Trash or Treasure?

Yesterday was a productive day, just not as productive as I would have liked it. I hate when that happens, but that's just the way life is. Get over it and move on!

I had a lot of running around to do in the morning, but everything got done. Including a trip to quick trip to Chapters. I didn't buy anything, but I found something that sort of knocked my socks off. I'm going to share that with you tomorrow. Yes - there I was in Chapters taking pictures!

Last night I taught a class on paper piecing at Oh Look Fabric. Ran into a couple of people that I haven't seen in a long time. Great to see you!! And Mary was in my class. Mary is just Mary - loads of fun, lots of laughs. We had a great class. There's ONE more class this week. The rope bowl. If you're interested, you can check out the link above and sign up! All my classes are fun and flexible!!

Anyway - here's what they got accomplished last night.

Paper piecing a tree

While those bits may not look like a Christmas tree yet - this is what the end result will look like.

The completed Christmas tree wall hanging

It's very cute! They do have a ways to go, but one of the students was brand new to paper piecing and she did an amazing job. She was a bit timid at the beginning which sort of leads me into the topic for tomorrow's post. But I'll leave that for tomorrow.

The pattern is called Christmas Tree Paper Pieced by Jitka Designs.

In my travels, I acquired this paper bag. What's in the bag? The big question -  is it trash or treasure?

Trash or treasure?

There's a quilt project in that bag. A bunch of wheel blocks that were hand appliqued. There's quite a few of them. 

Hand appliqued wheel blocks

 It may have been a group project as I found a note pinned to one block with a name on it. No one I recognize and no other notes on the other blocks.

A name pinned on the block

High alert - I found a bunch of circles for the centers and they're NOT cotton. It almost looks like a KNIT. ACK!!!! That means there must be unfinished blocks.

Center circles and NOT from cotton

Yep - there's also a bunch of blocks that have no center attached.

No centers attached to this group of blocks

 But wait - there's MORE!! 

There's also a bunch of wheels that are NOT attached to the background fabric.

Completed wheels that are not attached to a background

No worries - there was a chunk of white fabric in another bag that will work for the background.

There was also a pattern (hand drafted no less) in the bag. As well as thread, a thimble and a roll of green painter's tape.

The hand drafted pattern

I'm going to call it a treasure and get if finished. I know - shoot me now!!!  I have several other treasures that I've rescued over the years. None of them are done. However, I was reviewing my UFO lists the other day and there are 8 already on the list for 2019. Most of them will be easy? I sure hope so. I don't think any of them are multiple quilts like I've had the past couple of years. So - I might just add one of the "treasure" quilts to that list. Let's not forget that there are still projects to be done from the 2017 list and the 2018 list. The intention of the list is to NOT forget these projects. Progress is being made and I hope to polish that 2017 list off before the end of this year. Then the focus of Mondays and Sit n Sew days will be the 2018/2019 lists.

Anyway, I've decided to keep this treasure. I might toss those knit circles. I really don't want to applique those down and I might just finish it off by machine.

Where did it come from? Someone dropped it off and that person gave it to me. The story? The original owner has passed away and the family is trying to get rid of stuff. Who knows if there was more, but one more treasure is enough for me!  Remember - this is going to happen to our stuff one day, so get it done NOW.

I was waiting on a package to arrive. Now with the issue with our postal service, you can't really depend on it. I was thinking the package was coming by courier, but no it showed up in my mailbox yesterday. Not bad when you consider it was mailed on Monday. Three days! Can't complain about that. However, the issue was that this package was shoved into the small boxes in our super box. I had to tug and tug and roll and roll before I could manage to get the darn thing out. And it was cold out last night!

The package arrived safe and sound!

My box is one of those little square ones! I'm guessing the parcel boxes on the bottom left were already filled with something that they couldn't bend!

Super mailbox in Canada

When they open those big doors to put stuff in, they have more room so I bet it was easy to get it in, just not so easy to get it out.

The whole front opens so it's easy to get the mail in the boxes

The new style is way better. Why didn't they think of that in the beginning? I know - because mailboxes (in post offices) have for years been small square shaped because we used to get a lot of letters. Now we get big flat stuff. This is the updated style.

New shape to the mailboxes

It's time to empty the scrap bucket. I have to find something to put this in so it can go into a pet mat. I haven't uncovered the sheets in that cold room yet. I think I fill my scrap bucket at least twice a month and Diane doesn't want me to throw this away. Guess who is coming today and guess who is getting the scraps in a paper bag?

The scrap bucket

On that note, it's time to get rolling. It's Sit n Sew day!!!  I have to say that I'm making good progress in cleaning up and keeping the studio tidy. It didn't take that long to clear the tables, despite the fact that there were five machines to move. There wasn't much in the way of projects. It's all tucked by the long arm and there's still plenty of room to move. That's progress!!!!

Have a super day and stay warm!!!!

Ciao!