Motivational Monday update (or not)

I'd like to say that I have lots of pictures of stuff that I've done to show you, but I don't. I do have pictures, but no finished show n tell.

I did get the top and back done for the magazine quilt and it's hanging on the long arm waiting to be loaded later today. That was good.

I got something done for the upcoming QUILTsocial blog and all the pictures are taken and need to be loaded to the internet. That was good.

But I can't share them with you yet.

However, I do have a couple of things that I've been doing that I can share. I did manage to get all the blocks together from those mini half square triangles. For some reason, the numbers worked out. I don't think I threw anything away (god forbid!) and I didn't make more. How many blocks are there? Well - you'll have to wait to find out. But there's a magic number that means there will be nothing leftover and I like that. How that worked out is beyond me.

Mini-blocks are assembled and pressed, ready for the next step

I managed to get the ends sewn on these last two border strips for Vintage Moments. I even started to pin one of them on and I see it's going to take some creative pinning so I left it for later today. That poor quilt has been laying on the table for weeks and I'm going to need the table soon so I had better get it finished rather than tossed in the corner.

Final borders for the Vintage Moments quilt

Notice those rounded corners which means I have to make bias binding. I'm OK with that. I'm going to use the striped fabric that's in the stars so it's all good.

I also managed to get some more enders/leaders done on the black/white quilt. I cut up the centers from that red that I found. I think I have 27 red centers. I might just cut a couple more bright colors and make the color of the centers varied. Not sure - will cross that bridge when I get to it.

Enders and leaders

Then I dug something out that I received a couple of weeks ago. It required the use of Steam a seam. Hmm - a wee bit of a while since I used Steam a Seam and I managed to goop up my iron pretty badly. Although you can't see it in the picture, it's a mess.

Gooped up iron

And now the iron is all clean again. The bottom is scorched, but it's clean.

Nice clean iron

But my cleaning towel is a mess. This isn't the result of just this last cleaning. It's been used a lot to keep the iron clean.

The cleaning towel is a mess

I'm going to share with you what I was working on last night and this morning, but I want a completely separate post for that so hopefully tomorrow. What fun and something else to collect. Oh my!

I've been a wee bit bad lately as I've been buying fabric. I don't need fabric. But two of the three purchases I made were necessary. So that's a NEED versus WANT.

I needed sashing for my 150 Canadian Women and this is what I ended up with. I wanted the same sashing for all the blocks and I knew I didn't have enough of anything so I got this on the weekend. It's a Northcott Toscana. That Toscana collection is a really good blender! Works for many things and a huge variety of colors. Fortunately, it's easy to get as the Hobby Horse carries the complete line. Thanks, Gail!

Red fabric for the sashing of 150 Canadian Women

 For the curious amongst you, this is what was in that package I received the other day. You probably don't recognize this, but it's the same line of fabric that I'm making my Farm Girl Vintage from. You see, at the last meeting or perhaps it was the May meeting, Lynne asked me if I knew what I was going to do with my blocks. I ask each of the participants every month. Well, I hadn't really thought about that. And I had given ZERO thought for the fabric for borders/backings, bindings, etc. I only had the FQ bundle and there wasn't going to be much of that left.

The collection is several years old so I knew it would be hard to find it. However, I did find it at a store in the US by searching the collection name (Farm Fun) and the designer (Stacy Iest Hsu). The window for that shop has been open on my iPad for MONTHS. I never hit the PAY button.

But we had Claudia from Fabric Please! (a mobile quilt shop in a trailer) as our guild speaker this month and she had some FQ bundles of this collection. I asked if she had yardage. Oh yes - and so I went to her website and I ordered this. Not the same ones I was going to order from the US, but I was OK with that. I was only ordering what I could get my hands on. So instead of supporting a US-based quilt store, I supported one of my local quilt shops and I got FREE shipping to boot (only because of the size of the order). That was a happy discovery and I'm a happy camper. Now I have to figure out how to put those blocks together by the end of November. ACK!!!  Here's a link to the Fabric Please! website for Farm Fun in case you want to get your own FQ bundle. Notice that you won't find the bottom two fabrics that I bought because I bought it ALL!

Fabric to finish off Farm Girl Vintage

Then I had a weak moment. I bought this FQ bundle designed by Carolyn Friedlander. I don't need it, I have no plan for it, but I liked it. So I bought it. I swear - strike me down! But I've been behaving myself a lot, so a little digression every now and then won't kill me or the bank. Now I've got to figure out something to do with this.

Carolyn Friedlander FQ bundle - a WANT, not a NEED

It's going to be another silly week. For some reason, I seem to have tons of errands that need to be done. I also have deadlines with the long arm and with the sewing machine. It's hard to get any work done when you're not in the house or you're reading a book. But that's OK. I'm reading two books - one non-fiction and one fiction. Neither is a page-turner so hopefully, that won't interfere with this weeks workload.

It's Monday today and that means SEWING DAY. I've got my bags packed (that was done last Monday after I came home from sewing) and I'm ready to go, but not before the girls and I have our separate walks.

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!