Monday sewing

Hey - it's a great day! Yesterday was a great day - it was Monday sewing. I got loads done. I don't have to go anywhere for most of today and I'm making amazing progress on my stuff! I'm happy!!!!

I got to Monday sewing and Lynn and Diane were already set up and sewing. It's very hard to get there before the two of them. But with only three of us in the room, it's easy to work on big stuff. I took advantage of that opportunity.

Here's what I worked on. First - I should say that I had to make several trips to the car during the day to put stuff in and then to get more stuff to work on. Oh - and we had a visitor yesterday. Mary V came to see us. Mary used to sew with us and has now moved to the other side of the city. Mary brought me a present which I'll share with you tomorrow. Don't worry - I gave Mary a present back so it was more like a swap. It was great to see you, Mary!!!!!  We miss you! It's nice to be able to keep in touch with all the people that have moved away via Facebook, so I don't feel like we were out of touch!

This is a pile of stuff that I brought down to the studio. Everything is sorted and for the most part - it's put away.

A stack of stuff I worked on at Monday sewing

Not sure if anyone remembers the Kaleidoscope quilt that we worked on last year as a year-long project. Well, that quilt was on my list of quilts to get finished this year. At least so it could go in the "to be quilted" pile.

Here's a picture to refresh your memory. The quilt is called Kaleidoscope by Quilt Addicts Anonymous. It was our Block of the Month (or $10 quilt) last year at The Hobby Horse. As I was scrolling through my previous blog posts, I see that I worked on this quilt at a lot of different places.

Kaleidoscope

It's a very large quilt and I wasn't sure that I wanted another huge quilt. So this is what I did with it. We had discussed this option in the class as well but I'm not sure how many went for it.

I did the center medallion up to that big black border. Notice that I nixed the yellow in the last border as well. Then I called it quits on that part. Here's my center medallion - it's been done for a long time. Now the backing and the binding are finished.

Center medallion of the Kaleidoscope quilt

This medallion measures about 66" square - that's large enough for a nice wall hanging or a lap quilt.

Binding and backing for the center medallion of the Kaleidoscope quilt

Then I took the four corners, which have been assembled for a long time as well. Actually, I think I finished them at the retreat back in March or April. Those four pieces have been tossed around the studio and I believe there was a picture of Little Bear sleeping on the pieces.

Bear sleeping on the Kaleidoscope quilt top

Anyway, I took the four pieces and rotated them and sewed them together to get this quilt. I then added a 6" border of black. The darn thing measures 80" square!!!!  Big enough for a bed quilt or at least a good topper.

The second "half" of the Kaleidoscope quilt

And thanks to my efficiency yesterday, the backing and the binding are also done. I should mention that the binding was made at the retreat this past weekend.

Second Kaleidoscope quilt - backing, binding and top

 I was just warming up by then!!!!  I prepped the backing for the scrappy quilt that I finished at the retreat. And I joined enough of the scrappy binding pieces to get the binding. Another one ready for the "to be quilted" pile.

Scrappy quilt number 2 is ready to be quilted

Just in case you have forgotten what the quilt looked like, here's the picture from yesterday.

Scrappy quilt number two

While I was on a roll and had all that space, I made the backing and the binding for the scrappy quilt number three. It looks identical to the one above but will have a much scrappier border.

The backing and binding for scrappy leaf quilt number three

Phew - that was a lot of bindings and backings, but it felt good to get that out of the way. I crossed the Kaleidoscope quilt off my list of UFOs for the year. Yeah!!!!  And once I get this last border on the scrappy quilts - I can cross that off the UFO list as well. I'm making progress, but I know that I won't get them all done before the end of the year.

I did get the second to last border on that last scrap quilt. That leaves only the heavily pieced one to add. I made good progress assembling the bits. I'll work on it again next week and perhaps I can finish it????

The last border for the scrappy quilt

While all this progress is a good thing, can you think of what's happening behind the scenes???


Yep - there's a chair piled high with quilts to be added to the "to be quilted" pile. I need to find a container to put them in and they need to be logged on the list. I have a sit n sew next week so I'd better make them disappear before then.

Quilts to be added to the "to be quilted" pile

Let's not forget that there's another chair in the room piled with quilts that need the bindings sewn on!

Quilts that need the binding sewn on!

Something really funny happened at the end of our Monday sewing day. Everyone was packing up at the end of the day. Everyone but Sheila and myself had left the room. Two of us, but three sewing machines on the floor. Hmm - that must have been Lynn who left her machine since she was the last one to leave before us. Nope - it was a Husqvarna, so that must be Jane's who left just seconds before Lynn. I ran outside to see Jane slowly driving out of the parking lot. I drop both machines (mine and the extra one - well - not really) and I start waving my arms. Jane didn't see me and drove away.

All the way home, I was thinking how I could get Jane's machine to her. When I got home, I brought the extra machine into the house. I thought I should have a peek to make sure it was Jane's Sapphire. Well, I got quite the chuckle when I realized that it was a Ruby. Now, who in our group has a Ruby? That would be Diane. The one who is running neck and neck with me to get projects done. She had to leave early and she packed up her machine and left it on the floor. She was so excited to get a glass of wine in her hand.  So now I have her machine. Hmm - how long can I keep it???

Anyway - we did get a good chuckle out of that.

This weekend is the craft sale at The Hobby Horse. There's going to be all kinds of awesome crafts for sale. Someone asked if they could have a preview of what I'm selling. I've dug out a bunch of stuff that I've made - there are pillows, bags, ornaments, journal covers and other stuff. It's going to be a great craft sale. Be sure to come out and pick up some Christmas gifts.

My stuff to prep for the craft sale

Ronda went to Salem, Massachesetts for Halloween. While she was there, she spotted this scarf for me.

An orange scarf with skulls

 Now I have an orange scarf with skulls and one with bicycles!!!  Thanks Ronda!


Tish, who is the rebel in our group, finished off this quilt yesterday. She had started it at the retreat. There's a pattern for the quilt. It's called Over and Down Under by Bonnie Sullivan. It takes a jelly roll of flannel - Woolies Flannel designed by Bonnie Sullivan for Maywood Studio. Our Tish worked it out on her own brain power!  Looks awesome. I still have this quilt to make and I'd better get my butt in gear, but Ronda and I want to make ours bigger! Of course!

Tish's flannel quilt

We share our Monday sewing room with a before and after school program. Their portion of the room seemed a wee bit tidier than usual and I was browsing the labels on some of the tubs. Oh boy - what the heck is this???

subitizing?????

Tish looked it up with Siri and Siri told us that it's the recognition of the number of something. There were flash cards in the box and our group passed!!!!  Here's a link to the official definition. Who knew there was a word for that!


On that note, I'd better get myself organized for the day. I'm quilting one of the magazine quilts and I should be done by lunch????  I pulled fabric this morning for another urgent quilt. More on that later - it's going to be equally neat.

Oh - I should mention that if you want the 12th issue of the "print" version of QUILTsocial magazine - it's now available. You can look at it online or you can download it (for free until November 30th) to your tablet. It's great and there's some super articles/projects in the magazine. A number of them are mine, including my flange binding instructions.

Now I'm out of here.

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!!