What goes on in your neighborhood?

While I should be quilting, I'm prepping for classes. I have five classes this weekend (including two today) and I'm madly prepping for them all. I'm good for today, almost done for tomorrow and a wee bit more for the Sunday class.

I often have these grandiose plans on everything that I will take to the class and sometimes that doesn't happen. But fortunately, I have enough samples already that I'm good in most cases.

As much as I say that I may want to back off teaching, I just can't. I love it too much. Yes - all the prep can be very time consuming, but I'm a putterer. I love to cut and sew and I'm pretty much happy when I'm sewing anything.

Have you ever noticed how much routine plays into your day? My mornings (except Wednesday when I go to spin class) are super routine. I get up at the same time (most days - sometimes it's even earlier than normal), I have the same breakfast (well two different ones), I do e-mail and write the blog, walk the girls. It's all very routine until 9 AM and then who knows what the rest of the day will bring. I think that routine is very calming. It also means that I don't really have to think in the morning - everything just falls into place.

My neighbor also has a routine. I could set my clock by him. Now that I'm upstairs sewing early in the morning - yes - I know if I can see them, they can see me. So???? Anyway, he leaves for work at 5:45 EVERY MORNING. Not 5:44 or 5:46, but 5:45 on the dot - every day. It's hilarious as I leave the sewing room at 6:00 (more or less) and I know when I see him drive away that my fun sewing time is almost up! He's way more routine that I am!

So this happened yesterday - I was madly sewing away, getting ready for the class today when I realized that I had made a mistake cutting some strips. First off - it wasn't entirely my fault. I do NOT like the pattern that I'm using. The pattern itself is fine, it's the way it's formatted for the cutting instructions. Yes - I made some mis-cuts and now I'm short!!!!  ACK!!!!!   I hate when that happens.

The fabric is by Northcott from the Glam Girl collection which is about three years old. I know that some stores around here had it as I remember seeing in on the shelf. But if anyone has this fabric - I would love to chat with you. The SKU on the selvage is 21457.

Missing fabric

I made super progress on the paperwork yesterday and got a lot of stuff organized and sent off. But there's a pile more that needs to be taken care of. If I owe you an e-mail - I know!!!!  E-mail me again and I'll try to get back to you.


Oh -- I have loads of video to upload to YouTube. They just need a couple of tweaks and I need to check the video editor I'm using. Got to find a permanent solution for the editing right off the bat so I don't screw up part way through. Have to send an e-mail to make that happen this morning.


Here are some pictures of what I've been working on upstairs.

It doesn't take long for the room to get in total disarray! Every time I look at the colors in that room and then I look downstairs? How did I ever sew down there? It's white and grey! And just looks dreary right now with everything stacked up!

A very happy, messy place to sew

While I was in the car on the way to Quiltcon, I removed all the hand stitching from this quilt. It was a very difficult task as the person who did the hand quilting was aiming for a prize of the most stitches per inch!!  And that green fabric is a percale sheet no less. Holy - the stitches were tiny and tight!

But the quilt is now apart and in three pieces - the backing, the front, and the batting. The batting went into the bag of stuffing for the pet mats. It had shredded in some places and just wasn't appropriate to be reused as batting.

The aftermath of a major ripping session

It's hard to see in the pictures, but there were bits of batting and TONS of threads stuck in the fabric. I have removed most of it.  It was a very tough and time consuming job. I'm not quite finished and am taking it to my class today so while the group is sewing on their mystery quilt, I can finish the job.

Loads of threads to be removed

Let's just say that those stitches have been in this quilt for a long, long time and even though they are removed, there is a lovely texture to the quilt. It's quite a cute quilt and certainly took a lot of time to cross stitch all those little dogs. There are stains on the quilt and I'm not sure I trust the seams a whole lot.

A close up of the quilt

I think once all the thread is removed, I'm going to soak the quilt top and let it dry to try and relax the fibers and to try and remove the stains. I guess I could take it entirely apart and remake the quilt with different fabric so we don't have to see the quilting lines??????

It's very hard to see in this next photo, but the quilter had marked a very intricate quilting design (in pencil) on all the green sections in the quilt.

Quilting designs marked in pencil

This is the back of the quilt. Again, a lot of work went into this quilt. The backing is also stained and I'll try to remove the stains before it gets quilted. That might help me figure out what to do with the quilt. If the stains do not come out, I'll quilt it and my girls will be happy to have another nice quilt. I know - it's a shame to do that, but who is going to want a "new" stained quilt????

The backing

Also when I was ripping out the hand stitching, some of the seams in the backing came apart. They are now fixed, but it makes me worry about the integrity of the stitching. And ALL the seams are pressed open!!!!   Shoot me now - I hate that.

So once I'm finished with it today, it'll get washed (by hand) and then it'll go in the "to be quilted" pile. That will be the third one that moves into that pile this year.

Almost in the "to be quilted" pile

Then I got busy and cleaned up the cutting mat. There was a pet mat on there that needed to be sewn up. It's now ready to be handed over at Monday sewing. It sure makes a difference when there is a nice clean space waiting for you when you get to "work" in the morning.

The cutting table is clear

There's still stuff under the cutting table, but I'm working on clearing that up as well.

Next to work on projects!

But stuff is off the floor in this area so that's a good thing. Gosh - everything in that room is wild and bright!!! With the sun, I might have to take to sewing with sunglasses on!

The floor is cleaned up!

And I've made good use of the over-the-door clothes rack that was on the bathroom door. My ear buds, a bag and my tape measure. Perfect! I love how everything can come together if you just look beyond the normal purpose of an item. There's no danger of me cutting through my earbuds if they aren't on the cutting table which is where they were hanging out before.

Great place to hang stuff

Thanks to Pat who gave me this very appropriate themed pack of serviettes. It was supposed to be for our last Sit n Sew which for obvious reasons didn't happen.

Bicycle serviettes

Thanks, Pat - I'm going to save them for when we're all back in business with the Sit n Sews. It's going to happen - just a question of when.

Speaking of checking up on the neighbor's - please, I'm not nosy - I'm just observant. Have you ever wondered what your neighbor's put in their garbage/recycling carts? When the bins were open, we could see everything, but now that we have carts, you can't see. Not that I cared in the least. However, there's one neighbour on our street and I seriously want to know what happens in that house. The curtains are never open and in the 15 + years that I've lived on this street, I've never seen a light on in the house.

This has probably been happening for a long time, but I've just noticed this in the last couple of months. On recycling day, this house has their cart outside as well as two of the blue transparent bags for recycled materials. The two bags are FILLED with empty (presumably) containers of disinfectant wipes. I mean - TWO HUGE BAGS filled with them. The first time, I saw the bags and thought - WOW - that's a lot of wipes. Maybe it was a one-time thing.

Nope - I saw two more bags this past week. I see this when I'm walking the dogs, so don't think I'm out scouting the neighborhood for dirt on my neighbors. But seriously, there are 80 wipes in each of those containers. And there were two bags filled with the containers - that were probably used in the last couple of weeks. I'm going to try and remember to check on our next recycling day to see what happens. 

Why would someone use so many wipes???  I'm pretty sure this person lives alone. Used to be a body builder so wiping down gym equipment???  That's probably it, but holy - if you're the only one that uses the equipment, do you need disinfectant wipes???

Did I ever mention this story? I'm pretty sure. I consider myself a pretty good observer. I miss lots of course, but I like to keep an eye on my surroundings. Several years ago, Ronda and I were on our way to some road trip. We witnessed an accident that happened right before our eyes and we were very lucky to have not been involved. We were in a hurry, the car that caused the accident stopped and a couple of other cars, so we sped off.

However as we chatted about the accident and in particular the driver of the car that caused the crash, we could not agree on what the driver looked like. I thought it was a girl, Ronda thought it was a guy. I saw long hair, she saw something different. I don't remember the details, but we still laugh about that today because there we were - both saw the same thing and both came up with different information. Weird how our brains work!!!!

OK - enough snooping observing for today!!!!

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!