Do NOT do this at home

I had a pretty productive day yesterday. There's so much to do and it's hard to choose which project to work on first, but that's OK. Progress - it's all about progress unless there's a deadline involved and there are a few deadlines coming up so I'd better get my act together and FOCUS.

I made super progress on the paperwork in the morning. It's amazing how much easier it is when everything is in the right place. I know - I should have been doing that my entire life, but I didn't. So I'm learning how to get things in order. Well, in better order than they have been. Then it was time to do some errands. Now I'm all ready for my rope bowl class at our upcoming retreat. Yes - another retreat is looming fast. I haven't started to pack for that, but I'm going to have to start prepping soon.

When I finally made it home from the errands, I decided to give that long arm computer a whirl and see what happens. The tablet was charged up and worked like a charm. Since the battery didn't seem to be losing power, it must have somehow reconnected with the power cord. Seriously, there are days when I think that someone is trying to tell me something. The previous day wasn't the day to quilt, but yesterday was. If I lived in New Orleans - I might even believe in ghosts!

So what did I quilt? Something of mine.

My quilt - DONE

It's a very girly girl quilt with bicycles on it. The backing to go with it was this hot pink minky. However, when I did some measuring before the quilt went on the long arm (this happened the other day), there seemed to be a wee problem. Minky is 62" wide. The quilt was 61 ½". Now that could be a problem. I decided to forge ahead and make it work. DO NOT - I repeat - DO NOT EVER bring me a quilt in this same situation. I will refuse it. I don't mind to mess with my own quilt in that manner, but I would NEVER do a customer quilt like that. Way too much pressure.

I didn't even have room to serge something to the edges of the minky, although I probably should have and I could always have cut a wee bit off the border.

Anyway, there was barely room to spare on both sides. It took a wee bit of fudging as I went along to make it happen.

The backing was JUST the right size

This quilt required some serious babysitting for the entire time it was on the long arm. I could not have done it if I didn't have the computer. So while the computer stitched, I held the edges of the quilt. Like I said - NOT good, but the end result looks perfectly fine and once the binding is on, no one will be the wiser what happened to it.

I was texting someone during the quilting process and I said I was quilting a quilt of mine that had issues. I also said I was an idiot. I got a response back that I was good at that. Good at being an idiot or dealing with issues?  She did mean that I was good at dealing with issues, but it was pretty funny the way the message came through. Thanks, Ronda - I love you too!!!

This quilt wasn't buried in the tubs, well it was buried in the two tubs of the most recent stuff I've done. Hm - I don't remember this quilt at all. I don't remember buying it, I don't really remember making it. Now how did that happen? And where was the pattern? As I was quilting it, I remembered that I was going to make a zippered pouch with all the leftovers. I dug that bag out this morning and VOILA - there's the pattern.

The pattern for the quilt

 It came from Quilter's Cupboard. I'm certain that it was a kit, but did I buy it? Or did someone gift it to me?  Oh boy - that's why we put labels on things and keep the patterns with the quilts until they are labeled.

I might give this quilt away. I do have a bicycle quilt already although this one is super cute. I was thinking of making a bicycle quilt for someone and I need it soon. Might as well give it away - what else will I do with another quilt.

Here's the bag of scraps that I am going to make a zippered pouch with.

Scraps to make a zippered pouch

Had to go to a meeting last night and I grabbed this rag quilt so I could finish the snipping on it. Thank goodness I took the quilt with me. It was cold in the room and I cuddled under the quilt as I snipped away. I had already done some snipping, but it wasn't finished. Well, it's finished now.

Rag quilt - DONE

 I guess it's technically not completely finished as it's currently in the washing machine and I'll pop it in the dryer in a few minutes. Then it'll be done. That's project number 63 for the year.  Only 37 more to go - can I do it??  Actually - let's make the goal 104 which would work out to 2 projects per week for the year. So that makes 41 projects to go. Hmm - that's going to be tight. But there are about 10 more quilts (at least) that just need the binding, 7 that have magazine deadlines, and a rug and a tuffet that both require about one hour. That's half of the goal right there. Worse case - I have a bunch of table runners that need to be quilted and bound. Those would go fast. Or I have some zippered pouches and bags that are close. I'm sure if I get looking, there are other things that are very close to being finished.

Snipping those rag quilts is easy when you have the proper tools. I seem to have two pairs of these reverse action scissors. Probably couldn't find the original pair when it came time to snip a rag quilt I did a while back so I had to buy a new pair.

Reverse action scissors - perfect for snipping rag quilts

Actually, there were three rag quilts in total. Someone had taken a class and ended up not liking rag quilts so they gave me all their bits. I did blog about it. I decided that making two huge quilts was going to be a lot of work and they would be very heavy, so I made three smaller quilts. These last two are perfect as a kid's quilt. I'll be donating this one when I get a chance - the first one has already been donated and the last one (when I get it snipped) will be donated as well. Thanks, Pam - your rag quilts are almost finished!!!   Two down and one to go.  I might be slow, but I do get things done!

I'm not sure if I should tell you this or if I should let Lexi tell you. The girls have been obsessed all summer with the gazebo. They just wouldn't stop worrying about something that was under the gazebo. They tried to dig through the floor, they tried to dig underneath and they would run around and around. Anyway, I thought it was a rabbit. The other day I went into the gazebo to survey the backyard in all its autumn glory. I glanced down and OH GOD - there's a dead animal hanging out from underneath the gazebo. I couldn't even tell what it was. And it had been dead for a while. I never noticed the smell in the backyard as we haven't really been out there much lately.

Yesterday I got my dead animal removal tools out (a rake and a shovel) and after a wee bit of a struggle, I freed the carcass. Turns out it was an opossum. I could tell by the tail. That's the second one that I've had to remove from the backyard with my handy extractive tools although the other one was lying in plain view. Thankfully, those girls are only after the thrill of the hunt and once they've got whatever, they leave it alone.

Of course, DH asks how I knew it was dead. DUH!!!  I won't go into details - let's just say that it was dead. GROSS!!!!  It was totally gross and that's all you need to know about that.

I hadn't noticed that they haven't been worrying around the gazebo. Let's hope that we're finished for the year. I think that makes 2 opossums, at least one if not two squirrels, a rabbit, and some mice. ICK!

On that gross note, I'm out of here. I've got a ton of stuff to get done and I'd better get my butt in gear.

Have a super day!!

Ciao!

OH -- I found a link to the PRINCE quilt show in Seaforth.  Check it out.