Sewing finesse

As far as stuff to show you, there's not as much as the previous day. However, I'm happy to report that I finished reading two books yesterday. One a paperback and the other was an audiobook. I'm so happy to be finished with Radium Girls. This is a novel about a true and shockingly disturbing incident that occurred in the US. The story started before WWI and spans several decades. I had never heard of the Radium Girls and all that did to make our society much safer from radioactivity.

But never have I been so shocked, horrified, and disgusted with big business. The delay tactics, the lies, the deceit and the absolute total disregard for their worker's health were so appalling. You wanted to force-feed the radium down each of their slimy little throats and watch them rot. I'm glad I read the book, but I'm also very happy to be finished.

What's even more appalling is that in one case, they were still using traces of radium in painting in 1978!!!  That is NOT a typo. I just shake my head. I have NEVER SHOUTED OUT LOUD in frustration when reading a book, nor have I SWORE out loud when reading a book, but I did it frequently during this book.

I must find a happy book to read because that was not happy at all.

Here are the two latest blocks in our Vintage Christmas Sew Along.

Away in a Manger

I would say that a little bit of sewing finesse is required on these blocks - especially the one above. You know when you have to cut 3/4" squares that it's going to be fiddly and require patience!

Reindeer Hooves

It's a wee bit of a challenge to only use gray with a trace of red or green in each block, but so far it's working.

I got the next quilt loaded on the long arm, but didn't even bother to turn it on. Time was tight yesterday.

I did manage to get a fair amount of computer work done - one more big job off the list so that made me very happy.

It's the BONUS day of the year. M was almost born on the leap year day 24 years ago. She was stubborn (even then) and wasn't ready to come out until about 2:30 AM on March 1. Not only is it the bonus day of the month, but it's also the end of the month and the end of the week. I'll be taking some time later today and reflecting on what needs to be done for the coming week and month. Yeah - I get to update/work on my lists. It's very satisfying to check things off and I think it's a reality check to review the amount of time one has to work on certain things and not go crazy with what you can do.

I suffer big time from delusional doability! So the lists including The Task Master help to keep me in check.

The best part of this weekend? Well besides M's birthday is that I have NOTHING on the schedule for TWO ENTIRE days. I have loads to do but I don't have to go anywhere or see anyone, so I should be able to get a lot accomplished.

Here's my waistband sample from the dressmaking class. I managed to finish the sample in class so technically, I have no homework this weekend. Although I would like to make the invisible zipper sample as I wasn't happy with it. I've taken the zipper out and want to remake the darn thing. It's not a required sample. Then I'd better get my act together and cut out the skirts.

The little waistband sample

We had to leave the center of the sample open so the teacher could see that we did the inside correctly, including hand stitching the interfacing to the skirt band. I never knew about that. Oh - it's these little details that I wanted to learn and I'm learning them!!

I also didn't know about stitching in the ditch to close down the waistband. How fast is that? I love it. This is the right side of the waistband.

The right side of the waistband

 And this is what it looks like on the inside.

The inside of the waistband 

 The other side of the waistband had to be stitched by hand. This is the outside of the waistband stitched with great finesse by hand. Notice how even those stitches are!!

The outside of the handstitched waistband

And here's the inside.

The inside of the waistband stitched by hand

We still have snaps and skirt hooks to add to our sample and then work on different hems. That's for next week.

Last night, I taught a class on paper piecing. There were two in the class and we had a great time. Here are the blocks that they got started. I always teach the paper piecing technique with a small block. If the students do not like paper piecing and it's not for everyone, then they don't have a lot of money or time invested in a project that they won't like or god forbid that it becomes a UFO.

Paper piecing samples from the class

Before I go today, I have to document my progress on my Virtual Challenges for 2020. On the Route 66 challenge, there's a group of four of us and there's a weekly leaderboard. Yes - I'm usually wearing the yellow jersey except on the first day of each week when no one has booked any miles yet and I think I'm always relegated to the fourth position. It's hilarious - I wonder why it does that?

The leader board for this week

But it wasn't the yellow jersey that I wanted to show you - it is the total miles. In two months this year, I've walked almost 442 miles. That MILES, not KM. That's an average of 7.47 miles per day. It's not difficult to make that mileage and I've settled into a routine where I don't find it a challenge at all. Two daily walks with the dogs and a walk on the treadmill about 4 times a week. I'm quite far ahead (just shy of 60 miles) of my pace marker for the Route 66 challenge.

My position on the Route 66 Virtual Challenge

I'm headed to Springfield, Missouri and in the Cross Canada Virtual Challenge, I'm headed for the BC/Alberta border. It truly is a great incentive to get out there and walk. Even yesterday with that blustering wind, I went with the girls for our usual walk in the morning. In the afternoon, we did walk to the grocery store, but we cheated and took the shortcut through the forest. I still managed to walk almost 8 miles yesterday.

Walking is a great exercise. It's free, you can do it anywhere, and you get to explore your neighborhood. Just remember to dress warmly if the weather is bad. You'll feel like a million bucks when you get back inside.

OK - speaking of walking, it's time to get moving. I see it's cold outside, but NO wind this morning. Thank goodness.

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!

Sit n Sew Day

So if you have a totally productive day, but you don't work on what you had planned, is that still a productive day?

In the morning, I trimmed two quilts intending to get the bindings on them. I also have a couple of other quilts that need to be bound that I was hoping to deliver to Quilts of Valour today. And I wanted to make the backing for that Dresden Plate quilt.

NONE of that got done. There are no deadlines for any of that stuff, so I'm not worried.

But what did I do? Well - I'm glad I got done what I did. It needed to be done and now I can move on.

I started off by having a good look at the Dresden Plate quilt. Hmm - those blocks are pretty wonky. Helen Anne easily convinced me that they were very wonky and I decided to take the quilt apart. ACK!!!  I know - who would have thought.

Now, this quilt was assembled years ago. I've no idea, but I'm going to say 50 - 60 years ago. They had no super cutting tools like we have today and I bet my Mom just cut the blocks out with little or no measuring. What did she know about quilting?

The seam allowances are NOT the same

All twenty blocks were seam ripped apart. The background of the blocks is flour and sugar sacks. You can faintly see the word SUGAR on one of them. I was careful when I took them apart as some of the fabric is somewhat fragile.

The blocks are taken apart

Then it was time to iron the blocks. Yep - some of those edges are "very" straight. We just do NOT realize how lucky we are to have all the rotary cutting tools that we have today.

A "straight" edge

I next measured them to see which one was the smallest. Some of the sides were 16 ½" and some were 15 ½" and the smallest side was 14 ½". Somehow they all got sewn together. I thought about adding a piece to the 14 ½" block to make it larger but then decided against that. They all got trimmed to 14 ½".

Measuring the blocks to find the smallest

Trimming the blocks to the same size was the next stage. Remember - I had company while I was doing this. That made the time pass a lot faster than if I were by myself. There were some very creatively cut edges!

Trimming the blocks

And this is what I trimmed away. Will I explain this to my Mom? Of course not! She would be horrified that I made the quilt smaller. What she doesn't know - she doesn't know.

This is what I trimmed off the blocks

Next, I laid the blocks on the table to make the quilt. The design wall was in use by Elaine S. I could have taken more of our scrappy blocks off the wall, but the table worked just fine.

The blocks are laid out and ready to sew together

I must say that I rather like the color combinations in this quilt. It's cheery and somewhat bright. I must call my Mom and ask for more details. NO - I can't do that. Then she'll be anticipating the quilt. I want it to be a surprise. I'll ask her the details when I give it to her and then I'll make a label and sew it on.

I got the rows together last night. Hmm - I might reverse the order of the second row. Not all the Dresden Plates are the same size or coloring and the larger ones seem to be all on the left side. Actually, I'll reverse the second from the bottom row and maybe swap the top row with the second from the top row. I guess I should have put them on the design wall before starting to sew them together.

The Dresden quilt is in rows

As much as it was a very time-consuming job, I'm glad I did it. It took nearly all day to get this much done. But I know I'll be much happier with it when it's all together. I was planning on quilting it today, but that will have to be postponed until Saturday or Sunday. I have another one I can load today.


Not only did I get those blocks dealt with, but I got the March block done on that monthly series that I inherited from Paula.

Mini-quilt for March

Paula had completed most of the work on this block but had cut the center square slightly smaller than it should have been. And one of the borders was pretty funky. So I fixed the border section and trimmed the top and bottom borders so they would fit the size of the center. It's all together. I have to do the satin stitching on it yet.

Here are the first three in the series. The top for January is completed and needs to be quilted. I have to do the satin stitching for the February and March mini-quilts. Then those need to be quilted as well.

Three seasonal mini-quilts

I snapped one other photo during our Sit n Sew day. This quilt belongs to Helen Anne. She was assembling the flowers and the leaves. This picture doesn't do it justice. In-person, it's gorgeous. It was inspired by a workshop with Jane Sassaman.

Helen Anne's floral wall hanging

I showed you a picture of my new reusable Swiffer cover. Torry mentioned that one of her friends using batting scraps. Yep - I got batting scraps on one of my Swiffers as well. It works like a charm and it's an easy thing to zigzag two smaller pieces of batting together to get a piece large enough for the Swiffer. We need to STOP throwing stuff away or buying all this disposable stuff. See if you can make those things that you buy. Remember - REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE.

Batting as a Swiffer cloth

 So two other great things happened in the sewing world yesterday. Look at my THREE outer border sections for the Pieceful Year quilt.

Borders for Pieceful Year

 The blocks for the fourth border piece just need to be sewn together. The corner blocks are now made. I need to deal with that yellow fabric so I can start cutting and sewing the two borders on the quilt. The light is almost blinding at the end of the tunnel for this UFO. I'm pumped to get it finished and I even have the next UFO (from my list) sitting in the wings waiting to be worked on. But NOT before this one is completely done. Oh, happy day!!!

Then I got some mail. I was looking for a Dream Big panel and I found one from a lady in Calgary in the bright blue. It's one of the colors that I wanted. So now I've got some more work to do.

The blue version of the Dream Big panel

There are just not enough hours in the day to do everything that I want to do. There are quilts to be bound, garments to be made, raw edges to finish, embroidery designs to be designed and stitched out. And that's just what's sitting on ONE of my work tables. I just can't seem to get it all done! But I'm making progress and that's all that counts.

I was off to the gym this morning. Oh boy - while it's not that cold outside, the wind is a tad chilly. I drove all the way to the gym (4 KM) and then back (when I was finished of course). I looked at my car and this icicle was still attached to the car.

Icicle on the wheel well

 My girls don't seem to mind the cold. Of course - they are idiots! But this is my view when we go for a walk. I swear it begs the question - why don't I have a sled so they could pull me? I won't go there.

Following the girls

 While I would love to be in either of the studios all day today, I don't think that is going to happen. I do have to finish my blocks for our Virtual Sew Along so that the homework assignment can go out by noon, but I also have computer work that I promised would be done today. ICK!! Commitments to someone else takes precedence. Oh well. What I can't understand is why that TO DO list never seems to go away?

On that happy note, we're going to brave the wind and go for a walk! Remember - it's all about the mindset. If you're dressed for the wind and the cold, it won't be cold. I have different mitts, coats, and pants depending on the temperature. This is a day to put it all on.

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!

Just do it!!

Back in November, we had our final show and tell for the Lilla quilt. This was our year-long class at Oh Look Fabric. I made all the blocks, but decided to make two lap-sized quilts instead of one huge one. One of the tops got sewn together for that final class and it even got quilted. If you scroll down that post to where I talked about my quilt that was quilted with wavy lines, I was on the fence about adding more quilting.

The quilt has been on my list of quilts to quilt since November - and basically, it was to make a decision whether to add more quilting or call it done. When I initially came up with the idea of the wavy lines, I really wanted to try the lines in two different directions - similar to crosshatching. Well, the list of "urgent" quilts for this month was done and I really didn't have anything else to work on. So I loaded the quilt.

The quilt is loaded

Since it had already been on the long arm, I didn't have to load three separate pieces, I just pinned the backing to the frame.

Here's the detail of the wavy quilting lines  - they look nice all by themselves, but it's my quilt and what do I have to lose if I don't like it with lines going in the opposite direction. Before I committed to the additional quilting and had pinned it to the frame, I did trace these lines onto a piece of clear cellophane and then laid it on the quilt to see what it would look like. I like it - let's go!

The quilting pattern on the Lilla quilt

Now it was a question of replicating that pattern as I had NOT saved it. Oh well. A little bit of math and some finagling and I had myself a pretty decent replica of the original wavy line pattern. This was as close as it was going to get.

Wavy line pattern on the long arm computer

The first set of quilting lines (back in November) consisted of 46 lines. This time, I had to stitch 42 lines as the width was shorter than the length by about 10 inches. I'm sure that if we looked really, really close, we could see a few little issues - so slight that I bet you wouldn't even know what to look for. But after only two lines, I was dancing around the studio - this is EXACTLY what I wanted.

My quilt - DONE

Here's a close up of the quilting pattern. I LOVE IT!

The cross-hatching quilting pattern

This had to be babysat quite closely - simply because each line took only a few minutes to stitch out. I couldn't walk away. Well, I could and I did, but I only had snippets of time to do anything else.

It's going to be trimmed this morning and perhaps have the binding put on later today. I wasn't supposed to let this become a UFO so I must get it done. It also means that I should get the blocks out for the second one and assemble that top. The goal is to quilt the second one totally different so it would be a good comparison for different styles of quilting.

I know that that pattern isn't rocket science, but it doesn't matter, I'm thrilled with it and I made it up myself on the computer!

So it's time to check out the next quilt to be quilted. It's one for my Mom. I totally forgot it was there, but she remembered! Of course - she did!!!!

When I pulled out the quilt, I realized that it's much larger than I thought it was. It's about 66 by 76 or something like that. Pretty much my generous lap size. Oh great - the apple didn't fall from the tree!

Dresden quilt for my Mom

There's no binding and no backing for it. HOWEVER, I did remember seeing some backing fabric that might work. And it happened to be very handy.

Backing fabric

That fabric is actually supposed to be the backing for this quilt - or should I say, it's going to be the border after a cream inner border is added. And perhaps the backing and perhaps the binding.

Quilt top from 30s fabrics

Hmm - what to do? Keep the fabric for the original quilt or use it for my Mom's? HEY - there's a lot of fabric here - let's measure. So I measured and I think there's enough for the TWO backings, TWO bindings and the outer border on the small quilt. Yep - over 8 yards!!!!

Measuring the fabric

It'll be tight, but when haven't I relished a challenge? I'll be making the backing today. We do have a Sit n Sew scheduled, but with the weather, I'm not sure who will venture out. Doesn't matter - if they come - they are totally on their own. I've got a stack of stuff to do and I'm determined to get some of those small things cleaned up!

Everything from that piece of yardage has to be cut perfectly. The backings need to be big enough that the cut off pieces will become the binding so absolutely NOTHING goes to waste. I'll keep you up to date on the progress.

Now the next thing is how to quilt the Dresden plate? My Mom wouldn't know the difference between custom and edge to edge and I could get away with an edge to edge pattern because it's fast. However, I quilted a small Dresden plate quilt for her last year and I believe it was with an edge to edge pattern.

Back to the blog - yes it was in August last year and it was an edge to edge design.

Quilted small Dresden plate quilt for my Mom

I was thinking of using the robot to quilt a feathered wreath in the Dresden blocks. It's so darn busy, I know that you won't see anything. I do NOT want to do straight line stuff in the blocks - like an outline - that'll take forever. I'll contemplate it today and see what I come up with. I should be learning to do new quilting designs or styles with the computer so I might do the wreaths just because I can.

I kept a close eye on the weather yesterday as it snowed all day. However, the temperature was fairly warm and for most of the day, no snow accumulated in our driveway. My kind of snow! So I ventured out last night for my dressmaking class. More sample making. I finished off the two samples from last week.

Here's my sample of the gathered waistband. I know those darn gathers do not lay as nicely as I would like them. They are supposed to be even and look - there's a big gather on the left-hand side. Oh well - it is what it is. It's darn hard to work in small scale!!!

A gathered waistband sample

Then we had to do a skirt vent. I don't think I've ever done one of these before. Now that my sample is made, could I do it again? Well, our pencil skirt has a vent so I'd better remember. I swear it's the angle of the picture that makes the bottom look slightly off. I swear it's straight!!! Do you know how hard it is to make these samples? We're using contrasting threads and it's darn fiddly!

Skirt vent sample

And let's not forget about all the hand stitching details. The edges of the vent need to be sewn shut. I think I did a pretty decent job on hand stitching considering I used dark blue thread.

Hand stitches on the vent

I'll share with you tomorrow, the sample that I made last night. I'm up to date on the sample making - yeah!!! We have one more week of sample making and then we have to work on our skirts. I'll be away for two classes in a row, so I get to work on my skirt completely on my own at home. Oh, dear! I'm sure I'll be fine - after all, how hard can a pencil skirt be when I've already done all the hard work? The muslin is made and has been fitted. The fabrics (except one -yep - making TWO skirts) have been washed. The pattern is ready to go. It shouldn't take that long to make them up.

All those details that Mrs. Sealy taught me in Grade 8 are coming back to me as I sew these samples. I don't remember all the hand stitching details or making things like a vent, but I did a lot of this stuff way back when. But I have learned some new things and that's why I signed up for the class. I'm loving this class and so glad that I decided to take it. I'm going to sign up for the next one as well as long as my travel schedule doesn't interfere too much with the classes.

Yesterday was a great day for learning because I learned ONE more thing. That was how to edit a video on my phone. I was asked to make a short video for my events in Saskatoon. Oh boy - like I have time for that. But let's go for it. Here's the link to the video should you want to be amused. Now that I've cleared the path for editing the videos and using my phone on the tripod - I can see more videos in the future. Yeah!!!

Here's one more video that I thought was hilarious. All about those men quilters!!!

On that note, I haven't heard from any of the five people coming today that they won't be coming, so I'd best get myself organized.

Have a super day!!!


Ciao!!!!

Absolute deadlines

Are you like me and wait until the ABSOLUTE last deadline to get things done? It drives me crazy when I hear that some new thing will be phased in over a long period of time. I think it was the city of Toronto who is in the process of phasing in the new amount of garbage that is going to be allowed each pickup day. Instead of saying - next week, you are only allowed 1 bag per week, they gave a deadline of THREE YEARS. People aren't going to change unless they have no other choice.

Case in point - in Ontario, we have a red and white health card. I've had mine since I moved to this province 30 years ago. The new ones with photo ID came along at some point in the early 90s or maybe it was mid-90s. Yes - I did get a letter at one time to change it over and the few times I've needed it in the last couple of years, I've been told that I should be changing it. But I haven't.

Well, I got the FINAL NOTICE in the mail yesterday. If I don't have the new card by July 1st, I'll have to pay to visit the doctor. OK - it's now time to make the change. I have set an appointment for next week. Not an appointment with them, but in my calendar and I get the privilege of taking my mother-in-law with me since she still has the old card as well.

I think I had mentioned that when I went for my mammogram a couple of weeks ago that the lady freaked out when she realized that I still had the old card. Not my fault! Give me a deadline (an absolute one) and I'll react, but not before. Why change when I don't have to?

Yesterday was a great day! I put my audiobook on and was as productive as ever. I have to finish Radium Girls soon as it's almost due. This is the first time that I've actually swore out loud when reading a book. The way the girls were treated and the way the companies that used radium were allowed to manipulate the law is so disgusting.

While many changes in the workplace have been changed because of what happened to these girls and the way they were treated, nothing has really changed. Big business is still big business and they care only for the all-mighty dollar and not for your health or welfare. Matter of fact that goes for governments as well. The little guy got screwed then and we're still getting the same treatment now.

I got the third quilt (for February) for Quilts of Valour that we're donating from our Community Projects day quilted. This needs to be trimmed and three of them need to be bound by Friday (or perhaps Saturday) so they can be delivered. I'm trying to get four done each month. Three that we donate from our stash of quilts that we make on our Community Projects day and one that I quilt that the local chapter provides. 

Quilts of Valour quilt - DONE

I've already dug out three more (that was easy) and I'll be sending pictures and sizes to the local group and see if they want them. If yes, then those quilts get on the list to be quilted next month. Oh yes - I love when I have a system.

Then I sat at the sewing machine and look what happened.

The four borders for my UFO

Yep - one of the borders is completely sewn together and the blocks for the other three are complete. HEY - when I have an absolute deadline, I'm on it! It was fiddly to get enough pieces for the last few blocks, but it doesn't matter - they are DONE.

Now to check about the yellow fabric that I'm going to use for the border so I could potentially get that sewn on and assemble these blocks into rows. Make the binding and find some backing. We have another Sit n Sew day tomorrow so I'll try to get it done by the end of the week. We'll see what happens. I'm just happy that I'm making progress.

And even better - while I was going to work in the office (tidy up), that didn't happen, but I did make a huge dent in three paperwork projects that I need to get done. That was definitely worth skipping the tidy up. It'll happen - just not now!

Last night, I taught a class on free motion quilting. There were five in the class and three of the students were under forty-five and excited about learning to quilt. That's so exciting to see that, but here's the thing - they don't have any quilting friends. So how do we get these young quilters hooked up with each other so they don't have to rely on Instagram for quilting friends? We need to host a meet and greet or an open house or something. Or I invite them to my Sit n Sew days.

We have to figure something out so that they learn and keep at it!

On that note, I'm switching my morning around so I can go to spin class and still have the blog up so you can all enjoy it with your morning coffee.

Have a super day and stay safe if you're going to get that silly snowstorm they are predicting for today.

Ciao!!!

An Unfinished Object

To the rest of the world, a UFO is an unknown object seen in the sky.

In the quilt world, a UFO is an UNFINISHED OBJECT. Basically, a quilt or other project that has been shelved. Why did the project get shelved? Let me count the ways...............

1. Ran into a problem understanding the pattern
2. Ran out of fabric
3. Didn't like your initial fabric choices
4. Lost interest
5. Lost part of the project
6. Your friend stopped working on their same project
7. The store where you were working on the project closed
8. You made a huge mistake
9. The maker died
10. Needed to buy some supplies and can't find it
11. Lost the pattern

And I'm sure that list could go on and on.

I think I know the main source of my UFOs. Way back in 2003, I started a concept at The Hobby Horse. OK -- I didn't start the trend, I was following the trend ($10 quilts), but I initiated it at that store. The very first pattern that we worked on was called The Pieceful Year.

A Pieceful Year 

After all this time, I even remembered that the quilt company was called Four Corners. The only person I remember being in the class was Helen Anne. I believe that by the end of the year that I had completed the quilt top, BUT I had not added the final two borders. It's hard to tell in the photo above, but that outer border is made up of a LOT of pieces.

My version of the quilt

I used yarn-dyed fabrics (or we sometimes call them homespun). They are NOT printed, but rather the patterns are created by how the different colored yarns are woven together.

Before I continue to chat about the Pieceful Year quilt, let me recap something about those ongoing projects at The Hobby Horse. The first one was in 2003. Then it exploded and we sometimes two or even three in a year. Don't forget that I also taught this concept at four other stores!! I have maintained a list of all the projects, although this morning, I can only lay my hands on the one from The Hobby Horse. Do you really really want to know how many quilts we've done over the years?

Well, it's shocking to realize that we have done FORTY different patterns. Yes - FORTY. And I would guess that there's about TWENTY from the other four shops. These are all very time-consuming patterns. So now you know why I have so many labor-intensive UFOs.

So - if I were to go back to my list of 10 reasons why projects become a UFO, let me see how I fare with this project.

1. Ran into a problem understanding the pattern  NO
2. Ran out of fabric  NO
3. Didn't like your initial fabric choices   YES
4. Lost interest   YES
5. Lost part of the project  NO
6. Your friend stopped working on their same project NO
7. The store where you were working on the project closed   NO
8. You made a huge mistake  NO
9. The maker died  I DON'T THINK SO 
10. Needed to buy some supplies and can't find it   NO
11. Lost the pattern   YES

The first problem is this. There's an inner border and I've had a yucky yellow fabric tucked with the rest of the border fabric forever. I don't like that fabric with the quilt but I've never attempted to find a new one. The yellow fabric isn't yarn-dyed (like the rest of the fabric) and well - I just couldn't bring myself to sew it on the quilt.

Inner border fabric??

While I had been digging stuff out for the community projects sew day, I did notice some yellows on MY shelf in the storage room. They are yarn dyes and they are slated for another project, but it stuck in the back of my mind. So when we were chatting at the Sunday Sit n Sew, I pulled those yellows out and found one that fits much better. Notice that there's a number pinned to that darker yellow fabric?

New and better choice of fabric

I need to find out how big the block is and cut the block BEFORE I cut into that yardage for this border. Wouldn't that be a kicker if I used that all up and then caused a problem with the other quilt? No - I'm going to be responsible for dealing with this situation.

So that solved one of the problems with this quilt.

Well, I did lose interest in the project big time it would appear, due to the length of time that has passed, but now this quilt is on my UFO list for 2020 and even better? It's on my list to get done by the March meeting of our UFO club. That means if I don't get it done, I'll have to cough up $10. And that would be the ultimate kick. I WILL NOT let that happen.

ONE of the pieced borders is sewn together. You would think that if you made one border that you would make the second, the third, and the fourth? But obviously, that didn't happen. The fabrics weren't even cut.

One of the borders is pieced

At Sunday Sit n Sew, I cut some of the fabrics. I thought I had cut enough, but yesterday, I realized that I was short a wee bit. I had merrily tossed my leftovers to France who was making the green scrap blocks. I had to go back through the pile last night and dig out some of what I had thrown in.

WAIT - I should tell you about the pattern. Somewhere along the line, the pattern has been lost. I found an e-mail dated 2013 from Helen Anne along with the fabric and the quilt. She had included the pattern page for the border. I was excited to finish it in 2013 but never did a thing once I had received the pattern.

Now all the reasons why I stopped working on this quilt have been resolved. And there's a bonus as well. This is yarn-dyed fabric. It's stretchy and not nice to work with. Guess what? I used the IDT system on the PFAFF to piece these border blocks the other day and it was a BREEZE.

The PFAFF IDT system

It's like night and day to have that built-in walking foot, especially for this kind of fabric. I was in heaven.

I managed to get a good part of the components made.

Components for the blocks are made

And I succeeded in getting a fair number of the blocks made as well.

Blocks for the border

I know that I like to have the numbers, but I don't remember (OK - I remember - who am I kidding). There are 13 blocks in the border that's already made. I made 16 blocks for the side border and made an additional 3 to add to the 13 to make the second side border. There were two other blocks which were the start of the top and bottom border. In total, I need 58. I'm down to needing to make 22 more blocks. I don't have a picture, but there are sections of the blocks sewn together but I need to cut more fabric. That's a job for later today or tomorrow once I get some paperwork and office tidying up done.

I've even started to hunt for something for the backing. But I haven't calculated how much I need so it's a bit difficult and I can't seem to pick anything until the quilt top is done. Then whatever fabric works will jump out. But not until the top is done! Isn't that exciting? I think it's exciting and now I can go back to that list and keep working! Well, I have lists and I know what needs to be done. Just focus on the UFOs - one at a time. They'll get done. They WILL GET DONE.

I also trimmed the Quilts of Valour quilt on Sunday and I used the leftover from the backing of that quilt to add to the backing of the other one. The print went in the opposite direction, but I think we can live with that. That's on the agenda to quilt today.

The backing is made for the Quilts of Valour quilt

I wasn't very productive at Monday sewing, although I did manage to take inventory of that double wedding quilt that I'm doing for Paula. I'll share that with you another day. I want to get started on that as well. I have my own version of the same quilt that is still not finished and I might do them at the same time. I'll dig that out and do an inventory of my quilt and see if that works.

I finally finished my reusable Swiffer cloth. This is an ancient Swiffer, but that's OK. It still works. My clothy is a wee bit wide but doesn't matter. It works like a charm. I was madly Swiffering around Studio B last night. It definitely picks up lots of dust, lint, and pins. I'm making another one, but this time, I'll make it a wee bit narrower.

My reuseable Swiffer cloth

It's essentially a double crochet. This one was 23 stitches, the new one is 19. Make it a little bit longer than the Swiffer, then fold the ends in and stitch. DONE!

On that note, I'm out of here! I've been wrapping my head around the fact that I have PAPERWORK to do today and I'm not budging from that, except to quilt that quilt. This stuff needs to get done so I can move on.

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!