To quilt or not to quilt

I'm possessed! I'm trying to clear up the list of quilts! I've no idea why - there's nothing urgent to be quilted, but I'm on a roll.

And - well I had another interesting customer. I shall not name names, but she knows who she is. I can see her rolling her eyes as she reads this.

A while back, she gave me a couple of quilts. I did ask which one was more urgent and she told me the hockey one was more urgent than the football quilt. OK - so I loaded the football quilt. Hey - it was the first one that came up.

I was going to see her yesterday so I decided that I'd better get her quilt done before she came. I had loaded the quilt the previous night. In the morning, I had a funny feeling that the quilting pattern she chose was directional and so was the backing and it wasn't loaded the right way. DARN!! So I took the quilt off the long arm and turned the backing and the quilt.

As I went to load the backing, I determined the direction of the print. Then when I started to pin - WHOA? This isn't working. I turned the backing around and OH BOY - the prints on the two halves of the backing were going in opposite directions. I choose the side that would give the most visibility to the directional print in the correct direction.

The quilt backing

If you didn't know, your brain probably wouldn't register what happened. But it was important to me.

Needless to say, the quilt got quilted and the binding got put on and she was able to take the quilt home with her yesterday!

Customer quilt - DONE

Since it was a hockey quilt, we used a hockey quilting pattern. I'm very familiar with the steps now to operate the robot on the long arm. HOWEVER, if you miss a step which is very easy to do when you're in the zone (or listening to an audiobook). That happened once with this quilt, but she'll never know! And that's because I pretty much know how to get myself out of trouble with any situation. At least any that I've encountered so far. I'm sure one day, something will pop up that I've not seen before. Just to give me a new learning experience.

The quilting pattern

What to quilt next? I have a list for the week and trying to fit them in as I have time around my other activities. Oh - here's a small one - that will work perfectly. Dare I say this is the same customer and the backing had to be pieced? She always has the backing pieced. Oh well - bottom line - this quilt is now finished. It's trimmed and this time she is going to learn how to put the binding on herself by machine!

Customer quilt - DONE

You can put a binding on a quilt with any sewing machine. However, I've been using the top of the line sewing machines for the last couple of years and they are so powerful that putting a binding on a quilt is like running a hot knife through butter. DONE!!!!

It was so gorgeous yesterday, that I had to take a walk in the afternoon. OH - I could go back to the library to pick up a book that I had seen the day before. I know - I have to stop going to the library for a while. I'm only allowed to go if I'm returning something. NO MORE BOOKS.

Speaking of books, I also have 7 audiobooks on my electronic shelf. Now, how the heck did that happen? I started listening to James Patterson and David Ellis's book called Unsolved. Oh boy - I have two hours left in the 13-hour book. I NEED to know how it ends. I listened most of yesterday, been up very early this morning and listened some more. Where can I sneak in two hours? Maybe tonight. Maybe in the car driving to Monday sewing (that's only 15 minutes away) as my radio station has moved over to Christmas music - 24 hours a day until Christmas. I like Christmas music, but I can't handle that.

I read the first book in this series called Invisible. Also in audiobook and it's chilling! Personally, I think some of these books are way better in audiobook format because of the voices that read them. There was a HUGE twist at the end of Invisible. Will there be one here?

Anyway - this book is about a very unsavory character - where do they dream up these guys? And the plot twists? Some parts are frustrating, but that's part of the storyline. I'll be finished tonight for sure.

I also did some machine embroidery last night. Oh my - what fun. Wait until you see what I did and how I did it. That's a story for next week.

I have to go - my brain isn't good enough to write a blog post and listen to an audiobook at the same time, but I might just get in an extra 20 minutes by cutting this short. Sorry!!!

We also have our UFO club yesterday. Holy - people are focused! I'll be sharing that with you later this week. The good news - it's going to continue in the new year. I'll be putting a post together soon with classes and other stuff that's happening in the new year. My goal is NOT to make you start a new UFO - it's to help you finish the stuff you started and sometimes a new technique to keep your brain learning. OK - who am I kidding - there's a couple of new projects in the works! Fun ones!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!!