And so this happened................

I'm behind this morning. I say - get over it! I've been to the gym and then - well, I'm just behind.

I did get things done yesterday, but not necessarily all that I wanted. I knew that was going to happen. I need to buckle down, but part of me says "I don't want to buckle down." And the weather was so glorious yesterday that the girls and I went for a LONG walk.

I popped off to the grocery store with the girls - who, while still naughty at times, are becoming somewhat behaved. So there's a HUGE side bonus to all this walking. My baby toe is not perfect, but feeling better and well - I'm miles ahead in both of my virtual challenges. The best part? I'm done with Illinois for my Route 66 trek. I've crossed the river in St. Louis and I'm officially in Missouri now. One state down and six to go.

The homework assignment for Christmas Fig went out. A day late, but the e-mail I sent them was chock a block filled with tips on quilting so hopefully, 

Rolling Stones block

that compensated for the tardiness.

There was a LOT of stitching and flipping in this month's homework. But the blocks are gorgeous.

Bowties block

Yep - my Christmas quilt is going to be blue and white. Actually, I'm not sure that I'm going to make the sampler quilt. I'll see what happens as we progress through the year.

I did get another customer quilt done. I know you saw this quilt already, however, this is NOT the same quilt as last week. And I have two more North Star quilts to quilt! These quilts belong to the students who were in the class and they trusted me to quilt their quilts for them. This one was also made from the kit fabric with that challenging dyed yarn fabric. If you are ever contemplating buying it - yes for clothing, NO for quilts.

Customer quilt - DONE

Last week, I received a call from a lady who wanted a quilt made. Well, that's not entirely true. Her mother passed and she was looking for someone to finish a particular quilt (double wedding ring - GASP!!!) that her mother had started. My name was amongst her mother's quilt things. She got my number and we chatted and arranged to meet yesterday. Note to self - do NOT have students write my name down in their quilt stuff!!!!  I'm chuckling as I say that!

The daughter called me yesterday to arrange a time to meet. I happened to be out walking and we set a time for later in the afternoon. As I walked, my mind turned to the conversations I had had with the daughter. Hmmm - I know someone with the same last name. She was a quilter and she lived in the same town. Could it be her? When the daughter arrived, I asked the question (I felt bad that I had not asked what her mother's name was during the first conversation). Anyway - my suspicions were right. It was the same person. Oh dear - this woman was so full of life and laughter and she was a hoot in classes. When Paula was in the room, the entire room shone.

She arrived with a HUGE tub and a bag. I knew before the tub was opened what the project was. And yes - I was right. This was a class that I had taught. I'll share the project with you later this week as I take inventory of what's in the tub. OH - don't worry - it's super organized. Just wait until you see.

One UFO is in this big tub

The family is currently in the process of cleaning out the house as the husband had passed several years ago. What was she going to do with the rest of the quilting stuff? It didn't sound like there was much and I volunteered (do NOT criticize me on this!) that we could use it for our community projects. DONE - she was gone and back within the hour to deliver the rest of the stuff.

It was basically the equivalent of three more of those tubs which, when you consider some of our sewing rooms, isn't a whole lot. I haven't gone through it all yet, but this stack is one project. A cute little project that I don't know what we'll do with yet as it's small, but I have an idea. Don't worry - I'll be sharing more of this stuff as I go through it.

One project

There wasn't a whole lot of fabric. There's a small stack of it on the left. There are stabilizers, battings, foam and other bits of inner lining stuff. Some tools - cutting mats and rotary cutters and other stuff which I hope to use when we do our community projects sewing day. 

More stuff 

And lastly, there's this pile. That long tub I suspect has more fabric for the project in that great big tub. It sure looks familiar. Maybe the backing?

More stuff

She was organized as products were labeled. 

Products are labeled

I'm going to sort through a wee bit of it today. She used to come to Monday sewing and some of the stuff might be useful to the group supplies there and there are a few patterns that maybe someone wants. I don't think it's going to be a big deal to go through all of it. As you can see, there isn't a whole lot. Trust me - I asked very careful questions before I agreed to take it.

But there are NO scraps, no small pieces. She wasn't a prolific quilter so I don't know if she threw that stuff away or her family did. Not my business - just makes things easier to take care of.

There is a lesson to be learned here. It was a pretty easy task for her family to get rid of the quilting stuff because she didn't have a lot. Look around your sewing space and start getting things done or get them organized. Wait until you see what's in that big tub!!!

I have to confess that this is NOT the first time that I've acquired stuff because a student/friend passed. I keep saying it'll be the last, but here we go again! Thankfully, this time, it's not going to be a huge deal, although that quilt is - well - we'll just see how much of it she had completed.

Now here's the kettle calling the pot black. Instead of working yesterday, I decided that I needed to sort through the quilt magazines. What an idiot I am for buying so many. I couldn't help myself. I've been a magazine junkie my entire life.

Soring the magazines

I'm not done the sorting process, but at least it's better. I have to put that all away today and get back to work. I've a lot of stuff that needs to be done. Trust me, I am reading them, albeit slowly. That doesn't matter - I have room to store them. I have time to read them and when I'm gone, the whole works (what is left) can be trashed. Let's just say that the intake has slowed almost to a complete stop. That's good news. The bad news, I need to speed up the outtake process. But there is only so much time in a day. Some of the magazines are easier to get through than others. Depending on the type of magazine, some are being donated and some are being trashed. Hey - I bought them - I want to read them. Don't judge me!!!

I don't have plans to keep anything that's in the magazines. Everything is on the internet and I don't need another pattern to sew. There might be a few things that I'll consider keeping - I'll see when I get there. One magazine at a time.

Needless to say, another day went by without looking at the postcard basket. I MUST do that today.

On that note, I'm out of here!!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!