Back to back to back

So before I tell you all about the back, let's talk about the firsts! 

As you are probably aware, I love to find geocaches. Now I'm not a huge geocache person as I haven't hit 600 yet, but I like to do it from time to time. And it's something fun to do in a location you are visiting. As with all things I love, there are many ways to measure what you do - the number of caches you find, the level of difficulty, the size of the container, and many other things. One thing that has eluded me is the FTF, which stands for FIRST TO FIND. 

What does that mean? After someone places a cache, if you have your e-mail notifications set up, you'll get a notice that a new cache has been placed. It'll tell you how far away it is from your location. I checked my e-mail this morning to find one that is .19 miles from my house. OH - has anyone else found it? 

I checked, and so far, no one had logged it. Let's just say that I breezed through that blog post yesterday morning, grabbed Murphy, and we did the walk in reverse so we could get to the cache quicker. I was practically pulling Murphy instead of the other way around. OK -- so that's a lie, but thankfully, she likes to hustle. 

We arrived and quickly found the cache in the forest, and we were the FIRST TO FIND it!  Yeah, me and Yeah, Murphy!!!!

FTF!

I will say that Murphy was way more interested in the squirrels than she was in the container. That dog needs better training! Oh -- she's good with training, as long as you have a treat! 

Murphy and the geocache

And it's a good thing we did what we did because as I found it, someone was on their way and logged in shortly after I was there!

So this brings up a shameful moment. Years ago (TEN years ago - August 18, 2012), I was in New Brunswick and picked up this travel bug from a geocache. What's a travel bug? There's a tracking number on the back of that little frog, which is attached to Bart Simpson, and the idea is that the bug gets moved from cache to cache. This little guy has traveled close to 20,000 KM across the US and then it came to Canada. 

A travel bug

I brought it home and promptly lost it in the office. Sigh...   In my decluttering, I found the travel bug, and I contacted the owner to ask if he wanted it back or release it back into a geocache. He said to put it back into circulation. So I plan on taking a picture somewhere in particular before I release into the geocaching world! 

OK -- enough about geocaching. It's time to talk back! Not my back, not your back, but QUILT backs. 

I'd sit down before you read further because you'll be exhausted. I know I was -- just getting this all together. 

Let's start off with a couple of the backs of customer quilts. This was a sports-themed quilt, and the backing is large pieces of sports fabric. 

The back of a customer quilt

I finished this customer quilt two days ago.  

Customer quilt - DONE

The back of it was pieced with extra blocks. 

The back of the customer quilt

I finished this customer quilt yesterday. 

Customer quilt - DONE

While the back wasn't anything too out of the ordinary, I had to make the backing. The quilt is race car themed and the customer couldn't find anything she liked for the back. 

 

Race cars

I said I might have just the thing, and this is what I found in my stash of quilt backings. So I sold her the fabric, made the backing on her behalf, and it's quilted and trimmed and ready to be delivered later this week! Now, how is that for service? And I used some of my fabric!

The backing of the customer quilt

Then it was time to work on some quilt backs for me. The quilt tops were piling up a wee bit, so during the Virtual Retreat, I decided to get to work. I had searched and couldn't find something suitable for my Wonderful Woodland, which is very strange. So I checked out the baskets of flannel to see if something would work. I found this pile of fabric. As I mentioned, it was in strips and lots of it. 

Fabric pulled to make a backing

I measured, sliced, and diced until VOILA -- I had a quilt backing that was the right size. 

My pieced backing for the Wonderful Woodland quilt

You can't see it, but there are a lot of seams across the width of that backing, and I'm perfectly OK with that. You'll see the top later, and I made the binding the same day I made the backing. 

Lots of seams in that backing!

This is all that was left of that pile of fabric, and it went into the flannel scrap bin and will go to a good home. 

The leftovers from making the backing

Then it was onto the backing for the Among the Stars Again quilt. I couldn't find anything suitable in the stash, but I did have LOTS of leftover fabrics, so I figured, let's go for it, and pieced the backing from several different prints. 

The pieced backing for Among the Stars Again

I still had all this fabric leftover, which is now in the appropriate stash bin. Green or grey? I put it in the green bin. That would be the bin with the green fabric, not technically the green bin for compost! I should qualify that as well, this is NOT left over, meaning the pattern was overly generous, it means I had a whack of this fabric and make the quilt top and the backing and still have left over. I could make a small coordinated quilt from it. Hmmm -- perhaps I'll dig this back out and send it to Diane! I should quilt the darn thing before I do that! 

Left over fabric from my project

And I'm still working on the little triangles cutoffs to make half-square triangles. This is the quilt that I'm waiting on for the binding, but it's not like I'm going to quilt that quilt tomorrow, so no rush. Even if I quilted it tomorrow, there would be no rush to put the binding on!

Half-square triangles in progress

Phew -- that's a lot of backings, but WAIT. I'm not done!

I had this stack of backings ready to put on the shelf, but they had NOT been measured. 

Backing fabrics - not measured

That won't do, so they got measured and labeled. Now, this is much more useful! Even though I don't have a ton of room to store those backings, it might just be the time to start going through the stash ins and pull anything that is huge yardage that can be used for a backing. I seem to be needing backing fabric more than anything else these days. Maybe, I'll start one basket at a time. See what I mean by there always being something to organize. The more you have, the more time it takes to manage it and make it useful! But it's so much better than it was!

The backings are now measured and labeled

My Long Time Gone has been sitting here forever without the backing or the binding made. The backing fabric was pulled, so I also measured and cut that. 

The backing fabric for Long Time Gone

I found some fabric suitable for the binding, and that one got moved to the "to be quilted" pile. 

Long Time Gone in the "to be quilted" pile

That left these two projects that still needed to be tackled. 

Two more projects to tackle

I found the perfect backing for my All in a Row quilt, which was a sew-along in 2021. It has cute owls on it, and it is bright. It's not just owls, but they are very prominent. 

The owls on my All in a Row quilt

Look at what I found. I mean, is this not perfect???? 

The backing fabric

And so the backing got made for that one as well. 

Another one hits the "to be quilted" pile

I'm working on the second quilt in that photo, but there's no time to tell you about that one right now. 

So much can be done when you're on a roll and have nothing to distract you. I got one more writing assignment out the door, but I must start another big one and soon! I've been puttering around with other paperwork that needs to be done and I'll get a bit more done today. 

If you want to see a really intense pieced quilt back, check out the back of Darlene's quilt. This is the BACK. That's intense -- I think she used every little leftover scrap she had, and I swear it took her longer to do the back than it did to make the front! Thankfully, I don't get that intense!

The BACK of Darlene's quilt

An FYI about my quilt backs -- I piece then vertically or horizontally -- whichever way makes the most sense. Sometimes, you have no choice if the print is directional. Once that seam is done, I fold it up and put it with the quilt top. I do NOT press it at that time. Why bother, when I'll likely have to repress it when I load it on the long arm. There is ZERO double work in this house if I can avoid it! 

Phew -- I'm off for another productive and busy day. Oh, I did grab a few things from Studio U and put them in their proper place. I WILL get through that, but I needed to take a break. Spin class -- it's time for spin class! 

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!

Sewing accomplishments at the retreat

 HA -- I love the comments - I LOVE them all referring to the Jen Kingwell quilts. Yes, indeed - I LOVE them all, and very hard to pick the one I like the least. They are all so worthy in their own right, and I'm just so darn proud of everyone who finished, and there will be more finished quilts. Those will get posted and added to the appropriate slot to keep them all in the same place. You'll know when that happens. 

It's that bittersweet day at any retreat, as we're going home today. But as usual, it's been a super retreat, and I so much got done! 

I took pictures of other things around here, but today, it's all about what I accomplished. Sometimes, I bring ONE big project, and other times, I bring smaller projects. This time, I decided to work on stuff that needed to be done or would finish off a homework assignment or small projects that had been languishing in the retreat bag. 

Now if my computer cooperates, we'll be able to see some pictures. If not -- well, I'll just have to tell you. OH -- here come the images. 

I started by working on The Butterfly Quilt. This is one of our ongoing classes, and I was behind with all the curved piecing blocks. Now they are done, and I'm up to date with the homework. Just in time to get the next set of blocks done for the presentation!

There are TWO of each block, so a total of 12 blocks, which took me all day to complete. No wonder the group was "bitter" -- there were a lot of curved seams to do! The center of the big blocks needs to be stitched down when I get home, as I forgot to bring the right thread. 

Blocks for the Butterfly quilt

On the second day, I decided to work on my Chunk of the month and got ONE more block done. I had the block beside it (for the pressing pattern), so the two blocks are now together. That means two-thirds of the blocks are done, and I can get the rows together when I'm home. And I'll keep working on the last three blocks. This is a UFO and will be done by the end of the year!

The Chunk of the month

Then I decided to work on this quilt. It's the result of one of the ongoing classes from 2021. It was together, and all the applique was stitched. All that remained was to add the final border. I knew I wanted it to be green but wasn't sure what to do for the border. I had brought a few pieces of bright green fabric with me, and I did a piano key border and had JUST enough fabric. If one were to look closely, one would see that many of the pieces in the four corners have some extra seams. I didn't care -- I wanted the project done! Those rows come from a book called All in a Row.  

I LOVE it -- those bright colors are so me!!!

My summer fun quilt top

Then it was onto another one of the ongoing classes for this year. I have the quilt top together, but not the border. So I sewed as much of it as I could. I obviously couldn't count since I was short some pieces, so this is as much as I got done, which was OK as I had enough to get all the diagonal seams done and trimmed. The rest is easy sewing, so I should finish that quickly and get that border on.  

The border for Among the Stars Again

I had enough of the green bits to make the binding for that bright quilt. There was enough left for ONE more strip, and I used up many fabric scraps -- a win-win!!!

The binding for All in a Row

I had several half-square triangles that needed to be trimmed, so I did that one evening while the rest of the group worked on their projects. Yeah!!!! Sorry -- I did NOT take pictures of what the others are doing -- that's their business! 

Trimming half-square triangles

But I have a ton more of those little triangles to sew and trim from making those diagonal seams on the border!! Oh well -- enders and leaders for the next retreat. 

More enders and leaders

Let's say I'm pretty happy with my progress as I'm clearing up many little things. I usually pack one bag full of projects and then bring an empty bag. As I complete the projects, I move them into the empty bag. It's super easy to track stuff and get the excess off the table at the retreat. We don't have a lot of space to work with - well, not nearly as much as we have at home, and once it's done -- I clean up my area and move on to the next project. 

The next project out of the bag was paper piecing. I had one of these blocks done but not sewn together, and I completed four blocks in total. It was a sample for a paper piecing class. I don't want to make the entire quilt, or do I? I like the blocks. Anyway -- I only had one more paper template with me, so I'll make more copies when I get home and after I decide what to do. I may make only one more block and create a small wall hanging, as there's no need to make another quilt. 

Jem paper pieced blocks

This block has been in that retreat bag for a long time. Michelle had some fusible, so I stole some from her and appliqued the leaves and the stem in place. No threads with me to finish the edges. This is a block from a shop hop several years ago, and I ended up with only one block. I'll use it to practice free-motion quilting and make a small wall hanging. 

Pumpkin block

The bag of projects is getting emptier by the day, but I won't run out! Not with this project in there. This project has been around for years. As a matter of fact, it's the FIRST quilt project I have ever worked on in my adult life. I wanted to make a QUEEN-sized quilt for M for her bed. She was 2, and she's much older now. I quickly decided on another quilt for her, which got done and is now on the guest bed, so she can enjoy it when she's home. 

But what was I thinking with all those Y seams? 

Three tumbling blocks

For some reason, I got slap-happy when cutting and there was a HUGE stack of diamonds already cut. I know -- I could abandon them, but that would not make me happy, so I will get this done. I need to keep it out at home and work on one or two blocks a day. Or when I bring it to retreat, get a dozen done. I got three done last night before I crashed. My body said -- you NEED to go to bed, and you need to do that right now! I slept through the night and had a great sleep. 

Now I'm going to start the day, and I'll be starting with these tumbling blocks. Once I get bored, I have a couple more things in my bag. But this is the MOST I've ever accomplished at a retreat -- well, in the number of projects. There are not many left, so I planned well!!

I love going home and unpacking that bag and putting things away or prepping them for the next retreat - like the threads for the pumpkin block or deciding to finish it at home. 

On that note, it's time to eat! And then to get the day rolling!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

Are you superstitious?

 I am not a superstitious person per se. However, I think about all those things that you are not supposed to do, like walking under ladders, what to do if a black cat crosses your path, and everything to do with the number 13! I don't avoid that kind of stuff, but it crosses my mind. More on that in a minute. 

I had a very bizarre presentation yesterday. It was on Zoom, all the participants were in the store, and they never opened the camera link, so I had ZERO connection with any of them, including the store owner. We had to wait as they had a technical glitch, and with a number of them talking in the background, it was tough to hear, and let's not forget that it was in French. 

No questions, no feedback whatsoever! I need to have a chat with the shopowner today to see if we can fix that! It made me nervous, and I stumbled with my French. It was very unnerving, and I may have ended up talking to myself for an hour! Sigh.................

Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE Facebook? I don't get a chance to post every day -- I try, but some days, well, it just doesn't happen. But what I love the most are the groups! Not only do I get to stay in touch with the groups that I have created for my classes, but it's a learning tool! 

I've got a couple of unusual quilts that need to be quilted, and I had no idea how to do that. Well, I asked my Facebook group, and I got answers. I don't have enough experience with unusual stuff on the long arm to know these tricks, but I'm learning, and the people in the group have been amazing and patient!

People are posting educational stuff in one group, and I need to carve out some time to learn it.! My long arm can do so much, and I have only skimmed the surface of that software! I have a whole pile of my quilts to experiment on! 

I sorted samples that had been strewn around Studio B, and they were put away. More samples need to be made, so there is loads of stuff to embroider hanging around, but if I put it away, I'll forget it! I spent some time doing paperwork, and I almost have the urgent stuff out of the way, but I need to spend this morning at the computer to get a couple more things done. 

I'm also cleaning up the work tables as I need the space to put up more machines. All in a day's work! 

Between sample making, and learning which goes hand in hand, I could be busy 24/7!!

I did get some sewing done, which was great, but I can't share it with you. The students get to see it first, and then I'll have show and tell this weekend. 

But I did work on the border of one of my quilts. 

The border for All in a Row

This border is for my All in a Row quilt. The top and bottom borders are on the quilt, and I've meant to lay out the side borders forever! Now that I had plenty of space, it was easy to lay out the quilt to measure it and get the correct length. Then super easy to layout and glue these pieces in place. 

I made significant progress on that cutting table this week, and I hope to continue this afternoon. I have three classes this weekend, plus the Virtual Retreat. So I feel that I can make excellent progress on clearing up some stuff and get that table 100% clear. Wish me luck!!

Never mind the enormous stack of paper that's on the floor beside me that needs to be dealt with! Yes -- I know I have my little storage shelf, but well -- I need lots of room to spread out, and to do that in the office, I need to completely clear the table or the second desk. There are too many things to do to make that happen! I could pile the stuff into a box and deal with it later? I may just do that, so I can get a better handle on the day-to-day stuff. 

Or I'll just try to get back into spending the morning in the office and the afternoon downstairs. That's hard to do with my presentations, as those take priority regardless of the time of day. Oh boy-- I'd better enjoy the downtime right now because I just realized that starting November 1, I have TEN presentations in one week. Yikes -- how did that happen??? 

That means that for all of November, I'll be doing TEN per week. Thank goodness, I'm at the end of the ongoing classes, so I'll focus on the presentations. And thankfully, the prep work for most of them is complete!

OK -- so back to the superstitions. I was quilting another quilt yesterday. I'm trying to get that pile done. As of yesterday morning, there were 13 quilts left to quilt. One per day - in less than two weeks, that can be cleared up! Right? So the 13th quilt was on the long arm. I'm at the sewing machine, and I can hear a BAD noise. Oh no - I dropped everything and ran. And this is what I found. 

OH!

This is NOT good. Thankfully, I was close by, but there was an open seam in the quilt, and the foot just happened to be going in the opposite direction. It was jammed very tight, even though I got there pretty quick. The machine doesn't know that there's a problem, so it just keeps on trying to quilt. I released the long arm and got out the seam ripper. This wasn't even a question of ripping out the stitches; it was trying to delicately slice the stitches out of the quilt without creating a lot of damage to the quilt. 

After I freed the machine, I looked at the damage. Sigh............  I was able to fix the top so that if you didn't know what had happened, it would take a lot of searching to find this. That open seam will have to be hand-stitched in place. There's a small hole in the top - it's more like the fabric fibers have separated rather than a hole. But there's a hole in the back. I'll applique some of the extra backing fabric over that hole. Unsewn seams are NOT my responsibility. 

The damaged area

This has only happened twice in my longarm career. The first time, I happened to be standing at the machine waiting for the bobbin to run out and caught the machine pretty much right away, but there was still a hole created in that quilt. So if you are taking your quilt to a long arm quilter, or even one that you are quilting yourself, make sure that you close all the seams up when you are fixing a problem! I know it happens. This quilt will survive in the grand scheme of things, and no one will be the wiser that this happened. I do have to laugh because when this happens, it's always with a backing that is light in color and monochromatic, so a patch will show more than if the print was busy! 

And it just so happened that the pattern I used was a bit denser than I usually choose! Of course, it was! But the quilt turned out beautifully! Now to get trimming!!

Customer Quilt - DONE

Oh shoot -- I went to order the Cherrywood Challenge book - Diana, and they are NOT shipping to Canada. DRAT!!!!  I need to find someone to whom I can send the book, so they can, in turn, ship it to me. Yes - I know the shipping to Canada will be expensive, but the store that sells the Cherrywood challenges is NOT ordering the books. If only I were going to the Quilt Festival, which I wouldn't dream of at the moment! Of course, I'll pay for the shipping to Canada!

Anyway - it's time to get the day started. I must NOT try to learn something new before going to bed as that keeps me awake, and then I get up late!

Don't forget the Virtual REtreat is this weekend. Here are the links. 

Saturday, October 23   From 6 PM - 9 PM

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89254233911?pwd=VGQrTnFybW1HMWpleHA4M2Q2NGVwZz09 Meeting ID: 892 5423 3911 Passcode: 982797

Sunday, October 24, From 10 AM - 9 PM)

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87246635892?pwd=VGY1cUUyLzRaRi9VUVV2ZWFINXc2dz09 Meeting ID: 872 4663 5892 Passcode: 440473

 

Oh -- has anyone used the link at the top of the blog to get the blog via e-mail? Someone was having trouble with it, and I must confess that I don't know much about it. There are other ways to get the blog. You can use Bloglovin, which will e-mail you the blog every day. You've got to indicate which blogs you want to follow, and it sends you a daily e-mail. 

Have a super day!!!

Cio!!!!

It's all about LEARNING

 It's a challenging world out there. What is more important? Making money? or having more likes? 

It's a tough choice for a lot of designers, makers, doers! Really - how do people decide how to distribute their content? And how do you choose whether you want to watch the free stuff or the paid stuff? I will say that you need to be careful whether the content is free or not. Just because someone has a video camera does NOT mean that what they put online is good information. Some of what I've seen is terrible. 

Not only the quality of the video, but in some instances, the content is not appropriate, not reasonable, not practical, and undoubtedly not correct. Sadly, some people flock to this kind of stuff and think it's the best thing since sliced bread - they get caught up in the hype and the "personality." So the next time you watch a "great" video, and you're about to do what they do, think about it -- is it really the best way to do something? Just because a "celebrity" quilter says "do it this way." there are often much easier ways when you think about it. They are trying HARD to make it work, and sometimes -- it's just too much. 

All this means there is a TON of free information on the internet and all we have to do is search it out. And there are some excellent resources out there. 

The best thing is that we can be entertained for HOURS and never run out of stuff to watch. Now I'm not talking about entertainment -- I MEAN education stuff. 

I've been spending HOURS and HOURS downloading information (well - that's not free information for you) but relates to my job. And I learn stuff; I'll be sharing what I can with my students. 

However, here are some places to go and get information. 

Should you have a Husqvarna Viking or PFAFF sewing/embroidery machine and have no idea what all those functions are all about - check out Sewingnastery. It's a fantastic site -- it's actually a sewing machine dealer in the US, and she has hundreds of videos on her site for many brands of sewing and embroidery machines. 

And be sure to read the story about how that site came to be. It's pretty funny. 

Yes -- even I direct people to this site as they can't learn everything in a class I offer. Other dealers refer people to this site! Check it out. 

I found two good Youtube channels if you want to watch sewing/embroidery/quilting in FRENCH. One of them is a quilt designer - Claire Haillot, and the other is a sewing machine dealer in Quebec. 

Once a week, the full-time US educators run a Facebook live for one hour. This is for Husqvarna Viking and PFAFF. Nancy, Karen, and Mickey are doing a fabulous job of showing how-to videos for various techniques. Loads of learning!! And it's all FREE. 

If you're into long-arm quilting and want some info, Tracey from Whirls and Swirls is now doing Facebook live, and the little bit I saw yesterday was excellent. 

I know there are tons of other sites as well, and if you have a favorite - I'd love to see it. I'm all about education rather than entertainment, and those sites have been filling my free moments. If you check out any sewing machine or long arm brand on Youtube, I bet they also have tons of FREE information, and when it comes directly from an official source (company or dealer), you can bet that it's the BEST there is to offer. 

Let's not forget the amount of FREE stuff out there - manuals, tutorials, quilting motifs, and gosh knows what else. With all the free stuff, it amazes me that people still want to sign up for courses! I LOE having access to any sewing machine manual, accessory guides, all FREE to download. My DAd is exactly like me -- he watches Youtube all the time, and is constantly downloading manuals, except his manuals and videos have to do with engines and CNC, not sewing machines!

We had our All in a Row Quilt class this past weekend. I'll share my quilt with you. It's super cute, and I'm happy to say that all of what you see is together! I have part of a second quilt done and working on a third, but those will have to wait. This has been a learning experience, even for me! I must say that I struggled a bit with value. 

All in a Row quilt minus the inner border sides and the outer border

I really wanted blue skies, and my blues were probably a bit too dark as some of my greens bled into the blue. Look at the trees above the camper row -- we can't see all of the treetops -- I could have used darker greens to avoid that. The same thing in the row near the bottom with the colored cross blocks -- there are green flying geese between them, and they don't show. 

And then this happened when I was trimming my applique. 

Usually, when trimming applique, you want to have at least ¼"  beyond the applique for the seam allowances. 

Seam allowance

I was very focused on getting this row to the correct height WITHOUT checking all the parts. So I had to whack off the tip of the owl's ear. I had already sliced into the background when I realized what was going to happen. 

Off with his ear

I put this in here not so you can feel badly about my owl or my green fabrics, but to realize that these are NOT mistakes and not to be lamented or worried about. I was a wee bit disappointed in the owl, but seriously people -- this is a quilt. It's a learning experience - even after 20+ years of quilting, I still make mistakes, and I'm still learning. When I have assimilated everything, that's it -- game over. Time to find a new hobby.  

No one got hurt, no blood was shed - only the tip of that owl's ear got nipped. A hawk bit the end of the ear off - that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. 

The values in the trees? Yep -- real-life learning lesson. I'm so beyond worrying about whether something is right or wrong. This is a HOBBY, and it's supposed to be fun. 

I know some students are PARALYZED about doing something for fear of choosing the wrong colors or making a cutting mistake. That doesn't sound like fun to me. Nope -- I just go for it, and if it doesn't work out -- that's a learning experience, and well - I can poke fun at myself for making such a silly mistake. 

The owls are whimsical, and in the grand scheme of things, if I didn't tell you his ear got nipped, you can't see that in the quilt. I mean -- really -- what does it matter? 

A wee nip!

Trust me -- when I started to quilt, EVERYTHING had to be perfect. I drove myself nuts. But I gradually realized that this is fabric and this is a hobby. NOTHING is perfect, and the more mistakes you make, the freer you become in what you do and the more fun it becomes. Make things like the pattern? I hardly ever do - I barely read the instructions - even when teaching a pattern. I teach it the way I think it should be done, not how the author wrote the pattern. Otherwise, what's the point of me teaching it? You may as well read the instructions and follow them!!!

Yep -- I'm a rebel, and I LOVE it. I relish it and hate to make my quilts like the book or pattern. What's the point? Everyone will have the same quilt. Nope -- I like to go out on a limb, and if my ear gets nipped, it's gets nipped. Put a bandaid on it and move on! 

It's going to be a busy day. Software club and two presentations. I'm almost ready for the software club. I think I need to change my laptop back to English. Or I move the second computer downstairs where I know the software is English. Or I bring up a backdrop and do the class from here. That might be way easier! Working in two languages can be a hassle since I can't have an English and a French version of the software simultaneously. It needs to be ONE or the other. That's a hassle. But I'll cope with it!

WAIT a minute  -- my computer desk is on wheels. I can rotate it and get a lovely backdrop. OK --- so I just tested it, and it works. Only to realize that the software club is NEXT week, not today!!! No wonder I couldn't find the link this morning. But it's there - NEXT week. I have some extra time this morning, and I'm all prepped for the club NEXT week. 

I got a LOT of sewing done on Monday, and I'll share the pictures later this week.  I think the groups I sewed the projects for should get to see them FIRST, and then you get to see it! 

On that note, I"m out of here! More videos to watch, more free stuff to enjoy!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

Fun times at the Virtual Retreat

 Oh my gosh -- we had the BEST time on the Virtual Retreat! You have to LOVE technology!! I had to be absent for part of it as I played chauffeur, but I could connect in the car once I dropped my passengers off, and I got to chat while I drove home.

There are so many things that we can talk about -- why do we need to talk about such a controversial topic like COVID? I have no issues with discussing it or it being a topic of conversation. What drives me crazy is when it gets heated because people lack the correct information or misinterpret existing information! I get so frustrated during these conversations, I could spit! And I think I did yesterday! We have a PERMANENT NO-COVID rule on the Virtual Retreat, and when it starts to get out of hand, I shut the conversation down!

I had one goal in mind for the day, and I managed to accomplish that. The goal was to finish the LAST TWO rows of this All in a Row quilt. I'm happy to say that the row of stars (just above the owls) is DONE! All the seams of those star blocks are twirled, and they fit together very nicely. 

All in a Row quilt

If you think those stars were easy to sew? Think again! The center of each is 2". The pieces above are 2" by 2 1/8," and the corner units were 2 1/8" square. You know it's sad when you are sewing, and you can tell that one of the units is 2 1/8" by 2 ¼" without measuring! Fortunately, I only made that one cutting error, and it was easy to rip that out and fix it. Then it went together like a charm. 

The last major goal was to do the stitching on the applique camper row. I've been putting that off for months and well -- no time like the present to make that happen. 

Oh shoot -- I forgot to take a picture of the applique that I prepped for my UFO project. OK -- I just ran downstairs to get that photo. Hmmm -- maybe I could learn to really love applique. I LOVE the look of applique, but it's very time-consuming. 

Applique UFO homework

And I'm happy to report that the camper row is now done!!!!  Here are my trees. 

Trees are done!

I intended to stitch a blanket stitch around the edges, but I decided to do a satin stitch instead. I'm really fast with satin stitch, and I can go around the corners and indents with minimal issues, so satin stitch it was! 

And on the section that joined the two halves of the trees, I used a mossy satin stitch. See how both edges are not even. I LOVE that stitch. 

Mossy satin stitch

And there are my cute mushrooms!!!

The mushrooms

So all that's left is to trim the two applique rows and sew the rows together. I still have to stitch the applique for the two side borders (it's mostly prepped). The last step will be to decide on what final border the quilt will have. I know what I want; I just need to figure out the math. Yahoo!!! My goal is to have this done by the next class, which is not that far away! 

I'm doing not badly with keeping up, but it's a challenge, to say the least, and well, I have a couple of writing assignments that need to be done by - well, let's just say they need to be done ASAP. So that has been the morning's focus so far and will be for the rest of the day. 

I have some sewing to do before I can finish writing, so I'll do that during Monday sewing, but I think I'll have to leave them for a bit as I do some writing. 

I did have help last night! What a goof!! 

The helper!

And at one point, he walked over the keyboard and put me in airplane mode, so I lost the internet and the Zoom call. Silly boy!!!

Look at me!!!! 

And then seriously  -- why does Murphy do this? This bed is way too small for her, but she loves it. Her butt hangs over the edge, but she is quite content, so who am I to throw it out? 

Murphy in her tiny bed

We have company for a few more days, and it's a struggle with time to be sure. But we'll make it all happen. 

Oh, here's some eye candy for you. Some of the award-winning quilts were announced yesterday for the Quilt Festival in Houston. It's a weird world because normally the winners are announced on the preview night. Even better is that we viewed them as a group yesterday on Zoom and got input on them as a group. That was a fabulous experience, and thanks to everyone for that!! I really enjoyed the "quilt show." We didn't get to see the quilts in super detail, but we oohed and aahed collectively over the workmanship. 

Wow -- some of those quilts are beyond belief! Look at the two pineapple quilts. Those blocks are tiny with many pieces per block, and we were complaining about a 5" pineapple block when we did the Long Time Gone quilt!! How long did it take them to make these works of art? 

It's time to get moving and off to spin class at the gym. Then back to walk the dogs and then sewing and writing for the remainder of the day!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!