Quilting efficiently

This weather is totally bizarre. When we went for a walk last night, it was raining and then about 2 minutes from the house, it started to POUR.  We ran back to the house (but we were all soaked) and I saw my neighbour who was also out walking their dog run like mad as well.  Early this morning, everything was coated with ice - not thick ice like we had a couple of years ago, but coated with ice.

By the time we got to the forest for our walk, the ice was starting to fall off the trees and there was lots of little pieces of ice everywhere and it was flying everywhere. The walk was crunchy but not slippery.  We made tons of noise (OK - I made the crunching noise) as we walked.  We did see one of the coyotes who appeared to have an injured front paw - I saw it limping.  We went our separate ways and had a great refreshing walk.

While I was home yesterday morning, I worked on a small project for work. By the way, I have to interject to say that I LOVE LOVE LOVE my job. I work with great people, I work with a great product and I just love it.  Yes, there are things that I don't like but seriously - if you don't have challenges what is the fun of getting up each day!  Equate it to a kid in a candy store and telling them to have fun!    I love walking into Deborah's office to see what amazing stuff she and her team are working on.  There is always something exciting to see there and to see how they manipulate their creations on the computer - I could watch them all day!   Then to walk into the graphic/marketing department and see what creations they are making for Northcott - the ads, the graphics and they do creations for me too.  Oh, what fun!!!!   Just wait until you see some of the cool stuff that is coming!   It will be up on the website next month.  And I RARELY get to sew at the office!

Anyway - all that to say that when I took my project into the office, everyone loved it.  It isn't finished because I needed to stop at Fabricland to get some matching thread in order to put the binding on by machine.  I'm determined to make that happen to my satisfaction even if it kills me!

Several people said it would make a great sample.  OK - I can make that happen - it didn't take long to create.  So back into the fabric stash that is available for us to use and cut cut cut.  Got home and loaded on the long arm.  What am I quilting that is so fun????

The collection is called Collector Playmats from Northcott. Check out that link to see the entire collection which will be in stores in April.   Well in order to more efficient, I loaded five panels from the roll.  They had not been cut apart so it was easy to load ONCE and all five are now being quilted.  I got about half of them done last night. Will finish up as soon as I'm done this post.

Quilting multiple panels at once

Just wait until you see the finished project.  It is so absolutely cute - I want one, but I don't have any toy cars.   Hmm - where can I get an orange car (or perhaps it should be red!).  I see that someone (not mentioning any names Ghazal!) has already claimed the orange car in Deborah's office.  I shall have to go shopping for my own!

I keep mentioning that I'm working on a trunk show exclusively from Northcott fabrics.  I have been a HUGE customer of Northcott fabrics for years.  So last night, guess what I dug out. It has been weighing on the back of my mind for a while and well - no time like NOW to get it done.

It's a One Block Wonder quilt made from a Northcott collection Flower of the Month. No picture of that collection still on the website. It's a FEW years old.

The problem was, I put it in the project box and NO LABELS!!!!!   This is how I pulled it out of the box and put it on the design wall.  ACK!  A bit jumbled, to say the least!

One Block PUZZLE

 And there were two rows that were not even sewn together!

Two rows not sewn

 And then these are my bits left over from the initial cutting.  These will go on the back - NOTHING can go to waste!!!!

Leftovers that have been pieced together

Yardage - the print is gorgeous!!!!

After a bit of fiddling and figuring, this is what the real quilt looks like.   I'm going to try and sew one or two rows each day to get the top done!!!

It's gorgeous!

 I bet if we do a search on One Block Wonder, I will find a post or two talking about working on that quilt. Do we want to go back there?  Hm - I checked - I didn't see anything pop out, but I know it's there.

Just so you know, I still do support my local stores for buying Northcott fabrics.   Our customers come first and sometimes, what I want is GONE!  I visit Ruti's who is a good Northcott customer and I get what I want there!  I know that sounds crazy, but really - I don't care.  I want what I want and I'll pay any price (well almost) to get it!!!

Now here it is Easter weekend and with the exception of a couple of hours to teach a class, I have NOTHING SCHEDULED.  Isn't that just the most exciting thing in the entire world?   Don't get me wrong - I have loads to do - I have TWO customer quilts that MUST be done by Monday morning and to finish my Connector Playmats and try to get a load of other stuff done, but I have no commitments except to myself and I'm loving that!!!!!

Have a great day - Happy Easter - well Happy Good Friday

Ciao!!!!

Oh yes - if you want to have a good belly laugh, check out QUILTSocial today.  You get to see what happened and why I'm just not perfect.  I thought the moment was priceless.