Snowmageddon!!

WOW -- that's all I can say about the snow! Where the heck did it all come from? I don't even know when it started, but it was early in the morning, and the girls and I had a lovely walk in the snow. And then it kept snowing and snowing and snowing and snowing. 

The wild and long snowstorm

I went out to shovel at 2 PM and shoveled for about 40 minutes. I cleared half the driveway. I had put the car in the garage in the morning because it would make it easier to clear the driveway. This was the end of the driveway -- that's how much snow was in the street! Only once before did we have that much snow in the street. Our street didn't get plowed within 24 hours, and we were supposed to go to a quilt retreat on Monday morning. We had to postpone the retreat by a day because my car had very low clearance and I couldn't get out of the driveway!

The amount of snow in the street at 2 PM

It almost seemed that as fast as I was shoveling, it was being filled in again! Last night, when I shoveled, I did one swipe with the shovel where I had started! Look how much had reaccumulated! 

I could barely keep up with the falling snow

KU went out and did some shoveling in the afternoon. I went out again at 7 PM and shoveled for another half hour or so, and there was as much snow in the driveway as there had been at 2 PM. How is that possible? What does one do with the snow? Get a shovel, bend, and lift! Those snowbanks along the side of the driveway are a tad tall now. 

Oh my gosh -- look at the depth of snow on the house! When this stuff finally starts to melt, we're going to have icicles on the front of our home. GRRRRR! We do need to resolve that insulation issue. 

The snow on the roof

So at 3 AM or thereabouts, the plow came by. Actually, it's a massive backhoe loader. The sidewalk plow had already been by, so that is a huge bonus! My tax dollars are going to an excellent cause! But there was a massive windrow at the bottom of the drive. I know it doesn't look too big in that photo, but it was substantial. 

After the plow passed

Shortly after, the backhoe loader came back to take care of the windrow. And it's not always the windrow's height, but its width! Because we're on a curve, it can be a crazy situation. I happened to catch him cleaning the windrow, which is another new thing for this year and well worth every penny of tax dollars I paid for that service. 

Clearing the windrow

And this is what we are left with. The guarantee was to have a 10-foot opening at the end of the driveway. I assume that is the width of the blade. I know I can't live with that bit on the right-hand side, so I'll be out later to get rid of it. That'll be easy - just push it out in the pile at the side of the curb. No lifting required - or not much. 

The end of our driveway is clear (ish!)

I've already been out shoveling again for 40 minutes and cleared almost all of the top part of the driveway above the sidewalk. And the front step. At least when I was done, NO MORE snow had fallen, so it was much more satisfying. I figure it'll take me another 40 minutes to clear the bottom part of the driveway, and that's OK. I rather enjoy being outdoors, and again, if you dress appropriately, you are warm. No need to overdress with all the exertion, but my hands were cold at one point, and I had to get a warmer pair of gloves. 

I will say that they were super fast with the plowing. We are one of the last streets to be plowed because we are a cul-de-sac. They showed up at 3 AM, but the sidewalk plow had already passed, and then they came back to clear the windrows. It was very efficient! 

I know there's going to be a ton of people complaining to the city about the amount of snow. The last time I checked, the city isn't responsible for the amount of snow, and there are only so many places to put it. Get over it -- this is CANADA! 

It makes me think of one winter in Montreal. There was a brutal snowstorm, and the city couldn't keep up. I was on my way home, almost at the condo, when I got stuck. People were just abandoning their cars in the middle of the street, as did I. It was a residential street, and with the help of others, I got it out the next day. 

Speaking of snow - look at this girl! She is super happy to be outside, and I don't know how many times she has gone out and plunked herself in the snow. The Husky? Oh - she was asleep in her warm bed in the house!

MOM - I love the snow

The next quilt waiting to be quilted on the long arm was a big one with a Minky backing, which I wasn't too keen on loading, so I loaded a small wallhanging of mine instead. And got it quilted before we started the Virtual Retreat. 

One of my quilts - DONE

That quilt got trimmed, and now I have a stack of FOUR small projects that are trimmed and waiting for the binding to be stitched on. I ran out of the small tags I use for my projects, so these are on hold. The tags are in the mail, but where? They gave me a tracking number, but I don't know how they were sent. I'll see if I can figure it out today. Of the four projects, three have been hanging around for a very long time. It's good that they are now quilted. Think PROGRESS!!

Projects waiting to be bound

As someone mentioned in the comments, small successes are actually ENORMOUS successes because you get into the habit of finishing. You can see progress, and it all counts!!!

I was getting tired towards the end of the Virtual Retreat, so I tidied up all the threads, fabric, and other bits and pieces from the recently finished projects. That included rolling up this partial ball of yarn that I had been using. 

Rolling up leftover yarn

I had a great discussion with someone about to-do lists, and I'm going to try using an app. It's going to take me time to ease myself into it, but I do like the fact that the list will be with me always. But that didn't stop me from creating a written list on a small clipboard I found while decuttering the office. 

My week's goals in Studio B

I am a very visual person, and the fact of handwriting those items on the list is almost enough for me to mentally commit to them. It's like if I write it down, I'll remember it. If I don't write it down, I'm not committed. I also love my bigger visual to-do list with the main projects I want to complete this year. 

Of the 21 items on the list last week, I think 6 were not completed. But that's OK. I rolled them over to this week, and there are only 12 items on the list. 

By the way, that big quilt with the double-wide Minky backing? It's now loaded on the long arm, and I'll get to it today or tomorrow. 

I have to laugh because I started to burn my Christmas pie candle, and I can definitely say that yesterday I was burning the candle at three ends as I attempted to use the long arm, the embroidery machine, and the sewing machine at the same time! 

My Christmas Pie candle

That is always a challenge because one or the other needs attention, like a new bobbin, trim fabric, or whatever. 

Once I had finished tidying up, I put some items on the cutting table to work on today. My Scan n Cut fabric cutting mat needed to be cleaned. After cutting all that foam, it wasn't very sticky. I had attempted to clean it with non-alcoholic baby wipes, but it was still unusable. I was going to use a glue stick to restick it, but the girls suggested I get the LA Totally Awesome out and use that instead. OH MY GOSH -- with mere minutes that mat was super sticky again! There was so much lint and fuzz from the foam! What a TOTALY AWESOME product. You can only buy it at Dollar Tree. And so that mat lives to see another cutting session!

Using LA Totally Awesome to clean my digital cutting mat

Spin class was canceled this morning because the gym didn't open until 6 AM. That would allow the equipment to clear the parking lot. And I don't mind, I got my exercise from shoveling. Now that all the sidewalks are also clear, it's going to be easy to walk the dogs. I think we might bypass the forest this morning - the snow is DEEP. We had record snowfall, with 40-50 cm. For those who understand inches better, like me, that is 15 to 20 inches! Yikes! At least it was light and fluffy, but it was a challenge to shovel because it was also very granular, so unless you threw it OVER the snow bank, it had a tendency to fall back down into the driveway. Not very productive shoveling at times!

I did a little bit of decluttering, but there were other things on my plate, so the decluttering will have to wait another day. No big deal! I got this! 

Today is Monday sewing, and I have a bunch of small projects I'd love to clear up, so that's on the agenda. 

On that note, I'm out of here! 

Have a super day and be safe!!!

Ciao!!!

One Block Wonder - construction tips

 New protective cover on the phone - Check!

Fitbit app is back syncing - Check! I had to uninstall that app and reinstall it. Then it asks me something about running the apps in the background. I have to figure that out since it affects Libby, which I use for listening to audiobooks. It has something to do with saving battery, but what or how? But at least that app is now working. 

That leaves ONE left - the calendar. DH tested it with his phone, and it works, so it must be some setting that I've changed? I don't CHANGE settings. I'll get it figured out. Slow and sure, and then POOF - -something else will happen! It doesn't matter -- it keeps me on my toes!

Like when I reloaded the Fitbit app, I saw a TON of notifications from 2018. Oh -- these should be deleted, and yes, they can - ONE AT A TIME! Oh boy! I'm sure there's a ton of other stuff in there. 

Here's the thing about cloud storage, whether it's on our phone or our computers -- we have so much - well, I have so much. Especially in the storage area., I use DropBox, and there's stuff in that cloud-based drive. I use Google Drive and One Drive, and I have files in all of them. And I have two hard disks on my computer. Hmm -- do we see a clean-up of virtual stuff one day? 

I do need to get them sorted out, and there's a lot of other documents and whatnot that are no longer required, but since I have plenty of room to store them, it's not a problem, but it would be nice to get everything cleaned up!

OK -- so who turned down the thermostat? It's only 8 degrees this morning! Yikes!!! I may even have to turn the furnace on today. It's a wee bit chilly. But I see it's going to be warmer later today, so I'll forgo the furnace for the moment. 

Anyway -- I had a fantastic day yesterday!!  It was ZOOM, ZOOM, ZOOM all day long. Four one-hour classes, and I open the calls up a half-hour in advance so people can get connected. We were at the maximum for two of the classes. Zoom acted up three quick instances in one, but we were good once we turned some of the videos off. 

Lots of good information was shared, and now I have a bit of writing to do to follow up on those. I'm working on it this morning and later today, and my goal is to get it all done today - OK -- let's be realistic - it'll be done by tomorrow. But I need to get it off my plate as I have a lot of other stuff coming up this week. 

I'm also starting to formulate a plan for classes for January to June next year! YES  -- all of them will be on Zoom, and we're going to have loads of fun. I need to look at some dates and get that organized, so keep an eye out for that. 

Today, let's have a look again at the panel quilt. I'll be doing some show and tell this coming week.  

My One Block Wonder is made with seven panels

So there are many ways to put this thing together. I treated it like a regular quilt. I did NOT cut anything from the original panel. The selvages and any white on the top and bottom were left until I knew what was going to happen with the sides. 

Then I laid about all the blocks and made the bottom "border," the two sides, and the top border. 

Side border and bottom - see how they match

The right border and the bottom - which also match

And you can see that my side rows were NOT going to cover the panel. So I did some math to see how wide I needed to make that coping border - the skinny dark blue one. 

The math!

You have to love this piece of paper. Not only am I bilingual (more or less) with French and English, but also imperial and metric measurements. Sometimes, I used fractions, and sometimes, I used decimals! It's hilarious!!

I was lucky to have a piece of the same fabric line that I rescued back from Diane! 

The selvage on the panel

The selvage on the coordinating fabric

All those fabrics are from Northcott, but about 5 years old, but you may still find some of them around. I know the Lensmill in Barrie still had this panel, but not sure about the coordinate. 

Once those calculations were "firmly" calculated, it was OFF with the excess. 

Cutting off the points of the hexagons

I had to make a couple of wee adjustments as I sewed the borders on, but it worked like a charm! I do have a document that I wrote on coping borders. You'll find it on the Northcott website. I also wrote other tech tips for them, and you can find all of those at this link. I would download them before they disappear! 

The coping border document wasn't explicitly meant for One Block Wonder, but the same principles apply!

And that's it for today!!! I need to get dressed to brave that cold temperature! 

If you have any other ideas for classes for 2022, whether that's a year-long project or a shorter one, let me know. And YES -- the UFO club will continue, and I'll be opening up a new time slot for that one as it works best with small groups of no more than 20. And YEAH  -- super news -- The Butterfly quilt pattern by Tula PInk has been sent to the printers!! 

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!

One Block Wonder with a panel

 I'm under control! Or should I say - I'm in control? Either way, I have most of the prep done for the classes this weekend. I believe all or most of the sewing is done - it's just a question of putting the pictures into the various presentations and trying to get the written homework done so it can be sent out in a timely fashion. I must say that it feels good to be in control, but there's still a lot of work to do to get all that information organized and in the correct presentation!

As you know, I signed up for the One Block Wonder quilt using a panel. I wasn't going to, and I didn't really have the time to work on it, but peer pressure made me sign up. I'm behind on some other projects! Yesterday was the last class. I have to say that PEER pressure was a huge motivator to sew it together, plus I need the design wall. So this is my quilt top. 

One Block Wonder from a panel

It was definitely a challenge to work with all those hexagons and position them around the panel. I think I had four hexagons left over. Although I had it on the design wall, I made a goof with the hexagons, and as I was sewing it together, I had to make a couple of shuffles, but you don't notice what I did. 

Rather than overlapping the panel with the hexagons, I decided to add a small frame around the panel. I did this for two reasons. The quilt BEFORE the tiny frame was too busy, and I didn't like it. I'm learning that I prefer good contrast on my quilts. OK -- so I've known that for a long time. And mathematically, it fit much better this way, and there was almost zero trimming of the panel. 

I will confess that it took a bit of finessing to fit that border and match up the hexagons on the left and the right, but it works perfectly. There are many ways to sew this thing together, but the EASIEST way is to make the left and right side, and then the top and bottom - then you can sew them together. BUT you need to make sure the spacing is going to work before you do that!!! It's easy!

I put an outer border on the quilt, and all that's left is to get some backing and make the binding, and this one can get moved to the "to be quilted" pile. NO UFO from a class that I took this year. Yeah!! This is the NEW me for sure. 

I had two presentations yesterday, and all went well. While I listened to the One Block Wonder class, I was trimming quilts! That's the beauty of zooming on a laptop. You can put the laptop wherever you happen to be. I think I'll pass on the monitor on the wall in my space. It won't work for me!

I got another customer quilt quilted. I'm a bit behind, but I'm doing my best to get caught up, so if you're waiting on a quilty to be quilted, be patient. I hope by the end of October to be back on track. 

Customer quilt

If you have a quilt that you'd like quilted for Christmas, let me know, but otherwise, anything new coming in will get booked in January. 

I had a few spare moments yesterday, so I grabbed a tub of Christmas decorations, and this is what I found. 

Going through Christmas decorations

Lots of snowmen! And a couple of advent calendars. I grabbed a couple of boxes from the garage this morning, and I'll be packing this all up and donating it next week. It's time to move on with all this stuff. 

I pulled out one more tub - that's the big one in the photo above. This is going to take a bit more time as it's a lot of odds and ends. 

And this is what is left in the corner of the living room - one big tub and two boxes. Yeah!!!!! I have to say that it feels so freeing to be rid of this stuff. While I have the room physically to store these tubs, the mental freedom is fantastic. It's so wonderful to NOT be tied to materiel things - no guilt that I'm getting rid of "family heirlooms." I mean, why should I be saddled with being the keeper of tradition, as when I'm gone, all this will go, so I might as well have the mental freedom while I can enjoy it! Don't worry -- I'm keeping a few things of tradition, but I don't need tubfuls!

What's left to sort

My goal is to keep ONE of the big tubs with our sentimental items, but the rest of it goes. There's room for that giant tub under the stairs in the furnace room. So we'll still have something, and well --- at some point, it'll all have to go. But I'll feel great when this pile is gone - it's been in the living room for a couple of years, and it's time to get rid of it. 

I'm keeping the big tubs, and I'll probably use one to store all the "to be quilted" quilts for community projects. And the other two will also find a new use downstairs. The tubs can be very heavy when full, especially with quilting stuff, so I want to find a permanent home that doesn't require any moving! 

I may even put all the current projects from that table into one just so the space looks a bit more open, and I desperately need more table space. I know -- how crazy is that, but I'm running out of room to put the machines between the three big embroidery machines and now a serger!

So my phone is pretty clever, although it's slow! I've been listening to an audiobook. A frustrating book called Girl in The Woods by Aspen Matis. It's a memoir of a 19-year who walked The Pacific Crest Trail after being raped on her second night in college. Why is it frustrating? Her parents, her lack of self-esteem, her attitude towards boys/men/sex, and her stupid, stupid decisions. I'm surprised she survived the walk! It's interesting because I'm interested in these long hikes, but other than that - I'm not sure I would read it. 

There are issues with being the victim of a crime, and I don't want to get into a controversial topic. But sometimes, it makes me wonder if people get themselves into predicaments just to write about it? Take her second book -- it's about her husband who disappeared for real. Hmmm....................

OH -- so why is my phone smart? Well, as I've been listening to the audiobook, it will stop working every now and then. Why?? Well, this morning (after a week of this behavior), I got a message telling me the reason is the app is NOT running in the background when the phone is off. Now that's very clever, but I had to wait a week for that notification? 

So here are the latest antics of my girls. I don't know what she was doing, digging or burying something?  

Murphy is busy at work

And once she was done, she had to move all the dirt back in place and then came in to get attention. Oh, Murphy -- thank goodness you are cute!

Murphy, after digging in the backyard

I needed to get a photo of some fungi in the forest. I let Lexi's leash drop, and she just stands there waiting like a very good girl! However, I bet if her leash wasn't on, she'd be gone - that's what she used to do when she was younger! 

Lexi waiting patiently

It's going to be an easy day! I've got the barn quilt lecture first, then a wrap-up with my intense peers for the One Block Wonder quilt, and one class tonight. Yeah!!! It'll be relaxing, but still going to be super busy! And there's another quilt waiting to be loaded on the long arm.

And I'm happy to report that I've made excellent progress in downloading a bunch of documents that I needed to get my hands on. I mean, there are LOADS, and I might finish today, but I doubt it. I have until the end of the year to get them, and if I don't do it now - I'll forget. I've had a note in my "to do" list for months, and I seem to be pretty good at ignoring stuff like that! I'll see how it goes.

We haven't picked a decluttering area in a long time. How about those Christmas decorations? Dig them out and have a look -- what do you still use/want, and what do you no longer wish to keep? It's the time RIGHT NOW to donate that stuff as people are already looking to buy their Christmas stuff, which is insane!! I hope you have some time to get something organized or decluttered in your house.

At some point, I'm going to run out of other stuff to declutter, and I'll have no choice but to deal with the things in the office. I'm OK with that. It doesn't really matter what I declutter - it all has to be dealt with! Once I'm done in the office, I'll start at the top of the house and work down again! That'll be so much easier the second time! 

Well, it's time to get the day started!!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!

Let it go!!!

 A quick recap of the One Block Wonder stuff -- The Tree of Life panel set is gone. And I think it went to the right person. Remember the panel? 

The Tree of Life panel

I do believe I found the perfect person to take this off my hands! This person has a TON of the coordinating fabric but no panel. She can now make a beautiful One Block Wonder or Stack and Whack and add cubes, borders, etc., with all those coordinates.

Coordinating fabric to the Tree of Life panel

The animal panels are also gone. I haven't responded to the person who asked for this, so they don't know yet!

The animal panels

Yeah -- that makes me very happy to get rid of those panels, and I'll be quite content to measure out the yardage I had for making One Block Wonder quilts and add it to the backing fabrics. I also found ONE more set of panels that I had bought to make a Stack and Whack. This one is also up for grabs-- there are seven of them if anyone wants. 

Stonehenge panel set of seven

Anyway -- this is a start. I'm learning to let go, and that's all a good thing. I can't take all this fabric with me. I know I won't have time to sew it all up, so I want to do something with it. I'll only be doing this when something comes along, like this type of fabric. I don't really need to do another Stack and Whack. 

But should you still want any of the fabric yardage or panels I mentioned yesterday, you can send me an e-mail. 

And I'm slowly but steadily working on the magazines. The first step I did a while back was to sort them by the title, and each title is in a stack on the shelf. Then I grab a pile of the same publication and tackle that. I'm through two stacks already in this process. Once I was done with the first stack (and I didn't keep any of them or rip anything out), it was donated as it was a pretty magazine that someone could have used for the pictures or just read the lovely stories in it. The second stack was all about quilt studios, and I found someone to pass those along to. I am done with that stack and starting the third one. Oh yes -- this is going to get under control, one stack at a time. 

The current one is called Irish Quilting. I remember being so excited when I found this on the shelves - way back in 2008!!! I even got an e-mail from the editor as she was probably doing a Google search and my blog came up!

Premier Issue of Irish Quilting

There are a lot of patterns in the magazine, none that I think I'll want to keep, but this is the first issue - maybe it'll get a bit more sophisticated as I go through the stack that I have. It's not a huge stack, but it'll still take a while to go through it. 

The stack of Irish Quilting magazines

I won't be passing these along to anyone. I'll read and recycle the issues. What would be wrong is to just take them and toss them without reading them! And I'm going to feel good about doing that! I HAVE to learn that it's OK to do that. 

It's all about finding time in the day to read and NOT get caught up in pulling out another stack! NO! I'm not allowed to pull anything else off the shelves to read. Although I have a ton of reading about sergers to do in the next couple of weeks, that's for work, not pleasure. 

I even stopped at Indigo yesterday to browse the magazines and walked out empty-handed! See - I am learning! Although perhaps I should have purchased this one. 

Issue 144 of QUILTmania

You can purchase it in English and French, and this one was in French! Yep -- that will fly off the shelves in my neighborhood. 

All in French

I also got busy and finished sorting through all the stuff that M left for me to sort through and the Halloween stuff. I made one trip, and it's all gone. 

Bye-bye!!!!

So no more Halloween stuff, even all the costumes are gone. All that remains are my Halloween quilts. I felt a slight tug as I got rid of some fabulous costumes, but they haven't been used in several years - there's no sense in keeping them. 

Now I must get to work on the three tubs and two boxes of Christmas stuff. I'd like to get that down to one tub. 

So this happens when you're sorting. I found an expensive cold-weather bicycle glove amongst the treasures that M left me. 

One bicycle glove

Seriously???  Why was my GOOD glove amongst her stuff? The big question is - did I have the other one? YES -- I have a small stack of ODD gloves and mitts in the office (I know!), and now they are together where they are supposed to be. 

The pair is together at last

I can only imagine how much stuff goes in the trash because someone didn't put it back in its rightful place, and one of a pair or set is missing. Sigh...................

Out of the mess that she left, this is all that remains, and most of this will probably go in the garbage, but I have to see if I can find the jacket that the hood belongs to and a couple of other small things to seek out. What I don't understand is why people can't take care of their own stuff? Pair things up. 

All that left to sort through

I also managed to get a customer quilt done, and the next one is loaded and ready to go today. 

Customer quilt - DONE

OH -- I have this area at my house (Poor Lexi -- it's right on top of her kennel!), but it's my staging area. Anything ready to leave the house goes in that area. It's a constant ebb and flow of stuff. It's not too bad at the moment as I try to keep it under control. One day - it will be empty as I'll have nothing else to get rid of! I'm just glad to find homes for some of the stuff that I'm getting rid of. 

The staging area

I finished one of the writing assignments. There's a class tomorrow and many coming, so the process gets to start all over again! But that's OK. I'll make it! I did manage to turn on the sewing machine, and I sewed TWO whole blocks. Yeah me!

Om that note, it's time to go for a walk. And it's raining -- that's going to be fun! Remember, when it's raining, and you need to walk, you need to EMBRACE that fact and put a smile on your face. Think of the hot chocolate or hot cup of tea that you can enjoy when you get back. It's just rain - it won't kill you. 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

One Block Wonder

 Oh boy -- I just unearthed a treasure trove. 

But first - if you remember, I could NOT find those darn panels that I had purchased several years ago, and it was niggling in the back of my head. Where could I possibly have put them? Then, while I talked to Carol about One Block Wonder quilts yesterday, the location literally flew into my head. The moment I got off the call, I ran downstairs and put my hands on them! And it was in the logical place - I just didn't search well enough the first time - that's the problem with UNMARKED boxes. 

Project storage

This shelf is tucked away in a storage room downstairs - the one that houses all the community project stuff. I had given the shelf a glance and looked through a few boxes, but obviously not hard enough. See the purple containers near the top left? Well, there's an unmarked white pizza box on top, and when I opened it - there were the missing panels. 

The box of missing panels

Was I correct in my guess of what was on the panels? I was close. I had said a fairy in a garden and a peacock. Let's see what they really were. 

OK -- so it was a fairy, but not in a garden - it's a Christmas tree! I have seen this one made into a One Block Wonder, and it was stunning. This is the one that I saw at a guild meeting, and it was the reason I purchased the panels. 

A fairy in a Christmas tree panel

The second one wasn't a peacock, but close - it's a Tree of Life by Chong-a Hwang. 

Tree of Life panel

There are only six of each, so I intended to make a One Block Wonder but NOT incorporate the hexagons onto a panel.

I was tempted to buy a 7th panel (yes -- I found one online) and make a panel quilt, but this morning when I did a bit of stash research, I've changed my mind. 

I'm going to sell both sets of these panels. They are both 24" wide, and I really don't need them. 

 So if anyone is interested - let me know, and we can talk price.

As a bonus, look at what else I found in the box. A ton of pillow panels with Chevy trucks on them. There is enough to make a One Block Wonder project  - one with the red truck and one with the blue truck. Should anyone want to buy those, I would be willing to part with them as well. 

Chevy truck panels

But WAIT - it doesn't stop there. I decided the best thing to do was to consolidate ALL the One Block Wonder stuff together so the next time, I could find it more easily. 

Let's start with the books. Yep -- four books for Stack and Whack and One Block Wonder. 

Stack and Whack and One Block Wonder books

And then there are another four books. I mean -- why buy one when you can buy them all? 

More Stack and Whack and One Block Wonder books

And two more books and a pattern. Yes -- that pamphlet on the top right is the earliest version I can find of this technique, and it is dated 1993 by Brenda Groelz. So if you think Bethany Reynolds created this technique -- think again! Her first book was published in 1998, although I think she did something in a magazine before that. Nothing is new, and I would bet that we'll find that these kaleidoscope patterns existed years ago if we go back into the history books. 

More books and a pattern

And yet one more pattern - this pattern and the one above use a certain degree ruler to make the repeat pattern. 

Stack and Whack using a 15-degree ruler

I've NO idea how many Stack and Whack, One Block Wonders I have made. Two One Block Wonders for sure, and both of them are waiting to be quilted. There are at least FOUR Stack and Whack quilts waiting to be quilted, and one has been given away. I've got one quilt that was made using FOUR layers of fabric, and that is also waiting to be quilted. So I've done my fair share of this technique over the years. 

Do I have any UFOs for this technique? Let's have a look. 

Surprisingly, there is ONLY one UFO that I'm aware of, and it's unusual. This is the block - it goes with that pattern above. The unique thing is that you use the FRONT and the BACK of the fabric, so finding the suitable material is a bit of a challenge. 

Stack and Whack fan quilt

This is the fabric that I used. It's a cheap quality and very stiff fabric, which is why the dye went through to the back. All the fans are made, the fabrics are all cut, and it just needs a bit of applique to finish it off! Well, maybe I'm lying about that, but it worked, and the blocks look amazing. 

Vegetable fabric for the Stack and Whack

Here's what else I found in the Stack and Whack boxes on a different shelf. A beautiful tulip fabric. It's up for sale. All the fabric for sale has at least six repeats. 

Tulip fabric

I bought this fabric years ago, and I don't know that it's really the best choice since it's pretty pale. I might repurpose this one to a quilt backing, but should someone want it for stack and Whack - it's for sale. 

Celestrial fabric

Another bright one that would be good for stack and Whack. It's also up for sale. 

Bright fabric with dark background

OH MY GOD -- I found more of those crazy Corn Flake pillow panels. I must have bought hundreds (well, not quite) of them. Good grief!! I think there are eight here, and I've already made two quilts from the panels. Should any crazy person want this, I'd be willing to part with it for a price, and this one comes with some green and red fabrics that I've matched. 

Pillow panels

I've got SIX each of these animal panels. So there are 12 in total. Why????  If anyone wants - they are also up for grabs. 

Animal panels

Then I bought yards of this smaller panel which would also make a good Stack and Whack. It's up for grabs for a price. 

Small panels

I also found it in another colorway. Good grief -- I could open a store! I think I'll keep this one as I really like the colors, and there's a coordinating border print for it. 

Same print - different colorway

Then I found these two border prints - one is Christmas-themed, and the other is whimsical. Both would make great stack and whacks. And if anyone wants them - you can have them for a price. 

Border prints

I did a little bit of shuffling this morning, and now ALL things Stack and Whack and One Block Wonder are in the same location in the main stash room. 

Stack and Whack and One Block Wonder

That yardage is sitting in the next pile as there wasn't room in the same pile. 

The Stack and Whack yardage

Here's the question I pose for myself. Why? Why would I have amassed so much when I had already made so many of these quilts? I have no idea - but it seemed like a good thing at the time, or I wouldn't have bought so much. It's a sickness, to be sure, and I had it bad! I'm glad to say that this habit has STOPPED. Never to be resurrected again. I think long and hard about buying anything. 

If no one wants the fabric above, it can easily be moved into the backing area, and I'll make good use of it there. The panels? I'm not sure - but I'll find a use for them. 

And what about my current project with the small panels? I had a few minutes yesterday to mess around, and this is what it looks like. 

My current project with Stack and Whack

It looks a bit of a hot mess, but I've got a plan in how to proceed -- one step at a time, and that will clean up the center so you can see the panel. I have three hexagons leftover, and I'm going to try and work them in somehow!!

So here's my lesson to all of you! I know why I bought so much of this fabric. It was because I thought that once it was gone  - it would be gone. And that's not true. That particular fabric might be gone, but there'll be many more just like it to replace it. Oh yes -- there is NOTHING new in the patterns, styles, and colors of fabric that emerge each year. It gets recycled, although I haven't seen those cutesy calico prints come back. Well, that's not true. They did come back, but not in the same oranges and brown we had in the 70s!!!

If anyone is interested in any of the fabric/panels above, send me an e-mail, and we can chat about the price. elainetheriault@gmail.com

I made good progress on one of the paperwork projects, and I hope to finish it this morning and try to get the other one done as well. I loaded another customer quilt this morning, and my brain was so focused on my audiobook that I didn't realize what I had done. 

Oopsy! 

I pinned it to the wrong roller! I had to remove it and repin it in place. Oh, shoot! But if you have NOT read The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, I highly recommend it. Wow -- it just goes to show that you just don't know how your life would be if you made one small choice differently. That's why we need to learn to live life with NO REGRETS. We need to understand that just because we made a wrong choice doesn't mean we have to live with it. We are in control of our lives, although I do believe that fate plays a huge part. OK -- so we can't control our lives, but we can control how we REACT to outside influences. I'm not always the best with that, but I just try to let most bad things roll off my back.

And that's enough philosophy for today. 

The only thing on the agenda is to get my MIL to her physio. It was DH's turn today, but I offered, so he has to do it twice next week! And besides, there's a geocache close to her physio, and I can get that while she's having her treatment!!!  😃😃

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!