A ghost in the studio

I had a bit of a slow day yesterday! While I had plans to get lots done, I didn't get as much done as I had planned. I chilled out! And it was great!  OH - I did get my group lists created for my ongoing classes and sent them all a very long detailed e-mail for the first class. The girls and I went for a walk as it was a glorious day - I'm sure they'll have their side of the story maybe later this week. That Lexi is a bit lazy sometimes. I had errands to do in the car and I read.

However, that doesn't mean that I'm not doing stuff. Since it's Motivational Monday, I should report on what I have been getting done.

I had my shopping list so when I was at the quilt store on Saturday (first time hitting a quilt store this year!), I picked up two things out of three that was on my list. I'll get the third item somewhere else. That meant that I could continue on one of my 2017 UFOs. I cut all the squares, setting triangles and setting corners and put it on the design wall.

I believe I went upstairs to get something and when I came back, look what happened.

Wait - who knocked my blocks off the wall?

 I guess I put them on the wall a wee bit too quickly and they were not "adhered" and when one decided to fall, it took a few others with it.

But this is what the project looks like when all the blocks are on the wall. Oh - I wondered why there were two identical photos. This is the photo before the setting triangles and corners were added. They are cut and on the wall.

2017 UFO 

 It's a bit long and narrow, but when it's sewn together and the borders are on, I'm sure it'll be just fine. All those blocks were made with scraps! So this one should get completed shortly. I did start sewing it together and thought I had taken a picture, but I guess not. You'll see it as it progresses. That's the good news. The bad news is that there is still enough fabric to make TWO more quilts in that box. Ah yes - the danger of choosing a project with multiple quilts for a UFO.

Plus it's almost the end of January and I'm not making a lot of progress on those UFOs. But I'm working on several of them so it's not like they're being ignored.

I'm actually sewing on my own sewing machine these days. This is the one that I did all the Halloween embroidery blocks on. I knew it needed to be cleaned, but when I opened it up last night, I almost died. It had been making a few funny noises and not sewing as well as it should. Can you see why?

Huge mess of threads around the cutter

 And look at all the lint that I got out of the bobbin case area. Oops - that is NOT good. I've got my 4 bobbins wound and I'll be good in the future and keep that bobbin case area clean and a new needle.

Lots of lint removed from bobbin case

 I've got more pictures to share with you of what else I've been doing, but that's a whole topic on its own so that will be shared another day. Here is my current ender/leader project. The only reason this got bumped in the priority line is that it was on my felt board and I needed the felt board. So I placed all the pieces on the table. Let's say that I got plenty of Fitbit steps as I walked from that table to the sewing machine to the ironing board.  My current sewing table isn't big enough to keep that close. That's OK by me.

Ender/leader project

This is what the block looks like this morning. It won't take long to finish this block up and then I can start on the next one. This is part of the pixelated apple quilt that I started in a workshop last summer. This is block number three of - well I'm not sure how many. But I cut a whole bunch more squares on Saturday so I'm ready for a lot more sewing.

The block is almost together

Our local Fabricland moved over the holidays. I hadn't been to the new store, but I was in the neighborhood yesterday and I needed some more cording for the upcoming tuffet class in April. It's never too early to get prepped!  The store is big and bright but it feels weird as all the displays are different. It almost seems like they have less stuff? That could be me. Anyway, I wandered around and I found something that I can use my 50% coupon on, but I didn't know how much I needed so I didn't just willy-nilly buy - I came home and measured how much I need and I'll go back another day. That's on my new shopping list.

I was just about to pay for my cord when I found this and I couldn't resist!

Cushion cover

I'll show you the rest of my cushion cover collection when I can get a picture. I didn't do it yesterday and it's too dark in that room this morning. So I think I owe you TWO pictures.

I realized that I have something brand new to tell you about all week. Yesterday, it was a new quilt shop. Today, it's something else and NO - it's not about what I did last week. That's for another day this week.

Today, I'm going to direct you to QUILTsocial where it's my week to blog and you have to check out this new sewing machine. Technically, it's not released until February of this year. It's not on the Husqvarna web site, although some dealers have it on their web page. This is an amazing sewing machine. That's all I can say!

On that note, it's time to get the day rolling.

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!