A rolling stone gathers no moss.......................

I think that's a very appropriate expression for me. I'm all about go-go-go! I know that I have an obsessive personality and I take every advantage of when I'm on a roll! The Sit n Sew days get me so fired up and now the Community Projects days get me even more fired up - well - there's NO stopping me now. I WILL get this mess cleaned up. I'm so excited about the prospect and even in my mind, I keep rearranging things to make it better. But ONLY once some of the other stuff has gone.

Yesterday started with a wee road trip. We had to drop something off and pick something up. Although I didn't know I was going to get something to pick up.

Our Quilt Posse (road trip group) leader just got a new set of wheels. Oh boy - it's amazing what they'll put in a car these days.

Yep - that's the glove box. NO - it's not. It's under the glove box and it's a cooling compartment. Seriously??? That's totally insane but you knew that was going to happen. I'm waiting for the microwave to show up in the next year's models. That jar of Coffee-Mate? That's what we were dropping off. It was accidentally left at my house last week. It's some special flavor that you can't buy in Canada and I certainly won't use it at my house. Besides we needed an excuse for a drive.

The cooler in the new van

Now, what's with all these doom and gloom vehicle colors?? Yep - the new van is black. And YES - the weather was a disaster yesterday! A perfect day to be out driving a new car, but notice it already has snow tires on it!

The new road trip wheels

There's that HUGE badass truck again. Notice - it's also black. Well, I'm not changing the color of my vehicle to fit in. And I bet that Laura's car (what the heck does she drive anyway??) is not black - I think it's grey. But here's the thing, if you wanted a color other than black - guess what? You had to pay extra. You want white? You pay extra for that. You want grey? You pay extra for that. Didn't Henry Ford say that at one point? You can have any color you want as long as it's black? I get it that it helps with inventory, but seriously. That's probably why there are so many black cars on the road.

The badass truck 

Did you notice the parking? Good thing I didn't have my chalk with me (to draw big lines on the pavement) and the slush wouldn't have made that easy!!!

What was I picking up? I had completely forgotten that I gave this to Shelly to finish. Several years ago, I made this Amy Butler bag - it's called the Weekender Bag. One of the Monday ladies had made several for her family members. So Maria and I made the bag at her house near the end of 2014. I thought it would be so fun to make it out of heavy decorator fabric (I think it's outdoor fabric). Well, that fabric is very stiff and very heavy.

Amy Butler bag 

The bag was complete except for one thing. Well - two things. The lining is a drop-in lining. So once the outer bag is done and the lining is done, you put one inside the other and then the two have to be attached. You're supposed to do that by hand stitching the lining to the inside of the zipper. First off - I think that's a silly idea and not the most sturdy and second? Who wants to hand stitch that stiff fabric to a zipper. Enter Shelly - our bag maker extraordinaire with a badass industrial sewing machine. I had to ask her the other day if her husband married her because of all her tools or because he liked her. She said, because he liked her. I have my doubts!

Anyway, as usual, she did the most amazing job of sewing the lining to the zipper with the industrial sewing machine. I'm sure she cursed me the entire time as it would not have been fun.

The lining is now stitched to the rest of the bag

And this is what it looks like from the outside. I think she did a fabulous job of following my line of stitches. Yeah, Shelly - you're the best and now I owe her a BIG favor. Not sure what yet - but something will come up, I'm sure. Does she need anything to be embroidered? No - she has another friend who does her embroidery. Well - we'll figure something out. Thanks, Shelly. I love you for your tools and I also love you for who you are!

The outside of the bag

However, I got to thinking about Shelly this morning. Where the heck does she store all her tools? She doesn't have a huge house. OH - now I know why she has that big truck. I bet she carries them in the back!!! So if she wants to change my toilet paper rolls in the house - she's allowed. No one else though!!!

This is the second thing that needs to be done. Make the bottom insert for the bag. Everything is cut - it just needs to be sewn together. I think I can handle that today. This isn't part of the pattern - this is the thing that I do for all the bags that I make.

The bottom for the Amy Butler bag

I now have a couple of spools of thread that can be returned to the thread bin. They've been in that silly bag for years. I can only imagine how many more spools of thread and missing tools there are in the other UFOs.I found a pair of small hemostats in the witch project that I finished the other day - used to turn the legs inside out. 

Thread to put away

Once I got back home, it was time to hit the quilting machine. For some reason, I thought this was a lap quilt but when I pulled it out - it was a giant quilt. But it's now quilted and trimmed and ready for pickup!

Customer quilt - DONE

I was on a roll and besides, I wanted to have a couple of small things for Rose to bind, should she feel inclined to bind some projects today. You know - practice makes perfect. This is made with 12-inch squares of solid fabric. So it's not very big but would make a good lap quilt for a senior or a child's play mat. It has flannel on the back. But what I LOVE is the quilting design. The design just perked up the solid fabric. I LOVE IT!!!!  I notice there's no binding for this one. The quilt top and backing have been sitting in the "to be quilted" pile for a while and I remember not having time or fabric to make the binding. I'm sure I can find something today to make binding for it.

Community projects quilt - DONE

But I wasn't finished. I put this small table topper on the long arm and it got quilted up as well. There is binding for that one. I found this topper in the box of stuff that someone donated years ago. Well - the topper can now be used. It just needs the binding to be sewn on. Hmm - it does have a red binding, but I think the red is too bright for it. I might put that on the other one (will have to make more) and find something dark for this table topper.

Community projects table topper - DONE

I couldn't stop at that. So the two sheets that I had washed in the morning were cut apart and are now in a stack of 9" squares. Ready for our foundation sewing day. Seriously?? Who wouldn't want to come and sew that day? There is ZERO prep for anyone coming - all the cutting is done. There'll be some trimming that day. You don't even need to put the quilt together at the end of the day and you certainly don't need to think about quilting it or binding it. That gets done by someone else. All you need to do is sew! Think about it - one spot left for January 17th.

Foundation squares for a string quilt

I had stuffed these two geckos on Monday sewing days. All that remained was to sew the sides together where I had inserted the stuffing. They are now done. I just have to trim the flaps away. That'll happen this morning and two more projects are DONE! One is for me and the other is for someone else who is picking it up today. I bet they want to go on a road trip!

Two geckos

The scrap box is full yet again. So I'll dig out one more pet mat bag. I'm going to have to make more sooner rather than later! No worries - I've got a date scheduled for charity sewing next Sunday (anyone is welcome to come and work on a kit if they want - you don't need to finish it). So I'll be making more pet mats and filling them, as well as working on the stuff in that basket I showed you yesterday. It doesn't bother me to have this stuff sitting around because I have a scheduled time to work on it and that works for me!! It would be nice to empty that basket that day, but I don't think that is going to happen. We all know that everything takes longer than planned. Besides, I'm quite happy to throw on an audiobook and work away.

The scrap box is overflowing - again!

I finished off two pet mats this morning. So those can be delivered tomorrow.

Two more pet mats

I love how you are all digging out UFOs and trying to get them completed. And if you're not digging out or finishing UFOs or trying to destash - WHY NOT?? I'm so proud of all of us for becoming responsible because if we don't, someone will have to eventually. And if we're not going to have fun with our stash, then we should just get rid of it now. I'm tired of managing my stuff and I want to use that time to make things. I'm so close now!!!

Today is the LAST Sit n Sew of the year. Well - the last official Sit n Sew. Every day for the remainder of the year, except one (I have two private classes booked after Christmas) is going to be a personal Sit n Sew day for me! I can hardly wait to get started! I'm down to three or four more customer quilts to get quilted this week and then I'm done customer quilts for the year! So that means, I'll be trying to get all those community projects quilts done (and I'll sneak in a few of my own as well).

I was looking at my list of audiobooks that have accumulated. Where did some of these recommendations come from? I recently finished the latest Janet Evanovich book (Twisted Twenty-Six) and I actually liked it more than the last couple that she has written. It had a wee bit more "meat" to it than some of the previous ones. And someone recommended, "Where'd you go, Bernadette?".  Oh my gosh - this book is hilarious! You MUST read it or listen to it and it's also a movie. I must see that movie!!

On that note, I'm out of here. I've got another UFO that I'm working on today! I put all the community project stuff away because I have a scheduled date to work on it so I get to play with my own stuff today.

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!