Patience is a virtue!

And the busiest weekend for February is over! I survived it, and all the work got done on time, so my new time management is working out. By time management, I mean I have reduced the number of classes, which made time management so much easier. I didn't juggle my time better - I just had less to do. There's a huge difference, and I feel so much better!

I will always have things to do, but I will always ensure there is time for me!

If you remember, I talked about doing a couple of Zoom sessions on scraps, and the thought of scheduling them right now just didn't appeal to me. It's not so much the one-hour Zoom, but the hours of prep. While I want to do it, I didn't want to take away from my leisure time. 

I've decided to make it a four-part (or maybe longer) session that will run in the fall. My new schedule will include teaching a complete quilt, like Colour My World, and one other, preferably technique class. The scrap session will be the other. So that is on the slate for September/October, and you'll get lots of advance notice about how to sign up. 

I'm looking for quilt patterns for the new sew-along that will start in the fall. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Some appliqué is OK, but it needs to be pieced or mostly pieced. I have one quilt in mind and will be looking for others so I can choose. I will not break down and do more than one! I'm learning!!!!

Let me chat about Murphy first, and then I'll share my quilting stuff with you. This dog is persistent!! And like many dogs, she's smart. She knows when I am sitting at the kitchen table, that I'm there for a while, so she decides to try and get my attention even more, especially with that ball of hers!

She wants me to throw the ball, which I do, but it's annoying. Our ceramic floors are slippery, but she doesn't seem to mind. And if DH is on a call, he doesn't like the noise! He's always on a call! Thankfully, after about 10 throws, she gets overheated and needs to go outside to plunk herself in the snow. 

The other day, I was ignoring her, so she did this with her ball. 

MOM - Lexi is trying to steal my ball!

I didn't get up from what I was doing, so she grabbed the ball and plunked it into Lexi's food dish right beside the table. Of course, that action caused a kibble or two to spill out, so now those were fair game for her to eat! 

MOM - Lexi put the ball in her food dish!

I finally gave in, and then after our requisite number of throws, she went outside. 

MOM - I'm so hot!

She wants me to throw the ball outside, but I'm afraid it will sink into the snow, and she won't find it. OK -- I know that's a silly thing to say about a dog. She often has her head deep in the snow on our forest walks because she has smelled something. 

MOM - I smell a vole!!!!

And then don't forget the cuddles in her bed! I do NOT cuddle with her in that tiny bed in the office; rather, I cuddle her on her mat downstairs or on this larger bed in the family room. She loves it, and I think it's fun to get down to the floor and be with her on her terms!!! 

MOM - thanks for loving me!

You remember what happened when I put my quilt blocks on the floor the other night. Murphy took over rows three and four. 

MOM - I approve of rows 3 and 4

Well, I managed to get those rows together in the afternoon, but when I came down to work, she had commandeered rows 1 and 2 for sleeping. Why are quilts or even quilt blogs pet magnets? 

Mom - I'm testing rows 1 and 2

Such a silly girl. Anyway, the good news is that the entire quilt is together, including the border. It was a bit of an impromptu quilt that I'll use to advertise my upcoming Facebook Live. I'll wait until they post the ad on Facebook and then share the quilt with you. The topic is felting with your embroidery machine and will take place on March 11. It will be recorded, so if you can't make the March 11 date, you can still watch it. I have a "few" samples I want to make, but that's OK because I'm also working on a project on my Visual To-Do list. I wanted to learn all about felting on the embroidery machine as a goal. 

Now I have done felting before, but I don't have a ton of samples, and I want to really explore the technique, so I get to kill two birds with one stone! I told you that I'm becoming a master at this, and there isn't much I don't make that doesn't cover two or more goals!

Let's talk about why something becomes a UFO. In my case, it's often because I haven't thought it through all the way. I get to a spot where I'm stuck, or I try to "ram" the sewing through, think it's going to be OK, and then, when it's finished or nearly finished, I'm not happy. Then the project gets set aside. I have many projects on the current project table because of that scenario. 

It's something I need to learn to live with or remake things properly! If the item is going to be a traveling sample, I simply cannot go out in public with one that looks a wee bit shoddy. Yes - there are times when a shoddy sample makes a good learning tool, and I'm happy to carry those, but there are times when I want the item to be a bit more perfect!!

So here's my latest ripping-out experiment. And YES - this is on the Visual To-Do list. See --- I am FOCUSED!!!! There isn't much, if anything, that I'm working on these days that isn't on that list. 

The theme of the Cherrywood Challenge in 2018 was the artist known as Prince. I loved the color - purple, and I had a great idea. Oh -- that's the case, I have the ideas, but don't always execute to my satisfaction. Anyway, you'll see the piece in a second, or you can check out this blog post. 

I wasn't happy with the placement of the raindrops. It never got finished to enter the competition. I decided to live with it the way it was and figure out how to quilt it. I wanted to use metallic thread, but the piece just didn't match the vision I had. I even tried free-motion quilting so I could just call it a day, and the piece YELLED at me that it wasn't happy. Neither was I. 

I added that challenge to my to-do list, and here is my plan. I need to rip out all the satin stitches around each raindrop, and there are a lot of them. WAIT --- first, I had to rip out all the quilting, which I did months ago. Then I could remove the satin stitches. 

The quilting has been removed.

OK -- now the satin stitches are removed from one raindrop. 

The satin stitching is removed from one raindrop.

Now those raindrops are fused in place, so will the fusing let go? I was able to pull the raindrops off after the stitching was removed. So much for PERMANENT fusing with a fusible web!!

And the raindrop peeled right off the background!

I had to tug some of them a bit more than others to get off, and a bit of residue remained on the background after removing the raindrops. Shoot -- what am I going to do with that? 

I gave it a quick press from the wrong side, and VOILA—except for the stitch holes, you wouldn't be able to tell that anything has been fused and stitched in place. The raindrops came off perfectly!!! 

Wow - the beginning of a clean slate

It's going to take some time to remove them all, as there are quite a few on the piece. I'm OK with that. I swear that sitting and doing this kind of project is perfect for Monday sewing calls, or Virtual Retreats, and it teaches a person patience. Patience is a very important virtue, and many people do NOT have patience these days. I find this kind of thing therapeutic. 

A lot of raindrops to remove

As you can see, I've made a start in that one corner. My plan is to put the raindrops back on the quilt, but in straight lines, so I can quilt straight vertical lines for the rain, hopefully in metallic thread. I was likely in a rush to get this completed and randomly stuck those raindrops on without much thought to the quilting, and then went, "ACK, how the heck am I going to quilt this?" and it's sat like that for years. 

I need to stop doing that! 

Am I upset with having to rework this piece? Not at all. Things happen, and I've learned to let them go. It was not a mistake, just a learning opportunity. I'm wiser now, and because I've made so many "mistakes" and allowed myself to make them, I can recover from them without beating myself up. How many times did famous artists go back and rework a painting? Probably way more times than we realize. So slow and methodical, and I'll get it to look the way I want. 

I'm off to spin class this morning. I'm going to take it easy and will probably only do 30 minutes, just to test out my knee. It's not really the joint, it's the darn tendons, which are not happy campers. Anyway -- more on that story tomorrow because I heard some wild news at the Virtual Retreat yesterday. I have to say that the conversations at the retreats are amazing. The number and variety of topics we cover blows my mind!!! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!