The light is getting very bright in here!

Another super day! There really is a light at the end of the tunnel and it's getting bright. Very bright - I might have to put sunglasses on.

I delivered two customer quilts yesterday. And I got one more quilted. It's all trimmed - I still have to make a label for this customer and then it'll be delivered tomorrow.

Customer quilt - DONE

The next one which is "small" compared to the last few that I've done is already on the long arm. I'll wait until the ladies leave from Sit n Sew today before I quilt it. Then that one can be delivered tomorrow as well.

I got the quilts organized for the coming week. That means they go on the "next to be quilted" rack and they get put on the orange colored "white" board. I'm excited at how much progress I've made in getting this organized. After the one on the frame, I'm down to four customer quilts to finish this year. And I've got one community project quilt in the mix for next week, although I'm not sure I'll actually get to it as I remembered that I have four quilts for Audra to quilt. Those technically aren't customer quilts but I promised her daughter that I'd try to get them completed before Christmas. They are all fairly small so that should be doable. That would be HUGE to get that task done. I'm on a mission!

I did a wee bit of progress on the magazine quilt. I need to do more today or it's going to be late. I should have done more work on it last night, but after my class and finishing up the quilt above, I was tired and had a wee nap and then we watched a movie!  Free time is allowed so I don't feel too guilty, except that there's a deadline! Right now I have a very good reputation with the magazine editors - I don't want to ruin that!

My classes for the first half of 2019 are almost set in stone. Just a few more details to confirm and then I'll be publishing the list for you all to see. There are some super fun classes coming up in a variety of topics. I guess I'll be making samples next week. Some samples are already made, some classes don't need samples as they are almost full. The $25 classes at The Hobby Horse - almost full. If you're contemplating joining, I would NOT wait!!!  I'm serious - they are almost full.

Speaking of classes, I still have one more all day private workshop to teach this year, but otherwise, I'm done with the teaching schedule. It was the last class for our applique yesterday and look at what they brought in for show n tell.

These owls are from Swan Amity. A great lady who designs very fun quilts. It was a three-part applique class and due to circumstances beyond our control, two of the classes had to be rescheduled. As a result, we lost a couple of people and the pattern was probably a bit much for beginners. Despite that fact, these three quilts are AMAZING!!!!!

Marg (despite calling herself a beginner) has an amazing sense of color. Her owls are GORGEOUS. She got all the applique fused down and now needs to do some stitching to finish off the edges. Great job Marg!!!!

Marg's owls

Linda combined two patterns to get her own unique design. She used the owls from one pattern and the tree from another. I love it. Don't you just want to be that little guy on the right? Yep - that's who I want to be when I grow up. 

Linda's owls

Judy was very brave and is making the full owl quilt. Or not. I do love it just like this - that little guy - the oddball, is way out on a limb and looks like he's having fun.

Judy's owls

Didn't they turn out amazing?  Great job to all of you and next time we do an applique project - it won't be so ambitious. Matter of fact, we have another applique class scheduled and it's my job to find a nice simple pattern for it. Any suggestions?

While I was at The Hobby Horse, I had a peek upstairs which is always a dangerous thing to do. OH MY! The new Harry Potter fabric is in. I haven't even read the last two books of Harry Potter, but I did need to bring some of that fabric home.

Here are some of the fabrics - all the house crests. The one on the left is a double gauze so it's perfect for a garment or a scarf. I didn't get any of it .......yet.

Harry Potter fabric

 If you're into flannel, these ones are flannel.

Harry Potter Flannel!!

There are also fat quarter bundles and I got one of those and a couple of meters of yardage. There's also a large pillow panel with the house crest on it.

This is what I got. Not sure what I'll make with it. Heck - I still have the original Harry Potter fabric. This new fabric is much more "sophisticated" if you can call it that. Just goes to show how trends go in the fabric world. My Harry Potter fabric is "vintage" so it should be worth a lot!

What I bought for Harry Potter fabric

Be careful when you pick up a Fat Quarter bundle as there are two other ones as well. One is Fantastic Beasts - whatever that is and there's one more, but I can't remember what it was all about.

To see the entire Harry Potter collection, check out this link. That shows you the fat quarter bundle that I bought, but if you check out this link, they have fleece, flannel and digital prints. A ton of stuff. No wonder at Quilt Market, Camelot had a whole display of Harry Potter in their booth including an actor dressed up like Harry to attract attention. I should have taken a picture of him. If you see something you like, then it's your job to search the internet to find it, but I do know that The Hobby Horse brought in what I showed you above.

As I mentioned, we have a Sit n Sew today. That one corner of my studio is a pig sty. I don't need that tablespace for today, but my goal between now and the end of the year is to deal with all the stuff that's in that corner. There's a large bag of batting scraps and a large quilt to be bound. If I could deal with those two things, that would help a lot to clear the space. Oh, who am I kidding? There's a lot of other little things in there as well. But I have a plan!!!

Matter of fact, I've had a lot of fun finishing up stuff this past year and I can't wait to get started all over again next year. It's all about using up and getting rid of stuff. Here's the huge bag of scrap batting that's sitting in the corner. 

Big bag of batting scraps

I also have a whole whack of wound bobbins (for the long arm) and I don't need to have all these colors wound. So what should I do with them?  Don't worry - I have a plan for those as well.

Wound bobbins for the long arm

 And a while back (years ago), I was reading a blog online and that person said - "oh if you have ugly fabric, then you should cut it into strips. Then the strips are ready to make quilts."  Well, I learned very quickly that this is NOT a good idea for me. That's not how I roll. It just goes to show that while someone may have a wonderful idea - it's just that - a wonderful idea for them. We all don't work the same way. So after MANY MANY years, these 2 ½" strips are still sitting there. Perhaps if I throw that into the mix above, I may just come out with something fun at the end. That's a project for next year or maybe, I'll dive into that over the holidays as a fun project to do one day. I do want to get that large bag of batting dealt with. You'll have to watch for that.

A drawer full of 2 ½" strips of ugly fabrics

On that note, I"m out of here for the day. I hope to get back to my regular schedule of the morning spent on paperwork and quilting in the afternoon. I desperately need to as I've been ignoring the paperwork side of things for a bit and it's piling up.

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!!!