Motivational Monday - it's a miracle!

I've decided that a little R n R was in order and so as I write this post this morning, I'm in a hotel room in Windsor, Ontario. My bike is in the car!  Going to tidy things up and have breakfast and then I'm off for a week of cycling in this area.  First, it's going to be totally weird as we're staying in hotels. No camping!  Says she who was only introduced to camping when I started to cycle back in 2010. The distances are relatively short - only one day is over 100K and there are pretty much ZERO hills here unless you count the highway overpasses as hills!!!  But that's OK.  It will be nice to just take my time, take pictures and there are a couple of quilt shops in the neighborhood so I must plan a visit if they are not too far off the route.  

But here is the super exciting news for today!!!!  Oh wait - you'll see it at the end of the post. Don't scroll there now - you can wait!

I got the third of the construction quilts done! It's even trimmed and ready for the binding which hasn't been made yet. 

Third construction quilt - DONE

And look at my sad laundry basket. It hasn't anything to hold but the yardage required to make the remaining two bindings.

Binding fabric in the laundry basket

Now the big question is what to do with the laundry basket?  Should I save it and start to store projects for the next retreat?  Do I really want to commit to taking only a laundry basket of stuff with me? Or should I just put the next UFO in there that I'm currently working on so it's not in three different places (well technically it's in two - one for the excess stuff and one for the current sewing). Hmm - a lot of possibilities!!!!

I was also cutting for a couple other projects that have to be done and with all the quilt trimming, my little scrap basket that I keep on the cutting table was overflowing AGAIN!  I decided to forget about the pet mats and I just tossed the scraps in the garbage.

Scraps went in the garbage

I mean - we have to get realistic here. I have only one place where those mats go and I'm not sure how many more they need/want. So I'm prepared to toss the scraps.  I was thinking that I could easily take my binding scraps (which I have a full bag promised to Mary, but how do we connect Mary?)   Anyway, I thought I could quickly join the scraps (I've become an expert at it) and put two layers of batting inside the pet mat covers and perhaps these could be donated to the animal shelters. I must make one and check with them.  These at least would be washable which the others are not and that's the main reason, the animal shelters don't want the ones with the scraps inside. This would be better as I don't as much batting as I have these scraps.  An experiment to try.

And in case you're wondering about that picture above - YES - there are a lot of bottles of water sitting by the garbage can!  I use distilled water in my iron and I usually buy four at a time. Since I rarely get out to shop these days, when I was out and saw it at a good price, I nabbed 6 bottles.  Two of those on the floor are almost empty so yes - there are 8 in total at the moment!  Does my iron need distilled water?  It's recommended and given the fact that I've had the iron for many many years and no issues with it and distilled water is cheap (not free -but cheap), I'm sticking to the manufacturers' requirements.

Lots of distilled water

I did make one more pet mat before I decided to toss the second basket of scraps.

One more pet mat!

But here is the news that we've all been waiting for!  The FOURTH construction quilt is also quilted!!!  I know - I just loaded it on the long arm and away I went.  I'm thrilled, but I did learn something - if EVER I use fleece again for the backings - DON'T!!!  Or make the tops a wee bit narrower.  It wasn't pretty around the edges of the quilt.  But for what these are going to be used for - it's fine.

Fourth construction quilt - DONE!

Now that's exciting news. At least I think it is.  Three of the four are trimmed and ready for the binding. Two of the bindings are made.  All four bindings will be completely sewn by machine so if I put my mind to it - it won't take long to finish.

On that note, I'm off to get my stuff assembled and packed up and then ready to hit the road!

I've never been to Windsor before and like any town with a casino - it's very weird. There is this HUGE casino/hotel right along the waterfront and very close to the casino are areas where - let's just say that there are the haves and the have nots!  It's a very distinct line.  Detroit is right across the river - fancy that and more big boats!

Have a super day!!!!