Going for gold!

Another intense day, but not so intense as the girls and I had time to take a walk to the library. While I did return one book, I came home with three. And there's one that I forgot to pick up. I think we might be heading back to the library today.

What? Do I have time for that? Well - I think you better sit down because a miracle happened at my house yesterday. NOTHING went wrong. Nothing - it's too good to be true.  Have a look at the orange (white) board.

Hard to believe, but there is ONE project left to be quilted. ONE quilt and ONE day. How did that happen? Like I said, every step I took yesterday was efficient.

One project left to quilt

Granted, this last project is the one that still needs to be pieced. However, I'm happy to report that 14 blocks are already pieced and on the design wall. This is the pattern that I'm testing. Hm - I think there are a few things that need to be changed. But that's why I'm testing it. I need 35 blocks, but I believe I only have 30 cut. Cutting those extra five will set me back a wee bit, but I think I'm in good shape.

The urgent pattern was written, but I have one more thing to do for that this morning. I did get a bit more work done on the blog posts and hope to have two more completed today - well at least one more as all the pictures are in.

The magazine quilt is off the long arm and added to the heap on the work tables. Obviously, you can't see that one.

But you can see this one.

Customer quilt - DONE

I wasn't sure how this quilt was going to look with an overall design on it, but honestly - it looks great. I really love this quilt and the blue/white combo is super classic!  This gives me some thoughts on what to do with my Dear Jane that I haven't started yet!

At this point, I started to get excited that I might actually be able to get all this stuff completed. So the moment that the customer quilt hit the work tables with the other quilts, I was running back to the long arm to load the table runner.

My table runner - quilted!

I found the perfect color thread in my thread stash. I absolutely LOVE the colors in this table runner. Too bad it was made with batik samples and there is little fabric left. Not enough to make a quilt, but that's something to keep in mind for a future project as I'm sure I can find the same colors if I look. Let's face it - a batik is a batik!  I might even have some in my stash.

Perfect color thread

I was tempted to make the backing for the last quilt and load it since I was on a roll, but that might jinx everything and what happens if some measurement wasn't quite right. I'm waiting until the top is done.

Oh yes - here's a picture of the rack with the next in line projects.  Yes, there are two projects on the rack. Both belong to me and neither one was scheduled to be done. But when the machine comes back, they might be the first ones - so I can test the machine!

Next two quilts when the long arm comes back

I must dig out the shipping box for the long arm today and see what I can do by myself to tear it down. I can only get help tomorrow morning so that is good. I have ALL day to get that quilt pieced and quilted. Thankfully it's small!!!  I can pack up the long arm tomorrow morning, hit the quilt show by noon and be back home to meet someone around four. Yep, I think that will work for me.

Here's another finished quilt. This one was supposed to be for the Ronald McDonald quilts that were done last year. I couldn't find the binding so it never got finished. I did finding the binding, but when I was sewing it on, I realized that it was the binding for another quilt. Oops - well, now I have to find that missing binding. It's here somewhere and now I have another quilt with NO binding. Ah - a bit better organization would help! I'm good, not perfect, but better than I used to be. This finish is part of the 21 that I mentioned yesterday. It will get donated, just not to the Ronald McDonald effort of last year.

Another finish for 2018

I didn't take a picture of the work tables, but they are piled high with quilts, fabric and other stuff that just got thrown there as there's been no time to deal with it. Thankfully NONE of the quilts are needed urgently. They can wait, but I think it's going to take a week to get everything under control. Lots of bindings to do!

And this is one of my stashes of fabric. I've had to dip into several of the tubs as I worked on various projects and no time to put them back. Getting this back in shape is on the list of things to get done next week as well.

Tubs of fabric - need to be tidied up and put back

I have one other thing to share with you this morning. Ronda acquired a copy of this book for me (she has one as well) and it's only taken her two months to get it to me. But each week there is a quilting related activity to do. A fun book. The first week is all about identifying some future projects - actually, there is room for several projects on those two pages. At first, I thought - oh - what am I going to put there?

But then I was flipping through that color palette book and I picked 11 different color schemes. I have a couple of commercial patterns that I want to do and then I have tons of my own ideas. Next week, I'm going to fill out the first two weeks. It should be easy!!!  Then I wonder what the assignment is for the following week?

Activity book for quilters!

This is NOT a project book, but just a fun exercise book. I don't need to do it, but I don't spend enough time on this kind of thing and I'd like to. Thanks, Ronda!!!!!  Have you got stuff picked for the first week?

On that note, I"m out of here. I see that the guys are already here to work in the backyard. Hopefully, they'll be finished everything by Friday? I doubt it, there's still lots of piddly little things to do, but there were five guys working yesterday so maybe they will finish. They're currently sawing the old fence away.

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!