Thursday, September 17, 2020

Make do with what you have

 

Another successful Zoom presentation last night. It was all about finishing off quilts, and one of the things I wanted to showcase was the Binding Attachment. Do I actually do a live demo? Why not - let's do it. 

The binding attachment on the PFAFF creative icon


Actually, the demo went very well. It's hard to do a live demo. Not only do you want to do it reasonably quickly when you might take a little more time if you're on your own. You have the pressure of people watching you. Let's not forget the camera in the way! 

The camera in front of the sewing machine


But it worked very well, and I was quite pleased with the final result. I have a bunch more small samples that need to be bound. I should be using the Binding Attachment, so that's something to add to the list of things that need to be done. 

FYI -- If you are interested in participating in these lecture series - there are three of them - quilting, embroidery and embroidery software. They are brand specific to either PFAFF or Husqvarna. Call your local dealer to see if they are going to run any of the series. If not, call around for other dealers and get on their class list. 

While I would love to show live samples of my quilts or binding or stitching or whatever, I've realized that it's just too complicated and takes too long. So I need pictures. Yesterday, I was putting together the binding presentation. I needed pictures of different ways of finishing quilts and stitching for bindings. Oh god - look what happened. 


Quilts and more quilts everywhere


That room that had all the quilts nicely laid out on the bed? It's not so neat any longer. Holy - I never realized how much weight is on that bed! I'm surprised the frame hasn't collapsed. Those quilts are heavy to move. 

Now that they are in total disarray, I need to sort them. If I take an overall photo of the quilt and a couple of detailed pictures, I'll have easy access to all the quilts. I need to measure them as well. Then they need to be sorted on the bed. The ones that I'm least likely to want will be on the bottom, and the other ones will be grouped by categories. 

NO time like the present to get started! 

At some point, I realized that I had taken my shoes off when I was in that room so I could walk on the quilts. ACK! Where did my shoes go??? 



There's a shoe among the quilts


AHA -- there's one shoe, and the other one wasn't too far from that one. I did have to laugh! When I get busy prepping, watch out! Things fly!


As I was walking the dogs in the morning, I noticed this lawn. Hmm - I wonder what they going to do here. All the grass has been stripped off. Are they putting new grass down or making it an environmentally friendly front yard? We'll just have to watch and see what happens. 


Grass stripped off a front yard








One article got written and sent off. Four more to do for that project and four for another project need to be written and a quilt pattern. Most of the photos are taken for all of them, but I like to edit the heck out of my documents, so hopefully, the editors have very little work to do on their end. 

I'll be working on one of those articles today and hope to get to the long arm as well. I've got another presentation this evening, but it's the second time around, so the prep work will be minimal. Set the cameras, double-check the presentations, and I'm good!

I need to get working on my UFO projects as the date is fast approaching. I've made good progress during the month. No waiting until the last day this month. There was too much to do in one day anyway. 

I'm working on the snail's trail quilt. 

The snail's trail blocks are together


All the blocks are now together. And it's a far cry from what the original pattern looked like. 


The original pattern


Thankfully, I'm so past having to make things EXACTLY like the pattern. I'd be fussing about fabric quantities, techniques, and not getting the project done. This is about getting things DONE!!!

Of course, all the seams on the back are twirled. There's so much bulk between the blocks (well - at those points), and the quilt top just looks better when the seams are twirled. 

Seams are twirled on the back



When I got the top together, I measured it, and it's just a wee bit too narrow for Quilts of Valour. I knew that, so I grabbed one of the two pieces of brown fabric left from making the blocks. This is all I have for the border. I figured out how many strips I needed, divided the length of fabric by that number, and made the border. Easy and no worries about running out. Make do with what you have and move on!!


The fabric for the border


This is what I had leftover. That can go into the brown bag of strings for string pieced quilts. 


Leftover brown after cutting the border


There's one piece of brown fabric left, and I was going to use it for the binding, but I don't think it's large enough. So I'll dig through the stash to find something that'll work and then go through the backing material to find something brown. 

That fabric that I used for the border is in the quilt, and as luck would have it - that fabric was in one of the blocks along the side. 



The borer fabric is in the blocks as well



The borders along the sides are on. Yeah!!!!!



Side borders are on


And the top and bottom borders are pinned and waiting to be sewn on later today. 



Top and bottom borders are pinned in place


There's no stopping me! I can get anything done that I set my mind to. I just wish I had more hours in a day. I get so motivated and just not enough time to do everything my brain wants to do that day. 

But I'm OK. I'm excited to get up each day and look forward to getting more stuff sewn or cleaned up. I'm making such great progress, and that's all that counts. 


While I have access to some fantastic sewing machines, I'm not a sewing machine snob. I'm sewing on the Husqvarna Viking Designer Ruby deLuxe. Even though the Designer EPIC 2 is sitting idle in the background. It's set up for embroidery, and I can't be bothered to take the embroidery arm off as I have more that I want to do. I'm OK with it - I LOVE the Designer Ruby deLuxe. It sews like a dream, and it was set up and ready to go!!! 

Sewing on the Designer Ruby deLuxe





OK -- It's official. The VIRTUAL Class for LONG TIME GONE is up. You can sign up NOW. 

I'll be teaching that quilt as a Virtual class at Thimbles and Things in Orillia. Here's the link to the page at the store with the instructions for signing up.   I pulled my fabric the other day, and I'm getting ready to get the first assignment together. 







I'm so excited - I've wanted to make this quilt for a long time. It looks very BUSY, but I've got ideas. Get yourself signed up and book that first date in your calendar, where we're going to chat about fabric and a whole lot more. It's going to be a jam-packed class. The books are available from Thimbles and Things. I would NOT WAIT to sign up - I'm not sure how many books are available. 

I walked to the grocery store again. I love walking around the neighborhood. I get to check out things like how my neighbors seem to have no concept of how the garbage system works in our area. If you have a large appliance, you have to get rid of it yourself. We now have a stove and a fridge outside. At least the stove is hanging out at their garage door, but still. The fridge? The city doesn't pick it up - you have to pay to have it removed by a private company if you don't do it yourself. I see myself knocking on their door soon. It's ridiculous that people just put out stuff they don't want and don't seem to care whether it gets picked up or not. The same neighbor with the stove also has parts of a big desk on the curb. Our street looks like a junkyard!


Here's the link to the SATURDAY, September 19, Virtual Retreat. Remember, this retreat starts at 2:30 PM as I have several presentations and classes in the morning. 

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87628087473?pwd=QjE0Q1Ntc2o2anpvVEl5Y2Z2dFArQT09 Meeting ID: 876 2808 7473 Passcode: 072178


I have loads more to say, but it's time to go!!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

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