Change is all around us

I swear that I've never worked so hard or so focused as I have these last couple of days. I'm rather enjoying it! There's no one at my water cooler or someone to pop in at my desk (sewing machine) to bother me, although I do get the occasional phone call. My darn travel arranger asking for suggestions. I say - go with anything - I'm just along for the ride!! More on that at the end of this month. I guess this is all about passion versus a job.

I got a lot accomplished yesterday although there still seems to be an endless amount of work to do. I've got loads of samples to get prepped for my SVP Educator gig. Loads of new toys to play with. I didn't take a picture of what I worked on yesterday, I'll share that with you tomorrow.

I'm going through stuff so fast that I don't have time to put it away while I'm working. BUT I do tidy up once a day. It only takes a few minutes and I get it all done at once rather than a little bit here and there. And I'm clearing up stuff that has been sitting for a while. Not because it needed to be put away, but because I needed to make something with it. The something is made and now all the supplies can be put away. It's super exciting.

Actually, that cutting table doesn't look so bad, but it's all stuff that needs to be put away. And look at that scrap pile in the back. I wonder how high it can go before it topples over. I need to bring down a pillowcase to make a pet mat.

Cutting table with stuff to be put away

I know that I keep saying there's a light at the end of the tunnel - well, it seems to be getting bigger and that's just fine by me. One day (hopefully soon), I'll have this backlog of stuff out of the way (created solely by my procrastination) and then I can move forward much faster. The backlog items have been put in my little book of deadlines and as there is time each month, some of them get moved onto the wireframe. That system is so perfect for me. Twenty years later I find a system that keeps me on track.


I got two small quilts done yesterday. The first one is for a customer.

Customer quilt - DONE

For some reason, I seem to NEED to get my samples made for my fall classes. Why? No idea - I've never done that in the past. Not only are the samples getting made, but they're getting quilted. Seriously???  I must be totally out of it. That's never happened. That's how in control I am of my time!!!

Here's the sample for POSH Sample which is a class at The Hobby Horse on September  21. Call the store to sign up - it uses the QCR Mini Ruler from Sew Kind of Wonderful. The pattern is super easy and fast to make and a great way to learn curved piecing.

I'll make the binding (which is also the backing) later today and it will go to the store on Monday. You can't really see the quilting in the picture, but I had a blast quilting it. My one weakness on the long arm? Curved ruler work. The lines in his mustache are a wee bit wobbly. It didn't help that I didn't have the ruler foot on the long arm. I'll know next time - freehand it or change the foot. Life is always about gaining more experience by making mistakes. I LOVE IT!!!!!  Doesn't matter   - he looks awesome and I'm super happy with it. I'll even be able to hang it up for Christmas since it'll be done!!!!

My quilt - quilted!

I had a few minutes to spare so I set up my applique prep area and started on those hearts for that last gingerbread block. There are six hearts.

Applique prep area

I managed to get two hearts done. I should be able to get the rest of the prep done later today and then the block can be finished on Monday. Time to dig out the rest of the blocks and start sewing!  That'll be a project for the next Sit n Sew day later this month.

Gingerbread block with two hearts prepped

Know anyone who is moving??? I've got boxes - a LOT of boxes. This is about half of the boxes, but it's the ones that I've unpacked so far. Some of them are damaged and need to go into recycling, but there's a lot of good boxes there. Let me know and they are yours for free. I want them out of that space - they take up a lot of visual room.

Boxes from unpacking

Last night when I was working on POSH Santa, I started to quilt the background and I wasn't happy with the thread color so I had a wee bit of ripping to do. Funny how it takes a half-hour to rip out what you did in two minutes! Why?? Because I can't find my darn seam ripper. I have a surgical seam ripper that I use on the long arm. I have found the other tools that I use at the long arm, but not the surgical seam ripper. I tried a regular ripper and then I remembered that I have this seam ripper from Lee Valley. Hmmm - I don't like it. If anyone wants it - it's yours for free. I've never used it until last night.

Seam ripper set (there are two) up for grabs - for free

I'm going to have to go and buy a new one today as I had to rip something small the other day and it's driving me nuts to not have my surgical seam ripper. I was going to be working today, but I've got a couple of errands that need to be done in order to finish off a couple of things. Best to get that out of the way.

Here's something else that I found that is up for grabs. If you're into scrapbooking, I think this is a wonderful tool. It's a design tool for 12" by 12" scrapbook pages. There's a large 12" by 12" blank page.

Blank page for designing scrapbook pages

Then there are bags and bags of precut shapes. All are very nicely labeled with the sizes. There are squares and circles.

Design shapes to put on the blank page

There are rectangles and other shapes as well.

More shapes

Here are some of the shapes out of their plastic sleeves.

It's a remarkable tool and I bought it with the intention of doing some scrapbooking, but I realize that that'll likely never happen in my lifetime and I must face reality. So if anyone wants this or knows where it could have a good home (a school???), let me know and I'll be happy to let it go.


A good news/bad news thing happened yesterday. I have my list of items that need to be done this month hanging on my wire rack. Yes - there are 13 items on that list. Some are big, some are small. One is a heavily pieced magazine quilt that needed to be completed next week. Last night, I got an e-mail saying that the publication is was slated for has been canceled.

You do remember that the parent company of magazines such as Quiltmaker, McCall's, Love of Quilting, Easy Quilts, Pre-Cut Patchwork (could be more titles) declared bankruptcy earlier this year. They were taken over by a new company in June. Pre-cut Patchwork is the first of the titles to be axed. That announcement affects two of my quilts. One that I hadn't started although I laughed when I read the e-mail as it said - "if you have already sent the quilt, we'll return it to you in two weeks". Already sent??? NO - my quilts arrive on the due date!  The second quilt was already done and was slated to be in the September/October issue but will be reused in a different publication.

That meant that I got to remove one of the items off my "to do" list. And it was a biggy. At this moment, that's OK with me. That gives me a lot more time this week which make samples and it's one less quilt to quilt next week. I'm still making the quilt as it may get picked up in the future. Let's hope as I really, really like the quilt.

Maybe it's time to start designing and writing patterns that I sell myself. Who knows, but for the moment, that's not on my radar screen. I've got two patterns to write for Quilts of Valour, then we'll see where that goes.

When I was at Quilts at the Creek, I discovered a couple of things and I've been holding off sharing them with you. Today I'm going to share one and the other one, I'll share tomorrow.

So, you want to design your own quilt and what do you use?? There's a software that's been on the market for many, many years called Electric Quilt 8. It's not cheap and some people find it very intimidating. What if you want something fast and easy to use? Let's say that you want to try something cool and different with half-square triangles? This tool that I discovered is AMAZING and the owners are CANADIAN!!!!

It's called PreQuilt. It's super simple to use - I watched one of the very thorough (and short) instructional videos and within five minutes, I had a quilt made! Well done!!!! Then it's a simple matter of printing the design out and start cutting.

The cost is very reasonable - it's on a subscription basis which makes it very affordable for everyone. I would recommend that you check it out. You can also buy patterns that were made with PreQuilt. You can try it for free without signing up - you can make ONE quilt in the free mode. If you like it, you can subscribe. For the casual designer, this is a perfect tool.

Hmm - you can change the color of quilts that are already created - that's a lot of fun!  Check out the tabs at the top left. And the instructional videos are great. A HUGE congratulations to Laura and her husband (I've forgotten his name). He's the one who designed the entire program. I'd have no idea where to start. Great job!!!!!

On that note, I'm out of here. I'm making a list so I don't forget anything that needs to be done (errands can be very distracting!)

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!!!!