Motivational Monday progress report

I scared myself yesterday. I actually ran out of gas!  But not before I had already done a pretty decent days work and taught a class in the afternoon. When I got home, I put one border on a quilt and that was it. I was hoping to do a lot more, but it just didn't happen!

I lay on the floor flat on my back to rest my neck (I have a spiky ball that I use between my shoulder blades to work out the kinks). The two dogs joined me and we had fun taking pictures! They were very happy and it was a lot of fun! My neck feels great today! However Murphy thought the ball was for her so I had to wrestle it from her a couple of times. 

It was an intense weekend. I finished quilting one quilt for the Quilt Canada booth. I swear that every long arm quilter who has the Maple Syrup pattern has probably used it a thousand times this year!  I used it for this quilt and put flannel on the back as I will end up giving the quilt away. The pattern on the back looks amazing!!!  I did goof when I trimmed the quilt, but it's not the end of the world - get over it!  I meant to trim just beyond the points so they wouldn't be cut off by the binding. It was early in the morning. I made the first slice and when I realised what I had done - Oh well - let's move on!!!   

One lap quilt DONE!

At least there is ONE quilt finished for our booth.  I'm getting so good at stitching those darn bindings on by machine!  More on that another day as I discovered something in my thread stash. However I ran out of the bobbin (smoke invisible thread) that I've been using.  Rats - no other pre-wound bobbins.  I actually wound my own bobbin with invisible thread. Something that I thought I would NEVER do!

Let's see - I got one more top done and hopefully that will get quilted and go in our booth. I made EXTREMELY good progress on the other quilt that I want to get in our booth. There are only two more borders to go and I absolutely LOVE it.  I'm pushing to get that one finished and quilted.

I made three blocks on Saturday, turned one of them into a cushion cover and the other into a small wall hanging. Both will be finished later today and will be in the booth.  Awesome cuteness!  Let's see, started a tote bag - it's all prepped and ready to finish up. And also an everyday basket. ALL of these patterns are FREE DOWNLOADS on the Northcott web site.  All except the one that is missing the two borders. I know people are going to ask for the pattern, but I'm not sure that I'm going to write one. I'll see how it goes.   There are two separate links there - don't worry - I'll post the specific projects and links once the show starts and I actually get the items finished!

It didn't take long for my scrap basket to get full again!

Scrap basket is overflowing!

And no time to get to the store to look for supplies - I popped open the lid for the zipper box and used what I had!

Exploding zipper box!

Here are some observations that I've noticed in the last couple of days.

1. The more you do something, the better you get.  I used to hate putting on the binding. I found even stitching the binding to the front of the quilt was a chore. It was bulky, the quilt shifted all over the place. I hated it.  Now I don't even think. I just grab the binding and sew it on.  I used to hate changing the thread on the sewing machine or the feet. Don't even think about it now. Just do it! Now the binding goes on front and back - totally by machine and I'm pretty happy with the results. Still not happy that they are sewn on by machine, but the quilts are done. Move on!
2. The less time you have to do something, the less time you fiddle around with decisions. That fabric looks good (and I have enough of it), let's cut and move on! I wasn't much of a fiddler anyway, but I'm even less now. If I don't like it, it becomes a learning experience, but for the most part I'm OK with whatever. Now that doesn't mean that I'm sloppy.  Quite the opposite!  I want everything to look great, but I try to never repeat the same mistake!
3. When you're focused, you can do just about anything!  I wouldn't recommend 14 hour days of sewing to anyone, but it's amazing what you can accomplish!
4. While I'm getting lots done, these are all things that have sprung up and were not on my Task Master list. If I didn't have the Task Master, those items would be totally forgotten. So now that the rush is almost over, I'll be getting back to the things on that list and if I move through those projects at the same speed, I've been working, I should just about be able to catch up!

And on that note, I'm out of here to get a few things done and then I'm at the sewing machine/long arm for the rest of the day.

Have a super day!

Ciao!