Simplicity is key!

In case some of you are getting random responses from me -- I'm trying to catch up on all the comments from the blog! Bear with me -- I should catch up soon!

Somewhere recently, I heard someone say that one of the generations (I don't remember which one, and I'm so confused as to who is whom anyway!) Well, the idea was that you are old if you carry a WALLET! Now, I don't think anyone should generalize about age because of something we carry! For the record, it has been years since I last used a wallet. This is what I use instead. 

My card holder

Someone gave this to me years ago. I do not remember who it was, but it's cute. It folds shut, but it has two sides when you open it up. I have culled my cards and only keep those that I actually use in there. I'm sure there is one or two that could probably go. What I'm surprised about is that it hasn't started to wear. I carry this in my pocket (I don't carry a purse either - only my reusable shopping bag if I need it). 

My card holder open

I was going to make a new one, but why? This one is still good! I have a leather one around here somewhere, so I should dig that one out, but I like this one!!!

I don't carry cash - what is cash? I haven't paid for anything with cash in years!! But I got a chuckle the other day while waiting in line to pay for my massage. And I guess it speaks volumes about the wallet comment. 

The man in front of me paid with his Apple Watch. The lady beside me paid with her phone!!! And yesterday, when I was out, one of the women in front of me had her cards in her phone case, while the young girl tucked her card under her phone in the case! So, I guess that person was right -- who needs a wallet? 

Speaking of phone cases, I'm not a fan of those that flip open, and you can store cards and such on one side. That gets heavy and messy! I don't want to carry that entire thing around the house. I'll keep my little cardholder, and I'm happy. If I go out in the summer and am wearing my butt bag - seriously -- we need to find a new name. I'll call it my runner's or hiking belt; I only take the cards I need - if I need anything. 

Many times, I'm out walking and have NO cards with me at all. Those are the days when I won't be shopping. And as for carrying a purse? I have my lovely Micheal Kors (do you know that purse is 12 years old? It is practically an antique!) But the stuff people carry in their purse is obscene. When I go out, I need a key fob for the car (if driving), and my little card holder (if shopping), and that's it! I don't need anything else. We do not need keys to get into our house, so there is no need to carry keys. 

I like to travel light! It's just like your house - the more stuff you carry, the more likely you are to lose something, the more likely you'll forget something, and it's more stuff to manage. I want simplicity in my life!!!!

I'm giving the book away on organizing your studio. I don't think I need it now, but I'm having a quick read through it before it goes. I've accomplished almost everything she is going through, but this is an INVENTORY page for your stuff. Yikes -- she has you working out cubic feet for fabric storage and books and patterns!!! I did NOT get that sophisticated in my process, but it's a good process, and hopefully, in the end, you have room for everything! 

Inventory for the quilting supplies

I don't know if you can read this paragraph from that book. But I had to laugh -- yep -- it's painful to sort and organize and put "like" things together. But boy or boy -- it makes it super easy to tidy things up! If you click on the pictures, you can make them bigger. 

ACK -- parting is such sweet sorrow

I managed to get everything put away yesterday in Studio B. Well, but that's not entirely true. I have some more Zoom presentations in March - a LOT of them, so I decided to leave the samples sitting out on a spare table. Then I don't have to walk them upstairs and then go and get them again. I'm not sure I'll need them, but just in case. 

I managed to get ONE more piece of Tequila Lime stitched. I swear it was not my day to sew yesterday, and I had to rip two pieces out for being careless in their placement. But one more section is done, and only six to go. Perhaps this afternoon, I can finish them off. It's time to get to work on the next month's homework!

One B section for Tequila Lime

I got mail!!!

My package arrived

It was the backing fabric for the playmat quilt. The entire backing will be the same fabric and coordinate with the front. It's a gift, so I'm OK going to that trouble, and thanks to Mary, I found the coordinating fabric. And thanks to Ottawa Valley Fabric for having the fabric still around. This fabric came out in 2016. 

The backing fabric for the Playmat quilt

Now, the rest will go to a good home, where a special little boy will have two connector playmats and coordinating fabric for the backing. As mentioned before, there are two extra panels, which I do NOT need. I could have made a quilt for Project Linus, but I decided to give it to someone I know will use it!!! See -- I am downsizing!!! It's a slow process, but I'm good with the pace. 

Fabric to be donated 

I managed to get a customer quilt, but it took forever. There was nothing wrong with the quilt; it was me. I was in slow-motion mode yesterday. 

Customer quilt

I also had to go to the mall to get my passport photos taken. My passport expires in a few months, and I NEED to keep it up-to-date. So, I have some things to correct on my application and hope to pop into the office this coming week. I was going to do it by mail, but I'll go to the office to hopefully speed things along. 

I snapped this photo on my way to the mall. Loads of construction in the area, and I'm always amazed when I see those big boom arms for pouring concrete! What a job that must be to keep clean!!! I love how they are still building the top yet starting to add walls to the outside along the bottom. 

Construction near the mall

I had to wait for the passport photos, so what do I do with 20 minutes? I went next door and had an apple pie crepe!!! My afternoon snack, which I did not need!!! But it was good, and I had a chance to browse the magazines I had bought at Indigo along the way. I also saw that this photo place processes film, so with M's blessing, I dropped off that roll of film. I'll get the photos on a USB stick, so we'll see what the pictures are!!!

Apple pie crepe

The CDs are sorted. The envelopes/pouches were saved, and that is one more task off my plate. I managed to get half of the stuff off the floor beside my chair, and I hope to do more today. 

Sorting the CDs

Hmm - someone is digging in my backyard. It must be the skunks looking for grubs or whatever they dig for. There are little holes everywhere!!!! 

Visitors digging holes!

I may have to give my wind mobile a quick straighten - it looks like it's leaning a wee bit. I still love it even after all the time it's been there, and I do NOT regret buying it!!!

My perpetual window machine!

Here is one of the girls and the boy! He absolutely LOVES to sit in the window, and I can see his head in the window from down the street. Getting into that bed on the stairs is NO big deal for him!! He's a big boy! Thank goodness we found a solution because otherwise, he would drive us nuts with wanting to get in bed and not being able to!!!

The sentinel and the spare

It was a sad walk with Murphy yesterday. We spotted a neighbor who lost her golden to a fungal infection last year. She's been fostering a puppy (also a golden), and he was beautiful. A month ago, she got word that she could keep him. Then, four days ago, he turned on her. He tried to bite her wrist and knocked her down. She is surrendering him today back to the rescue. So there were the two of us crying on the street. I'm so sad for her, but I will offer that she can walk Lexi whenever she wants a dog to walk. I won't let her have Murphy - she's too unruly!

But why would the dog turn like that? It's like Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde - one minute fine, the next he's mad. I feel so badly for her. Two dogs in a very short time. It's hard!!!

I have one presentation this morning, and it's all good to go. It's the final show and tell on the panel class we had in the fall. I'm very pleased with the participation rate!!! It's nice to see so many finished projects - even if some are simple! It's all about the act of completing something!!!

 

It's Virtual Retreat later today. 

Here's the link for today - February 24 - starts at 6 PM

oin Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89816483795?pwd=Mjc3M3pvVmZPdjdsQzlHS3Zhck52dz09

Meeting ID: 898 1648 3795
Passcode: 248667

And here's the link for tomorrow - February 25 - Starting at NOON - but we might be a bit late as I have a digital cutter class just before, and I feel it will run over this month. 

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82983517671?pwd=ODdsa1FJenQwdFNaQWFTNGd4bEhPZz09

Meeting ID: 829 8351 7671
Passcode: 117636

Have a super day, and hope to see you at the Virtual Retreat!!!

Ciao!!!!

Backed up!

The weather is perfect these days, although I wish it would rain every night. Things are so dry, but it's beautiful to have the windows open all day and night. The humidity levels are extremely low or non-existent. 

I started the Virtual Retreat two hours later, although technically, anyone could have joined, and I was off for a bike ride. I wasn't sure what route I was going to take, and I usually make a big circuit, so at any point, I could have turned right and made the trip as short or as long as I wanted, but I had a distance in mind. It seemed like a calm day when I walked the girls, but I discovered a nice headwind when I got on my bike. Yeah!

However, my legs are much stronger than ever, and that headwind was NOTHING. There are a few hills along that route with grades of 11%, which is nasty, and I managed to get up those with no problem, although I was breathing a tad heavy when I reached the top!

No issues, traffic was kind, and it was a glorious 40 KM in under 2 hours. The only thing that would have made that ride perfect was to have chocolate milk at home! There's nothing like a glass of chocolate milk to refresh you. I remedied that situation later in the afternoon when I walked to the grocery store. 

It takes me ten minutes to walk to the store, about four minutes (depending on what I'm buying) to buy and check out, and ten minutes to walk back home! I have to say that I love the new self-checkouts, but they do need to make a couple of modifications. If you are buying a lot of the same thing (my snack bars are on sale this week, so I'm sticking up) and you can't enter the number of similar items, only the self-checkout supervisor can. I'll ask next time before I attempt to scan six items of the same thing. And you can't NOT get a receipt, but that's coming where you can request no receipt! 

We had loads of fun at the virtual retreat. It wasn't as busy as on previous occasions, but many people were traveling, had family visiting, or were doing whatever. I will confess that I didn't get as much done as I wanted, but I never do! I MUST learn to stop talking so much! 

I did get the blocks fixed and the top completed for my Wonderful Woodland, and I'll post those pictures this week. 

Then I scrambled to find a backing for it. I couldn't find something suitable for the first time in a long time. WHAT??? With all those bolts of fabric? Yep--- couldn't find anything. Well, the other thing was the size of the quilt. It's 47" by 63", so to do my easy way of backing - cutting two pieces either vertically or horizontally, would have been a big "waste" of fabric. 

So I started to look at my flannels and found this. 

A heap of fabric strips

It was a fair amount of fabric, but it was in strips and looked like the cut-off edges from the backing of another quilt. I gave the pieces a good look and then decided that YES, there is enough fabric there to make the back, but it'll have a few seams in it. 

So I measured, sliced, and diced, with three seams left to put it together. I was hoping to get that done last night, but that didn't happen. But that's on the agenda for this morning with Monday sewing. 

I have the backing for one more quilt I want to get done today. I hope so. And then two other finished quilt tops need backing, so I might just focus on that. Not that I need to add to the "to be quilted" pile, but I need to get those finished quilted tops out of my sewing area!

Nothing is happening at my house on Tuesday or Wednesday, so I hope to accomplish much. 

I went to bed much later than planned, so I'm behind this morning. But I'll leave you with these pictures to contemplate. When I walked past that rental house two doors down, this is what they left. 

When you move, just put your junk to the curb

And from the other side. It's a HUGE mess, and I can't believe that people feel it's OK to just leave this behind. The recycling and garbage bins were also packed to capacity, with the lids popping open. Why couldn't they call the junk people to collect it?

I would be embarrassed to leave this on the curb. Can people take responsibility for their own crap? That's why we need to take responsibility for our stashes and what other things we own. Imagine seeing our sewing machines and fabric on the curb because our families didn't know what to do with them. 

On my way to the grocery store, a vehicle parked across the street that I didn't recognize, and the door to the house was open. The owner of the house? On the way back, I saw someone coming out of the house, and I swear there was more stuff on the pile. Actually, there is more stuff if you compare the last two pictures. 

I bet they were having a heart attack if it was the owner. Apparently, the backyard is about 3 feet high with weeds, which I heard from the next-door neighbor who moved out the previous summer. Such a shame as the people who originally owned the house kept it immaculate. 

I remember renting a house in Montreal before I could sell it, and when the renters moved out, it was a pigsty, but at least they removed all their belongings! 

And this is the house at the end of the street. Yes, those branches got trimmed, but they are now lying in the drive, and who knows when and how they'll be removed? But the trimming still doesn't clear the overgrowth of that tree, just enough so she can get out of the garage from the left side. 

Trimmed branches lying in the drive

Sigh...

I shouldn't complain because it could be worse! 

Well, I'm off to make quilt backs today! I did zero decluttering, and zero quilts were done on the long arm, but I hope to do some today. And I may get out for another bike ride this afternoon since it's a holiday and there was no spin class this morning. I'm a "few" kilometers behind on my stretch goal of cardio KM this year, and the only way to make them up is to get out on the bike! I should be out every day for 40 KM, and I could be caught up in a couple of weeks!

Have a super day!!

Ciao!!!

Cleaning up!

I've been whining about my cutting table and how I can't seem to get it completely clear. Well, I've been whittling away at it, and this is what it looks like. Well, I should say, this is what it looked like last night. It looks even better this morning. 

The cutting table

The nice thing is that's it now only ONE layer that covers it! I hope you notice how much of the cutting mats we can see! Not a bunch of stuff stacked up. I'm going to keep whittling away and try to get it clear for Monday? I have a few quilts that need borders, and it would certainly help to have this table clear! So slow and steady, and the trick is to try and keep it clear in the future. 

The key is to put things away immediately after using them. I mostly do, but what about those things that you don't have a home for? They get left on the table. My table used to be much worse than it is currently, so I don't feel so bad, but I'll get there! So close!!!

This quilt top had been sitting on the cutting table waiting for a quilt backing and a binding. I quickly searched through the backing shelf and found a piece of fabric PERFECT for this quilt. I checked for some binding, which got made, so this one moved to the "to be quilted" pile. 

Moved to the "to be quilted" pile

I have to say that I love the fact that I took all those large pieces of fabric that would work for backings, and they are organized with the yardage indicated on each piece. 

There are only two pieces of backing that are still waiting to be put on the shelf. 

Two pieces of backing waiting for a spot on the shelf

Isn't that exciting? I just love the fact that I'm getting my stash room in order, and it's making it super easy to find things and to put them away. It's not perfect, but it's sure a HUGE improvement from the mess it used to be. I remember hopping over HUGE piles of stuff to get anywhere in the room. You could barely open the door!

And here are all the backings neatly labeled and on the shelf. The entire bottom shelf and half of the shelf above are all backings. Thanks again to Ronda for helping get that organized. 

Backings for quilts

Once I find a home for those remaining two pieces, I will start going through the fabric baskets to find other pieces - anything 3 yards and over will become a backing! Nothing is sacred - we MUST get this under control and used up! 

I still have a "few" bolts of fabric that I can also use for backings, so I won't run short any time soon! They are all neatly stacked on another shelf. 

This is one thing that I moved off the cutting table. I had a bunch of half-square triangles that needed to be trimmed, so these are now gone to the box where the other little half-square triangles reside. Slow and steady -- these things will get under control, but the problem is that more triangles get generated whenever I make a binding or a border, so it's never-ending! But that's OK -- they make good enders and leaders when I'm chain piecing. 

More half-square triangles are trimmed

Then back to the long arm, and here's the latest customer quilt. It turned out great, but it seemed to take a long time with everything else that happened yesterday. Anyway -- it's now waiting to be trimmed. 

Customer quilt - DONE

I'm ripping through my rolls of batting. I loaded the next quilt on the long arm this morning, and there goes the last of that roll of batting. I have one roll left, so it's time to order more. 

Empty roll of batting

This was the moon as I arrived at the gym yesterday morning. Very cool, and YES -- it's so dark in the morning now. I don't really mind whether it's light or dark. It's just a time of day! 

The full moon

So I did receive a call from my doctor. Sigh.................   She is definitely a conservative one, but the call was a bit disturbing. She had looked at my file, and yes, she had referred me to a surgeon in 2016 where I had some minor surgery on the right knee! Everything was fine there, but she had written down the left knee. Well, I'm to keep an eye on the knee, take it easy (HA!), and if it still bothers me, call her back. I don't know why I even call her since she rarely refers patients for tests or whatever. Actually, I'm OK with that. I know my body, and I know when to slow down or not. 

I still think the whole issue is muscular and needs good stretching and deep tissue massage. Will I slow down? Of course not! 

I still have some serious KM to walk before the end of the year. 

The mileage left for the cross-Canada walk

As you can see, I have 658.5 KM to reach the end of my cross Canada walk. I'm ahead by 140KM or something like that, so unless something significant happens, I'm going to make it! Look where I am! The red dot on the map below is the pace marker. 

Almost at the end of the cross-Canada walk

That's so exciting - I can't believe I've walked so many KMs in the last two years. It all adds up when you start to keep track, and I LOVE the Conquer Challenges to do just that. I set a goal each year to track my daily mileage because, with the other challenges, they track for that challenge, not for a specific time frame. 

Hmmm -- where will I walk virtually next year since I'm coming to the end of Canada? 

So another busy day -- I have some paperwork that HAS to be done today, plus two presentations and a quilt to quilt. Just keep smiling and keep on sewing!!!

Don't forget the Virtual Retreat this weekend. I can't wait as I have big plans to get a lot done. Borders, blocks, and well, whatever else I can get my hands on. My goal is to get those sewing and cutting areas completely cleared up. The end of the year is coming, and it would be nice to have a nice clear space in which to work. I'm close, but I also need some time to make that happen, and I have samples that need to be put away. Anyway -- I digress - 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

On that note, I'm out of here. I have a French presentation this morning, and I need to review my list of words! Many have now become part of my new vocabulary, but I still need to refresh myself on a few!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!

Decluttering makes me happy!!!

FIRST -- I stand corrected!!! Yesterday I made a mistake. The interviewees did NOT get paid. That was very clear, but for some reason, I misinterpreted the information. I apologize for that. Thanks to a couple of readers who pointed that out. I've corrected my post from yesterday. What is disturbing is that while these people didn't get paid, the network paid $7 - 9 million for the rights to produce that interview, so someone profited. If you want to live a private life, then you should keep it private. You can't have your cake and eat it too. 

OK -- now onto more exciting things. I'm so excited this morning!! Oh my -- I took my own advice to heart, and I've been organizing stuff. The magazines are DONE!!! 

The floor is clear, and all the books and magazines are now back on the shelves. They are sorted by title. There was a pile of miscellaneous publications which I managed to find homes for some of them, and the rest went in a miscellaneous pile. Yes - the amount is obscene. I'm well aware of that. But I was attracted to the darn things, and many of those were picked up at guild garage sales. Some of them are very old! 

The piles are labeled, and I'm thrilled. As I go through the piles, they'll be dealt with. I figure I have ten years to do it!

The right side of the mess

The left side

Someone asked me why the ends of the magazines and/or books were showing, rather than the more colorful spines. Well, it's all about space. Most of the shelves are too short for the books to stand upright. Magazines are better left lying down. I did rearrange one shelf so some books could stand up. I may do more rearranging at a later date, but for the moment, getting everything to this stage is HUGE. The shelves' height can be adjusted, I just don't have time at the moment, and I've never noticed it before. 

I found ONE cross stitch magazine and a couple of duplicates. The duplicates are in my giveaway box, and if no one at the retreat wants them, they'll get tossed. I was going to give away the cross stitch magazine until I had a quick peek through it, and OH MY - I found something that is so cute. And I was looking for something like that, so I'm off to see what I can do about that. 

Cross stitch magazine

We had a great time at Monday sewing. We've added some dedicated show and tell time, which is great as we now get to see all kinds of stuff that we never saw before. It's almost better than getting together in person. Our topics of discussion are vast! It's so great that we have Zoom to keep us connected. As I've said before, I'll be hard-pressed to go back to sewing in person. 

And you would not believe how many times I get the same thing from the Zoom presentation that I'm doing. People who live in very remote areas can get connected. It's amazing and nice to hear that some positive things are coming from the pandemic. 

I had made this block for Long Time Gone. I wasn't happy with it as I didn't like the light orange. It just didn't go with the other oranges in the block. I decided it was a perfect thing to do while on the Monday sewing call. 

One of the Long Time Gone blocks

I ripped the block apart in rows at the bottom and replaced the light orange squares. 

The light orange is replaced by a darker orange

Then I sewed it back together, and now this block is done! 

The Long Time Gone block is DONE

I still have a few things cut out and ready to sew together. One of them is a quilt backing which should be easy. The other is a quilt that needs to be sewn together, including the backing and then two blocks. So I've made good progress on that stack of stuff, but now it's time to add to the stack as the next homework blocks are coming due. 

My pile of prepped projects

I also managed to get some tidying up done this morning. I'll probably be pulling some stuff today to get ready for this week's presentations, and I was running out of room. I made great progress with the tidy-up, and I'm happy!!!

The tables are almost clear!

Here's some stuff from earlier that I didn't get a chance to post. Yep - working with sequins and found a few on the floor! I love sequins, and I love sewing them on by machine, but they are easy to spill!

Sequins on the floor

I got a customer quilt done. It needs to be trimmed, hopefully later today. And the next one is loaded, and depending on how this morning goes, I might work on it this afternoon. 

Customer quilt - DONE

One other thing I did manage to do was this. 

The design wall is empty

YES - the design wall is clear!!!  Except for those two blocks. 

My pandemic blocks

I made these two blocks at the beginning of the pandemic from my orange and white scrap boxes. I had this brilliant idea that I'd have nothing to do! So I had great aspirations to make a scrappy orange and white quilt. HA!!!! I got two blocks done, and one year later, there they sit!!

What was on the design wall? My Summer Moon quilt, of course. 

Summer Moon quilt top

I love the quilt, and the photo doesn't do justice to the greens and purples in it. But that's OK. And I had to use several different shades of solid white, but you can't tell that either. I'm going to call this quilt the picnic quilt. I seem to have eaten a LOT of chocolate as I made the quilt. I think this is the THIRD chocolate stain I found on it. And when I was assembling the final rows, I found hummus that I had spilled on my shirt on the quilt. Sigh........................  I know - don't eat when quilting. The first thing to do when this gets quilted is to wash it!!

A chocolate stain

Then it was quick to search through the labeled backings to find something that worked. 

The pile of quilt backings

As I remove one from the shelf, I have a stack in the stash room that would NOT fit on the shelf. So one by one, those backings are going on the shelf. There are six left to add. Once that is done, I'm sure there are other big yardage pieces in the stash buckets to add to the pile. What's so great about all this is that I actually see HUGE progress. Before, I likely would have gone out and bought new backings because I couldn't find anything due to the huge mess. No longer!!!!

A few backings to add to the shelf

See how all the backings are marked with the yardage? It's super easy to find something. 

I worked on the scrappy binding at Monday sewing, and NOW this one is ready to go to the "to be quilted" pile. YEAH!!!!

The backing, quilt top, and binding for Summer Moon

It feels good to get that one done.  I still have lots more to do - that table of current projects is still piled high, but progress is being made and NOTHING new is getting added or bought, so I'm a happy camper. 

I really can't believe that it took me so long to see what was happening. Like I was totally blind or something. It doesn't matter, I see the light now, and I'm doing what I can to get rid of the stuff, and that's all that counts. And at least when the day comes that I do have to get rid of it in a big hurry, at least I know what's there, and it'll be much easier than searching through tubs and tubs of stuff. 

On that note, I see it's going to be a glorious day today. I can't wait to get out and walk. Yesterday, just minutes before I was to walk the dogs, we had a small ice storm, and the roads and sidewalks were treacherous, so we went out later in the day. Today, the sun is out, and it looks amazing!!!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!

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!!!