It's DONE - a UFO is done!!!

Well - it's a tad hot these days. How the heck did that happen when last week, we were freezing? We hate putting the A/C on in the house. I hate it and DH likes to keep the windows open, so we don't have the A/C on. I slept very well last night - as a matter of fact, I was freezing in my sleep and ended up getting up because I was cold. How did I achieve that? I moved to the basement where it's very cool. I set up a small cot and I was happy as a clam until I got cold.

I was busy working yesterday afternoon and decided that my task was mindless enough to put on an audiobook. Only to find that the audiobook that I had barely started had been returned. Seriously? Those three weeks went by very quickly. No worries - I got out my reading list and within minutes I had found a book that I could borrow. (Don't forget that almost all my books are in series, so I need to keep track of what I've read.) I LOVE my reading list. It was so worth the time and I know that anything else that I organize to the extent of the reading list will make my life a whole lot easier. It's coming - just takes time. And I'm off to a used bookstore this coming week so I'm taking my shopping list with me. I'm super excited about that.

Yesterday was a pretty productive day. I got a UFO done from the 2018 list. It's actually the second one. I know - only four behind. But I'm working on others on that list so I'm not worried. If only I could focus on one at a time!  Not going to happen - not in my lifetime.

OH - I should mention that I found a couple more interesting things about china and they are posted at the very end of yesterday's blog (in red). An interesting article about china and its value (both monetary - ZERO value to the personal value which is a loaded question). Check it out and thanks to Helen who mentioned that some churches will take donations of cups and saucers.

OK - let's check out what I've been working on.

I love my little sewing table, but there's not a lot of room on the left-hand side when you want to sew a big quilt. I had an extra table set up for sit n sew the other day and it's perfect. So it stays there for the moment as I have a couple of backings and more borders to put on.

My sewing space

I'm sure you would all laugh - I have these big swivel chairs and big tables in this space and I sew on the smallest table with my orange stool. I love having my sewing machine flush with the tabletop rather than sitting ON the table. 

Anyway, the borders are on this quilt at last. The other day, I called this quilt Easy Street, but in fact, it's called Celtic Solstice from 2013 (Bonnie Hunter mystery).

Borders are on at last

Then I went to work on the backing and found this join in my fabric. Fabric companies do allow ½ meter extra whenever a join falls within a bolt. Fortunately, there was enough on either side of the join to make the backing.

The fabric is joined!

Then the backing and the binding were completed and this one went into the "to be quilted" pile.

Backing, binding, and top - DONE

I had to laugh at the binding. Notice how similar the color of the border and the binding are? They're from the SAME fabric company. Just years apart. They must have a batch of the same blue dye that they just keep using over and over again!!!  At least, it comes in handy when you don't have enough fabric for the binding.

Binding was easy to match within the same fabric company

I also got the little pinwheels completely sewn and pressed (hopefully all in the correct direction). Do you know that these little pinwheels are the cutoffs from the quilt above???   Yep - they are. Now it's time to do something with them. There are a lot so I'll mess around with them later today.

Pinwheels are sewn

I also got the binding and backing completed for this table runner.

Backing and binding and top - for the table runner - DONE

I've had this quilt loaded on the long arm for a couple of days and finally got to it yesterday. It's trimmed and ready to be delivered! The next one is almost ready to start quilting later today.

Customer quilt - DONE

You can never have too many bags. This was a bag that I had received from one of my students a while back. I needed a bag the other day and all my cloth bags were full of stuff so this bag came in very handy to carry supplies to class. Thanks!!!  I love it.

Bicycle bag

I think I'm going to have to break down and buy a new magnetic pincushion. A while back, the darn thing fell on the floor and somehow it broke. DUH!!! Then yesterday when I picked it up, it just fell apart. Oh, shoot -I love that pincushion. Better get a new one. But I'll fix this one at least one more time.

Pincushion needs to be replaced

 And you know it's sad when this is what you have for a snack. Yes - that is cauliflower. It was almost time for lunch, so I didn't want to eat a lot. And I wanted to save sugar and calories for dinner later in the evening. The cauliflower did the trick - my tummy was happy. You know, there's a huge difference between being hungry where your tummy is rumbling and craving where you head is playing mind games with you. Fortunately, I'm about 95% in the hungry zone, and only once or twice do I get cravings. That's very big for me and I'm super excited about that. I did share a piece of cheesecake at dinner after I had my lettuce "bun" burger. What a great idea since I don't eat the bread.

Cauliflower for a snack

I had my favorite salad for lunch, celery, apple, chicken breast and some avocado. I like to load up on the celery and I throw in an entire apple, instead of a half. I was so tired of chewing that at some point, I almost had to stop eating!!!!

I also worked on something else yesterday, but I can't share it with you at this point. In a couple of weeks, I'll share it.

Well, lots more to share, but no time. And as usual, I've got a lot of work to do. A couple more magazine submissions to finish off today. It shouldn't be a lot of work, but it still takes time. And I got another quilt cut out last night. It really needs to be on the long arm by Tuesday AM, so a wee bit of work ahead of me. And I need to finish the project that I was working on yesterday.

I'm sitting here in my office with the window open. It's warm, but not unbearable. Imagine if I put a fan on with all this paper!!!  Oh - it would look like a snowstorm in here. I know you're thinking, just turn the A/C on.  You know, I think I'm a better person because I'm much more tolerant of less than desirable situations. Learning to live with inconveniences make us better. Plus our house is not bad temperature wise.

It's all good - the heat is keeping me "trapped" in the basement where it's cold. Seriously - I have my sweatshirt on down there. I'm sure after another day or two of heat that it will eventually seep downstairs, but for the moment, life is good. It's funny how when you walk past the basement stairs, you can feel the cold on your feet and as you descend, the heat is on one step and the next step is many degrees colder. It reminds me of the ice house in Tuktoyaktuk. Apparently, it's now closed to the public, but I had a tour in 2010. An amazing place.  Check out the link.

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!!