Wildlife sightings

It was a glorious day yesterday! I accomplished a lot, saw a lot, and well - just a great day!!

Often, when I go for a walk, I take my phone. Not because of the social media, which I'm hardly on these days, and I don't miss it a single bit, not because someone might text me or call me - I rarely get messages, unless it's from M who wants to know what's happening with Little Bear. Nope - I take my phone because it has a fantastic camera on it.

I stopped to take a picture of this beautiful flowering bush on my neighbor's driveway. Well, imagine my surprise when the flower I chose to take a picture of had this inside. That doesn't look like a bumblebee, but it doesn't look like a wasp. I'm not sure what it is. But I got this great photo of it.

A visitor in the center of this pink flower

At lunchtime, I went outside to look at the pond. The fish go crazy whenever I come near the edge of the pond, so I was trying to sneak around and WHOA - what's this in the middle of the pond???  A frog. Now I'm not sure what kind of a frog that is (is it a toad?). Anyway, he was sunning himself on the lily pads and quite enjoying himself. I was wondering if there was a frog in the pond as I thought I heard him the other night. Where did he come from?

A front in the pond

And then to top it off, I saw these two critters running away when I went outside. Where the heck did those geckos come from??

The geckos running away

OK -- the geckos are fake. I'll tell you about them in a minute.

I had a phone call to deal with, so I did miss part of the Monday sewing. I've decided that I have enough handwork to do that I'm going to do that during the Monday sewing session - just like when we met in person. I added a few more things to this pile, as I might as well get it all in one place. And it's incredible what you can do in four hours of dedicated sitdown time.

My HUGE basket of handwork

The first thing I did was to sew the sleeve on my Dream Big panel. The darn sleeve was made weeks ago, and it never got stitched in place. The Dream Big panel is pinned to the design wall as part of my film set. Now, if I want to actually hang it up, I can do that.

Then it was off to remove more papers from those string-pieced green 60-degree triangles. I still have a few to go, but I was happy with my progress. Remember that I used the pages from a Yellow Pages book as the foundation, so all that paper has to be taken out. And I found that it's better to remove it BEFORE sewing the units together.

Removing the paper from string pieced blocks

Little Bear thought it would be great fun to help me take the papers out of the garbage once I had put them in. He's a garbage picker and loves to play in the trash.

Little Bear removed some of the papers from the garbage

OK -- back to those geckos. These darn things have been sitting around for MONTHS. One needed to be stuffed (well, it needed to be finished being stuffed), and the other one just needed to sewn shut. I finished stuffing the one during the Monday call.

The geckos that needed to be finished

 Then I had to find some matching threads and put the zipper foot on the Designer EPIC 2. It's a bit of a hassle to sew that seam, but with all the space and the piecing power on this sewing machine, it wasn't an issue.

Sewing the geckos closed

And then they were off to play!

The geckos at play near the pond

I think they wanted to jump in and play with the fish, but I held them back!!!

I had to move this box from the bottom of the stairs. That white blob makes me think that Little Bear is sitting in the green box. In fact, that's my knitting bag!! Since those two items at the bottom of the stairs are handwork, they did get moved over to the laundry basket that houses the rest of the handwork.

That is my knitting bag, NOT Little Bear

Oh, here's my handwork basket again before I moved those two things over. Let's just say that there is a LOT of handwork to be done. I'm on a tear - let's get this stuff done. I want to have "new" stuff hanging out in the studio. I'm tired of looking at this old stuff!

The handwork basket

OK -- so then it was time to hit the sewing machine. I got the last two pieces of the border on Easy Street. Yeah!!! That's been hanging around for a LONG, LONG time, but now the top is done.

The Easy Street quilt top is done

I cut TEN strips for the binding, and that's made.

The binding for EAsy Street

Remember, that Easy Street was a mystery quilt by Bonnie Hunter from several years ago.

Time to make the backing. WAIT A MINUTE! Thankfully, I realized that a corner was cut out of this hunk of fabric before I started to cut the backing. I started from the other end, and this is what I had leftover. Now that labeling system works like a charm!! Did you get all your yardage labeled yesterday? You should - it saves loads of time.

The leftover from the yardage for the backing

Easy Street ready to be quilted

And I'm happy to report that Easy Street is now in the "to be quilted" pile. Yes - one more UFO has been completed!! This is not only a UFO for this month, but it was on the UFO list for 2019. One more bites the dust!!!  It's exhilarating to be making progress like this.

As for my UFO lists for The Task Master, there is one project left on the 2017 list, and it's on my target to get that done later this week. There are still four on the list for 2018. One will become my working UFO for September, and one requires some handwork. It's being prepped so I can work on it during the Monday calls. The other two will likely get rolled over to next year.

There are still 8 on the list for 2019. I'm working on one of the projects, and I hope to have it done for the UFO club meeting in a couple of weeks. I'll grab one or two of the remaining ones and see what I can get done by the end of the year. Some of those will for sure get rolled over to next year.

And there are still 11 on the list for 2020. I'm currently working on two of those and hope to finish one or two more before the end of the year. That's a total of 24 that still need to be completed. Now I could be a total pessimist when I see that number and feel like I'm getting nowhere, but NO - I look at it like this - there were a total of 48 (actually more because of the duplicates of some of the quilts on the 2017 list). That means I'm half done what I started out to do. That's HUGE, as some of these UFOS are very complex. Oh yes - I'm going to get those darn UFOs done! I WILL do it.

After I finished that, it was time to get to work on those community project quilts that need to be bound. I made contact with the Project Linus person who lives very close to me. Yahoo!!!  She will take EVERYTHING. So I want to get all the quilts bound so they can all be dropped off and the Quilts of Valour contact is not far either so I'll make one delivery! I need to get busy!!!

I had several bindings to make, so I used the laser guidance system on the Designer EPIC 2 to join those bindings. It worked like a charm—no need to mark and pin like I always did in the past.

Using the laser guidance system

Here's the stack of quilts still be to be bound. It's much smaller than it was!

Quilts to be bound!

I thought I'd share with you where I put those bobbins that I wound so I would know when to change the needle and clean the machine.

Two spools of thread

And here is a great place to store the bobbins. Actually, I should put them under the cone of grey thread!

Storage space for my five bobbins

I've already gone through one bobbin. I told you, I'm on a roll.

Three bobbins to go

I was busy sewing binding all afternoon, and I needed a small ruler and scissors to help with the final join. AHA - I have a drawer in that new Singer Ironing and Crafting station. So I put my ruler and scissors in the drawer, so they were handy!!! What a smart idea.

The drawer in the Singer Ironing and Crafting Station

And I LOVE this iron - a single touch to shut it off, a single touch to wake it up (at the same temperature as it was when it went to sleep), musical tones to get it to the right temperature, and no hassle with the steam buttons. I'm in heaven!!! I didn't realize how much I hated that orange iron I was using. This one is a dream to use.

The Singer SteamLogic Steam Iron

So here's the binding situation - I got the binding sewn to the back of this quilt for Quilts of Valour.

The binding is sewn to the back of the quilt

The binding is sewn to the back of this quilt for Project Linus.

A Project Linus quilt with the binding sewn to the back

I love having all that space to work. It's amazing!!! And great lighting as well.

Sewing on the binding

I had to make the binding for the quilt that I'm working on above. That leaves ONE more binding to make. Three quilts need the binding sewn onto the front and three quilts that I need to sew the binding on both sides. Yes - I'm making progress, and I hope to get them all finished TODAY. I have to start the prep for my new presentation tomorrow night, but it won't be nearly as bad as it was last week since most of the technology is set up. I'm going to add one more tech component each week. No one will notice the difference, but I hope it helps me when switching from camera to camera. 

One more binding is made

This was the sky last night! A bit of lightning, and it was MUCH darker than it appears in the photo.

The night sky

 And there's the little helper. He just loves to find a bag to plop his little butt in.

Little Bear hiding in a bag

Phew - that was a crazy day, but I'm motivated, and I want some of this stuff cleaned up! It's happening, and I'm thrilled.

I hope you're getting some stuff done. The best advice? Pick ONE thing that's been bugging you and just get it done. For me, it was the geckos! It took less than one hour to get them done. You can do it!!

Don't forget that there's a virtual retreat this weekend. I'll post the link for Saturday on tomorrow's blog. That's Saturday, August 22nd, and Sunday, August 23rd. The retreat starts at 9 AM EST and runs until 8 PM. It's going to be loads of fun, and I've got to get some stuff organized. Stop by and say hi or stay for a while and sew.

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!

A new needle makes the world go round

Another GREAT day! I was listening to the radio this morning, and they were talking about being a morning person or a night person. I have to say there is nothing better than getting up before everyone - a new perspective on the day, no baggage from the day before, and the whole day stretching before you!

I get it that night people could have their own reasons, but this is what works for me, and I LOVE getting up early.

I also look forward to checking the stats on my Virtual Challenges since they update overnight. Small things amuse me, so bear with me. But I LOVE looking at my walking progress each morning. Where am I on the maps? I thought I'd share these photos with you.

I walked to the mall yesterday - that was an experience. I'll share that tomorrow.

As I walked across probably one of the last open spaces in this city, it made me think of the maps and the landscape I view each day.

The wide-open view in the city

Yep - hard to believe that we can actually get that wide of a view in the city. I'm guessing that someday soon, this space will be filled with condos.

On my Route 66 virtual walk, I'm in Arizona now and walked through the Petrified Forest National Park a couple of days ago. This is the wide-open view in Arizona.

The wide-open view in Arizona

On my cross Canada virtual walk, I'm just about to enter Winnipeg.

The wide-open view in Manitoba

So all is good - I love the virtual challenges. Keeps me on track, gives me something to look forward to,  and I love the tracking process. There are MUCH shorter treks if you want to try one. Of course, we chose the longest one to start! It wasn't my choice, but I'd probably have done the same thing. I'm at 72% of the way from Chicago to Los Angeles. I hope to arrive by the middle of November.

If you search for virtual challenges, you'll find loads. Sign up - they are fun, and some of them are just marathon length. 26 miles, and you'd be surprised at how quickly you can walk 26 miles.

Back to Studio B, where I had another testing session with Zoom, and cameras, microphones, and speakers. I'm learning so much. Well - it turns out I need a different camera. It's on order - let's hope it arrives by Wednesday. If not, I do have a plan B. I think I have at last sorted out all the equipment. And the price gouging on this new camera - well - there is a shortage of webcams, and so I had to pay more than the retail price to get it. GRRR!!!!!  I should have done all this research earlier in the year so that I would know all this by now. No matter - I think it's under control now.


Then it was off to sew on more bindings. I got this one on the fleece quilt done. So all the fleece quilts are now bound.

One more fleece quilt bound

Then I moved onto a small flannel quilt. I had to make the binding for this one, and it's completely stitched in place.

Binding on another small quilt

That's two more quilts to go to Project Linus. Hmmm - I'm going to have to try another contact since I haven't heard from that lady. Maybe she's on vacation??? I'll try to call her since she hasn't responded to my e-mail.

What's next? I decided to stitch the applique shapes on the Christmas Figs block. I got the sewing machine prepped for that - open toe applique foot, bobbin weight thread on the top and bobbin.

Stitching the applique shape

I use an elongated zigzag to machine stitch the applique in place. The width is 1.5 (I'd love to use 1.0, but it's too darn hard to see), and the length is 1.5, or you can use 2.0 - depending on how your machine makes the zigzag.

The elongated zigzag

It's a bit hard to see in this photo, but the top petal is stitched, and the bottom one is not. That matching bobbin weight thread makes the stitching nearly invisible. Shoot - I should have taken a closeup of the stitching.

The applique shapes

Then I did something that I should have done a long time ago. I knew the sewing machine was due for a cleaning and a new needle. That needle was struggling to get over seams, and it should not have been having issues. Yes - I have a system for notifying me when the needle needs to be changed (after 5 bobbins), but I've been sewing a lot of bindings and going through fleece, flannel, and gosh knows what else.

When I lifted the bobbin case out, I almost had a heart attack. There were two THICK FELT pads in the bobbin case. Now, how did they get there?

The thick felt pads removed from the bobbin case

Keep in mind, there are NO felt pads in the bobbin case. That is a build-up of LINT. Lint in the bobbin case is bad. I can't believe it was that bad. Ooops.

Not only that, but look at the THICK BAR of lint that I pulled from between the feed teeth. Yep - that's a disaster waiting to happen.

The thick bar of lint from the feed teeth

In the end, I pulled all this out of the machine. OK - as en educator, that's a bit of an embarrassment.

The lint pulled from the bobbin area

I wound five bobbins and inserted a new needle. AH - the world is much better. But you would be amazed at how quickly we are to blame the sewing machine for not sewing properly when, in fact, it's the needle that is the issue.

I finished this cone of thread. I'm on my last cone of piecing thread, so I'd better get myself together and order some more. The cone I'm using is partially used, and it'll be gone before I know it.

The cone is empty

Do yourself a favor and change that darn needle!!!!  And do it regularly. I switch between machines so often that sometimes, I get mixed up with the bobbins and well - I should NOT do that ever again. It doesn't help the machine, and it certainly doesn't help the stitching.

The next project is to get the borders on Easy Street. This is one of the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilts from a while ago. I cut the strips this morning and emptied two tables, so I had room to work.

Pinning the borders on Easy Street

I managed to get the final border on two sides of the quilt. The strips for the other two sides are cut and ready to be joined.

The outer border is on two sides of Easy Street

The quilt is laid out and ready to measure the last two borders.

Getting ready to measure the last two borders

Before time was up this morning, I scoured the shelf with all the yardage for quilt backings. I found a piece that will be perfect. This system of labeling the length of all the yardages is brilliant. It took mere seconds to find a piece of fabric that was the right color and large enough. If you don't have your yardage labeled with the size, then I guess I know what you'll be doing today. This is a HUGE time saver.

The backing for Easy Street

It's Monday, and that means it's Monday sewing!!! I can't wait!  I've got a whole pile of hand stuff sitting there to stitch while we chat, and I've got to finish that border on Easy Street.

I made good progress on the custom quilt on the long arm as well. It's nice to have loads of time to do that. It can get boring and hard on the back to spend all day doing ruler work. Now I do a bit a day, and soon it'll be done! If only I could be that great at time management all the time!

On that note, I've got stuff to get done before our Monday call.

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!!

A day off

OK -- I don't take many days off from sewing, but well - this weekend was just too beautiful to pass up. We get so few glorious days, and I wanted to be outside. So, I sure didn't get much done in the sewing department, and I'm OK with that. 

I did go for a 50K bike ride. It was a bit cool. I always start my trip by going to the end of my street to test the clothing and the equipment. I stopped when I passed by the house to get a vest. I hate being cold. And what's with that headwind? There didn't appear to be any wind when I started out, but there was a nasty headwind.

I stopped to take some pictures for you.

We live near one of the busiest highways in Canada. The 401. It's a totally crazy highway with 16 lanes of traffic through most of the city center. They are widening sections of that highway to the west of the city. Why they are expanding it is beyond me as until people learn to drive properly, it doesn't matter how many lanes there are, the roads will still be blocked with idiot drivers. Sigh......

Construction on the 401 near Milton

Bicycles are not allowed on the 401. Thank God for that! I can imagine the suction created by some of those speeders would be enough to suck us off the bikes! I had taken a different route yesterday - one that I haven't ridden in a long time.

Look at this utility pole. Now, why are there so many different colors of wires? And why are they hanging off this one pole? It looks like big bobbins of colored thread hanging there.

Spools of colored wire hanging on a utility pole

I passed by the church where we usually sew on Mondays. Alas, we're not sewing there. However, we do have our Zoom meeting today! So we do get to stay in touch, and that's good.

Our Monday sewing spot

I hit three different cities on my bike. When I passed by this place, I had to take a picture. This is the famous online order fulfillment warehouse. OK - this is ONE of many in this area. It's very hard to get an appreciation of the size, but let's just say the warehouse is HUGE.

Online fulfillment warehouse

In case you don't know who I'm talking about, there's their name on the side of the building! While I appreciate that they have helped during this outbreak, - well, I'm not going to get into it. I just so disagree with their aggressiveness to consumers to the detriment of many small mom and pop shops. Just like when the W store came marching into towns. That totally decimated many local malls.

The warehouse

The parking lot was about 1/3 full, so people were picking orders to make us happy. I would LOVE to have a tour of the place. It's so vast and well - I'd just like to see it. I know people use bikes, scooters, etc. to get from place to place, but I want to see in person.

I did a bit more tidying, and in that laundry basket, I found THREE magazines. They are now in their respective places on the shelf.

Three magazines to file

This article was in the Antiques and Vintages magazine. It was about Jim Erickson's Quilt Collection. We got to meet him in 2015. Check out this blog post to read all about our adventure when we visited Jim's house and saw his amazing quilt collection.

Jim Erickson article on his antique quilts

Remember those lint rollers I mentioned a while back. Well, I found a taker for them! I kept a large one and a small one for me. The rest are in a bag ready for pick-up or drop off. Now that drawer is almost EMPTY - what will I put in there????  I love getting rid of stuff. I was going to keep a few more of the rollers, but then, common sense kicked in - I don't need them. But someone with a cat does!

Lint rollers

I can just see my kid (or anyone else) rolling their eyes if they had to go through my stuff. They would say, "oh Mom (Elaine), why did you hoard lint rollers??" So that's not going to happen!

Here's another fabric that I picked up at Len's Mill the other day. My swatch is sitting on the fabric. I think it's a good match.

Purple swatch and fabric

It's for the border for my Easy Street quilt - the Bonnie Hunter mystery that I was working on a while back. It's not a perfect match, but it'll do. It's funny when looking at it next to the quilt, it's not just that the new one is lighter, but it has a different base color underlying the main color. It has more red??? Perhaps? Oh well, it's going to be good enough!

The new fabric for the border

When you make scrap quilts, this is what happens. Move on!!!!

I woke up this morning full of energy and motivation to quilt or at least sew. I have a bunch of paper piecing ahead of me. Hmm, before I get to the new stuff, I had better finish that mini quilt for my Mom. Oh, yes - it's still not done!!!!

I got two sections done this morning.

The sun

Part of a birdhouse

I almost finished another section but realized I hadn't pressed a piece properly, so I have to do a wee bit of ripping. These pieces are so small, that if you don't press properly, well, the image doesn't show as it should. I'll be working on finishing the last two sections during Monday Sewing. Then I move onto my mini-challenge piece that was supposed to be in the mail by June 1. Luckily, the lady I'm swapping with is also behind, and we agreed to mail later than the others. But I need to get that out of the house.

So we had a run on toilet paper when this pandemic started. Then it was gloves, masks, and other PPE. Then................... oatmeal???  This is what I normally buy for oatmeal, but it hasn't been on the shelves for the last couple of weeks.

What I normally buy

What I have to buy

Technically, it's the same stuff - just in individual packets and with a flavor. I wonder what's going on? At least the price of the hamburger is coming down to a more reasonable cost.

I'll finish off today with my daily update of the Virtual Challenge. I'm almost done with the daily update. I'm currently right in the middle of Saskatoon!!!

In Saskatoon on my Virtual Challenge

Do you remember me lamenting on my running shoes and how I would go through the toes? Well, if I had normal running shoes, I'd be through several pairs by now. But remember those big white clunkers that I bought? Here they are after over 1,100 MILES of walking since January 1. Not bad!!! Yes - they are a little less white than they were when I bought them, but those toes are intact!!!

My trusty walking shoes

 I did have issues with them. The tongue dug into the front of my legs when I first started, and it was extremely painful. A pair of taller socks helped to break that part in. I had a crazy blister/callous happen on the little toe on my right foot. That got cleared up, and now I have a bruised toe on the other foot - caused by a toenail. But that is almost cleared up - at least the pain is gone. Other than that - it's all been good!!!!

No takers on the Christmas vest panel I posted earlier this week. That goes in the giveaway box. I still need to call that lady and arrange for a dropoff. Perhaps I could do that today since the boxes are sitting in the hallway upstairs and the cleaning lady is coming on Wednesday. I'm so excited.


Oh GOSH  - I keep to forgetting to say that YES - there is another Virtual Retreat and it's scheduled for Saturday, June 13 and Sunday, June 14. The time is from 9 AM EST to 8 PM EST.  I'll be posting the Zoom links in the next day or so.  Bring your show n tell, bring your questions, come to sew or just come to visit. We'd love to see you!!!!


On that note, I'm out of here. I'm ready to work today! No slacking in the gazebo! Besides, it's cool this morning. If those sweatpants of mine were made, I'd be putting them on! But I'll just suffer the cold.

Hae a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!