Living in a dream world!

It's October 2016. In October 1998, something happened to me. M was two and a half and getting ready to move into a queen sized bed. I decided she needed a quilt. I wanted to make a queen sized tumbling (baby) block quilt for her. While that particular quilt never happened - I should share the pictures of that one day, something snapped in my head. Something big!

Sometime in 1999 or was it 2000, I decided to take a year-long leave of absence from a fabulous job with a great salary and lots of perks. I was going to be a stay at home Mom and in my words "to get the quilting bug out of my system!"   If only I knew then, what I know now.  Once bitten, that quilting bug never goes away!

I have NO PLANS this weekend.  No appointments, no shopping, no commitments except to take Miss Lexi to the dog park.  DH is quite capable of finding food in the house and does an excellent job.

I spent the entire day yesterday cutting and sewing and cutting and sewing and I made TWO quilt tops.  I was happy as a clam.  It's obvious, 18 years later that the quilt bug is NOT going to go away.

So what does one think about as you're sewing?  Well, why not the ideal living conditions.  How about living here????

Cool studio space

Oh my god - could you imagine???   There is a floor plan for quilter's that I've seen, but can't find this morning.  One tiny corner of the massive space is devoted to sleeping and eating. The rest is the studio. That would be heaven!  Since Lexi doesn't like stairs, she would be in her glory as well.  Room for all kinds of storage, plenty of light to sew by. Yep - I'd rent/buy a space like that in a heartbeat. Who needs living space - I want STUDIO space.  So if ever I win the lottery.....................

OK - back to earth!   I did have a great day yesterday and I did have two visitors.  I knew they were coming and I had a small embroidery job to do for them. They brought me tea and we had a nice visit which was a very welcome break in the day and then Joyce and Karen were on their way and I was back sewing. Thanks ladies for the break!

So what got done?  Can't share with you, but I'm busy making up a presentation and playing "what if".  I'm absolutely in my glory!  Learning loads and can't wait to share when the time comes.

My scrap bucket from yesterday's cutting

I put a new blade in my rotary cutter and I was winging off pieces of fabric with the greatest of ease.  Loads of fun. Did you notice my empty thread spool in the background?  Oh yes, plenty of sewing, not just cutting got done!

I did manage to get a few more bags to the basement and found the bottle of pills pretty quickly. That made the rest of my day a lot more comfortable.

Pain pills

 I might just have to get used to the fact that age is catching up to me, but I'm not going to let it get in the way!  I hate taking pills, but if that is what is required, then so be it!!!

While we were at the retreat, I took my scrap bucket for the cutting table and all the scraps from our cutting table went into it.  I came home with TWO bags of scraps.  One for the pet mats which are not useable for anything else.

Pet mat sized scraps

 And then there were people, not going to mention any names - right Shirley?  They don't work with small pieces.  So there was another bag for the bigger scraps. I'll make something at some point. You can't throw away good fabric!!!!   Says she who has a huge stash!  Seriously, with the stuff that people throw away, I probably wouldn't have to buy any fabric and could make scraps quilts for a long, long time.

Bigger bag of scraps

I did get a couple of jobs done at the retreat that had been hanging around for a while.  I managed to get my hourglass blocks done for a class that I'm doing at a local shop.  I'm a bit behind.  Now that this row is done, I really need to find the pattern as I can't go any further without the darn thing.

Hourglass blocks - DONE

 I also did the boring job of trimming a bunch of half square triangles.  It was a very time-consuming job as there were lots of them.  But I did them in bunches and I chatted while I did it.  Great fun and now they are done and ready to be assembled into the blocks. Ooops - got one more thing to do before they can be made into blocks.

Half square triangles - trimmed!!!!

We got the cutest EVER little gift from Brenda.  Have a look.....................

Mini trash can!!!

 It's perfect to use as a thread catcher!!!   Now I need to see if I can find them here.  Should I tell you where it was purchased in case someone finds them here in Canada????   The label says there's a Canadian distributor.  It was at the dollar store - Dollar Tree I think.  So if you see them, let me know as I'm too busy to get out shopping!!!!

On that note, I'm out of here.  I have the third top all cut out and on the design wall. The blocks are together and I'm ready to sew it together.  There's much to do and I'mpsychedched, well it's scary.  My brain has definitely gotten rewired.  Seriously, I can't seem to do anything but sew!  But I'm super excited about this current presentation. It's taken me a while to get into it, but now that I'm there (and deadlines help!) - well I can't stop!!!

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!!