A new needle makes the world go round

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

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

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

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

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

The wide-open view in the city

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

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

The wide-open view in Arizona

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

The wide-open view in Manitoba

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

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

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


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

One more fleece quilt bound

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

Binding on another small quilt

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

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

Stitching the applique shape

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

The elongated zigzag

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

The applique shapes

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

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

The thick felt pads removed from the bobbin case

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

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

The thick bar of lint from the feed teeth

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

The lint pulled from the bobbin area

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

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

The cone is empty

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

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

Pinning the borders on Easy Street

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

The outer border is on two sides of Easy Street

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

Getting ready to measure the last two borders

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

The backing for Easy Street

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

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

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

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!!

A lazy day

Are you watching the free BluPrint videos? I got hooked. I went through the list of quilting ones and there are loads that I'd like to watch. I may just have to get a subscription for a year and then watch them all. I have a quilt on the long arm that I wanted to custom quilt. It's my own and it's small. I've been meaning to get it quilted for years. I've not been inspired or perhaps afraid to do anything with it.

I did some stitch in the ditch the other day and I'm not happy. But after watching a quilting video, I'm inspired. I'm going to take it off the long arm and do it on the domestic machine. It'll be good practice for this class and it can become a sample for future trunk shows. The quilting is NOT rocket science and I got great tips!

I think the annual subscription price is something like $52 CDN at the moment. That's a bargain. I'm signing up! The quality of the instructor, the instructions, and the presentation is extremely professional. I'm not normally into that kind of thing, but it's something different to do at the moment.

I got the homework out for Vintage Christmas. I decided to put all my blocks on the design wall so I could admire them. Fourteen of forty-two. Making good progress. I'm going to start thinking of how to finish them off - i.e. sashing color and whether I keep the red and green blocks together. I think I will and just alternate them like in the photo. It's a bit challenging to only work with those two colors. Look at the Mr. Cookie block - he's red!

Vintage Christmas blocks so far

But as I was looking at them, I knew that some of the blocks needed buttons and/or hand embroidery. Oh boy - I might as well get this done NOW rather than wait until the end.

I went to my button stash and I easily found 8 small red buttons. They are in a small plastic bag attached to the block.

Candle block with the buttons

Then I needed to find three white buttons for Mr. Cookie. I dug out the big jar of buttons.

Looking for three red buttons

AHA -- I found three white buttons still on a card. Perfect and so that's now attached to the block. Notice Mr. Cookie now has a face. I dug out the embroidery floss stash and dug through it to find what I needed.

Mr. Cookie block is done

Here's the basket with all the embroidery floss. It's not that organized, BUT it's all in one place. That's very important.

Basket of embroidery floss

I was also looking for some metallic thread and found this package. I needed a white so this was perfect. I love being able to find pretty much anything in my studio. More on that in a minute.

Metallic DMC embroidery floss

You never know what you're going to find. I found TWO boxes of orange floss. Why did I buy that much? I've no idea - it must have been on sale as who wants orange floss?? Well - that much orange floss.

Two boxes of orange floss

 I embroidered the face on the Dolly block. I seemed to be great at getting the first eye perfect and the second one is not so good. The same thing happened with Mr. Cookie. Oh well - let's move on - it's a tiny little dot! Who is going to notice that once the quilt is together? No one!!!

The Dolly block with embroidered face

 I HATE embroidering with metallic thread. WEll, hand embroidering that is. It's awful to work with. It's so hard to get the tension right and have the threads lie flat on the block. It's now done and that's all I care about. That means that all fourteen blocks are now completely done or have the bits needed to finish them once the quilt is together. Yeah!!!!

The manger block

And with that, I'm up to date on all FIVE of the ongoing projects.  It feels good and that never used to happen, but I have to make it happen and keep it up. It shouldn't be that hard. It was the big applique quilts that used to bog me down. I just couldn't keep up with those.

As I was puttering around the last couple of days and digging supplies out, I realized something. My supplies - fabric, threads, batting, stabilizers, etc. are pretty much organized. They may not be perfectly organized, but I know where they are and they are physically grouped together. It's easy to find something - except for that darn bag of scraps!

My tools are in the same organized state. I know pretty much where everything is. The quilts to be quilted are super organized. BUT the UFOs - that's a totally different story. They are everywhere and stored in nooks and crannies around the two studios. Why? I think it's the sheer number of UFOs that is so daunting. Keeping my Master Lists is helping, but that only covers a small portion of the total UFOs that exist. Do I want to actually list them out? I think NOT!!

What I think would be great is to box them all up and squirrel them away. Labeling the boxes of course. OK - that means I'd have to list them. But then I'd pull out one or two to work on in the week and gradually they would all get done. I'm not starting any new projects that don't need to be started, unless, I know that I can finish it.

That would take an enormous amount of effort and I'm not sure that it's worth it. I got stuff done out of the weekly basket that I took to Studio U, but I certainly do NOT need to add to the basket. There's enough work there for this coming week as well. I'll have to contemplate what to do with those UFOs, but it would be awesome to put them away rather than have them in my face every day. I'm pretty disciplined - I know I wouldn't forget them. How could I if I had a list?

I feel like cleaning and organizing today. You never know what'll happen.

Then I did something that I haven't done in years. I was getting a bit tired - I don't know why. Oh yes I know why. I was doing hand embroidery in front of the computer (in not very good light) and watching the quilting video. I was starting to nod off so I thought a wee nap was in order. I swear I'm like the energizer bunny - if I sit down for too long just watching something - I fall asleep. And by too long - a half-hour is too long!

So I had a nap. I even went to bed to have my nap. And I took a book with me. After a short nap, I picked up the book that I had started the day before. I couldn't put it down. I stayed in bed all afternoon and read. I had to finish the book. It's an excellent book and it totally blew me away. It's called The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides. What's amazing is that this is his first novel. Holy - I'll read his books again!

The Silent Patient

That's the last of the physical novels that I had checked out from the library. No worries - I have three shelves of my own books to read and loads I can download from the library. However, I have two books that people loaned to me and I'm reading one of those now.

Susan sent me this picture the other day and I think it's quite appropriate for me. It's a poster that you could buy so I'm violating all kinds of copyright here. Ooops.

The good news is that I did finish all the blocks for the magazine quilt. Phew - I was hoping to get that top sewn together, but hey - it was a holiday!!! I was allowed to slack off. I'll get the top sewn today.

The sad news is that I had run out of bobbins and that meant that I needed to STOP and clean the sewing machine and change the needle. I did that this morning and YIKES - there was a lot of lint in that bobbin case.

A lot of lint in that bobbin case

Holy - it's amazing how much lint builds up with only a few bobbins run through the machine. I do need a mini-vac to help clean out but for now, I use a Q-tip, a brush and tweezers.

That's ugly!

I even fixed the bobbin winder on my sewing machine. It needed to be adjusted as it was allowing the bobbins to just slightly overfill and they wouldn't fit in the bobbin case. I dug out my mini star screwdriver and made a tiny adjustment and all is good.

Adjusted bobbin winder

Then I wound six bobbins and I'm ready to go for the coming week. I'm excited!

Six bobbins

Other than the magazine quilt, I don't have any deadlines this coming week so that means I get to sew on my own stuff!! What will I sew? Oh yes  - the stuff in the laundry basket!

What's with the weather? It was so windy yesterday that I almost froze my face off. I did have a hat and a scarf, but it was cold. The girls didn't care.

And oh my god - I have TWO meetings next week. Well, one is a meeting, the other is a series of mini radio interviews on CBC. How did that happen? Planning must go forward and life goes on! I have to say that it's kind of nice to do this kind of thing from home. Commuting is such a waste of time.

But I do need to seriously look at my time and start to get some serious stuff done. I have quilts to design, blog posts to start writing and other things so that'll be the focus of this week as well. But I'm still going to sew for fun and watch videos and get inspired!

If you have a serger and want to learn some neat things, here's a series of videos from The Decorating Diva. It's National Serger Month. I've learned a whole lot about servers in the last couple of months and did things with a serger that I never thought possible.

On that note - you've got a lot to do! Well, if you don't, I do!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!

Know when tossing is best

On my way back from the gym, they were talking about Lucille Ball (on the radio) who would have celebrated her birthday yesterday. Apparently, she had a saying "put your oxygen mask on first", meaning take care of yourself first.  How true this is!  I see many people who live for their children or their parents and I get it that it's hard to put yourself first, but you must. Children won't be around forever, neither will our parents or our significant others. Then what will you do? I've seen it happen to people - they start to lose touch with their friends or their hobbies. It's hard to recover from that and guess what happens?? Loneliness - Depression!!!

Mind you, I'm probably the total opposite - I take care of me first almost 100%  all of the time and ignore everyone else! I'm a pretty selfish person if you look close enough.

Yesterday was a super productive day - yet again. I'm not really sure where this focus is coming from. I'm loving it and I wish I could have found that focus years ago! I like sewing and I like creating so why was it so hard before?

I know - there were tons of distractions and it was easy to leave things behind. No more!

One of the things I'm working on these days is samples. I have access to two gorgeous sewing machines that are filled with beautiful stitches. The problem with those stitches is that if you don't stitch them out, you've no idea how easy (or challenging) they are and you've no idea where to use them.

These stitches are from the Husqvarna Viking Designer EPIC. They're called applique stitches. This is what the piece looks like after I've finished stitching.

Applique stitches before trimming

I've started to trim the excess fabric away. I should say that I've programmed these stitches into the embroidery unit so technically they were embroidered, but you can stitch them out like any stitch. The sewing machine is programmed to stop where it needs to stop so you can insert the little piece of fabric. The best part?? It's so darn easy to program the stitches into the embroidery unit or to stitch them out on their own.

Some of the applique stitches have been trimmed

Aren't they adorable????  One is candy and the other is a girl with a red skirt!

Two of the applique stitches after trimming

Next up were the sequin stitches. Yes - these were also programmed into the embroidery unit. Super easy to program. The EPIC knows when to stop so you can insert the sequins. I have to say this was a wee bit challenging until I figured out a couple of tricks. Some of the stitches I will probably never use and some of them are so neat that I'm trying to figure out where to put them. On my jean jacket???  I could bling that jacket up with sequins!!!!

Sequin stitches built into the Designer EPIC

I'm stitching on vinyl which complicates some of the stitches especially if the stitching is quite dense. It's all a learning experience and I'm very happy with what I'm learning. I've got more samples to make and having fun doing it.

I always say that anyone with a sewing machine with decorative stitches should do these stitch outs. If you don't, you'll never know what the heck you have and you'll never use those stitches. But once you see what you have and how easy they are to do, well - you're more likely to use them for projects.

In the midst of all this, I have a magazine quilt to sew. My goal is to get it pieced or mostly pieced before I leave. I'm just starting! However, when I went to start sewing, I was having a heck of a time. I'm sewing on my Husqvarna Viking Designer Ruby deLuxe. Hmmm - something was terribly wrong.

It's hard to see the stitching in this picture, but the bobbin was bouncing around, making a horrible noise and the stitch quality wasn't so pretty.

The bad seam on the left, good seam on the right

That photo shows the bobbin part of the seam. I cleaned the bobbin case area and inserted a new needle. No difference. Yikes - I can't sew a quilt with that kind of a mess.

I checked the bobbin. It seemed to be OK, but let's try a different one. HOLY - like night and day. This bobbin doesn't look too worn - not like some others that I have, but for whatever reason, it's not happy.

Bobbin 

Needless to say, that bobbin is now history. Know when to get rid of things that aren't working - be that a bobbin, needles, thread or whatever. If it's not working - it might be worn out (those bobbins are plastic after all), it might be damaged - don't bother to waste your time with such a small item.

Bobbin is toast

Speaking of magazine quilts, another magazine (and another one of my quilts) got axed. Easy Quilts is history. That doesn't leave too many quilting magazines from that publisher. Well - I hadn't started that one and I would have had to make it when I got home. What will I do when I get home??? Oh yes - more unpacking, more samples, and clean up more UFOs.

Then I fired up the long arm to get the T-shirt quilt done. If those seams are pressed well, and the T-shirts are well stabilized, T-shirt quilts are a dream to quilt. I had zero issues with this. A huge thanks to Heather for giving me the T-shirts. If my brother doesn't want it, I'll bring it back and find someone who will appreciate it.

T-shirt quilt - DONE

And here's the backing!!!!  I love it!!!!

The backing of the T-shirt quilt

I took a wee bit of time and went to the mall. I got seven bottles of distilled water for the irons. I hate to shop, so I'm stocked for a couple of months.

I also went to the Bulk Barn to look at stuff. I found all kinds of goodies that I can use in my cereal and probably less expensive than my usual grocery store. I even found powdered peanut butter!!! Actually, I was looking for that thanks to a comment by Nancy the day before. That'll be great for smoothies and easier to put the powder in the Vitamix rather than scooping out the real thing.

Good stuff acquired at the Bulk Barn

Oh - there were lots of temptations there. Loads of chocolate and candy. The only decadent thing I bought were yogurt covered cranberries which is my "sweet" snack. I love the darn things.

I found a glass jar that I can use when I mix up my cereal topping and I also found a shaker for the cinnamon which resides beside the cereal. No more cumin in my cereal.

Cinnamon in a shaker

As I was buzzing through the store looking for a few more items, I saw this. Really?????  It's only August and sweltering hot!!!

Winter coats in case you're cold

I also got the binding on that small Dresden Quilt for my Mom. Time to make some labels.

On that note, it's time to get back to work!!!  I wonder what I'm going to learn today????

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!

A ghost in the studio

I had a bit of a slow day yesterday! While I had plans to get lots done, I didn't get as much done as I had planned. I chilled out! And it was great!  OH - I did get my group lists created for my ongoing classes and sent them all a very long detailed e-mail for the first class. The girls and I went for a walk as it was a glorious day - I'm sure they'll have their side of the story maybe later this week. That Lexi is a bit lazy sometimes. I had errands to do in the car and I read.

However, that doesn't mean that I'm not doing stuff. Since it's Motivational Monday, I should report on what I have been getting done.

I had my shopping list so when I was at the quilt store on Saturday (first time hitting a quilt store this year!), I picked up two things out of three that was on my list. I'll get the third item somewhere else. That meant that I could continue on one of my 2017 UFOs. I cut all the squares, setting triangles and setting corners and put it on the design wall.

I believe I went upstairs to get something and when I came back, look what happened.

Wait - who knocked my blocks off the wall?

 I guess I put them on the wall a wee bit too quickly and they were not "adhered" and when one decided to fall, it took a few others with it.

But this is what the project looks like when all the blocks are on the wall. Oh - I wondered why there were two identical photos. This is the photo before the setting triangles and corners were added. They are cut and on the wall.

2017 UFO 

 It's a bit long and narrow, but when it's sewn together and the borders are on, I'm sure it'll be just fine. All those blocks were made with scraps! So this one should get completed shortly. I did start sewing it together and thought I had taken a picture, but I guess not. You'll see it as it progresses. That's the good news. The bad news is that there is still enough fabric to make TWO more quilts in that box. Ah yes - the danger of choosing a project with multiple quilts for a UFO.

Plus it's almost the end of January and I'm not making a lot of progress on those UFOs. But I'm working on several of them so it's not like they're being ignored.

I'm actually sewing on my own sewing machine these days. This is the one that I did all the Halloween embroidery blocks on. I knew it needed to be cleaned, but when I opened it up last night, I almost died. It had been making a few funny noises and not sewing as well as it should. Can you see why?

Huge mess of threads around the cutter

 And look at all the lint that I got out of the bobbin case area. Oops - that is NOT good. I've got my 4 bobbins wound and I'll be good in the future and keep that bobbin case area clean and a new needle.

Lots of lint removed from bobbin case

 I've got more pictures to share with you of what else I've been doing, but that's a whole topic on its own so that will be shared another day. Here is my current ender/leader project. The only reason this got bumped in the priority line is that it was on my felt board and I needed the felt board. So I placed all the pieces on the table. Let's say that I got plenty of Fitbit steps as I walked from that table to the sewing machine to the ironing board.  My current sewing table isn't big enough to keep that close. That's OK by me.

Ender/leader project

This is what the block looks like this morning. It won't take long to finish this block up and then I can start on the next one. This is part of the pixelated apple quilt that I started in a workshop last summer. This is block number three of - well I'm not sure how many. But I cut a whole bunch more squares on Saturday so I'm ready for a lot more sewing.

The block is almost together

Our local Fabricland moved over the holidays. I hadn't been to the new store, but I was in the neighborhood yesterday and I needed some more cording for the upcoming tuffet class in April. It's never too early to get prepped!  The store is big and bright but it feels weird as all the displays are different. It almost seems like they have less stuff? That could be me. Anyway, I wandered around and I found something that I can use my 50% coupon on, but I didn't know how much I needed so I didn't just willy-nilly buy - I came home and measured how much I need and I'll go back another day. That's on my new shopping list.

I was just about to pay for my cord when I found this and I couldn't resist!

Cushion cover

I'll show you the rest of my cushion cover collection when I can get a picture. I didn't do it yesterday and it's too dark in that room this morning. So I think I owe you TWO pictures.

I realized that I have something brand new to tell you about all week. Yesterday, it was a new quilt shop. Today, it's something else and NO - it's not about what I did last week. That's for another day this week.

Today, I'm going to direct you to QUILTsocial where it's my week to blog and you have to check out this new sewing machine. Technically, it's not released until February of this year. It's not on the Husqvarna web site, although some dealers have it on their web page. This is an amazing sewing machine. That's all I can say!

On that note, it's time to get the day rolling.

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!