Automation saves time!

 You had better sit down for this one. Even I was exhausted when I went to bed! 

I'll start with the quilt report. Yes --- more quilts are done for Quilts of Valour, making numbers 5 and 6 of eleven. Can I get five more done by Thursday evening? 

Quilts of Valour quilt Number 5

Quilts of Valour quilt Number 6

I know I will - - I'll make it a priority. Even with automation, quilting two quilts in one day is time-consuming! 

Four of the remaining five quilts 

And I played bobbin chicken, and I won! I was getting close to the end of the row - actually, the end of the quilt and I didn't run out of bobbin thread. So it doesn't always happen. 

Made it to the end without running out of bobbin thread

Both quilts are trimmed, but not all the bits are tidied up. I ran out of time last night, so I'll get that done during Monday Sewing. 

But the pile of trimmed quilts gets higher. 

Quilts to be bound! 

As does the pile of scrap. I hope to deal with that today. 

The scrap pile gets higher!

I managed to get two more bindings done on the small quilts for Project Linus. That makes a total of TWENTY quilts finished and ready to go. I wonder if they do pick-up? I should contact her as the stack is getting huge in my living room! They are all sitting on top of Lexi's kennel, which I'm sure impresses her!

Binding number one

Binding number two

At the height of the day, I had the long arm going,

Long arm automation

 the embroidery machine was going, 

Embroidery machine automation

And I was binding quilts at the other sewing machine. 

Manually adding the binding!

Plus, I finished an audiobook! Yes --- my brain was about to explode at the end of the day, but things got done, and if you have automation, then one should make the most of it!

So what was I embroidering? I was back to the 150 Canadian Woman Quilt and got THREE more hoopings done. Each one takes about 2 hours to stitch out, even at high speed on the PFAFF creative icon 2. That's a lot of stops and starts, but thankfully, I can let it run on its own! And monitor the progress on my cellphone!

The last of three hoopings for the day

So that makes ten of 15 that are done. 

Ten of the 15 hoopings are complete!

Technically, all 15 were supposed to fit on this piece of fabric, but I cut it about eight inches too short. DUH! Obviously not good with math! So I'll put them on a separate piece of fabric and sew them together. It's for the backing; who is going to notice that? 

The eleventh hooping is programmed and ready to go later today. 

So while the machines were working and the bindings were done, I thought I needed to dig into that stack of flannels to see what else was there and could any of it be used for backings. This is what I found. 

Flannel for quilt backings

Each pile will be sufficient for one backing or possibly two. That's a lot of quilt backings! So I put them with the six flannel quilts I have to quilt. 

Six flannel quilts and their backings

I can slowly piece those over the next couple of weeks and prepare them for my next community project quilt marathon. 

And this is what remained. 

Unassigned flannel for quilt backings

So it all went back into the storage room. But not before I remembered one more tub in the storage room that held some flannel kits. Yes -- brand new flannel, still in kit format. 

Flannel kits

Good lord, why did I buy those kits? I kept this one for myself. It's a gorgeous bundle of brown flannel and includes the backing. I'll make something out of it - I put it in the retreat basket, and at the next retreat, I'll make something new for us! It was from The Quilt Patch in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. I LOVED that store!

A flannel kit that I kept

So all this flannel will go to Diane after she finishes with the bright flannel. I'm grouping it by color as that makes it look less scrappy. No need to sort it just yet. 

Smaller pieces of flannel to be sorted by color

And this part of the shelf is the fabric that can be used for backings. OH -- the bags on the side are what goes to Diane next. That big stack of bright flannel is the backings for the colorful quilts she will make in the next round. 

Fabric for quilt backings 

And more fabric for backings that didn't fit in that space. 

More fabric for backings

And everything is now stored neat and tidy on that shelf. This is my staging area for what I am sorting and prepping for Diane to sew, or the backings I'll use are also here! It all has to go! All the scraps leftover from the flannel backs or sewing the tops are going into a laundry basket (not in the picture), and I'll have enough to make some scrappy flannel quilts! I think that will be a retreat project. Or maybe a Monday sewing project. 

The rest of the flannel to make quilts

 Instead of walking to Diane's house with the final bag of flannel, I took the girls to the dog park. It's such beautiful weather that how could I not go for a walk. Of course, Murphy was beyond herself with excitement, and when she got there, she didn't want to play. She just flopped herself down on the cool ground. That was because she got into such a tizzy on the way. That's how she rolls -- 200% and then drops! There is no halfway with her. On the other hand, Lexi just wanted to be petted by everyone!

MOM --- we're ready to go home NOW! 

But soon, they were ready to go home. When we first started going to the park, I remember they would NEVER come to the gate, and now they were waiting for me to catch up to them!

Here's a picture of the two of them on our morning walk!

Murphy

Lexi

Lexi HATES to be told to sit, and you can tell by her face! 

In case you are wondering, I managed to get one load of laundry done, but there's a second one to do, and hopefully, tonight, I can pry myself out of Studio B to make that happen! And no, the furniture did not get put away! I swear I get up, go downstairs, and don't surface except to eat and walk the dogs. But things are getting done, and after those five Quilts of Valour quilts are done, I can relax the pace a wee bit, although I have customer quilts that need to be addressed!

Have you noticed that once I set my mind to something, I'm pretty good at getting it done! There's so much to do! But I can organize and manage stuff like no tomorrow. I'm good at it. I just wish I didn't have so much to manage! And if I had done the managing from the beginning, life would have been much better. Nope --- I have to wait 25 years and then decided to start managing how I store and use my fabrics and other bits! Sigh............. However, it's so much more under control than it used to b! Hard to believe I started this organizing journey about seven years ago or more! 

I'm off to spin class this morning! I see the weather is still fantastic - let's hope it lasts so I can put the lawn furniture away today!

In case you want to know all about the internet and how it relates to sewing and embroidery machines, I'll be running a four-part session through Stitch by Stitch starting November 14th. I'll share the link with you tomorrow. Even if you're not in the market for a new machine, it's an excellent time to learn about how the industry has changed and what is possible!! It's going to be super fun!! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

FOCUS is key to success

I've been learning so much about myself and how I function (or don't function). First, while I thought I was managing my stuff well, I wasn't. I was productive, yet I was struggling to meet deadlines. OK, I am productive, but I struggle with paperwork. And there are so many things to do. 

The same is true for my quilting. There are just so many UFOs, kits, and other things. 

I'm learning that focus seems to be a huge factor in making stuff happen. OK, so that's not rocket science at all. But when you have too much stuff in front of you, it's a huge distraction and hard to accomplish anything. You are really not focused if you don't have space to work. That workspace can be tiny, but it needs to be clear of crap! 

I've learned (and am still learning) to put away the crap that you can't deal with at the moment. Yes - I get that you should get rid of it, but depending on your style, you may want to go through it, like me. Don't harrass us slow learners - that's how our brains function. But the key is to keep going. And when you clear a spot, you have the choice to fill it with more crap so you can go through it or leave it hidden. I'm preferring to bring the crap out so I don't forget it. It looks messy, but it's hard to forget!

I think we would be shocked if we calculated the amount of time we are spending managing the crap we accumulated. But that managing gives me so much satisfaction, and I'm learning so much by dealing with stuff. It's easy to give it away or toss it, but to learn to manage it so you don't repeat history? That's for me!!

So what happened yesterday? Loads of stuff. 

First off, I got my desk organized. It wasn't hard - it was just a question of DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. The big shelf I had there before was taking up a lot of room, and there was no place to put my work. It's been like that for years. Why do we do that to ourselves? 

I moved that shelf to another spot on my other desk and will use it as a sorter until the paper is gone. Don't worry—I grab a couple of pieces of paper daily and deal with them. 

I bought a much smaller desktop shelf and put my little knickknacks on it. Yes - I could have gotten rid of them, but a person has to keep some little pleasures in life. My pending folder is on the far left, and my writing utensils are in a cup behind the lampshade. The pile of papers beside the pending is the current paper crap that I'm looking at. It will take me a week or more to go through that pile, but I'm making valiant efforts. Hopefully, it won't take a week - it's just that some stuff takes longer than others. 

The clear desktop

You can't really see, but behind the paper crap is a white basket filled with odds and ends that collect. My goal is to take ONE item per day and deal with it. It's incredible how much that little stuff creeps up on you! The one item for today is in the garbage! 

Perhaps I could do it at a faster pace, but I don't want to get overwhelmed by the crap. Slow and steady is my motto. Now I have space to work, although I still miss a space on my right-hand side to write, but I don't write that often, so I think I can live without it. I have space to spread out the current project and still have room to put the next thing - that makes me happy. 

I sent some emails yesterday that required spreading things out a bit, and it worked like a charm. I was HAPPY, and that's all that counts. WAIT—one more thing—I was PRODUCTIVE. That counts as well. 

Let's move downstairs to see what happened there. One more community project quilt got quilted. Diane made this flannel quilt from all the baskets and baskets of flannel that I bought over the years. 

Community project quilt

 I haven't gotten around to binding these, so I need to start on that. 

Quilts to be bound

When I started this group of twenty flannel quilts, I pulled a basket of flannel pieces that would work for backings and put them in a basket. I pulled twenty flannel quilt tops and put them in a bag. Yesterday, I could consolidate the backings and the quilts into the laundry basket. I know -- my brain works this way. I get things out, and then as I deplete them, I consolidate them. I think I ENJOY the managing of things. Which is good as I'll be sorting for the rest of my life. When I arrive at the nursing home, buy me one of those brightly colored sorting toys, and I'll be happy! 

Flannel quilts and backings for the remainder of the year

I think there are still at least a dozen quilts in that basket. As many as I've quilted, the numbers don't go down! But I gave myself until the end of the year to get them done, so I'm not behind and am realistic about my goal. 

That left the bag empty, so what does one do with an empty bag? You have to fill it! So, back to the storage room, and OH MY - I found another flannel quilt. Then I got digging, and before I knew it, the bag was full of flannel quilts. Where did they all come from? 

Another bag of flannel quilts

So, I got digging on the shelf that houses the backings/fabric that was set aside for community projects. I found a ton of flannel pieces large enough for backings, so those got set beside the bag of quilt tops. 

Large pieces of flannel

I found two NEW flannel kits. There is plenty of fabric for the backings—they just need some time to piece. 

Two flannel kits

I've left that bag and the backings in the storage room, but they are set aside. The two kits are on my sewing table, and I may start piecing them in a couple of weeks. They need to be cut first. 

Then, I surveyed the flannel to see what remained. Oh gosh—the basket on the left is full of scraps. My intent is to make improv flannel blocks from them, and I'm sure I'll get a couple of quilt tops from that basket. I've already pulled a small bag of scraps] to take to the retreat next week. 

Flannel that still needs to be dealt with

The bag is filled with green pieces. The other three baskets are more or less sorted by color. All of that is flannel! We ran out of time before Diane could finish. 

I've already been there this morning and rejigged it a bit. While lying in bed (pain-free) thinking about the day, I knew I had to further sort this. I pulled a couple of large pieces of red and put them in the backing pile. The green (in the paper bag) went into the now empty basket where the red used to reside. What remains is a basket of scraps and four baskets of flannel pieces that could be made into backings or could be cut into squares. I'll wait and see what happens when I get there. 

But I have made it my goal—and I need to write this down somewhere—that I want ALL the flannel in this area dealt with by the end of 2025. You thought I was going to say 2024, didn't you? 

I'm going to hazard that there will be about FORTY (that's being generous) more quilts of flannel to deal with! And I should be able to handle that next year. Slow and steady, focus on what's set out, which is the laundry basket at the long arm. Plus, I inherited a partially pieced flannel quilt from that donation. That is going to the retreat; I'll deal with it there. 

I'm using my batting bits, and I'm sure I'll have enough for all those quilts! 

What is nice is knowing there's a plan. A plan to use up the closet of batting, a plan to get rid of the flannel, and then it'll be time to tackle the cotton tops. But that's for another day!

Oh—and then some flannel quilts on this rack are done and ready to be donated, as well as a handful upstairs. I must dig those out. I've decided that I'll donate them at the end of the year. Yes, it would be nice to have them ready for Christmas, but that isn't in the cards, so they will get donated when I'm ready. I'm not rushing to meet a deadline. 

Quilts ready to be donated

Then, I spent some time dealing with computer files as I have to migrate from the old laptop to the new one. My desktop was sluggish, so I deleted some of those OneDrive files that were synced to the desktop. Oops—that also started to be deleted from the OneDrive shared drive, so I CANCELED pretty quickly.  

I wish someone would tell me exactly how that DARN OneDrive works. I have an account that allows me storage and space to save my work. I dislike that we are FORCED to use that drive if you want to use AUTOSAVE, which I always use when writing a document. You don't want to write for hours and realize you didn't save. And you can NO LONGER do that on your computer. 

OK—so move on! Then, when the sync function is turned on, it somehow links the files to the hard disk on your computer. NOT an external hard drive—oh no—you can't do that. It has to be the computer's hard drive, which I hate as it takes up a lot of space. 

When I realized what I had done, I thought, "Great—I just deleted some files that I need." Many files I don't need are gone, and I'm OK with that—they needed to go. Then I went to my laptop and found the files still on OneDrive, but they didn't appear on the desktop OneDrive. Why? Yes - it's all about syncing, but it's a mystery and how it works. 

I was able to save the missing files onto an external hard disk. 

I don't understand why the darn thing doesn't sync to everything simultaneously. I'm glad it didn't, but what a mess. So, if anyone knows a guru who understands OneDrive, I would like to talk to them. Or I should Google it as part of my paperwork this morning and get it set up once and for all. Wait -- it's set up, but I want to know HOW it works. Reading anything online is like having your teenage grandchildren show you how to do something. They just do it, but you don't learn anything from it!

I believe the files have been transferred from the laptop, and the missing files have been saved. So, I can now start deactivating my programs on the old laptop and reinstalling them on the new one. 

OK—I found the Microsoft training for OneDrive. It tells me how, but I want the WHY. 

I had a good chuckle as I was digging through a journal. Oh my - this was when the EPIC 2 was released. And the lighting makes me look like I have a clown nose on!!! What fun! 

Three Amigos

A quick update - the physio thinks my issue is nerve-related, not strictly muscle, since I've done everything I can to release the muscle, and she doesn't think it's that tight. So she gave me a couple of simple exercises to take the pressure off and told me that the ones I was doing were likely exacerbating the pain. I've learned to sleep with a pillow under that leg and NOT move at night. Side sleeping was my issue the previous night, and I paid the price. She suggested I get an X-ray and see if a disk or something is out of place. So I'm good. I'm just careful, and today, everything is good! 

I'm like Murphy. All I need is a stick, and I'm good!

Murphy and her stick

But it's a challenge to get any exercise in with her around. The instant she hears that mat touch the floor, she is there, rolling around and trying to be helpful. You can't help but laugh, and laughter is good! Love you, Murphy!!!!

Here is another blog post on QUILTsocial. 

All about embroidery with the Husqvarna Viking Designer Quartz 29

Have a super day!!

Ciao!!!

An almost full super moon

I'm happy to report that I slept well last night. I even "slept in" so that is great, but I still have time to get this blog posted in the right time frame. 

I know I say it all the time when I'm at retreat, but this is truly the place to strengthen friendships. While I'm a Zoom person and happy with Zoom, there is nothing like an in-person event to make me very happy. You can't go for a walk with someone on Zoom! But you can in person. While I'm also a get-in-and-out shopper, it's fun to shop with others. We were four yesterday, which is almost unheard of in my world! But the laughs, the shared meals -- you can't beat that. And at one point, something happened at retreat that hasn't happened before, or if it did, it is rare. At one point, the house was empty as everyone left to go shopping!!! 

For those on my retreat list, I'll be sending an email to give you the lay of the land for 2026 and 2027, so you can plan your schedules accordingly. There will be fewer in the future, so they will be even more precious than this year. 

OK -- enough about that! What got done? 

I managed to get 120 six-inch blocks for one flannel quilt in the "blue" theme. So that was good. And as I mentioned yesterday, it got bagged but will not be sewn until I investigate the rest of the scrap piles. There are eight more flannel quilts to quilt with bright flannel backs. Then I'll evaluate the other colors and see if it makes sense to make this quilt. Actually, this might be a good task for my SIL? It's flannel, so a bit tricky, but I'll see. 

120 six-inch blocks for a flannel quilt

Then I worked on the five-inch blocks. I needed more of those - 168 to get a decent-sized quilt. That was an easy job, but it still took all day, and I didn't have 168 blocks until the evening. Well, actually, I found some snowman panels in the flannel pile and decided to add a frame to them to make them the size of FOUR of the five-inch blocks. So that worked, and sped up the progress.  

Blocks for the second flannel quilt

Most of the flannel in this one is winter themed, so technically this one would be good to sew together now.

But by then, I was getting bored with working with the flannel scraps, and it took a while to complete all those blocks. Time to move to something else. 

I still have this much flannel to deal with. It doesn't look like much in this photo, but it filled a bag. I estimate there are at least TWO more decent-sized quilts here. That's obscene!!! But I'm doing something with it. I must leave this out when I'm home and make a few blocks each day! I'll see how that goes -- there aren't many "free" moments in my days. At least not this coming week!

Flannel scraps still to deal with

I brought a couple of "new" projects, ones that aren't scrap-related, so I dug one of them out. AHA—it's a set of placemats. Good grief—I vaguely remember buying this as a kit. How many years ago would that have been? No idea. And will I use them? Nope -- they will go in the placemat donation pile. I've said this before, I'm not so much about the finished item - I'm more about the making! I would sew anything, like scraps, and enjoy it as much as if it were brand-new. 

A set of placemats

Some of the pieces have been cut, but I just didn't want to start this last night, so that's on the agenda for today. Four placemats! 

I also finished that one bag of half-square triangles from my Barn Star Sampler quilt. This pile is all the ones I sewn and trimmed here. No sense sewing them and not trimming. That's a new rule I have, and it really doesn't take long to deal with them! 

The half-square triangles

So I'll keep these together in a bag, and one day I'll dig them out and figure something out for them. 

The collection of half-square triangles from Barn Star Sampler

Don't worry -- I have another bag with me, so that is sitting by the sewing machine and ready to deal with. What's crazy is that half the bag is sewn and trimmed, while the other half isn't. So why do I leave half-finished projects everywhere? Well, that's a problem for all quilters, and we need to stop that!! Do it now!!!! And here's another turned photo! I can't fix it, but you get the idea. 

The next bag of half-square triangles

And if I happen to finish that, there are more bags of them. This is NOT a great photo, but at the bottom of my retreat bag, there are two more bags of half-square triangles to sew. These are the cutoffs from flying-geese units left from specific quilts. That will keep me busy for a while, and I'm OK with leaving them in the retreat bag and working on them while I'm away. Trust me, I have more at home. The ones at home are the random ones. These bags are "collections" from specific quilts. The bottom line is that I have a plan for them, and that makes me happy. 

More bags of half-square triangles

I kind of got obsessed with the puzzle, and as it got dark last night, I needed to move a light in to work on it!! 

Burning the midnight oil!

By the time I left it alone last night, I had this much done. 

Close to the finish

YES -- I am almost done. Yeah!!!! Hey—it's our retreat, and we are allowed to do whatever we want! Don't worry -- I have another puzzle of mine that I want to finish here so it can go home with someone else. 

Did I mention I've been watching this girl with the most annoying voice who talks about assembling puzzles? Always with a stopwatch. That would not be fun! But one of the things she does, and I know other people do it as well, is to sort the pieces into colors. So I broke down and bought a set of puzzle sorting trays, which is also in the picture above. I'll break that out when I work on the small puzzle that I have next. 

I also had company during the day when I worked on the puzzle. This cardinal was pretty persistent and kept hanging out on the windowsill. I don't know if there is a bird feeder, but Mrs. Cardinal was looking for food!!! 

HEY -- is this a fly-through window?

Someone is making a "few" of those children's fabric books, and there are cutoffs - the instructions. I've asked for them as I have plans. So if anyone has instructions from any project that looks like this, I'd be happy to take them off your hands instead of them going into the garbage. I should check whether I have enough to get started on a project. 

Instructions from fabric books

I noticed this morning that the two people on the other side of the room have totally crossed the middle line of the table!! I'll have to bug them this morning!!! I have packed up the stuff that I had spread on the table on the other side of the room and put it in a bag under the cutting table. 

Ooops - retreat spread!

I've already got one bag of stuff to put back in the car. It's so much easier to pack one bag at a time when you're finished with it than to wait until the end of the retreat when everyone is trying to leave at the same time. When it's time to pack up, I usually have one bag of projects, my sewing machine, and whatever food is left. The rest is already done! Efficient!!!! I'm also a neat freak (don't laugh), so it makes sense that I do that. 

Helen Anne and I went for two walks yesterday. It was a glorious day -- not cold, but brisk-- and we soon warmed up with the walking, and at one point we stopped to look at the moon. I spotted this cornfield and hadn't paid it any attention. But it never got harvested!! And it was interesting to see that all the cobs were at the same level on the stalk. I've never noticed that before!!!! 

The cornfield in the winter

I didn't have my phone with me, so Helen Anne took these pictures at about 3:30 in the afternoon. Yep -- that's the moon!!!! It was super visible and quite large. The full COLD MOON is on December 4th, so let's hope we have clear skies tomorrow. 

The almost full super moon

Did you know there are three or four super moons in a year? A super moon occurs when the full moon is at the point in the moon's orbit where the moon is closest to the Earth. And there you go -- another fun fact. Did you know there are FOUR supermoons in 2026? I think there were only three this year. 

Well, it's time to get myself organized. I have a puzzle to finish, I have knitting to explore, four placemats to sew, a couple of videos to watch, and some paperwork to deal with!! Mostly emails. 

Have a wonderful day!!!

Ciao!!!!