Busy as a bee

I could sure get used to this very relaxed pace, but would I get anything done?

My deadlines are well under control and I found out yesterday that only half of one project is due on July 1. Yeah!!! BUT - I'm going to forge ahead and try and get it all done so it won't become a deadline issue.

I was up late last night "forcing" myself to stay awake so I could finish my book. Holy - it was a bizarre book and I really felt for the main character who had everything go wrong for him and it just kept going wrong. The Blackhouse by Peter May. A decent read and quite different.

When I get tired, it doesn't matter how exciting the book is, I want to go to sleep, but I wanted to finish the book so I literally willed myself to stay awake. At one point in the night, I woke up with a vision of where that missing quilt block is hiding. But it didn't pan out. I can't believe I lost that block. The moral of this story is - NEVER make things too far in advance because you'll lose them!!!  I should have put the block with the book, but it was done and I didn't want to have to see it every time I worked on the other blocks. Good grief - what a dolt!!!

I bet I come home from class today and find the block - sitting on the cutting table. Taunting me! Laughing at me!  Oh well!!!  The funny thing is that in the past, I've struggled to get my prep work done for class and I've often just reviewed the pattern, explained the block and then made it afterward. This time I have it done and can't find it!

I did get a lot of work done yesterday and I'm not quite ready to share it with you. We had our Lilla class at Oh Look Fabric last night. The homework blocks are amazing. I hope to get all the homework blocks up in the next couple of days. Some of those blocks were - well, let's just say that the designers did NOT always find the best way to make those blocks. I didn't even bother to e-mail them since they are not receptive. Won't be recommending those authors.

The last mini red/white block is almost completed. This morning, I was finishing up the rest of the homework for today's classes. I need to pack and then I should be good. Here's the thing - when I'm prepping for classes, I sometimes raid my stash of quilt tops, blocks or whatever. NOPE - can't do that this time. I had to "create" quilts on EQ8 - which is fine and super easy. But that huge empty room downstairs - ACK!!!!

The floor is still dampish. I wonder if that is going to be a problem? I meant to call the restoration company and ask them, but I got caught up in the tasks of the day.

I even had time to visit with Pauline and had a cup of tea as we looked at her sewing space. She has TWO UFOs. Both are quilts waiting for their binding!!!!  If only that were the case at my house, but I'm good with the situation and I definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel. The biggest problem right now is that I'm working on several quilts that are huge - well at least in supplies and they are taking up a lot of space. If I could take a day or two and focus and get them done, that would free up a lot of space. Maybe, I'll do that once I'm back from the sewing retreat or even this coming week depending on how the deadlines go.

Thanks for the visit, Pauline! I borrowed her portable design wall which I used last night. I had read reviews online and they were NOT favorable, however, I had no problem with the wall and it worked like a charm. However, I was supposed to take her Trendtex challenge piece that I brought home from Quilt Canada and while it was out in the hallway, I totally forgot to take it with me. Never mind, I ended up at her house in my INDOOR shoes. Some days - I wonder where my head is.

Almost 16,000 steps yesterday. Went to the bank, the grocery store, the mall where I mailed what I got at the bank, and then stopped at the library on my way home. It was a glorious day. I think it took me an hour and a half in total. Took a bit longer as I was transferring more embroidery files at the library. I've now transferred everything that I have access to.

I had these great visions of being able to get back to the long arm soon after they get the floor completed. I had set aside my scissors and other tools and put them in the cabinet that sits beside the machine. However, I realized that I don't have any thread and zero ideas where it is. And I've no idea where the white cabinet is either!!!  Oh well - next week is going to be interesting. I know how I'll be spending my long weekend.

I've no idea how many boxes they packed up but it was lots!!!  There are over 50 boxes in the hallway and I know there are way more in the POD.

I managed a reading session in the gazebo after my walk and I worked on my homework for the UFO club. Super productive day - not stressed, just happy!!

I did throw that quilt into the washing machine before it dried and left a water stain on the quilt.

OH MY GOD --- I had to take a wee break and spent some time looking for that damn block. Then I decided to search through a box of stuff that was sitting beside the computer. I FOUND THE BLOCK!!!!!  PHEW - just in time for class. What a dolt. I think I must have left it on the kitchen table and then piled a bunch of stuff in the box to deal with. Well, two weeks later and the box is NOT dealt with. That's why there's clutter in my office. I don't care!!!  I found the block!!!!! To think the darn block was a FOOT away from my computer all this time!!!  That's hilarious!

Back to the quilt washing. Once it was washed, I laid it on the kitchen island to dry. There's a very slight discoloration where the stain was. I don't think I'm going to attempt bleach - could you imagine if the bleach bled into the black???  I threw it in the washing machine with no soap, no detergent for a quick wash.

Very slight discoloration

I know - you're saying that I'm being picky cause you can't see it. But I know it's there. I'm over it. Time to move on.

BUT, the texture of the washed quilt is AMAZING. It's heavily quilted and after the washing, it's super soft and very cuddly. It's a wall hanging size but goes to show that those very heavily quilted machine quilts can be soft and cuddly but they need to be washed. Several times! This quilt gets a lot of travel time with me so that helped to soften it up!!!

The texture is gorgeous on this washed quilt

OH MY GOD -- I'm so happy. I don't care what happens for the rest of the weekend - I found my block. OK - I'll shut up about it!

On that note, I'd better get myself going or I won't finish the wee bit of homework that's remaining and I'd better set that box out and see what else I stuffed into it!!!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

Don't believe everything you hear or read

How many others are like me? When you were younger and not as smart, you believed everything you read. Right? If someone took the time to write it, it must be true. NOT!!! I learned that somewhere along the line. I wish I knew that when I was about 10 but that is one of life's lessons that you have to learn on your own. No one can tell you that.

That goes for patterns in the quilting industry as well. I'm teaching a class from a pattern (to be nice, I won't reveal the pattern maker's name) but she's Canadian.

We are doing several blocks a month and there is one block that just wouldn't work. I had no idea the instructions were wrong, although when I got to the first diagram, I thought things looked a bit wonky. You start with a square, add a few bits and it should be a rectangle according to the diagram, but the instructions say that's it a square and the resulting piece is a square. Hmm - that should have been my first clue.

Anyway, I proceeded to make the rest of the block and it was crazy all the way through. I had pre-cut all my pieces so I forged ahead. This is what I got.

Funky blocks

The two on the left were done according to the instructions - well sort of. Like I said, it was weird as the diagrams did NOT match the writing. Nope - I don't like those blocks. So I tried again, this time making a diamond from the square. That worked better in the top right, but look at those points - they all got cut off. That's not right either. Then there were not enough green strips cut to insert into the last block so that was a total wonky thing.

I e-mailed the designer telling her that I thought there was a mistake in the pattern. A day later she replied - "Nope, there's no mistake in the pattern."  Really??????  There are in fact TWO mistakes in the pattern. All of them in the cutting instructions and ONE word in the written instructions. Why can't people own up to a mistake??? Now the written instruction did word it so that it might not be considered a mistake, but that leaves the cutting totally up to the student with no guideline.

So I redid the block using my own calculations. Start with a rectangle and then trim as per the pattern diagram. Add the triangles that fit much better. Imagine putting bi-rangles (triangles created by cutting a rectangle on the diagonal) on a square? It didn't look pretty. I thought I had a picture of my first attempts, but I can't find it.

The background triangles fit nicely on the diamond

Then as I continued with the instructions, the block was PERFECT with all the points intact.

The block came out perfect

Now the quilt is modern and some blocks are improv so it doesn't really matter. What matters is that the designer said it was OK when in fact it wasn't. The instructions for that block did not match the diagram and there were two mistakes in the cutting. Once I made the changes, the block went together like a charm.

I must apologize to my class for not figuring that one out sooner. Sorry!!!!!


I'm always talking about learning experiences. Learning new things is often the topic of my blog posts. Well, I have something to share with you that I learned yesterday.

So, last week, I got a warning on my cell phone that my data was used up for this month. WHOA! How the heck did that happen? Was it because I was traveling so much? I dug into the online bill for the daily usage for the past month. Hmm - it appeared that the two biggest days were Sundays when I was at home. Now, how the heck did that happen??

I know how. There are times when I'm out and my phone is trying to connect to the WiFi but for whatever reason, I don't or can't connect. I must pay attention to when this happens. So I turn the WiFi off which then forces the phone to use data. Then when I get home, I forget to turn the WiFi back on. I know that I've lamented that there isn't an option for the phone to automatically turn the WiFi back on.

OK - so I've had my data off on the phone for the last couple of days. It was time yesterday to get that fixed and understand what is happening. I had tried the day before but that was total frustration. I couldn't find a phone number on the Bell website so I tried using the LiveChat. That was great until they asked me for very specific information like password and account number in order for them to help me. I wasn't logged in at the time. Anyway - that was a disaster.

Yesterday, I got smart about the process. I logged into my account so I would readily have my information at my fingertips and it allowed me to browse through the bill and the usage at the same time as I chatted with the agent. I'm not a huge fan of LiveChat (it's just typing in a window on the screen) because it does take a long time - longer than if you do it via the telephone.

No worries. I was in a good mood and wanted to solve the problem. Turns out that I already have 3 GB of data. I thought I only had two. My tablet has 1 GB of data. The tablet can pull from my phone data if needed, but the reverse won't work. OK - so the phone has 3 GB of data. That was news to me. Now to figure out how to configure everything and can I save money?

Even though there's a special on the website for $110 a month (I know - that's an obscene amount to pay for a cell phone), I don't qualify because that price is for new signups. I'm paying $5 more a month. I let it go because I was tired at this point. Our LiveChat session lasted ONE HOUR!!!

What else did I learn??  Well - lots. Did you know that you are supposed to set the BILLING CYCLE on your phone? Yes - I never did that - I guess I assumed that it was automatically set. I knew the option was there. So now the billing cycle in the phone is set to match the real billing date. There's a warning when the data level reaches a certain level. I knew that and mine was already set. It was set to 2 GB and I've left it there. Once I reach the 2GB, I know that I have 1 GB left.

I found another setting in the phone that once the phone reaches 3 GB (I set that level), the phone will automatically shut the data down so I won't go over my limit and rack up huge charges. That is great!!!!

But I also found another setting (in the advanced settings) that will turn the WiFi back on for those locations where you frequent the most - like HOME!!!!  That's exactly what I wanted, but didn't know that the feature actually existed!!!!  WOW - that was cool.

Here's the thing - because the billing cycle in the phone and the real billing cycle were NOT in sync, I wasn't really over my data!!!  That's hilarious!  However, I'm glad that it happened because I was able to figure this out and now I'm a very happy camper. That's why I didn't drive the guy crazy by trying to get that $5 off my phone bill.

So, if you haven't done that, you should set it up. You have the features in your SmartPhone - you might as well use them. I know that there are many more features in the phone that I haven't touched yet - but all in good time. Oh yes - there is one more feature I found. If you want to shut off some apps from using data, you can do that as well. I know there are loads of apps on my phone - most of which I never use. I really should delete them, but I can at least turn the data off so if they by chance are sucking up my data, I can shut them off and they will only work with WiFi. That's called the Data Saver feature.

I have a Samsung Android phone. All this stuff was found in Settings, Connections, WiFi, Advanced (which is in the top right with those three little dots). The other place is Settings, Connections, Data Usage. That's your lesson for today - now get your SmartPhone and make those changes.

I had another private class yesterday. And I learned something else. Did you know that there are embroidery machines out there that ONLY do machine embroidery?? They do NOT sew. I had no idea.

It's not my brand obviously or I would have known that. Anyway, I got her fixed up on two different things and now she has a LOT of homework to do! 

Embroidery Machine 

I'm still trying to tidy up Studio U. It's actually not in bad shape, but I've been moving this mess of wool around for months. Time to deal with it. It was given to me in a box of wool years ago. I had pulled it out several months ago to make something. It looked like a decent piece of wool. Only when I opened it up, it was mostly a bunch of scraps. Hmm - and there it sat like that. I had no idea what was in the bundle. Time to get this cleaned up!

Bundle of wool scraps

There were two sizeable pieces in the bundle. I kept those and the rest went into the pet mat bag. Seriously???  Why would someone have kept this? The bundle above I mean. I should have looked more closely at it months ago.

Two nice sized pieces of wool

I'm doing more organizing but I need to find my index cards so I can label everything. I had the darn cards just mere days ago. I put them somewhere safe and now I can't find that safe place. Once I get that done, I'll show you. I'm quite happy with the way things are in Studio U. This week, I NEED to get the work started on Studio B. I've put it off long enough.

Call me obsessive, but I keep finding fabrics that were stained from the water leak. I started to work on a magazine quilt that isn't due until June. I know - what planning on my part! These are white strips that are badly stained in some parts with blue.

White strips of fabric stained with blue

Back to the sink with the hot water and Dawn. OK - I couldn't help myself by putting the handle of the Easter Basket back in the mix to get rid of that last little stain. And there was a stain on one of our Santa Sacks that I missed last time.

Soaking in hot water and Dawn 

I'm happy to report that all the stains came out. Well, almost all, I think there were parts of a couple of the white strips that were under the Santa Sack and not completely submerged. Anyway - doesn't matter - the strips are much better than they were.

Because they were dripping wet, they went on the drying rack and outside.

White strips - now clean and drying

They are now ready to use for the magazine quilt. 

The strips are dry and ready to use

 Fortunately, the fabric is Northcott Toscana which is relatively thick and with the paint that sits on top, it has definitely prevented any fraying. Those strips have been washed twice and minimal fraying.

The only problem is that I broke the leg off my laundry rack when I brought it in the house!!!  I guess I'm due for a new one. I've had this one for years.

Oops - the leg broke off the drying rack

Now get that SmartPhone out and make those changes!!!  But look at your bill first so you know the amount of data that you have and the billing cycle. You'll never go over your data!

Have a super day!!!!!


Ciao!!!

To prewash your fabric or not?????

The age-old question - should you prewash your quilting cotton before you cut into them???

I do not prewash my fabrics. I did when I first started to quilt, but soon realized how much time I would spend doing that so I nixed the idea.

So did that decision come back to haunt me?? Perhaps, but I found a way to solve the problems.

Two months ago, we had a wee issue with water in the basement. I need to get the paperwork rolling this week (I'm home all week!) so we can get started on repairing the basement. There was no time before.

Some of my fabrics/projects got stained. In this particular stack, there was a blue batik that had not been washed and I think that was the culprit for all the staining.

I've been trying to tidy up some of the stuff and sort it out and find homes for everything. I came across some blocks that had gotten stained and I had soaked them when they were still wet, but some of the stains remained. Yesterday, I got out the Dawn dishwashing soap and some hot water. Let's see what happened.


Here's my little Easter basket that I made for M when she was little. She would use this to collect her Easter eggs that I hid around the house. I missed doing that yesterday! I gave away all our Easter decorations last year, but she wanted me to keep the Easter basket.

Easter basket

 The Easter basket was in the pile of stuff that got stained and you can see a nice big blue stain on the back of it.

Stain on the Easter basket

There are some red stains along the right side of this block. 

Stains on the right-hand side of this block

A big blue splotch on this block.

Another big blue stain

I believe this blue batik is the culprit fabric that bled everywhere. You can see that there is some staining on this piece as well in the lower left.

More stains on this piece

And this one uses the same fabric. It's an improv piece from a Ricki Tim's class that I took years ago!

The culprit fabric

So I loaded up the sink with hot water and some Dawn dishwashing liquid (soap). Notice that I did NOT immerse the handle of the Easter basket.

Soaking in the sink with Dawn dishwashing liquid

Look at that water - it turned purple!!!  That was likely because there was excess dye on the blue batik that had never got washed away. I don't understand that because the batik process requires a lot of washing!

The water turned purple during the initial soak

I left everything to soak for a couple of hours. Then I proceeded to rinse the soap out of all the pieces. See the water is now running clear with that blue batik.

The water is now clear

 I just let things dry hanging out on the sink.

Drying on the sink

And what happened???  Remember these items had already been soaked in Synthrapol when they were still wet from the water leak. They've been dry for two months.

The red stains along the side are GONE!!!!!

The block is like brand new

The big blue splotch is GONE

The bleeding of the blue is gone

The bluish marks on the orange have disappeared

And here's my Easter basket. It was soaking wet and it's still damp this morning.

Easter basket is wet

 But look - the blue stain is gone!  There was also a slight blue stain on the handle which didn't quite disappear because I didn't immerse the handle all the way into the water. If I didn't tell you about it, you wouldn't notice it. I'm not soaking this one again!!

The big blue stain is gone

Will this test change my mind about prewashing my fabrics? Nope - I still don't have time to wash before I use my fabrics. It just means that I need to be careful. I've always been careful. You can pretty much look at the fabrics and identify which ones will bleed. Not always - I know that. But if in doubt - test them. Thoroughly wet the fabric and let it dry on a white paper towel. If there's going to be a problem, the fabric will bleed on the paper towel. Then you can decide how you'll deal with it!

I'm not sure what today will bring. Hopefully, I'll be madly sewing up a quilt. The fabric is coming directly from the mill and it's late! The quilt is due today!  While I await word on the shipment, I'll be at the Monday sewing group! I've missed the last three weeks and I miss chatting with everyone!

On that note, I'm out of here.

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!

DAWN is my new best friend

I know - you're scratching your head. Dawn? Who the heck is Dawn?

Well, thanks to Jane S, DAWN is my new friend. And who is Dawn???  Oh, shoot - I don't have my own picture and don't want to get flak from the company so here's the link to Dawn.   Yep - we're talking dishwashing soap!!

Someone in our sewing group had a wee problem with some dye bleeding in a quilt. Jane suggested a good soak in Dawn. I remembered that some of my stuff got stained in the "flood" so I thought I'd try Dawn and see what happened. Keep in mind, the fabric is totally dry at this point. 

It's hard to see, but there's a stain right in the middle of that big white spot. Dye that ran from a batik that was in the pile of stuff that got soaked.

Big stain on the white fabric

Again, hard to tell, but all these pieces were stained as well. I really should have taken them outside to get better pictures. DUH!!!

Stains on these pieces as well

I loaded up the sink with hot water and some Dawn. I threw the fabrics into the sink and let them sit for a while. According to Jane, you're supposed to let it soak for 12 hours. I soaked for about one hour.

Soaking in the sink

Again, the light isn't the best, but that stain is GONE!!!!!  I'm so happy, I was going to have to restitch those two samples. Now I don't have to!

The stain is gone!!!!

And these pieces came out pristine.

More stains are GONE!!

It's hard to see with this one as the light fabric already has a mottled look to it. But the parts that were stained? They're clean of the stains.

Stains are gone from here as well

That was a highlight of my day!!!  That Dawn seems to work on a whole lot of stuff and it's mild. Way milder than the detergents that we do laundry with. Something to think about!!!!  Thanks, Jane for that tip - I'll be remembering that one and I think I have more stuff that has stains on it that I'll be soaking. I'll take better pictures next time.


I also got some quilts quilted. This one belongs to a customer and it's done and ready to be delivered later this month.

Customer quilt - DONE

 I also got the magazine quilt quilted. The binding is ready to put on this morning and then the sleeve and it'll be out the door by the end of the day. I had to buy a specific panto for it and I remembered how to download it and get it into the computer! Yeah! No issues. I love the quilt - it looks awesome.

Then back to the sewing machines where I'm working on samples for some upcoming classes. There are some amazing stitches (and stitch techniques) on the PFAFF Creative Icon. I was using ribbon stitches, radiant stitches and even did some editing of stitches. I'll be showing you more about that another day. But what fun!!!!

I'm making a folded accessory holder. This is as far as I got last night and I'm making two of them at the same time.

Folder accessory holder

It's going to be another crazy day as I work on more samples and sample stitch outs. All in a fun day's work. I'll be in Studio U all day.

I even squeaked out time for a walk yesterday. Off to the library and the grocery store. It's getting too nice to spend the entire day in the house.

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!