North Stars - Neville the Narwhal

I'm not sure why this happens, but I could use a good admin assistant to help schedule things. Can you tell me why I would book a class on Friday night of a long weekend?? Well, two people signed up so we had a class. It was all about free motion quilting. I'm going to toot my own horn here a wee bit, but if you've never taken a free motion quilting class with me - you're missing out! Big time. I do a mean free motion quilting class and we have loads of fun. Free motion isn't hard if you know what you're doing. The students were in their glory when they left.

Anyway, the late hour at which I went to bed did NOT help me from waking up at my "new" ridiculous time. After lounging in bed for a bit, I got up and accomplished a whole lot! I'm not sharing yet. Today is all about the show and tell from our classes last weekend. I'm determined to not only keep up with the sewing part of these projects but with the show and tell as well.

In case you think it's an easy task to load the pictures, it's not. Most of the pictures are on my phone (which I'm using more and more instead of my expensive digital camera - go figure!!). But sometimes I'm somewhere and someone can't make the class and they show me their blocks. I take pictures. I have to remember that I took those pictures and then remember to add them to the others. Some people send me their pictures by e-mail and I have to remember to add those. So if you've sent me a picture and I don't have it - well, send it again. I think I've got all the blocks that were shown to me from the last class.

Today, it's all about Neville the Norwhale. All of these blocks are super cute and I'm so amazed at how realistic they look from piecing. By my calculation, there are about 10 blocks missing from the rest of the students who didn't show up to class.

Here we go.  There was a slight issue for some with the contrast of the tusk of the narwhale. Some of us will have to use thread during the quilting process or markers or something to make that tusk contrast a wee bit more to the background. This block is done in the Northcott Toscana.

Block done in Toscana

Look at the difference between these two blocks. See how the star on one pops out and not on the other? As I mentioned yesterday, there is NO right or wrong to this. It's what you want to show up more. Although, I will admit that with this quilt, it's a tad challenging to figure out what goes where. Despite that little issue, the class is doing very well in choosing colors. 

The star is more subtle in this block

Lots of contrast in this block and look at that fabric for the narwhale. The star really stands out with those bright blues.

Bright blues create amazing contrast

Lots of contrast in this block but a totally different take on the blue. And look at that swirly fabric. Very cool.

Look at the different blues!

Here's that block with the super busy background!!  Very cool!!

Busy print for the background

While you can't see it, the grey fabric used for the narwhale is GORGEOUS. Unfortunately, Lynn didn't know where she got it. But I loved it!!!! It looked like a linen, but not sure if it was. Anyway - nice fabric.

Great grey used for this narwhal

I believe this is one that was made from the kit. Notice that the flying geese are very prominent, but the star is not.

Prominent flying geese

Here's one with a medium blue background so you can really see the tusk on the narwhale. I didn't take a closeup but there are seagulls on those flying geese in the bottom left corner. 

Nice contrast on all the block parts

Here's the one with the tan background. Again - great contrast on everything. I didn't take a closeup, but those bigger squares on the bottom? If I remember correctly, that was Beatrix Potter fabric!!!

Tan background

I remember Kathi lamenting at the beginning of the project that she didn't know what fabrics to use. Well, she's been very successful at finding just the right fabrics. Can you believe she found narwhale fabric???? Seriously!!!!

Narwhale fabric

 And here's her block using the fabric. How cool is that!!!!

Narwhale fabric 

These last two blocks were made with the fabric from the kit.

Block made from the kit 

Another block made from the kit

Isn't that exciting???  My block isn't there, but it's made. I'll show you my blocks tomorrow.

I have one more day of the show and tell from the North Stars quilt. I still have more show and tell from various classes. Never mind, showing you what I've been working on and what's going on at my house with Studio B.

But here's one picture I'll share with you. Yesterday was a LONG, LONG day at my house. The painter showed up at 9 AM to paint all the baseboards in the basement. I meant to wash them all down before he came, but it totally slipped my mind. He washed them all and was just in the process of starting when the moving crew arrived. YIKES!!!! First - I want to know how professional painters can paint so fast and so accurate without taping????

The big question then was what to do with the moving crew of 4???  So we devised a plan of where to put stuff and they started to haul everything back in the house. Yikes - my idea of trying to keep things contained - well that didn't work. Let's just say that the entire basement looks like a sea of boxes pile about 5 feet deep. Let's not forget about the bookcase guys who came back to install the bookcases. One is up, one was missing some parts. That'll be finished on Tuesday.

They reinstalled the shelving in the stash room and then I had to quickly move things out of the way so they could lay the bookcases on the floor. So much for a "slow" move in. I put some things back in the stash room, but my goal is to remove it once again and go through it before it goes back on the shelves.

The biggest question is where the heck to start? There's so much - it'll blow your mind when I post pictures of the entire mess. My mind is totally blown. It's a bit overwhelming and the burning question is "where do I even start?" The furniture is all over the place, boxes are in the way to move the furniture. Don't worry - that is NOT the fault of the company - I asked them to leave it that way. There's no way they could unpack all that stuff.

I've decided that today, I'm going to get the cutting table back in position. I see the two pedestals are very close to where they should be. The top is another story as its buried deep on the other side of the room. But I'm persistent - I'll get it out!

Then tomorrow's job is going to take all the (not on the bolt) backings and measure them and write on them how many inches/yards are in that bundle. Then when I'm looking for backing, it'll be super easy to find the right color and the right yardage. I do that with my batting so why not with the backings?

Speaking of backings, I also have a stash of bolts of fabric. They were on a bottom shelf in the stash room and yes - there was stuff piled up against them. I did use those bolts, but not on a super regular basis. I suppose partly because I had no idea what was there.

As I put the bolts back on the shelf, I sorted them. One pile is flannel, one pile is seasonal, three piles are basics and stabilizers, the rest are sort of sorted by color. How many bolts of orange fabric does one person need??

This is what the bottom shelf (the fabric bolt shelf) looks like. Any idea of how many bolts are there? Over 100!!!!  Now how the heck did that happen???

Bolts of fabric

I did find some skinny bolts that weren't big enough for backings any longer. A white one got put in the white bin. Same for a cream. And I found LOADS of cream, white, and black. No need to buy basics for a LONG, LONG time. Now that I know what's there and it will REMAIN open in front of the bolts so I can see what I have, those bolts will get used for backings. No need to give any of that away. There's a need for backings.

Susan found me some more pattern boxes at Fabricland (on sale for $2) so extra patterns will get sorted and put in those boxes. That's a job for another day. I need a work surface to work on. Hence the priority on the cutting table!

I'm scheduling Sit n Sew days and we'll just work around the mess! My goal is to try and get the stash room back together. NO CLUTTER on the floor. Then I can see what doesn't fit - that will go into the other storage area which may or may not have a floor. Still waiting on that one.

I was hoping to get to the long arm this weekend. Hmm - I got the machine back in place. Not a lot of room around it and where or where are my threads????

If I can manage to get the books back onto that one bookcase, that will eliminate some boxes and make room to work. I may not get a chance to get the books sorted as I would have liked, but doesn't matter. I can (and will) do it later this summer. I'm determined to get this mess into a useable situation!

You should read Rosyquilter's comment from yesterday's blog. Interesting - especially about the books. What do you do with them???  A few of mine are reference books that I want to keep forever, but the magazines will be slowly culled. The books as well, but it's still hard for me to part with those. That comes directly from my MOTHER!!!!  But like myself, she has accumulated (too much) and now it's time to use it up. It's not time to give it away - yet.

I'm still working on those two projects that are due July 1. So that's going to be my focus today. It was a tad hard to focus with all the uproar in the house. It's going to be super quiet today and my hallway on the main floor is like a superhighway now. It's HUGE! with no boxes sitting in it.

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!