Do as I say, not as I do

 And so another crazy day has passed. I accomplished a lot and finished late in the day again! I don't know why that is. I start early enough in the day but never seem to get the "real" work done until late. I must start looking at how I do things. I eeked out 12 KM and then, at the end of the day, realized that I had forgotten to drop stuff at Diane's house. Sigh..................

Oh -- I got a response from Watergirl Quilt Co about the hera marker. There is quite the business behind those hera markers. Michelle owns Watergirl Quilt Company, and her husband owns several wood-based companies. Westwood has a tree service, which cuts down trees that need to be removed. Then various craftspeople in the Kingston area turn the downed trees into live edge tables and other furniture. As their offcuts get smaller, they are passed along to other wood crafters who make smaller items, like the hera marker. NOTHING (or very little) goes to the landfill. 

How civilized is that? I absolutely love the idea, and it's like quilters. Someone likes to use the yardage, and someone likes to play with the leftovers! There's room for everyone in the sandbox. 

Thanks to Tony (Michelle's husband) for that information. If you want to get one of these, check out their website. I LOVE mine and will be using it to mark things in the future INSTEAD of using chemical-based products. I never thought I could see it well enough, but it worked well on my white fabric for my embroidery. WOW -- -who thought you could teach an old dog a new trick. But the hera marker is NOT new; maybe that's why I like it! Check out this link if you're interested in getting one, or if you got it in your Advent Box from Watergirl, get it out! 

Hera marker from wood

I have seen others made with different woods, but I would rather support a local Canadian artisan than the other company. 

I fired up the embroidery machine as I had some testing to do, and I was RIGHT! I don't usually say that, but I was! My Mom used to say that all the time, which drove me crazy. It also involved a test that I should have done BEFORE my embroidery club last month, so now I get to provide them with the entire story, and they will be pleased. One more little test to do. 

Getting ready to embroider

Not only did I fire up one embroidery machine, but I had both of them going. I struggled to keep up with them, so I didn't have time to take a picture, and some babysitting was involved. I had to laugh when I needed the foot pedal for the PFAFF creative icon 2, and it was nowhere to be found. I mostly do embroidery on it and never need the foot pedal!  

I have a lot of fiddling today with the pieces I embroidered, and fabric bits are strewn everywhere. At one point, I thought my embroidery hoop was the Scan and Cut mat. I had various bits of fabric on the hoop and those big scissors. I do NOT recommend doing this. I had to watch it like a hawk, and you'll see when it's done. This was just the "easier" way to do what needed to be done! 

Embroidering bits

And here are the next two baby quilts for the customer - DONE. I did the same thing as the previous day. The back got loaded, and I quilted the first one, then loaded the second top and quilted it next to the first one. Worked like a charm. 

Customer quilts - DONE

I've got a large one in the queue today, and I have to trim all of those small quilts. I don't want too much stuff lying around, and piles of stuff are already in the living room. A good part of that stuff will be picked up tomorrow, which will be good. It's getting rather messy looking. And I'm away next week, so I need to get those quilts trimmed and ready for pickup before I leave. 

I took a walk in the afternoon, and it was GLORIOUS. I HATE when the weather forecasters talk about these POLAR temperatures. Yes -- it's cold, but I didn't even wear a hat. The sun was out, and it was beautiful. They are scaring people from going outside. It was minus 5. Seriously? That is NOT cold. My SIL lives in Iqaluit; the other day, it was MINUS 37. Now that's COLD. 

The girls are beside themselves, especially Lexi. The day that I returned, DH left. And it looks like the day he comes home, I'll be leaving the next day. They are big sucks, and Miss Murphy can't get enough attention. So I plunk her between my knees (she is rather large to be a lap dog) and give her a good head rub and ear scratching, and she's happy as a clam. The only problem is that she doesn't want it to stop, and I have work to do! 

Murphy getting some loving

Miss Lexi is just miffed that she is NOT allowed on the couch. I'm not a couch sitter EVER, so she has resigned herself to her kennel. She is NOT much of a cuddler either - at least with me. But she will come into the office and sleep on the floor. 

I worked like crazy all day, but I don't have much to show. Now how did that happen? Well, what I did took a long time. OH -- I know what else I did. I had a lot of computer work involving machine embroidery, and I got all that done. I'm using the mySewnet embroidery software for MORE than embroidery, and I love it. The more I use that software, the more I become very comfortable. I still have a LONG way to learn it completely, but wow!!! I love it!

I had two porch pickups yesterday, and I was worried that they picked up the wrong bags, but confirmation later in the day said that all was fine! Phew!! 

That's it for today. I've got another crazy day ahead of me, and there's no time to waste! Oh, a new habit formed --- I've been faithfully writing in my Happiness Journal since I unearthed it. It's a fun way to reflect on the day before bed. 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!

I'm curious..............

I'm almost afraid to write this since I don't want to jinx the situation. But things seem to be under control. Oh - there's still lots of stuff to do, but things are calm. Even when I've had a few people e-mail me to ask for something that they're waiting on. I've been able to work that into the schedule. Now that's a nice feeling. I'm still a wee bit behind on about two things - but hopefully, by the end of next week, all will be completely caught up.

What a great feeling!!!

Last week, Ronda and I were sewing in Studio U. She was making the Lollipop Bag by Atkinson Designs. Has anyone made one of the bags?????

Lollipop Bag pattern by Atkinson Designs

Everything is pretty similar to other bag patterns that we've made until it gets to the end where you deal with the bottom.  It's very weird and even after we did it several times, it still didn't make sense so we reverted to our usual way to make a box corner. Notice the hardware???  Oh yes - we're into hardware. Oh by the way - Ronda was making these bags. I was not!

Lollipop Bag 

Making the box corner makes the pink bag a wee bit wide, so she remodeled the instructions and made the base a bit narrower. Once you understand the logic behind those box corners, you can make ANYTHING and in any size. I love the technique.

Narrower box corner

And there are two ways to make a box corner. One is much easier and more consistent than the other. Oh, shoot - now that I've said that, you're probably wondering what the heck is a box corner since the two photos above do not really show it well.

Box corner

I stole this from my tutorial on QUILTsocial. If you want to know how to make those box corners - heck, here's a link to the tutorial to make a complete tote bag. It's easy to change the sizes in this tutorial. You have to scroll down near the end to see the box corners as it's one of the last things that you do.

But a super neat way to make a bag or a tote, or a zippered pouch or - well anything with a bottom on it. So super easy!!!!

Back to the Windsor Quilt Show. Gosh - it seems to keep coming back in the story. I think this is the last thing that we gleaned from the show. I was wondering why my wallet was so thick. That's unusual because there's not much is in it. Certainly not money!

Oh yes - when we went to the quilt show, they gave us this little card case (which I shoved in my wallet) and inside were business cards from local businesses. Did they sponsor the show in return to be included in the handout?? What a great idea. It's a shame that we wouldn't have a chance to use any of the services since we live too far away. There was also a card for free admission to one of the guild meetings. Someone was using their head!

Gift card pouch filled with business cards

I did have to tidy up the house yesterday and did a not so bad job. The upstairs hallway is well - it's sad and I heard DH say something bad when he went up there last night. Don't worry - it'll all be shoved behind a closed door by noon.  I was busy taking pictures and writing yesterday, that I didn't have time to finish my tidying up job. I hope to get a wee bit more done today.

I had a hammer and nails out and was hanging pictures that have been sitting around. Oh yes - I was a very busy little bee. I'll share those new pictures with you later this week.

At lunch, I'm going through some of the paperwork stuff that's languishing in the office. I figure a wee bit every day will make life easy? Not fast, but easier.

I looked through a bunch of catalogs. OK - have you ever noticed that there are MANY, MANY brands of the same thing. Everyone wants a piece of the pie so everyone has a seam ripper or marking devices or whatever. The one thing I notice is rulers. How many different brands of the SAME ruler do we need? It's crazy!!!   And Quilt Market was happening last weekend and I can imagine that several thousands of new fabrics were introduced to the quilting world. Let's not forget the different substrates of fabric that are now invading the space. Not only do we have cotton, but we have rayon and cotton lawn and cotton linen and well - way too many.

I'm sticking to my plan of not buying anything unless I absolutely need it. OK - a few little things along the way are OK. I'm not going so far as to say that I won't buy anything. That's silly. But I'll only buy what I need. And go shopping in the stash for god's sake!!!

Which is what I was doing last night as I continue to prep for the two classes on Saturday. I really had to laugh because I knew that I had a FQ of a fabric set aside to use as the starting point for the next block in Saturday's North Star quilt class. Do you think I could find it?? Nope. Oh well, let's go pull fabric. When I went downstairs and pulled the basket of fabric from which I would choose the rest, there was my FQ sitting right on top!!! Now how the heck did that happen??? Must have been in a hurry as usual and left it there. Or got interrupted or distracted. More likely distracted!!

OK - so back to the catalogs. Here are three products - a tapered awl, a straight awl, and a stiletto. I get the tapered awl. It's used to drill holes in things like bags and such. But what is the difference between the straight awl and a stiletto??  And what exactly is the purpose of each???

Three different pointy tools

So I checked.  Here's the information on the tools as I found on the internet:

Tapered Quilt Awl - For punching holes in leather and fabrics, pulling out corners and widening out spaces.
Straight Quilt Awl - Designed for piercing small holes or craftworks
Quilters Stiletto - This antique sewing notion is Eleanor's favorite and most trusted tool. The brass stiletto can be used to guide the fabric under the foot of your sewing machine, pick seams too small for standard seam rippers, turn applique edges and so much more. The brass stiletto is a must have for any quilter.


Eleanor Burns was the teacher who introduced me to the Stiletto and I thank her each day that I sew!!!!


Here's the page for cleaning products. Holy - how many different iron cleaners does one need??? The problem is that we think that the next product or the latest product will work better than the previous one - so we buy that when we may not even have used the one that we already have. 

Cleaning products from a catalog

It's a huge problem and it exists in every market, not just quilting. The economy would die if our household was a typical household!

On that note, I'm out of here. I've got another busy day. Not a crazy day, but busy. A few phone calls to make, pictures to take, e-mails to write - the usual!!!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!