It's like a sweatshop at my house

It's amazing what you can do when you're focused.  I'm not so focused that I'm not doing other things. Oh no - I'm still reading in the evening - more on that in a minute.

I managed to get three days worth of photos edited and loaded. Now that may not seem like a big deal, but here's the thing - that's about 60 pictures and in order to get the 60 pictures, I had to do/make stuff in order to have something to take a picture of!  So that was good and I think I'm on target for that. I hope to get the other two days worth of photos done today and start writing. I've learned - the more pictures, the less writing! Well, it doesn't always work that way.

Here's the best news about those pictures, while I'm prepping the pictures, I'm using my own projects so that means I'm killing two birds with one stone. Advancing some projects, perhaps even finishing one or two - gasp!!!  I'll be sharing what I can with you but otherwise, you'll have to wait until the end of the month to see what I've been up to.

As I mentioned, I'm fired up! I'm in a quilting mode. So look what happened yesterday. This is one of my quilts. No idea why it was made or even when. No idea whose pattern it is. Shame on me!!

My quilt - DONE

 I know it doesn't look like something that I would make as it's pastel. 30's prints actually. But it's very cute and it looks like spring! I came upon this quilt when I was rifling through the tubs of quilt tops and for some reason, it just struck me that I would like to get it quilted.

The next quilt is loaded on the long arm. Oops - it's another one of mine! So now I'm down to two customer quilts, one magazine quilt (which the top and backing are now ready to be loaded), the pattern that I'm testing (it's all laid out at the sewing machine ready to give it a whirl). The first block is always the hardest, but I think I can chain piece this one. Two table runners - one of which, I realized I need to do on the domestic machine so maybe later today (it's basted and ready to go) and two more projects of mine - a table runner and a quilt. All by Thursday evening. Can it be done? That's six days and eight projects to quilt. The largest of any of them is my generous lap size at 60 by 72. Oh, one of those customer quilts is larger than that but not by much.

While I might be getting projects quilted, they are literally being piled on the work tables. No time for trimming or binding! That will come later when the rush is off.

Piles of quilts to be trimmed

I have a pile of quilt books at my house, yet I'm forever borrowing books from the public library. Why? Because I have a deadline to read them?  I've no idea. Anyway, once I finish with the stack that I have, I need to STOP borrowing and start reading my own. I think I've borrowed this book before, but never got around to reading it.

It's called The Quilter's Palette by Katy Denny.  It's a book on color/texture/patterns. But what's really cool is that there are 52 different color palettes in the book. Now some of them are pretty ugly (sorry Katy) and some of them have ZERO contrast - well according to me. I would definitely NOT make a quilt out of a lot of the color palettes, but that's why there are lots and she has just scratched the surface of color/texture/pattern combinations. My goal is to pick THREE color palettes from the book and use them for my next three projects.

The Quilter's Palette

I'm working on that Big Book of Table Runners for our monthly project class and I'm always scratching my brain for the next color palette so I hope to get some ideas from the book. I've already got a few picked out. Maybe it will be more than 3. Technically I should pick one with colors that I don't normally work with. I'm OK with working with different color combinations, but I really can't work with palettes that have minimal contrast. What's the point of cutting the pieces apart and sewing them back together if the contrast isn't there?  Maybe I could do one table runner - just to satisfy myself.

As I'm doing all this quilting, my brain is going a million miles a minute. That caused me to have a peek through some of the bags under the long arm and OH BOY - there's some stuff there that wouldn't take long to finish. I think that's what I might be working on when the long arm is away. Then when it comes back, I'll have oodles to quilt. As if I needed more to quilt!! By the way, if you think you're going to call me when the machine comes back and then book your quilt - think again. I already have a waiting list and one quilt on the waiting list is already in my possession. I'm probably booking into July at this point. Just saying!

On that note, I'm out of here. A busy day and it's time for the weekly weigh-in at the gym. Yippee! My favorite time of the week.

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!