in the book. And I haven't booked anything for the coming week that isn't on the urgent list. The only thing remaining is to create a bigger list - well not bigger, but a list of those projects that HAVE to be done.  Then I can only work on those.  That needs to happen before I sit down with the Task Master this week.  I have some classes and events coming up that require some work.

I do have to say that getting my classes prepped BEFORE the night before has been great. I just need to expand on that for other things.

How is everyone else making out?  Some of the projects you have posted in the Facebook group are amazing!  If I wasn't trying to get things finished, I'd be scoping out a couple of those projects myself. But I'm really trying to be good.

Keep up the good work everyone - I'm super impressed!

Have a super day!

Ciao!

The beauty of batiks!

I love batiks. I have lots of batiks. I've done exchanges with batiks, I've made quilts with batiks. But there is one thing that I absolutely adore about batiks and I'll tell you in a few paragraphs.


I was at the guild meeting this past week. We had Sandy Lindal (The Scrappy Gal) as our speaker. Oh my - I've known Sandy for a long time or I should say, I've known of Sandy for a long time. Well, now I have someone to blame for all those darn 9-patch exchanges that I did years ago.  Apparently, she started it at her guild - York Heritage. I remember seeing those beautiful quilts hanging at one of their shows and I fell in love and well - the rest is history - almost. My 9-patches are sitting in boxes (three different ones) waiting for me to get off my butt and do something with them.  I think I've matured enough now that I can get over the fact that some of them are wonky. Find a pattern and sew the darn things together!!!

While at the guild, I chatted with a number of different people and it was when I was chatting to Helen Anne that the light bulb went off. POOF!!!!!!   I just had a fabulous idea.

Now I'm ready to tell you why I love batiks.

So remember my errant block that I posted a couple of days ago? I was going to have to take off the black/cream units on the corners as I didn't have any more of those fabrics.

One of these doesn't belong!

I hate to waste stuff - yes even as silly as these four strips.  Then it hit me - batiks are reversible and if I take the entire block apart and flip the fabrics over so the "wrong" side is showing, I can correct the block, nothing goes to waste.  Did it work???  You be the judge.

Almost fixed - 

 Good thing for taking pictures as I'm just noticing one more mistake!  I have to take the top black/cream unit apart and swap those parts as well. Then it will be fixed. I haven't sewn it together yet.

Isn't that funny that I can fix that darn block!  Thank goodness I used batiks!   Why didn't I think of that at the retreat?  Anyway - I can put this one back in the retreat bag and finish it off next week. And we have the final clue - so I could get some of that done at the retreat as well. Although I do have a fairly free weekend - AFTER our meeting on Modern Quilts this morning.   But I do have a lot of URGENT stuff that has to be prepped for the retreat and that is more important.


Here are a few more pictures of stuff from the retreat.  These are my blocks from Quilter's Patch that I'm teaching at the Hobby Horse.  The top left block was completely pieced, but the others were in bits and pieces as I get them to a certain stage for my class and then complete the blocks later.  I completed three blocks.

Blocks from Quilter's Patch

I was missing ONE piece of fabric so I couldn't quite finish this next block.

Almost done!

That missing piece is now cut and the next two blocks are also cut. I was going to work on them at the retreat and then I realized that one of the people coming is in my class.  Hopefully, she's a late riser and I'll get it done early one morning.

This quilt is going to be gorgeous and I'm going to see Edyta Sitar at Paducah. I'm going to let her know how much we're enjoying her quilt.

But it's all good.  I have a lot more sitting in those bags to unpack and that is my priority this weekend, but I also need to prep the next steps in those projects and get them ready for the retreat so it's going to be a busy afternoon.


On that note - have a super day and don't forget to come visit us this morning if you can.


Ciao!!!!


 April 8  (Saturday) - West End Modern Quilt Guild (unofficial title!)   will be meeting from 10 AM - Noon.  This is the first meeting and we're trying to get a chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild started in the west end of the GTA.  The meeting will take place at Streetsville Kinsmen, 321 Queen Street, Streetsville.   Going to be an open discussion of the guild objectives, show n tell and how traditional quilts are the groundwork of the modern movement. A small fee will be charged to cover the room rental. E-mail me if you can't make it and want to be added to the e-mail list.

Any which way (it isn't right!)

Good morning!  Got a bit more of an update on what happened at the retreat. I'm still working my way through the bags that I winged on the floor when I came home. 

But you know you're getting older when.....   you just can't stay up past your bedtime (10 PM) and function the next day!  That happened to me at the retreat. 10 PM on the first night and I NEEDED to go to bed. Same thing on the second day - 10 PM and I was out. I did manage to stay up a bit later on the last two nights but not too much and I was getting an extra hour of sleep by getting up at 6 AM, not 5.  So the night I did the trunk show, I was home by 11 PM -- not tired and actually still wide awake so I read for a bit.  I was fine all day yesterday, but last night - I was supposed to go to a meeting. I e-mailed them to say I wasn't going to make it and went to bed - at 6:30 PM.  Woke up at 4 AM and I'm good to go!

This was the next bag of stuff that was sitting on the table to take photos.  This is a project that we're doing at the guild. It's a mystery quilt and we're meeting tonight. Wouldn't it be grand if I could say the entire thing was up to date?  Well - it could have been, EXCEPT.......

Hmm - one of these doesn't belong

And even if I turn the darn thing - it still isn't right!

So yes - ONE block has to be remade. I haven't had time to cut it and of course, I have to remake the white/black combo (which I do NOT think I have any more of - so will have to disassemble the bad block and reuse those components!

First I broke Allie the Owl's wing (that was in yesterday's post) and then I messed up this!  If I would not have made this error - I COULD have been up to date.   That would have been a first for me. But I can remake the block this weekend and hopefully get it all together at the next sewing retreat.   I could possibly have a finished quilt to show at the end of the year?  Oh god - the world is coming to an end!


What did I do since I was up an extra hour this morning?  I got the rest of Fancy Forest cut!  It's in the sewing retreat pile (first project in bag number two!).  I've decided there are only going to be TWO project bags.  Two is plenty!  I also cut out two bags this morning and they will go into the project bag as well. There are a few more small things that will go in the bag and then - that's it!  I`m going to be more responsible!

As promised, here are the pictures from Wasaga Beach from Tuesday evening. The beach looks very inviting but COLD.  It was windy and the temperature wasn't exactly beach weather, but if I had my rubber boots - I would have taken a quick walk!

Wasaga Beach

Wasaga Beach

And while we're on the topic of nature, here's a shot from the retreat house. There is a big pond - where I come from, we would call this a slough.  But there is a pair of ducks that visit from time to time. It`s very hard to see, but this duck had BRILLIANT orange feet. He`s right on the back edge just slight to the left of the middle.

Spring is here - the ducks are back!

I`ll have a few more pictures for tomorrow from the retreat and one of these days, I need to get back to the long arm (weekend project) and the sewing machine. Trying to make a couple of items and write patterns for work projects.  The fun stuff never ends around here.

On that note, I`m out of here!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!




April 8  (Saturday) - West End Modern Quilt Guild (unofficial title!)   will be meeting from 10 AM - Noon.  This is the first meeting and we're trying to get a chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild started in the west end of the GTA.  The meeting will take place at Streetsville Kinsmen, 321 Queen Street, Streetsville.   Going to be an open discussion of the guild objectives, show n tell and how traditional quilts are the groundwork of the modern movement. A small fee will be charged to cover the room rental. E-mail me if you can't make it and want to be added to the e-mail list.

If you`ve e-mailed me, I`ll get to e-mail tonight.