T-shirt quilts

Well, I was all fired up to hit the gym this morning, but then I remembered it's Good Friday, so the hours are changed. I finally got the hours (5 AM), only to realize that my Fitbit was about to die, so I'm taking a few minutes to start the blog while it charges slightly. Good grief -- all in the name of exercise! 

But it's more than exercise. It's about discipline, about wanting to stay healthy - both physically and mentally, and it's a great way to start the day. 

As I typed the word HIT, it brought a smile to my face. How many of you are guilty of saying, "Just hit that button on your sewing machine, your microwave, or whatever." Do you really mean hit (physical), or would it be better to say touch (softer)? 

I'm guilty of this, but I wasn't aware of it until my boss mentioned it to me after a customer presentation. WOW -- I didn't even know I was saying that. I've almost completely corrected that habit now, but here's the thing. If she hadn't mentioned it to me, I wouldn't have realized I was saying that. Many people say 'hit' instead of 'touch'. 

So it's OK to give constructive feedback, and it makes me a better speaker. 

Remember, touch the button, not hit it. 

Here's another one to think about - just BLOW up the picture or the screen. NO - you are not blowing anything up. You might be zooming in or enlarging the photo, but you are not blowing it up! 

Thank goodness the Fitbit charges very quickly. I'm off to the gym and will be back in an hour. 

I'm back! It feels great to get out there and lift a few weights and then do some stretching. Perhaps I could do it at home, but this gets me out, makes use of my membership, and well, I'm OK with it. It's another one of my communities, although I don't really connect with many people at the gym. But if you don't have a gym membership, you can still do some stretching and basic weight lifting at home. The more you move, the better off you are!

Yesterday was a great day! I finished listening to that audiobook, and I'm going to buy it because it's excellent. I laughed at the end when he mentioned that we shouldn't expect to completely change our lives tomorrow. Nope -- you're going to take small steps, and if you change one attitude or one behavior over the next while, then you're way ahead of the game. Start slow - build new habits and don't get discouraged!!!

I got that quilt loaded and quilted! I thought I'd take an action shot of the quilting process, and I did, just at the moment when the machine ran over my green tape that I forgot to remove! That's my marker, and I typically remove it once I touch Start. I forgot, but it's no big deal; it just ran over the corner and was easy to remove. 

Crap - ran over my tape marker just as I took the photo

I don't know what I was thinking when I made the back. Oh, I remember - I didn't have a lot of fabric, so I was sure I could make do, and I did! But it was tight, and I was like a helicopter parent with this one. There were absolutely zero issues with it. But just because I do this on my quilts, doesn't mean you can give me a quilt like that! It requires too much time, and well, I could do it, but I'd have to charge more for the babysitting. Plus, you're guaranteed to get better edges if there's more backing! I could easily have fixed the issue by adding extra strips to the side edges. It looks fine, and there are no issues with the quilting. 

Not a lot of wiggle room on the sides

As you probably guessed, it's a T-shirt quilt. And despite the age of some of those T-shirts, with their rubbery texture on some, and the fact that some of them were starting to break down from overuse, it quilted up like a dream. 

Zero issues when quilting over these designs

But here's the key to quilting a T-shirt quilt. You must use fusible interfacing on the back of all the T-shirts, and it must be fused to the T-shirts. I once had someone ask for advice, and I instructed them to use fusible interfacing. But when I got the quilt to quilt, they had NOT fused the interfacing properly to the back. I didn't notice until I started quilting. It wasn't fun! 

Fusible interfacing on the back of T-shirts

I was pretty involved in the SickKids Telethon back in the 90s. The company I worked for was responsible for some of the batch data entry. It was quite a process, as we had drivers (volunteers) who would bring the pledges to our office, and we would handle the data entry. This all happened during the telethon. It was a crazy 24 hours or whatever the time frame was. Food had to be arranged, volunteers and IT had to be involved to create and update the program we used for data entry. It was insane, and I was in charge, of course, for many years. But I loved it! 

That was the one time I got a "reward" for volunteering. I received some stock options as part of a volunteer program with my company, and they split multiple times, ultimately being worth a nice amount of cash when I left the company. The first and only time I was "paid" as a volunteer. I used to volunteer a lot within my company, not just for the telethon work, but also for the Christmas party and other events. That's what I did with all my extra time back then. 

I think that was the start of my speaking engagements, as I also did a couple of promo videos for them about our part in the telethon. 

Here's the back of the quilt -- I used the backs of the T-shirts. I chuckled when I took the photo. It seems to be a common theme that the bottom right of the backing needs a different fabric!!! 

The back of the T-shirt quilt

And here's the front. It just needs to be trimmed and the binding put on! Today, it will all be about a customer's quilt. The long arm has ZERO issue going through all those layers, and I've also included a batting. It's going to be heavy, and I will love it as I love a heavy quilt. 

My quilt - done!

Speaking of T-shirt quilts, I have a huge basket of T-shirts from my future son-in-law that I MUST deal with. There are enough T-shirts for several quilts, so that will take a while to decipher! 

It was a gorgeous day yesterday, and I'm trying to get the girls to get outside on their own. They enjoy soaking up the rays, but of course, DH had to go out, and then they wanted to come in. 

The girls are sunbathing

Later in the afternoon, I went out to read in the gazebo and YES, guess who had to come along and put her head under the arm of the chair. Why or how did she learn this annoying habit? 

MOM - I NEED to be close!

The wind chimes (two) and the cow bell (occasionally) were merrily lulling me to sleep. The pond should be open sometime next week. What a glorious time I had, and I really hated to come in, but I had work to do. But we still spent at least an hour out there, so I can't complain. 

A beautiful day in the gazebo

I was also busy making samples on the embroidery machine, and then had a software class in the evening. All is good! 

The paperwork is coming along fine. I still have a few things to catch up on, but I'm making progress, and that's all that counts. 

We attempted to solve the EXIT game puzzle last night, but both of us are stumped. OK -- I need to study this puzzle a bit more and then give it another try. 

And while we were trying to solve the puzzle, Miss Murphy was trying to entertain us with her fish, which is technically supposed to be an outdoor toy, but it seemed to be spending a lot of time in the house. 

MOM -- look at ME and my fish!

I popped into the grocery store to get bananas (lots of singles), and it was packed! I hate going to the store when it's super busy, but I needed bananas, and today is a holiday. Thankfully, it was a pretty quick trip, and I must remember not to go on the day before it closes for a statutory holiday!

And so the day stretches ahead of me. What tasks will be chosen today? Oh - I love what Oliver says in his book, Meditations for Mortals: our to-do list should be like a menu. You get to pick and choose what you want to do. And while I can do that, I still have a couple of deadlines to deal with! 

It's supposed to be a warm day, but there's a chance of rain this afternoon. Nothing the gazebo can't protect me from! 

With that note, I'm out of here. 

Have a super day!!! Happy Easter!

Ciao!