She said YES

Another great day - lots of things got done. And it was Saturday and that means getting organized for the coming week. While I have a list of quilts that need to be quilted, once a week, I schedule the day on which those quilts will be quilted. I'm in really good shape in that department. I need to remake my "to do" list for things that need to be accomplished this week and the Task Master (list of quilting/sewing things) to accomplish this week has to be updated as well. If I didn't have those lists, I'd be totally lost and would get nothing done.

Speaking of getting things done, in case you are wondering, I called the daughter of the Double Wedding Quilt and said: "yes - I'll make the quilt". Oh dear - what have I gotten myself into? I'm charging her for it. Not nearly enough, but that's OK - I got a lot of tools from Paula's stash and she was a friend. I'm good with the price. The daughter was very appreciative and that counts a whole lot. I set a timeline so keeping me on track with the Task Master is going to be very important. The quilt is going to be a lap-sized - a generous lap size.

Just in case, you think I only get annoyed with customer quilts, I get annoyed at my own as well. I went to load a community project quilt yesterday only to find this.

What happened to the backing?

This is one that I had put together a while back and I was the one who assembled the backing. Did I think with time, that the backing would become larger? Not even the fact that there's a chunk missing, but the backing is EXACTLY the same width as the quilt. Obviously not one of my smarter sessions. So - do I find something else to back it with? Or jiggle around with the backing? That's a lesson for later this week as I want to get this quilt quilted. Heck - it's on the list for this week so I'd better get my act together.

I did have another quilt that was on the list that did have everything done properly so it got quilted.

Community projects quilt - DONE

I have to tell you the story of those blocks. Years and years ago, when M was in school and was little, there was a theatre production. In the Meadowvale Town Theatre so it was a big deal. They needed a backdrop for a gypsy camp. Since I've always been a keen volunteer, I volunteered to make the backdrop. Do you know how large a backdrop is required for that theatre?? I don't remember the dimensions, but it was huge. Something like 30 feet high and 100 feet in width.

I had put out a plea to everyone I knew for old sheets and fabric so I could make this backdrop. I don't have a picture of it handy. Anyway, the top part that you couldn't see was made of sheets and large pieces of yardage. I got lucky for the bottom part. Cathy from one of my local guilds had a ton of men's shirting scraps. The pieces were fairly large and I cut those into huge squares (about 20") and serged them all together. The backdrop looked amazing.

But what to do with everything once the show was over? I had to take the darn thing apart and it was huge. So the sheets and yardage went to the animal shelter. I kept the shirting. Eventually, I took them apart and cut them into smaller squares - 6 ½". Then years ago, they were sewn together to make quilts. Some of them got quilted (I think) and some did not. The quilt above was one of the ones that needed to be quilted. Actually, there are two more on the list for this week and I'm sure there might be one or two more hiding in that huge stack of community project quilts.

This quilt will be donated to Quilts of Valour.

OH MY GOD - this is the beauty of having a blog. And by the way, if ever you want to find something on my blog - there's a great big white bar at the top. That's a search bar. Just type in what you want to find. I just found TWO posts about those shirtings.

Here's the first one. Dated January 8, 2013.

And here's one more.   Dated December 18, 2012

It's nice to get stuff cleaned up, but it's not so fun that it takes so long. I see on that second post, that I was working on a crocheted rug. Yikes - that's still not done but is on the list to finish on a Monday sewing day. If only I could finish things right away. How awesome that would be.

But one mustn't berate oneself for things like that. The object here is to get things finished and move on. That is happening. And the rate of starting new things has slowed considerably so that's all good. Plus a lot of stuff has been "donated" to the community projects pile and it's slowly dwindling as well. All is good!!

I did manage to get part of Studio B cleaned up as it's UFO meeting day today. I have a bit more to do. I also spend a lot of time trimming quilts. I still have two more to trim. That's a job for this morning before the group comes.

I had to put a binding on one of the quilts that I trimmed. I love when the customers are trained that if they cut a wider binding than 2 ½ ", that they label it! That helps me to remember when I'm doing the final join.

The width of binding is labeled

And there I am - almost at the end!!! The best part of binding by machine.

Almost done the binding

Here's the finished quilt. All ready to be gifted to someone at the end of the month.

The finished quilt

I worked on a pattern for someone and got that off the list. I read for a bit, but I was totally exhausted last night and went to bed early. Well, about my normal time, but early for you all. I didn't go to the gym this morning. My legs said, "Enough!. We don't need to walk 21,000 steps today." I heeded them and went downstairs to tidy up!

OH -- I've got some links to share with you. If you have NOT seen The Quilt of Belonging, then you must go see it this year. It's going to be in Brantford from February 29 to May 9. The quilt is stunning. I've had the opportunity to sit in a room with the quilt by myself to contemplate the world that it represents. It's such a feeling. Instead of the quilt being stretched out to its fullest, it was in a smaller room so it wrapped around the room. A very moving experience.

And you MUST check out these design notes from the runway 2020. Holy - some of those outfits or even the ideas are out of this world. I haven't checked them all out yet, but some of them are totally bizarre. There's one creation made with ties and another that looks like it was made from craft swatches. Now, these are never meant to be worn (thank god), but you got to wonder what the models think when they see some of these creations.

On that note, I'm out of here. Got loads to do and best of all - the weather is warm again!!!

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!!