A LONG, LONG day

Phew - I'm glad that yesterday is over. While I had a load of fun, it was a very long day.

I have to be quick this morning as well as it's RETREAT day. I promised myself that I'd be out of the house by 7:30 and the car is packed except for my food and my clothes. AH - we have a slight problem. Due to some panic packing and taking a LOT of stuff for Ronda, there seems to be a space issue in my car. BUT - I'll make it happen. It's called -  hold the item briefly and then slam the car door quick!

It'll be much better on the way home since a few things will NOT be coming home with me and I'll do a better job of packing. Plus, I took a bunch of supplies. I brought my entire box of zippers because I didn't have time to find the couple that I need. I've got batting, fleece, stabilizers, fabrics, thread and a whole lot more. I don't normally go this way, but just depends on what I feel like doing. I don't really care. Plus I have some kits to make stuff on the serger (yep - packed the serger as well) and some quilting stuff that's already cut.

Those that bring one laundry basket - HAH!!!  Let's face it - that'll never happen for me. And I just got a text from Ronda - am I bringing my scan n cut?  Ah - no.

Mary left me a message to say that the poppy display (that I posted yesterday) in Perth, Ontario is amazing and the pictures do not do justice to it. If you get a chance, please visit that work of art and tribute to our fallen soldiers. Here's the link again in case you missed it yesterday.

So when I wasn't panic packing yesterday, here's what I did. I got the binding on this giant quilt. You can see that the first half is on, but it's done and in the car for delivery today. Hey - if I left the quilt at home, I might fit the Scan n Cut in the car. Just saying.......

Putting the binding on a quilt

I finished up this quilt for a customer. It's a very bright happy quilt made with fabrics with Paris all over it. 

Customer quilt - DONE

So I put this amazing quilting design on the quilt. You can see PARIS (written backward as this is the back of the quilt) and there's the Eiffel Tower there as well.

Quilting on the Paris quilt

Loaded up the next quilt and this one got quilted as well. 

Custome quilt - DONE

Both of those quilts got trimmed and are ready for customer pick-up.

Just a note about long arm quilting. There's still a couple of slots open if you want something done by Christmas. They will be quilted in the first two weeks of December - November dates are completely booked. If you find a quilting design that you like (computerized), I can quilt it. I need to play around with that computer as well. One more thing to learn!!!  This learning just doesn't end! I have ALL my manuals loaded on my iPad so I might (not likely) have a peek this weekend.

The other thing that I put on my iPad is my downloaded quilt patterns. This way, I won't lose them. And in most cases, they are huge and I don't want to print them. I'm too cheap. Put them on the iPad which is always in the studio as I also use it as my radio and I'm good to go. Oh yes - while technology and I sometimes have a love/hate relationship, I'm embracing it and trying to use it more and more.

 I've got more technology stuff to share, but that will be at the end of the month.

I also taught two classes yesterday. The first one was a private class (at Oh Look Fabric) to help a person learn the embroidery part of her sewing machine. Not my brand, but we worked our way through all the details. That was a two-hour class. And I got the names of two more ladies who want private classes to learn their sewing machine. I'll teach you anything you want!

I'm putting together a list of classes starting in January. Some will be at The Hobby Horse, some at Oh Look Fabric and some at my studio. And as mentioned, if you want a private class, I'm up for that as well. If you have something you'd like to learn, let me know. I think I'm more into technique classes rather than take a pattern and make it. But I'll do anything.

Then in the evening, I was back at Oh Look Fabric to teach two ladies how to sew pillowcases. One hadn't touched her sewing machine in 25 years and the other had NEVER even sewn a stitch in her life. They both went home extremely happy with their finished pillowcases.

Happy pillowcase makers

It warms my heart to hear the excitement as the students realize that they have made something! I just love that and they go from intimidated to "I can do this!"   It doesn't get any better than that. I was getting tired at one point and literally had to stop to think about cutting the fabrics. One was directional and the other was not and my brain just about shut down! But the ladies were very understanding (thanks for that!) and we moved on.

Then Cathy who was manning the store showed me some mending that she did after she had listened in our free motion class. She did some mending on her husband's jeans. YEAH!!!!  She just learned to sew last year and she did a super job on the mending. And she gets to save some money by not having to buy a new pair of work pants for her husband. Isn't that just the best???

A mended pair of jeans

There's so much that you can do with a sewing machine. As I was thinking about the pillowcase class, I decided that I need to do two things. I need to make a video of the assembly of that pillowcase. Yes - I know there are other videos out there, but I'd like to direct the students to my resource. And second, I need to put something together about buying a new sewing machine. Don't worry - I'll keep it neutral - well I'll try!

But here's the thing. So the lady with the embroidery machine - her MAXIMUM design size that she can work with is FOUR INCHES square! Now that would greatly cramp my style, but here's the thing. When you buy an embroidery machine or even a sewing machine - you have NO IDEA what you're going to do with it, so you've no idea what to look for or what features to buy.

Speaking of embroidery, I should mention that I did manage to stitch out an embroidery design yesterday. It's the most adorable thing ever. BUT I can't show you until later this month. You're going to want one. I can hear you all begging me to make you one!!!!

On that note, I just have to walk the girls (it'll be a walk together this morning - a short one) and then find a way to squeeze some clothes and my bag of breakfast food in the car and I'm off. I'll be blogging while I'm away and I might just even get the picture thing happening!!! I know I can so that's something to look forward to.

Have a super day!!!!!

Ciao!!!!