Is free a good deal???

I was just reading a comment left by Judith. She's the one who has sold her house, selling many of her household possessions, putting some items in a 10 by 17 storage locker with a support post right smack in the middle - so I guess a boat won't go in that storage space! They are traveling the country for the next year in an RV - a HUGE RV, but that RV also has a finite amount of space. She's a quilter and what the heck does one do with all their fabrics?

I see that she has decided to make up 10 kits from her stash - precut them and has some handwork projects as well. Then when she's back in her home town in September, she can get more "kits" or fabric as she needs. I think that's a very rational plan. Way to go Judith!! She has ONE month left to empty the house although I'm not sure what they're sleeping on or sitting on as I know a lot of stuff has gone!

How super exciting and yet a bit scary at the same time. I can't wait to hear all the stories! You can't have an adventure like that without stories!

So, I'm sitting at the kitchen counter at the retreat house waiting for my stovetop steel cut oatmeal to cook. I prefer the quick version in the microwave (yes - there is a quick version of steel cut oats), but the microwave here and I just don't see eye to eye. I had a container of stovetop oatmeal so that's what I'm using. It's not a huge deal to wait 25 minutes while the darn stuff cooks. I'm a patient person - most of the time.

I left the house at 7:30. Stopped to pick up a tea and a cookie because all the cookies were packed and then realized about 20 minutes later that I got the tea, but no cookie. Oh well - I guess I didn't need that cookie. I ate my two small cookies when I arrived at the retreat house at 9:06 AM.

Oh my goodness - they had a fabulous surprise for us. If anyone has been here - do you remember where the stairs went into the basement in the sewing area? Well, the stairs are gone and there's a nice big table there. Which I immediately claimed. It's a table for two and it's perfect. I set up one machine there and did some unpacking as I had madly thrown stuff into bags before I left. I know I shouldn't do that, but I do.

Since Ronda still set up in the dining room so she could use the new gigantic design board, I worked on her block for our group exchange. I managed to get that finished and I was able to pass along the bag of stuff for Ronda's quilt to the next person. Yeah!!!!  But I also got the next box. I don't have anything to work on it here and it's not due until the end of April so I'm good with that. Hey - I'm up-to-date with that project. Three blocks are made - one for myself, one for Ronda and one for Susan. There are five more blocks to make. I can't wait to see what the quilts look like at the end. We're not sharing until the end.

I decided to fire up the embroidery machine after lunch and got some blocks done for an upcoming class. I was very happy, the blocks are super cute. I'm basically done all that I can do on that project as far as the embroidery goes - I need some water soluble stabilizer which I didn't bring, but I've loads of other stuff that I can do. I'm starting to piece that project together and I can't wait to see the entire quilt done. I hope to have it quilted by May!  There's a second one that I need to get working on but I might do that tomorrow and focus on sample making today.

I did try and contain myself a wee bit as far as spreading out on the tables, but alas I did not succeed. I'm in two different rooms, with two different machines, loads of threads and bits and bobs. Yep - just like I was back home!!! And think of the exercise that I'm getting as I run from one machine to the other. There are about 5 stairs in between as well. Perfect excuse to get some exercise. I did over 10,000 steps yesterday!!!

The oatmeal is done but I forgot to buy bananas yesterday. That's on the list for today.

I want to thank everyone who has taken an item or two off my hand. I'm ready to sign the contract to get moving with the floor. That'll take a month so there will be no sit n sews until May. But we'll make it happen and then we have to make up for lost time!

Speaking of free, when I was teaching at a local guild, I was told that they had received a ton of upholstery samples and they were free for the taking. Hmm - do I really need any of that stuff? I did peak through the boxes and this is what I found.

The first lot is small samples of vinyl. These are going to be perfect for the rope bowls, especially when I teach a class. We use the vinyl as a small decorative touch at the top to hide the end of the rope (so no one can be at the end!). The samples are not huge and they reside with the rest of the materials to make rope bowls.

Vinyl samples

I found this small quilted sample which will make a good sample to practice a binding sample on. It's in the binding box.

A small quilted sample for binding

Next up a very small sample of velvet and some other kind of napped fabric. Good practice samples for machine embroidery.

Napped fabrics for machine embroidery samples

I believe the one in the back is also a napped fabric and then I found a sheer. Both will be useful for machine embroidery samples.

Sheer fabric - good to make a machine embroidery sample

I couldn't resist this piece. It looked so modern that I thought it would be fun to incorporate into a modern quilt.

Sample to incorporate into a modern quilt???

Here's another modern looking sample that I thought I could incorporate into some quilt.

Another sample for a modern quilt?

I bet there was a lot of this next kind of fabric, but alas someone had already been in and there was only one piece of this style left. Which is probably a good thing. I love this kind of fabric. Not sure what I'll do with it so good thing there was only one left.

Gorgeous piece of fabric

So a HUGE shout out to Liz for letting me dig into their guild's goodies. She didn't want me to accuse her of adding to the pile of stuff that I had laying around the studio. I think I was very reasonable with what I took. This is a case where less is more. Having a definite plate for a few things is way better than taking a lot of things and doing nothing with it.

Hmm - this oatmeal is very yummy even without the banana! 

I see that most of the others are up and it's time to get the day rolling. I did NOT need a nap yesterday, but let's say that when my head hit the pillow at 10 PM, I was out like a light.

Don't forget to check out QUILTsocial today. It's the last day of my week of blogging. Always something new to learn.

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!