Motivational Monday

It's interesting how non-quilting family members FREQUENTLY ask the quilters in their family "how many more quilts do you (we) need?"  What's interesting is that if the quilter in the family didn't quilt, what would they do all day?  Seriously??  I was up early this morning because I went to bed really early last night. What did I do? I sewed of course! But what would I have done if I wasn't a quilter? I'm certainly not cleaning my house.

My response when people mention this obsession with quilting? This is our hobby, it's our therapy and it's what we do to keep from killing, bugging the non-quilter in the family. Quilters love to socialize with others and quilting is often an excuse to meet with others. It keeps us sane!!  Just remember that the next time someone asks you how many more quilts you're going to make. I've still got hundreds (thousands - even) in me!!!!   What will happen to them all? They'll be given away/donated when I'm no longer here and I'm OK with that.

OK -- this keyboard is driving me nuts this morning. It looks like I can't type worth two cents. I just want to give it a good whack on the side of the desk, but I know that won't fix the keyboard, but it might make me feel better!!!

Yesterday was our Monday sewing day. I got loads done even though I had to leave early because a package was arriving at my house that I didn't want to leave on the doorstep. The package arrived at 6:19 PM!!! Oh well.

Here's what got done at my house yesterday.

Let's start with the weekly update on 150 Canadian Women quilt. (Kat - I'm almost done!!!!!) Six more blocks were completed yesterday. That leaves 18 blocks.  EIGHTEEN!!!!!!   I'm super excited about that. All the white is cut and hopefully, I can get the rest of the reds cut this week. I'm almost done!!!!   Yippeee --- divide and conquer. A little every week. If I had not done that, I wouldn't be this far along.

Six blocks for 150 Canadian Women quilt

I managed to get four more blocks from Night Sky sewn together. I think that leaves 7 blue ones to go. But I had to leave and I had other things to do when I got home, otherwise, I would have had more blocks completed. I thought I had reversed the little points on one of the orange sections. Turns out I had somehow got the triangles mixed up in two blocks. But I didn't realize that until I had "reversed" one and that meant that I had to reverse the second one as well!!! DRAT!!

Four more blocks for Night Sky quilt

Since I was home, I thought I might as well load the next quilt onto the long arm. Well, it was already loaded, but it needed to be quilted. And I was RIGHT!!!!!   Double tap on the file folders and they opened instantly! Amazing what we take for granted. I knew that on the computer, but it just never occurred to me on the tablet. My frustration tapping must have somehow had two taps in a row and that's how I managed to open the files before!!!  Too funny!!!!

My quilt - done!!!

However, I did learn a very valuable lesson yesterday. I was doing a very loose pattern on this quilt. It's foundation pieced (with the muslin still attached to the blocks) and lots of seams so I didn't want to have the long arm jumping over all those corners. I managed to fit the design nicely into the rows and it worked well. Since the pattern was loose, there weren't a lot of bobbin changes. And I meant to look at the bobbin before I sent the computer merrily on its way to stitching.

I never thought anything of it and when I came back to the long arm, I hit the NEXT ROW button without checking the quilt.  ACK!!!!!   The bobbin had run out halfway across the quilt and I HEARD it do that, but I didn't check.  ACK!!!!!!  I AM AN IDIOT!!!!!    OK - this should be easy to fix, I said bravely to myself. I'll just restart the row and then trace forward to where the thread ran out. OH shoot - there's an even row and an odd row and they are NOT the same!!! But I managed to fix it!!!  It took a wee bit of thinking on my part, but I learned several lessons yesterday.  If I hadn't made that error, I wouldn't have learned how to fix such an error or such "delicate" repositioning.  Yep - making mistakes is good. The important thing - DO NOT PANIC!!!!

While that quilt was quilting, I was attempting to put the binding on the four #Humboldtstrong quilts. It's a challenge to try and do two things at the same time. I think I managed ONE binding in the time it took to quilt that quilt. But they are all done - finishes 31, 32, 33, and 34 for the year. Even though I didn't do all the work on them, I'm calling them finishes as I did a fair amount of work on them (quilting and binding) to call them a finish. I searched through the stack of boxes in the garage (I keep all kinds of boxes now so I can ship quilts out) and found this one that was perfect. I had received a fifth quilt for #Humboldtstrong at our guild meeting on the weekend so there are five quilts in this box. It just needs to be taped shut and dropped at the courier this morning.

#Humboldtstrong quilts

 Actually, I'll write a small note and put in the box before I tape it shut.

I was reading on Sheri's blog (Whole Circle Quilts) about her challenge of doing some handwork every day for one year. She just finished that challenge and hopefully, this link will take you to that post. I should try to do that. Now that I'm liking how accessible audiobooks are (on my phone), I'm listening to the darn things all the time. I listen to the radio in the morning, but during the day - I've got my audiobook on. Even when sewing. Oh god - another addiction!

Anway, I decided that I had better get my act together or I'm never going to finish this embroidery project which is on the list of UFOs for 2018.  So for the last three nights, I worked on this embroidery block. It was mostly done, but the snowman on the right needed a wee bit more work. I'm happy to report that the block is DONE!!!

Snowman block - DONE

 That was a LOT of detail in that scarf and took forever!!!!

Loads of detail in this snowman's scarf

The pattern is Winter Wonderland by Crabapple Hill. I've only been working on it forever!!!!  I've seen many versions of this same quilt and someday, mine will be done. I now have five blocks (there are ten blocks) complete. The worst ones are done. Well, I'm halfway through the last of the big blocks. I had to wash the block and remark it as the blue wash away pen I used had faded. Another lesson learned.

Winter Wonderland

The blocks in the borders are all cut but not sewn together. Perhaps I can work on that once I'm done the 150 Canadian Women?  No, I've got other plans for that. I might work on those blocks when Night Sky is completed.

Anyway, if I could manage a wee bit every day, I could get it finished. Looks like a lot of audio books in my future!!!


But that's not all that happened. This is the binding for the scrap quilt that I quilted yesterday. It was already made but it's now with the quilt, ready for binding later this week?

Binding for the scrap quilt

There was one other quilt in that binding pile that didn't have a binding so I made that this morning.

Binding for a community projects quilt

And this is the stack of binding that I still have to do. As some get binding put on, more quilts get added to the pile! It's totally insane. Thank goodness for putting the binding on by machine or I'd never get finished anything.

Pile of quilts to be bound

This is one of the table runners for our class at the end of April. I made it at the retreat, but haven't had a chance to share it with you yet.

Flying Geese table runner

 Lots of neat areas to quilt in that one. Yellow is probably the color I use the least, but I was determined to find something in the yellow stash basket for backing. I found bits and I used them all up to make the backing. That's sad when you have to piece so much for the backing of a table runner! But I'm OK with that. It used up some smaller pieces and I got the backing for the table runner. It's all about using up our stash and now that my very local quilt shop is closed, I'm using my stash way more than I ever did and that's a GOOD thing.

Scrappy backing for the table runner

I had made the binding for this one when I made the top so it's all together now and in the "to be quilted" pile.

Backing, binding and table runner - ready to be quilted

This is one of my favorite sayings and I guess we can call it the inspirational quote of the day.  Seriously, if you stop, you will fall. I just don't allow that to happen. A lesson I learned from my parents. This was a gift from one of my students!!!   Thanks so much - I love it!!!

Inspirational quote on a notebok

One can never have too many notebooks. As much as people keep all kinds of information on their electronic devices, I still like to write stuff in a notebook. Just like I like to read a real book - I love to turn and touch the pages. You just don't get that same tactile feel from a computer/tablet screen. You just don't!!!

Hopefullly everyone is making good progress on their Monday projects?  I decided that I need to focus on them a wee bit more which is what I'm doing these days and I'm seeing some amazing progress. I'm super happy about that. But as I look around the studio, there are so many projects that are almost done, but just need a wee bit more work. Ah - to have the luxury to get those finished. One day!!!

On that not, I'm out of here. I can't stand this keyboard any longer. I'm ready to whack it. BREATH DEEP. REALLY DEEP!!!


Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!!!