Productivity isn't the only thing!

Despite my list and best of plans, it was not the most productive day of my life. BUT - I did get a lot done.

I started the day with a visit to the gym and my friend Alwin. Had a bad night with the knees so we did upper body. Then he decided I needed some serious stretching. After my pathetic attempts on my own - he made me lie on the stretching table and proceeded to stretch my legs and hips. OMG - I was in so much pain - I thought I was going to die. My eyes were watering the pain was so intense. However I have to say that I felt much better the rest of the day and even had a decent sleep. Yeah - OK OK - so I NEED to stretch everyday. I just can't get away without any more.

And I was told to REST!!!!!  So I did - got home - had a nap in the afternoon and read my book which I finished and yes - entered into the database!!!!

Then I had a lovely visit with Barb in the afternoon. She broke her arm in a very bad place (near the shoulder) almost three months ago and it takes a LONG time to heal. Since she can't drive - I went to see her. OK - note to self - DO THAT MORE OFTEN. It's not about the quantity of stuff you do, but the quality of the stuff you do. Thanks Barb!!!!!

 I had planned to quilt the second community project quilt yesterday afternoon, but as you can tell that did not happen. I was wide awake at 4 AM and thought - why not!!!   So yes - I got the second quilt quilted.

Community Project quilt

Now if customers would give me quilts this size - no problem. But no they give me giant quilts!!!!!!

I went through the batting closet (well the list) and found a perfect piece of batting for the third community project quilt. I am set to load that one later today. It is even smaller and should take no time at all. I even have one of my own lined up after that. Then I might sneak ONE more of my own in and then got to buckle down to customer stuff. I would really really really like to get caught up with all the quilting - that won't be so hard with customer stuff, but with my own - well it will take a long time. And once I have the ones quilted that are ready to go - I have THREE HUGE tubs of tops that need a border or backing or binding and then they are ready to be quilted!!!!!

One thing I noticed when I was quilting the other day - the thread is "sticky" coming out of the bobbin, but not consistently. So part of the thread pulls out smooth and then it gets tough to pull. Adjusting the tension doesn't help since it is not consistent. And it throws the tension on the back in parts. I had heard somewhere that putting your thread in this place would help the situation.....

Thread in the refrigerator

I think it helped - the tension was much more consistent this morning. Of course M and her friend kept asking all day yesterday - why is there thread in the fridge??????

Oh yes - and did you notice the colour of the quilt I did this morning - ORANGE. Not often I get to do an orange quilt. The next one is - can you guess????   Yes - turquoise colour.

I promised to show you some of the stuff I picked up in Europe - here goes.

First I was a tad disappointed in the Europeans. I had heard that they were very progressive in the recycling, reducing, reusing thing. But honestly EVERYWHERE we went - we got a bag. No one asked if we wanted a bag - we just got LOTS of bags. And everything gets packaged so pretty - have a look.

This bag came from the cross stitch store in Brugges. It was a HUGE store. 

In the bag - ONE skein of rayon DMC. 

This bag was from a small boutique in Paris. If you remember from last year - the one style that is very DOMINANT in a lot of stuff is polka dots particularly red and white. 

So I could NOT leave without buying something that was red/white polka dots. And see - even the inside of the bag was pretty - a red/white gingham!!!!

This bag came from a cool store in Amsterdam and in the bag????

The letter E - remember my thing with the letter E

 This store also had a ton of other cool stuff. I checked out the web site for this letter when I got home and I think I am going to put a lot of this stuff on my Christmas list - including the BIG letter e.


Cool gizmos!!!!!

Then off to the quilt store in Amsterdam - I got a bag

And within the bag - the items were in their own bag

An awesome pattern 

The fabrics - the two on the left are small panels with Dutch related motifs, the top right (yes - it is an American fabric that I was going to use in my 30s project I mentioned a while back and CRAP - I already had this one when I got home). The bottom right one is a Dutch designed fabric

And the store label was also in the bag. Talk about packaging!!!!!!   And in case you want to visit this store - here is the link


Bird Blocks Quilt Shop

Let's see - what else did I get........

Picked this up in Paris - it is a kit for a small wall hanging. It's Japanese!!!!!

Picked this up at the same store - another Japanese kit. It is a key holder. Your keys go inside the little puppy. It`s very cute!!!!!!

A piece of authentic French fabric. I am NOT fond of the style so I only bought one fat quarter 

Ines quilt store in Paris. This was the store that was open and I purchased the above stuff. This was one of the pictures that didn`t happen at first because I did NOT have a card in my camera, but since it was close to the hotel - we hopped on our bikes one night and got the picture. Can you see my bike??????

I'll finish this later - I see the roofers are here and Marian will be here soon and I have a mess to clean up upstairs!!!!!

Have a great day!!!!!


Ciao!!!!!!