Back to work

Hmmm -- I had a great day yesterday, but here's a mystery to ponder. We are doing our virtual challenge and as a result, I can see the number of miles logged by each day by our little group of four. I just eeked out 10,000 steps in the day. Shelly took a walk so I get where she got her miles, but Laura???  What did Laura do to get her miles yesterday??  I'm impressed Laura - keep it up. It just means that I'm going to have to up my game!

It's a new week and a new leaderboard - who will get the yellow jersey???

I took the dogs for a bit longer walk in the morning because I knew we wouldn't get our second walk in because of the rain. Oh well - it's off to the gym on those rainy days to get miles. Lots and lots of miles. But no one is competitive! Oh no!!!

I will say that at the end of the day and if you're trying to get in extra steps? You need to walk with purpose. My darn FitBit will not register little motion steps - it has to be purposeful walking or it won't register!

Anyway - I was busy in Studio B yesterday - all day! I have a quilt that needs to be out of the house by Wednesday. I started to cut it yesterday. Don't fret - it's on the long arm as of last night! I don't make my quilts complicated with a lot of pieces - I like to have fun with them, but keep them simple. The quilt is 72" by 88" or something like - a wee bit larger than I normally make, but it had to be that way to get the pattern. I LOVE IT!!!!! I'll share it with you when I can.

Speaking of that, I often make these quilts and send them off for publication and then never show you. But I received a magazine in the mail last week so I'll show you what I made.

This is the magazine - it's A Needle Pulling Thread - Issue 51. It just came out and the theme for this issue is Destinations. If you watch the pictures on the masthead of that website, my quilt will come up.

Issue 51 of A Needle Pulling Thread

I chose a beautiful fabric collection from Northcott called Paris... Always a Good Idea! It's a gorgeous collection and I love the muted, vintage look.

Here's a partial view of the quilt.

X Marks the Spot

Here's a close up of some of the quilting. Yep - I found a great pantograph with Paris written all over it and the A is the Eiffel Tower. How cool is that? I love it!!!!!

The quilting on my Paris quilt

I'm not showing you the entire quilt - no - you have to go to the newsstand to see the rest. There are loads of other great projects in the magazine - an article on whether to pin or not. A beach themed towel and bag made by my colleague, Margaret. The gorgeous quilt on the cover, a bargello bag, triangle placemats, two great artists reviews and well - there's a lot. If you're into knitting and cross-stitch, there's stuff for you as well so that's a bonus. Check it out!!!!

As I mentioned, the next quilt is already on the long arm. I thought I knew what I was going to do for the quilting, but changed my mind when I finished the quilt. I'll find something else and get started on that this morning. I have ONE more quilt in the funnel to make. I'd better get designing! But I have loads of challenges to work on - I'll be sharing some of that with you tomorrow.

I have a class this afternoon on Decorative Stitches provided the weather cooperates. So far so good - I just don't want people traveling in freezing rain. With the preparations for last week, the space in Studio B had gotten a wee bit out of hand. It was time to tidy up!!!

I have quite a few quilts to trim so I started with the largest one. This is that darn dimensional flying geese quilt. It's now trimmed and ready to be dropped off. Yeah!!!!  There was no fabric for the binding and not sure they want to use the flannel from the backing. Not my problem. It's going out the door tomorrow. They can deal with the binding.

One community projects quilt - TRIMMED 

I still have a pile of quilts that need to be trimmed, but I'll get to them perhaps this morning. These ones will need the binding put on. Some are mine, some will be donated. No worries - that won't take long once I get myself geared up.

Quilts that need to be trimmed

Then I decided that I should tackle that pile of quilts that I unearthed a while back. The ones that are almost ready to be moved into the "to be quilted" pile.

Quilt tops almost ready to move to the "to be quilted" pile

I laid them all out to see what was there. Yikes - this is totally crazy!!!! Some of them already have the binding made and are just needing a backing. Really?????  This is just insane. But then remember that it was NOT easy to find backings so that's why they sat.

A quilt top and a binding

So I glanced at the available backing fabric and found a yellow print. I've cut two pieces. I'll trim the selvages off later today and sew the backing together. That'll be one that can get moved. This is what the top looks like. The size is perfect for Quilts of Valour. I made this one several years ago in a class that I was teaching. It's from Marti Michelle - I don't remember the name, but I think it was called Northern Reflections.

My quilt top

Here's my backing - ready to be sewn together.

Backing to be sewn together

I also found these two bindings. Now, what quilt do they belong to????? This is totally unacceptable. How can I be so silly to not label these darn things? I don't think they belong to any quilt in that pile. But I'll get checking later today to see if I can match them up.

Two bindings for what quilt??

I haven't finished going through the "to be quilted" pile to verify what quilts are in what tubs. Most everything is listed and labeled, there are a "few" quilts in the last couple of months that didn't get logged in. I'm double-checking all the tubs, as some quilts got shifted or physically removed (and got quilted), but weren't taken off the master list.

Oh - here's my scrap basket from cutting out my quilt yesterday! I'll tell you that I used batiks and I'll show you the collection - it's called Ride-On by Banyan Batiks. Of course - so appropriate for me!!!  But the quilt design could be used for any collection with larger prints.

My scrap box

I also dug out my yoga bag project and I hope to at least take stock of where I am in the process later today. Hmmm - don't I have a class to teach? How much later today am I talking about??? OK - so some of it may have to wait until tomorrow.

Yoga bag bits

One of our local schools posts a virtue message on its outdoor sign. I spotted this the other night and took the picture. Self-control was NOT in my mind when I was in the US. The dessert I ate was OBSCENE. I'm kind of ashamed of myself. I know I don't need them, I know that I don't want to eat them. I was INFLUENCED by my peers. I WILL NOT DO THAT again!!!  The scale told the ugly story this morning. I'm still in my buffer zone, so I'm not worried. Again - it all boils down to it's OK to eat sugar, just not excessive quantities of refined sugar. My body hates me for it.

Self-control

I will do better!! And I'll get those steps in. Although the weather isn't good again today - we'll see what happens.

It was super easy to focus on making that quilt yesterday and only ONE error. I got it done, hung it up and compared it to the diagram and realized that one section was upside down. But I finished The Alice Network audiobook. It was a very good book - very frustrating to see how people were treated during the First and Second World Wars. It's also so inspirational to see the sacrifice that men and women made to win the war. The story is loosely based on the story of a real spy - Alice Dubois in the First World War. I see that I have another one of Kate Quinn's books in my reader. I might wait and read someone else in between.

It's going to be a super fun day and I'd better get moving if I want to keep up to my team on the virtual challenge. Who knew that something so silly would get us motivated to move and keep moving!!!

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!