SMILE!!!

 

Oh my gosh -- we had so much fun at the Facebook Live event last night. I hope you were able to join us. YES -- I know I need to smile ALL THE TIME. My face just looks awful if I don't smile, but you forget! Oh well - it is what it is! 

Almost ready to start!

If you missed the presentation live, you can go back and watch it and see the fun stuff that happened while we did the Spectrum Quilt A Long. 

I'm not sure why I was so busy in the past - now it seems like I have all the time in the world! I even had a big nap yesterday afternoon. I'm not sure why as I'm sleeping fine. I think my body says - no deadline, we can nap any time we want! No - the nap was NOT in the gazebo. Why? It was pouring rain most of the day. At one point, the trees were blowing around like mad - it was crazy!

Pouring rain

OK --- I had my second shot 10 days ago. I knew that I was going to have a bruise. The lady was brutal. But LOOK at that bruise. Good grief -- she practically killed me with that jab. That was NOT because of the vaccine - that was technique or lack thereof!!! And now you know why I HATE getting a needle. I had ZERO issues with the first shot - a different person administered it. 

A bruise from my second shot

Now that The Task Master is back at work, I'm ripping through the stuff sitting on the tables. I got the backing for my second Christmas Fig quilt done. It got moved to the "to be quilted" pile. 

The Christmas Fig quilt is ready to be quilted

As I mentioned, sometimes a project slips onto the cutting table that didn't come from the table with the current projects, and that's OK. As long as it gets totally done, I'm OK if one or two slip in. So this was the quilt that I was searching for in the color class. The fabric for the backing and the binding/border was with the quilt top. It wouldn't take long to finish that off, so I did, rather than put it back in the box with the other projects requiring borders, binding, or backing. 

At first, I thought I might not have enough fabric to do the border and the binding. I could go shopping. NO - use what you have!! So I did some quick calculations, and yes - it should work. I cut the binding first and then took what was left and divided it by the number of strips I needed for the border. I normally join them on the diagonal for the border, but this had to be done straight - not only because of the lack of fabric but because of the print. 

Then I hung the quilt on the wall and WOW!!!! That border fabric is perfect, and it takes away (a wee bit) from the busyness of those colors. I LOVE IT. So much movement!

The border on a quilt top

And before I knew it, the binding and the backing were also done. 

Another quilt moved to the "to be quilted" pile

Yeah - and one more quilt got moved to the "to be quilted" pile. I don't even want to look at that growing pile. 

Then it was time to tidy up a bit. I packed up a couple of sewing machines that I'm returning.  Thank goodness - those extra machines take up a LOT of space. So those are ready to drop off, and I'll be getting a new one. Which one? You have to wait to see.

The hardest part is making sure that ALL the bits are in the box. All the feet, etc. I try to NOT use them but use my own stuff. However, I seem to be missing TWO foot controls. Those are for my sewing machines, but where did I put them???  

Machines ready to be returned

And I got one of the things that I ordered from Quilt Canada. A Curated Quilts magazine about words! My favorite thing!!! I would love to have ALL these issues, but they are expensive, so I splurged and got on. Now I have five in total. 

Curated Quilts

And I got myself organized and glued that shelf piece back in place. I'm not very good at that, and it was awkward to get the glue in - hopefully, it'll hold. 

The clamp gluing that shelf back in place

So I should be able to put the container of stuff that's been hanging out on the floor back on the shelf by the end of the day. 

The box of projects to put back on the shelf

I'm pretty happy with the tidiness of my workspace. I've come so far and learned so much. I wish someone would have told me this when I started! On the retreat, I think someone said we should write a list of "rules" for new quilters. How to organize, shop, and sew so you don't get into messes like some of us have done. 

I don't consider my studios messy. They may not be super tidy, but they are definitely organized, and I can find ALMOST everything. I think there are one or two missing things, but they will surface. I need to make a list of what's missing so that can niggle in the back of my mind. 

I did get a bit of regular sewing done on the All in a Row quilt. Here's the book that we're using. So the owls and these blocks are in there. I'll try to get a picture of all my rows today. Shoot -- I took that green and yellow quilt off the wall, and I was supposed to do exactly that! There are two books with row quilts - this is the SECOND book. 

All in a Row Again

All the small flowers are done!! Look at that little rogue flower! 

The small flowers

Now I've started on the large flowers. There are twelve of those. But what's great is that my little mini-design board is organized, so it should be easy to finish that off. It's on The Task Master for the week, so the focus is on this project as well as a couple of other things!

The leaves for one large flower

After the Facebook Live event last night and our wrap-up session, I still needed some KM to finish the day. So yes - I went for a walk. Actually, there were quite a few people out walking. I took a quick detour through the forest. Yikes - it's a bit dark, but I had spotted MANY rabbits on my way to the forest, so I doubted there were any foxes or coyotes around. 

It's dark in the forest at night

OK--so I tried - I tried really hard to get this exact, but then I had to go upstairs to bed, which turned the FitBit over by .1 KM. But I'm HALFWAY through my challenge goal of walking 4,200 KM this year. The number on the left is what I've walked, and the number on the right is the number of KM I still have to walk this year.  

And technically, I'm ahead by a couple of days. I would have been further ahead, but I've slacked off a couple of days this past week. 

It doesn't matter - I'm thrilled with the results, and who knew that I could walk that much. Yeah me!!!!!

I got my butt to the long arm as I have a few quilts that need to be done. This was a giant one, and it's done. 

Customer quilt - DONE

And seriously?  I swear that the bobbin runs out always near the end of the row! I was literally a few stitches from the end, and the bobbin ran out. 

The bobbin always runs out near the end of a row!

There is a lot to do today - writing, quilting, sewing, and maybe a little bit of R & R&R. We'll see what the day brings. 

Have a super day!!!!!

Ciao!!!