A play day with Ronda

It was a love/hate day with technology yesterday and we can't even share most of what we played around with! Ronda was busy working on the Husqvarna Viking Designer EPIC as she did some embroidery. I was working on the other side of the table on my new Brother Scan n Cut. She didn't insert the bobbin correctly and the stitching was bad. So she got that fixed. I couldn't get past the Welcome screen on the Scan and Cut. I did a live chat with Brother and then was told I would receive an e-mail to help me out. I'm still waiting.....................   Hey Brother - do you hear me????  I'm still waiting.........................

Anyway - we did have a fun day despite the frustrations with some of what we were doing. Oh - we did get one thing done for Ronda that we can share with you. I'll share that with you tomorrow. It's not amongst the edited pictures I have for today.

She dropped me off at the mall so I could get an errand done (more on that errand another day) and then I walked back home and accomplished two more errands on the way. My FitBit is in overdrive these days. Even if I spend the day sewing at home, it's a few steps from the sewing machine to the ironing board and then to the cutting table and then to the long arm. I'm well over 10,000 on any given day unless I SIT too much which drives me crazy.

I thought I'd share some of the photos of Studio B. That room is in constant evolution. It never looks the same way twice. And with all the tidying that's even truer. This is one of the corners that needed to be tidied up. It sure looks a lot better than it was. But there's still quite a bit of stuff to deal with.

Stuff that needs a home

This is what happened last week. Yes - much improved and I'm getting excited about it. I just hope that I can remember what homes I've given to each of the things that got put away. So far, I'm doing great.

This is what's left that needs a home

Technically those two white cabinets don't need to find a home. One of them stays in that corner and the other has a home when I remove some other stuff from another spot. It shouldn't take long to finish that off, but now I'm in production mode (getting ready for convention and loads of classes to teach in the next couple of days) so there's NO time for more tidying.

This is the other corner that needs tidying. Again - it doesn't look like that now as some stuff has been moved and removed. But the other white cabinet will go here (under the table).

More stuff that needs to find a home

It's all coming together and I might just get one of the two spots done the next time I take a go at tidying! That's super exciting and my goal is to keep most of the stuff out of the main room. That way, I'll have maximum flexibility on how to jig the room depending on what it's being used for.

The work tables - same thing. Each day, they look entirely different. If I showed you a picture this morning, there are four sewing machines, the scan N cut, my laptop, and a serger set up! Totally crazy! But it's just the sort of workspace that I need. It allows me to be super productive and it's flexible. The big thing is to NOT let any of the stuff linger. Everything has a home and when I'm done, everything needs to say goodbye and go home. It's like children - you love them, you have a nice visit, but then bye-bye!!!

Flexible workspace

There are six tables in total that are "joined" together. That's how I get so many steps. Half the time, I need something that's on the opposite side! I'm OK with that. I like walking on that new vinyl floor so it's all good.

When I heard that Heather was coming over the other night, I quickly assembled some stuff that I thought she might like. She took some of this stuff including the orange flannel and some other decorator fabric. The rest is now in the car and will hopefully be delivered to a new spot today. If it works out, I'll tell you more about it.

More stuff that is going

Not the sewing machine to the left of the stack. That's my sewing machine and that little cabinet it's sitting in, is now against the wall and out of the way until it's needed. The black table is in one of the other corners, holding some stuff that needs to be put away. Total flexibility. Once all the stuff gets put away, what am I going to do???  Be even more productive - that's what!

Here's the thing. Do NOT be envious of the space. Yes - I know that I'm truly blessed to have such a large space. But here's what I did. You notice that I've removed EVERYTHING (or in the process) of removing everything from my workspace. It's in several rooms around the house. I know where the stuff is, but it's not in my face. That gives me a totally blank canvas in which to work. So if you work in a tiny space, that's OK. Just make sure that it's not super cluttered so you can actually work. If you have too much stuff that you don't know where to put??? Well, then you have excess and you need to get rid of some of it.

That's what I'm doing. Trust me - when you have a wide-open space to work in, you'll get more stuff done. When I work on a project, I'm as messy as ever, but then I tidy up once that event/project or whatever is done. Then I bring out the next projects and mess the room up again and repeat. I'm becoming super productive and I sure wish that someone would have clued me to this years ago!!!!!

You'll never guess what I found. Remember that Halloween quilt I worked on last week?

Halloween quilt I worked on last week

So I had a quilt backing for it. I decided to not use that neat Halloween fabric as the backing for this quilt and found more in my stash. Then when I was digging through a bin of quilts that need borders, backings, and bindings - guess what I found???  Yep - the REAL backing for that quilt. No worries, this piece got labeled and is now in the backing pile. Sigh -- this will happen again I'm sure. That's why it's important to keep everything together.

Backing fabric for the Halloween quilt

I managed to empty another cute container. What to do with it??? It's now filled with a second lot of projects that need attention. Once I finish the stuff in the orange container, then it's time to move to this one. I'll refill the orange one and alternate between the two. I know that sounds silly, but I LIKE to see what's coming up! Call me crazy. So the two of these baskets are sitting on the floor in Studio B. But should I decide that I need the floor space, they are easy to pick up and move somewhere else. And when I go to retreat in a couple of weeks, I can just grab one of the buckets and I'm ready!

One more bucket to fill with UFO projects

Here's a quick peek at the garage. After the big garbage day this past week and I also called 1-800-Got-Junk, the garage is looking a whole lot better. Not perfect - not by a long shot. There's still a couple of hours of work in there. But a whole lot better than when I started out. I will say that they were fast and extremely efficient. I would sure hope so because they were NOT cheap. Had I realized what it was going to cost me, I would have dug a bit deeper to get rid of the stuff myself. But it's done. Move on!!!

The right side of the garage

LOOK - there's actually cleared floor space!!!!  It won't take long to move everything to one side and then DH will have room to park his vehicle this winter. He'll be a happy camper!! My side? Well - we have to figure out what to do with the bicycles. That's a whole other story and there's no time for that this morning! The bottom line here is that progress has been made. Due to a super busy October, I may not get back to it for a couple of weeks, but that's OK. Every little step is one step closer to where I want to be with this mess.

The left side of the garage

Before Ronda came, I managed to get this quilt off the long arm. It's for Quilts of Valour. Just needs to be trimmed and then it's ready for pick up. I think trimming is going to be a job for Sunday afternoon.

Quilts of Valour quilt - DONE

I loaded a customer quilt after Ronda left and I got that one finished as well.

Customer quilt - DONE

I'm so close to catching up on all the customer quilts, but as quickly as I get them out the door, more come in! That's OK. I'm going to go at a wee bit slower pace on the customer quilts for October as I try to get some of those charity quilts caught up!

So I swear that computerized long arm is evil! Well not exactly, but there are times when it's temperamental. I had to change the bobbin in the middle of the row a couple of times. Normally, it's supposed to remain in place and will start right back up in the same spot. Twice last night, the commands got mixed up and the machine is veering off (not stitching) in its own little world. However, the good news is that I know how to fix that. The first couple of times it happened, I freaked out. How to reset the machine in a very specific spot????  HELP!!!!! 

Now - it's no big deal if that happens. But just like anything - when it happens and you don't know - it's a disaster. When you figure it out (because there isn't anyone much to help you), then you remember for life!!!

It's why I think learning by our mistakes is the BEST kind of learning. We need to let our kids make mistakes so they learn. I've made so many mistakes in my life, it would blow your mind. But you've probably all done the same thing. Mistakes in sewing, in life choices, in whatever - that's how we learn best! We need to become comfortable in failing so we can learn to excel!

This is super late notice, but I'm doing a series of demos at The Hobby Horse today. Scroll down to the Upcoming Events part of the page. The first one is at 10 AM on rotary cutting. It's hands-on so if you're struggling with cutting - this is where you should be today. At 11:30, we're going to look at your sewing machine. What does it do? It's called "Know your sewing machine" and the third one is at 1 PM on Colour and Value. It's going to be a jam-packed day!!!!!

I'm learning to stay up a little bit later these days to get everything done. I still have homework to get finished for Saturday's class. I'm not into doing an all-nighter, but I might have to!!

Today is the last day for QUILTsocial with the Husqvarna Viking HUSKYLOCK s25 serger. Take a look at what I made. They turned out amazing and even DH is using them. That says a LOT.

On that note, I still have a pattern to finish proofing before I head off today.

Have a super day!!!!!

Ciao!!!