A bird's eye view

 

I'm positively in chill-out mode. OK -- so I'm not up to date on everything - still three more documents to write up, two quilts that need to be quilted, and well - that's it. OK - so there are two small quilt projects that I'd like to work on. But seriously?? I'm in control! The studio is pretty much organized; there's NOTHING on the calendar starting tomorrow for FIVE entire days. Oh my -- what am I going to do with myself? 

It's going to be a glorious day - weather-wise and well - we need to get this day started! But first - let me share with you what happened yesterday. 

It was Monday sewing, and I'm happy to say that I actually got some sewing done. I did have some issues with the internet yesterday. I'm not sure how many times it went down, but the important thing - it did NOT go down during my presentation last night, and that's all I care about. But Monday sewing is the BEST. If you are NOT part of a Zoom sewing group - then you need to organize one. Seriously - we get to talk about current events (I tried NOT to talk about the pandemic - I let the others do most of the talking about that), we can talk about our sewing machines, our projects - we get help, we get suggestions and more importantly - we get SUPPORT.

If you're not getting support from your friends - then you're in trouble. We need that human contact to help us emotionally. So Zoom has helped enormously in that area. I'd be going out of mind without it. 

What did I get accomplished? 

I sewed those sections together and was able to use the ruler that I had borrowed. That was so easy to do with the group chatting in the background. I LOVE my earbuds because it allows me to travel from station to station in the studio without losing touch with the group. Ignore the mess at the end of the cutting table. YES -- that end is covered with a few things that need to be prepped. I have an ENTIRE quilt top to put together in the next couple of days. The blocks are done - but the top has to get assembled. 

Trimming the sections of PRISM squared

These are the scraps from the PRISM Squared quilt. I had to sew the sections together and then cut them into a wedge. So that part is done. All that remains is to sew these new wedges together to get the final small quilt. 

The wedges are cut for the secondary project

Technically, I could put this back on the shelf - it wasn't even on the current projects table, but when I searched for something else, I found the bag of strips and the ruler. The ruler is now with the quilt that will get quilted today, and all can be picked up by the owner. OH yes -- I'm all about getting things out of the house!

When I cut these blocks, which are part of Bonnie and Camille Bee Quilt homework this month, I was short ONE square for this block. Now the block is together. 

Star block is together

And here are the four blocks - DONE. 

All four blocks are done!

That pretty much took up all of the Monday Sewing time. I got another customer quilt quilted, but you can't see it. You will see it - but not at the moment. Thankfully, it wasn't too large and was easy to do. 

This morning I worked on my Long Time Gone. I'm a wee bit behind on the homework, so I need to get that up to date. The quilt tops are supposed to be finished by mid-June when we have our final show and tell. It would NOT look good if the teacher didn't have her quilt top done. Who am I kidding? That's part of the reason I have so many UFOs. The teacher did NOT usually get the homework done and so many quilts to finish!

I hate pinning, and if I don't have to - I won't. Even when I'm joining longer pieces. I match up the beginning and start to sew. Then I match up the ends and hold them while I'm sewing. 

Look - NO pins

When I get to the end, those pieces match exactly! Oh yes -- what a waste of time to pin. The trick is to make sure the pieces are the same length when you start or close enough that you can ease them in. I know some people need pins, but there's no need. An extension table helps a bit to keep things in order. 

The ends match perfectly

Take note that I use PINS, but only on borders that are too long to do what I did above. 

And now my Section Three is almost together. Some of those seams are NOT sewn together. I should be able to get this done later today. I'm so excited - that means that I'm up to date on the homework for sewing the sections together. But I have a few pineapple blocks (15) to make, and I still have one more churn dash block to make. 

Section Three of Long Time Gone

Isn't that exciting? Oh - shoot - I forgot to take a picture of the other thing I worked on yesterday. Let me run and get that. 

I got TWO of these tiny Snails Trail blocks done. Yeah!!!! This is part of the homework for the All in a Row Quilt. Yep - I'm behind in that one as well, but not by a whole lot. That center four-patch is ONE-INCH finished. 

Two teeny Snails Trail blocks

Now I have three blocks done - I need 48. The good news is that the rest of the blocks are cut and ready to go. They'll be perfect for enders and leaders over the next couple of days. 

Three of forty-eight blocks done!

And the other day, I embroidered this little guy. When I was looking on the shelf for something, I came across that PRISM Squared project and a hunk of Minky. There was a disk of embroidery patterns with the Minky, so I decided to make one of the monsters. He's so cute!! There are 3-D monsters on the disk and some that are applique. This would be adorable as an applique! Hmm - I should fire up the embroidery machine today while I'm sewing. 

3-D Embroidered monster

Remember those rocks I spotted yesterday? Well - they were gone when we walked by. I looked for them in the event they got kicked around - nope  - totally gone. 

Then I was almost home and saw this on a neighbor's roof. I've seen the squirrels before. They LOVE to climb up the tree beside the house and perch on the rooftop. There was a squirrel on one end of the roof and a robin on the other. And I guess that's what a bird's eye view is all about! 

Squirrel on the roof

A robin on the roof

On that note, I'm so excited about today! Yes - I've got to get that paperwork cleaned up, but I have plenty of time to do that this morning. Then quilt the quilt this afternoon, and I might even get a bit of sewing in there!! 

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!