Mini design boards are the best!

Yesterday, with all the Zoom calls and the prep for those calls, just about did me in! 

By the time I was finished at 4 PM, I was wiped. I did NOT go for a second walk. It was late, the sidewalks were treacherous from the weather, it was cold. I wimped out and said, "NO -- I'm not budging." I even asked DH to order pizza (we were going to go out). It was just one of those days, and I'm OK with it. I did feel a twinge of guilt, not going for that second walk, and then I said, "screw it! I'm allowed to miss a day here and there!"

I couldn't even walk to the grocery store to get bananas for my oatmeal this morning. So my oatmeal is sad, but I was prepared for it since I didn't want to brave the wind. That's how badly I didn't want to go for a walk -- I was ready to sacrifice not having bananas for breakfast. Mostly, it was because I was tired. Both of the sessions in the afternoon lasted almost a half-hour longer than planned, and well, it just wiped me out. 

I have two presentations today, and well, I'm prepped, but not nearly as much as I would have liked to be. That happens, and I'm OK with it. 

However, I did a minor repair job last night that needed to be done, and I watched the first episode of Season 10 of The Great British baking show. A just reward. There are only 11 seasons online, and what will I watch when I'm done? Oh --- I have tons of episodes of The Quilt Show to watch. Somehow, that's nearly as much fun as the baking show. 

I had two technical issues to resolve yesterday. One is mainly resolved, and the other -- is a mystery. I had to do a factory reboot on my Fitbit. Did I need to go that drastic? I don't know, but I was tired of it adding those extra steps. So I rebooted. Of course, that means you need to redo all the connections, which wasn't a problem. Several years ago, Ronda set up my clockface as a Bitmoji, and I loved it. 

I had all my stats available on the screen. Most people count steps on their FitBit; I like to see the KM. After the reboot, I had difficulty getting the darn thing set up. 

Ah -- where are the numbers?

It got stuck in this mode for a day! I've gone back in and linked my accounts made a new avatar for Bitmoji, but do you think I can sync it with my Fitbit? Nope. 

So I had to go through all the clock faces to find something that had the stats I wanted. Isn't that amazing that we can choose the style of watch face??? Well, I was so used to the other one that this just feels wrong. But I'll learn to live with it. 

My new watch face

So all I have to do is tap on the numbers in the bottom right, and this next screen pops up with all the stats. Actually, I think I like this one much better as it's easier to read and actually easier to access ALL the stats at one time. OK -- I'm going to call this technology challenge over, and I will STOP trying to get my Bitmoji back on my Fitbit. 

My stats

The second issue is strange, and it involves the printer, which is wireless and sits in DH's office. I've had trouble with it in the past, but once I installed the program (years ago), I've been good with it. Then one day, it stopped printing. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers, but nothing. However, my computer can see the printer, and it tells me that it's in READY status. I can even scan from my computer using that printer, but it won't print. 

I can print from my laptop and phone, but not the computer. Now can you tell me why that one is? It is a tad annoying, mainly because I needed something for today, and well -- I wasn't sure how to get it. After complaining at dinner, I realized that I could print the same document from my laptop, and that's what I did. So I have a workaround, but I'd really like the convenience of printing from my computer. OH -- I was even able to print a test page after I ran some Printer Doctor program, but nothing from any of my programs. And it's not just Microsoft -- I couldn't print from EQ8. Very weird. 

I've lived with that one for a while; I'm going to ignore it for the moment. I don't have time to mess with it. 

I'll start showing you homework pictures tomorrow, but today -- well, what would we do without those mini design boards? 

These are about 18" square -- a foam core base with industrial felt glued to the surface. 

I was cutting strips for my Wanderer's Wife quilt, and they were perfect for laying out the strips so I could easily find one that worked. It was a bit of a random process -- I mostly went by the total length of the strips rather than figure out if this color worked best beside another. 

Choosing the strips

 The leftovers went onto another board in case I needed more strips, and I did, so this was a good idea to lay them out rather than throwing them in a heap. 

The leftovers were prepped for the next round of cutting 

And then the strips were all laid out. And LABELED!

The strips are laid out and labeled

And I could stack the mini design boards on top of each other, which was great!!!

Three boards stacked

My homework for Boho Heart was stacked neatly on another board. 

Boho Heart homework

To save a bit of space, I decided to stack them all on top of each other. I placed it in a bit of precarious place, and of course, I whizzed by, and CRASH, they all fell to the floor. They don't look so neat now! Thank goodness the blue ones were labeled, or I would be in a huge mess. 

This is what happens when they fall to the floor

I'll try to straighten that out later today - or not. 

I had a couple of blocks laid out on another board. Those blocks are now sewn together and safely in the project box. 

Blocks are laid out on a mini design board

And there is more stuff piled on this one. 

YES -- there is a mini design board underneath all that

Whew!!! What a day, and well, today will be much quieter from a Zoom perspective. Only two sessions, and none of them should go over the time. Yeah!! But it's still cold outside! Not as cold as in some other parts of the world, but cold. I think I'm feeling the cold more because I'm a bit tired? Or perhaps, I'm just fed up. That's more likely the reason. But that PLUS ONE --- that's what keeps me going. It will be warmer! Tomorrow! 

Actually, if I look at Thursday, the temperature will be 34 degrees WARMER than our current windchill. That's just nuts! Average out the temperature, and I'll be fine! Of course, the girls couldn't care less. As a matter of fact, I think they like this weather better than the warm weather. 

On that note, I'm out of here! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

The Virtual Retreat - Day Four

What can I say? It was another AMAZING day of fun and frivolity at the Virtual Sewing Retreat. As much as I LOVE going to the real retreat, the Virtual one has a totally different flavor, and we have people dropping in from all over. Nina from Germany was back, and we had Daphne join us from Vancouver Island. And then a lot of others joined in and out throughout the day. I finally had to "kick" them off the call way past the initially planned closing time! But that was OK -- it was loads of fun.

If you get a chance to pop in today to say hi, the link for today's meeting is at the bottom of this post.

I have a couple of pictures to share with you from the group before we get started. And there'll be more pictures to come. We saw some GREAT ideas for sewing rooms and storage, and I asked for photos to share.

Here's a picture of Nina's house. This is actually her weekend home. NOW before you go crazy with envy, the house, which HUNDREDS of years old, is split into 10 small apartments. So if you think you have a little cottage in cottage country here in Canada - think again! The apartment is basically one room with a small kitchen area and a tiny bathroom.

Nina's weekend house

So if you live in a tiny place like that and your husband comes home from a run and wants to change, and you're participating in a Zoom meeting. Hmmm - and we think we have challenges. NO - we were not flashed, but it was pretty funny! Did you notice how steep the hill is that the house is sitting on? It's just so different from where we live! I love Germany and would like to go back. Perhaps now is the time! But social distancing, of course!  Thanks for sharing Nina!!!!


Here are the other two quilts that Fran sent me. I LOVE the string quilt. You can never go wrong with a string quilt, and the color choices and combinations are endless.

Fran's string quilt

And look at this one. It's stunning. I bet there's a lot of embellishment on this one - either with thread or markers. But those birch trees are gorgeous.

Fran's birch tree quilt

Thanks for sharing those photos, Fran. Your work is GORGEOUS.


What did I work on? I was going to start my totally prepped yoga bag, but instead, I decided to get those bindings on the stack of quilts that have been waiting to be finished.

I started with something small. This is a table topper that I taught as part of our quilting series a couple of years ago. The top had been quilted but not bound. Now it's finished. It was quilted entirely with free-motion, but some of the seam lines between the green and white didn't lie as flat as I would like, so I stitched in the ditch around all the green. Using the Stitch in the Ditch foot on the PFAFF creative icon with the built-in walking foot was so easy!!!!

Table topper - DONE

Then it was onto the next quilt, which was that small doggie print quilt.

Binding is completed on the doggie quilt 

Hey - this is working out great, even though I had to change threads in the top and bobbin for each project.

The next one was the donation quilt for Quilts of Valour. I was carefully watching the amount of thread left in the bobbin as the sensor had alerted me that I was almost out of thread. Did I notice that the top thread was nearly finished as well? Nope - not until it ran out!! I didn't have more of the same color, but that was OK. I found something similar, and I was back in business.

Empty spool!

So that quilt got bound and is tucked away to be dropped off, hopefully, next week.  I have a couple more quilts to get quilted for Quilts of Valour before that drop off happens! It would appear that I slacked off this past month! Oh well - not worried in the least.

Quilts of Valour quilt - DONE

 Back to one of my quilts. This is a small Christmas wall hanging I quilted a while back. The binding is now on that one as well.

Christmas quilt - DONE 

Since it's a wall hanging, it needs a sleeve. It's hard to see in the photo, but I added two separate sleeves to the back. This project would have been a perfect candidate for those corner triangles to create the hanging mechanism, but well, the binding was already partially on when I thought of it. Too late. I had already made a label for it, which I believe I shared a while back. The date on the label???? Only 2009!!!   It doesn't matter - this is ONE more project that is done!

The label and the sleeve are done!

I have two more projects that need the binding sewn in place. I was going to work on something else today, but I think I might just tackle those two projects first. Get them out of the way.

I did take a break from binding, and early in the morning, I had dug out the little tote bags that someone had made using that Crafty Bear fabric. Remember my tote bags from the previous day? There's a whole story behind this fabric, and once I get the remainder of the pictures, I'll share the story. Anyway, this bag had a pink zipper. NO big deal, but not my thing.

A pink zipper?

This was the inside of the bag. It was tough to take a picture of the bag, but it was called the Humbug bag, and it was a weird shape. It was the way the two side seams were stitched. One seam was sewn with the zipper at the top end of the seam, and the other seam was sewn with the zipper in the center of the side seam, so it looked like a 3-D triangle. I never liked them. Well, I guess I did at one point, but not anymore. They are just too weird to use. 

As I searched for that link, I happened upon a FIFTEEN-minute tutorial to make that bag. This was and perhaps still is a "for purchase" pattern. With all these tutorials, why would I want to buy the pattern? That's something to think about. While I'm all about free stuff, perhaps there's too much free???

The inside of the zippered pouch

So I ripped, and I ripped, and I ripped TWO of those bags apart. I found some more effective interlinings last night to use, and my intention is to remake the bags as ordinary zippered pouches.

A lot of ripping occurred to create this pile of threads

That's one of the reasons why I don't get a lot done - well, I do, but you know what I mean. If I'm not happy with something, I'll take it apart. But we won't go there. I find it so therapeutic to rip apart, especially if it wasn't my mistake that I'm ripping out! NO - I'm not for hire! It's a great way to spend time while chatting, and the Zoom meetings are perfect for that!!!  So they could give me a seam ripper and some stuff to rip out when I'm in the nursing home. OH - don't give me a seam ripper. I'll be like a little kid with scissors. I'll be going around to all the other people's rooms and ripping out the quilts I don't like! Better not give me that seam ripper after all!!!!

For all of us who were in and out of Zoom all day, the internet connection was pretty darn good. I'm working out of Studio B, and the internet hub is on the main floor, so a wee bit of trouble with my audio at certain times. What I need is to be hardwired into that hub. Do I have any cables? Not likely as during one of my clean up sessions, I decided that we had no use for that kind of stuff, and it likely went to the e-waste dump. I did find one cable, but I think it's too short!!!

A cable, but a bit too short to run downstairs

It'll be very inconvenient to run a cable down the stairs, so I think I'll call my internet provider and see what they can do for me so I can hardwire into the service from Studio B. I'd like to hardwire from upstairs as well. I wonder how busy they are these days???

I want to share with you the perfect reason why we have design walls. I ran out of the blue fabric on the outer two sides of this block. I briefly rifled through the blue fabric bin and found the small piece on the right. Looking at it on the table, it appeared to be a good match. But putting it up on the wall, it's a bit too light.

The fabric on the left is too light

I found another fabric and put that on the design wall. Oh - this one is much better. Not perfect, but better.

Not perfect, but better

And then I found this third fabric. OK - that's way too dark. It wasn't easy to see these contrasts in value when they were sitting right in front of me. Put them on a design wall? Oh yes - totally easy to decipher. So when in doubt - hang it up and step back. That's how you'll see it in your quilt.

The fabric on the right is too dark!

So we started this post in Germany, and we're ending it in Saskatchewan. Here's my daily picture. I'm just east of Maymont now. And yes, there are trees in Saskatchewan. Not big ones and not many, but there are trees!!!

East of Maymont on Highway 16

This is the last time I'll see the reference to my tiny little hamlet. I don't have a picture to share with you, but I'm going to try and find one looking towards the river but from the other side of the river. It's spectacular, and every time I was at the farm, I took the same photo. But from our house, we would look east, and we could see the town of Maymont. There was a LARGE grain elevator as the reference point. Those elevators are all long gone, or maybe one is still there. But on the horizon, you knew where Maymont was because of the elevator. Ah, such great memories. I'm so glad, I could arrange my Cross Canada walk through this area and get to see it on Google maps. You can't beat technology!!!!

My position on the map 

What better way to finish off a Virtual Retreat Day, but to share a glass of wine with friends!!! It was such fun!!!  So as mentioned, if you want to join in the fun today - and today is the LAST day, log into the Zoom meeting and at least say HI!!!

Raise a glass of cheer to friends!!!

Here's the link to today's meeting.   Sunday, May 31st Meeting   From 9 AM EST to 8 PM EST

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86129923754?pwd=R0pzZThwQzBqUzJCem5aNTdiOFJRdz09 Meeting ID: 861 2992 3754 Password: 628655



We have had so much fun with the Virtual Retreat that - guess what? Yep - this is going to become an ongoing thing. It'll be only ONE day per month, and I need to schedule out those dates. But we got to meet so many great people that we would never have met if we were at our real retreat, and we've been able to catch up and stay in touch. It's - well, I just LOVE IT!!!!  Thanks to everyone who joined in yesterday. I don't even know how many there were because they popped in and out all day long!!!

Have a super day!!!!!

Ciao!!!!

Managing stuff

Here's a couple of life skills that I think we should be passing along to our children. I can't say that I was the best parent in communicating this. There was a good reason - I didn't know better. But now that I do, I'm passing it along to you. And even if you're a new quilter or a seasoned quilter, we should be doing the second skill all the time.

The first skill is how to sort the garbage generated by your household. That goes for recycling, compost, things to donate, etc. Yesterday was the recycling pickup day in our neighborhood. It's shocking how many "violations" of the recycling program there are. Boxes literally thrown at the curb - not broken down and bundled, the plastic and styrofoam not removed from them. Is this ignorance? Is this laziness? I don't know, but it's sad. I think those people should be forced to ride on the truck for a day to see what happens to this stuff.

And some of the bins were overflowing so you could see what people put in the carts. One house near us is moving and I swear - what didn't fit in their garbage cart, they threw in the recycling. Since when is a WetJet recyclable? Extra plastic bags of recycling material IMMEDIATELY beside the bins. I saw the truck trying to pick up the cart without catching the bags. And don't get me started on how many people put the two carts (recycling and compost) SIDE BY SIDE, not 3 feet apart. There's a reason for that. Have you ever seen the truck that picks the carts up? It's automatic, but they need space to put the jaws of the clamp around the cart.

We have the large recycling cart. We only put it out when it's full. I don't think its efficient to put it out every two weeks. The stuff in the recycling cart should be dry so it won't smell even in the heat of summer. But some households put out their cart every week. They don't have kids so what's in the cart? And some households have a big cart PLUS 3 or 4 extra bags. What the heck are they buying in their house to generate that much garbage/recycling?? I don't get it. We put ours out once a month.

It happens in our own household. DH tends to leave all packaging on the kitchen counter so someone else can deal with it! I get it that it's complicated sometimes to know what goes where. But look for the recycling symbol, know what's allowed in your local program, and go from there.

The second life skill that we need to teach our kids is to LIVE WITH LESS. I know lots of households that are still hanging onto stuff for their kids who have left home years ago. Yes - I'm still hanging onto stuff for M. She hasn't been gone that long and it's not a whole lot so I'm OK with it. But seriously, I wish I had learned to live with less years ago.

We seem to have this notion that MORE is better, when in fact, it's not. How much time is then spent over your lifetime managing all that stuff? It's taking up real estate in your house and in your brain. I'm on a roll to get rid of stuff! And I'm motivated.

I do some of my best thinking when I'm out walking. My brain is going 100 miles a minute these days. Ideas or solutions to design problems are popping up in my head and I can't keep track of them. I distinctly remember having a container of Vaseline. Before I went out and bought one, I was going to search more thoroughly to see if I could find it. I remembered two other spots I hadn't checked the previous day. And sure enough when I got home and checked - there it was. A teeny tiny container of Vaseline. BRAND NEW.

A brand new container of Vaseline

It wasn't the money, it wasn't the errand to go and buy one. It was the fact that I had one and couldn't find it. If I bought another one, then I'd have two and this one has been in the house for years and never used. It's not like I would go through two of them in my lifetime.

Why did I need the Vaseline? The crown on my implant fell out the previous day. The dentist recommended using Vaseline as a temporary cement. I scoffed at the text message, but desperate to have my front tooth back, I got a toothpick and carefully filled the hole in the implant with Vaseline and stuck it back in place. It's working like a charm. So that's a good tip if that ever happens to you. Now I'm not biting with that tooth so everything is being cut up, but I can live with that. It's not loose either. Pretty weird. I texted the dentist back and told him that it worked!

Now I have a challenge for you. The result of searching for that Vaseline brought to the surface all the crap that is under the bathroom sink. Why or why do I have so much stuff?? So I pulled it all and put it on the counter in the spare bathroom.

Under the counter bathroom stuff

At least it all fit on the counter so it's not totally out of control. My goal is to sort like stuff and put into containers. Some of this has been done, but it's not completed. I have already done this once before. Now it's time for the second round. I challenge you to do the same. What old OUTDATED stuff are you going to find? Pills will be collected and dropped off at the drugstore. Old bottles of lotion will be dumped and well - we'll just see how it goes. There isn't an immediate need to get this done and it's not taking up needed space where it is. I'll plug away at it.

Here's the two masks I found the previous day.

Medical masks

I'm thoroughly enjoying the scrap sorting. This is what it looked like when I started last night. Rose mentioned that in nursing homes, some of the residents fold washcloths - that's going to be me. I'll be the folder!!!

The pile of scraps to sort

And this is what it looked like when I was finished for the day.

The scrap pile is much smaller

I made great progress and watched two episodes of The Quilt Show. I'm actually enjoying the show and I swear that every guest who has a book - I have the book. That's bad. Some of the books have never been opened. What a silly person I was to acquire so many books. That's part of the managing stuff that I never learned!

But why some of those scraps were never dealt with at the time? Who knows. Look what I found. This is a block that I had made for a teacher quilt for one of M's teachers. This is a replica of the school she went to. I obviously wasn't happy with this and it got tossed in the scrap bag. I made another one for the quilt.

Scrap block

I cut the blue sky off and put that in the blue scrap pile. The rest of it went in the garbage. I needed to learn these managing skills years ago. This is probably 15 or more years old. And why did I end up with sample stitch-outs from other people? I swear - I was a crow who collected everything. Why or why??  BUT the best thing - this is a learning lesson. I'm getting close to getting it cleaned up and I will NEVER let it happen again.

The more I get tidied, the freer I become and the easier it is to get rid of stuff. There are still some sentimental things that I'll have to deal with and let's not forget the paper in the office, but my focus right now is scraps. And once, I'm done with my scraps, then I'm going to drag those bags and boxes (one at a time) that are destined for pet mats and go through them and make the pet mats and get that out of the way.

Once that is done, I'm going to focus on packing up the "new projects" and the UFOs into labeled boxes so everything is neat and tidy and everything has a home. I'll still have way too much, but at least, I know where everything is (more or less - still no lightbulb moment for those bodkins!).  This is the most exciting thing that's happened in a while. I have to thank our self-isolation for this because I've gotten into a good routine and nothing is there to interrupt my schedule.

Can I finish before self-isolation? I think I'm going to sign up for The Quilt Show, so I can watch the rest of the series. I'm currently on Series Three and they are now up to 27 or something like that.

OH -- here's the story on that Dream Big panel. The facing is completely hand-stitched in place. I'll try to get the sleeve made today and pinned on so I can hand stitch that. Oh yes - I need to bring up a chair from the basement as that folding chair is NOT comfortable to sit on for a couple of hours. Or - I could move my sewing chair around and sit on that!

So when I was doing the embroidery, I had to add some strips along the sides because the backing wasn't quite large enough to hoop the project. I was EXTREMELY careful to keep those strips out of the way so they wouldn't get caught on the back. At one point, I had to rehoop a section three or four times before it was positioned correctly and I was perhaps a little careless with those strips when the positioning finally worked. When I went to change the bobbin, the darn strips were EMBEDDED in the embroidery. Are you kidding me???

The waste cloth got stuck in the embroidery

 Of course, it happened with the densest section of the embroidery. GRRR!!  I cut away as much as I could and this is a good lesson to check and recheck that the backing is NOT positioned under the hoop. Another life lesson.

I didn't get any quilting done yesterday. I thought I had better focus on getting some bindings on projects.

I only stitched the binding to the back on all these projects. I'll focus on stitching the binding to the front later this week.

The binding is on the Quilts of Valour quilt

The Quilts of Valour Quilt

 And it's on the Christmas wall hanging as well.

The Christmas wall hanging

 The hexagonal table runner finally got the binding on and it's been sitting in the pile for a while now.

Binding on the hexagonal table runner

I also got the binding on the little doggie quilt.

Binding on the doggie quilt

I was on a roll and got the binding on my rectangular jelly roll rug as well.

Binding on the rectangular jelly roll rug

I just used the same color thread for all that stitching. That's why I just kept going. I still have ONE more project that needs the binding made. I'll try to work on that later this week, but I've got a homework assignment due on Friday so I'm focusing on that.

Then I found this pile of bindings as well. Hmm - what are these for?

Orange binding strips

Well - I had pulled the oranges from my binding scrap box. They were supposed to be applied to my mini design boards.

Binding on a mini design board

I managed to get the binding on one of them. It's not easy since it has to be glued in place. I decided that it's perfectly OK to use my mini design boards WITHOUT binding. The orange binding went back in the scrap tin for binding.

Mini design board without binding

I love these mini design boards and use them ALL the time. Matter of fact, my blocks for the Aviatrix Medallion quilt (due on Friday) are sitting on one of them right now.

I think I used fusible fleece on foam core or something like that. Super easy to make. Here's a tutorial on Lori Holt's web site if you need further instructions. 

Here's the other thing that I found. I needed a fabric to add to the Aviatrix Medallion blocks. I needed a neutral and dug through the stash and found this piece. When I opened it up this morning, I saw some blue wash away pen marks all over it. I had traced an embroidery design some years ago. I had found that project a while back and decided the lines had faded too much to stitch so it went back in the stash. I didn't wash it. Guess what? I had to wash it this morning (just rinsed in the sink) so I could cut it up. Why didn't I do that years ago when the fabric went back in the stash??

Fabric with blue wash away markings

So if you have marked things with blue wash away markers - the markings will disappear over time depending on how humid your house is. Don't use them unless you want to get your project done NOW.

I went for a walk to the hardware store. Wow-what fun to peruse the aisles of a store! Half the people had masks. I didn't wear one. I'm OK with that, even though they say we should be wearing them to protect the people around us. I see so much improper use of masks that what's the point?

Anyway, I went there to buy a sock feeder for the golden finches. No sock feeders. Oh boy - so I stood there for a long time debating what to do. I ended up buying a new bird feeder and an 8-pound bag of birdseed, which I had to cart all the way home!! Wow - that'll make you want to lose 8 pounds real quick. That was HEAVY to carry and it was only a 20-minute walk back home.

A new bag of birdseed

 But here's the funny part. When I went to put the birdseed away - guess what I found??? A BAG of the same birdseed. Good grief - I didn't remember that because I haven't used this in a while. Oh well - let's hope those little finches come around and eat lots. I've got lots. If not, then I know someone who has tons of them in her yard. I'll give the seed to her.

Oh shoot - a found bag of birdseed

I was busy as a bee yesterday and at one point glanced up and guess who? She was just sitting there watching me. I bet she wanted something - she didn't care what I was doing!!!

The watcher

 No audiobook yesterday. I sure needed a break from those two intensely read books last week. I've got five days to read the next one so I had better read something today.

Oh -- I'm happy to report that on my virtual walk across Canada - I'm now in Saskatchewan. Yeah!!!!

Got to run - running out of time this morning.

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!

Design Walls

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that one of the most important, if not the most important feature in my sewing studio is the design wall! I know!!!!  I used to have two full walls of design boards but one of them got replaced with bookshelves. I'm OK with that. Too much design wall can be a bad thing because you leave stuff up.

I only have one project on the design wall at this moment which I forgot to take a picture of. But I will.

I also wanted to have a portable design wall. Now I know you can buy kits that make a design wall, but I do love my insulation boards. They are lightweight and relatively cheap to make. You can poke pins into the boards and require no setup. I have a class tonight where the portable boards will be quite handy and I only had one, but enough insulation boards to make two more.

Last night I got myself busy and made the other two boards.

Three portable design boards

They are made from the BLUE insulation (1" thick) that you buy at the hardware store. They are two feet wide and come in eight-foot lengths. I cut them down to 76". Technically they fit in my car, but could be a wee bit shorter for a better fit. Nope - I left them at 76". It was easy to lay them out on the worktables in Studio B. I already had lengths of flannel cut and I found some tape.

They are super easy to make. I simply "upholster" the white flannel to the back of the board. I use masking tape which is how I've made all my boards over the years and it works like a charm.

This is the original one that had been made for a while. That masking tape isn't budging.

The back of the design board

Remember that you want to have the side with the black writing on the BACK!!!

I went to the drawer that contains the tape (yep - the tape is ALL in one spot). Hmm - no more wide masking tape, but there is something else that will work just as well. You can see a sneak peek in the photo below.

Orange tape?

Yep - I happened to have a spool of Ducktape in orange. That's brilliant neon orange.

Orange Duck tape works very well

I ran out of the bright stuff but found another roll of orange Duck Tape - a bit more subdued.

The back of the third panel

That leaves one last panel to upholster. It fits right at the end of the design wall right beside the bookcase. Everything is laid out but I was tired after doing the other two and I wanted some downtime with my manuals. Nerd!!!!!! Geek!!!!!

One last panel to upholster

That will be exciting to get all of those panels done. Some of them had been sitting in the office and now they are gone! The portable design walls will reside in one of the storage rooms downstairs after they serve their purpose for tonight's class.

I'm almost finished with the book about the Samsung Galaxy s10 phone. I know - taking me a bit longer than originally planned, but that's OK. I'm trying to absorb the information as I read it. Some of the features, I'll never use, but for those that I will use, I'm trying them before I move on. I've learned so much that I feel I'm finally in control of my smartphone. I don't have a ton of apps on it and only one game. That works for me. I don't need or want time wasters. I can "waste" enough time reading a book and that works for me. I finished another novel last night.

I multitasked yesterday at our meeting. I had a couple of quilts that needed to be designed and those got done while I was listening to the meeting. Today, I'll be hands-on with the new serger! It's always exciting to attend these meetings and see and touch all the new stuff. I did see a lot of it and touched a lot while we at our convention, but you learn more the second time around. And trust me - with all the new sergers and sewing machines and software and products and techniques? Well - my head is just spinning.

The meeting was great as well because I got to see some of the dealers (and friends) that I don't see that often. I've got today and tomorrow filled with more new stuff to process.

I downloaded one more manual this morning for my computerized longarm. Yikes - my iPad is filled with manuals and instructions. It's a great way to use an iPad. That way, I have all those manuals with me and I don't have to find them, lose them and carry them. I love technology. I just wish I knew how to organize that silly iBooks category. I know there has to be a way to make that happen. Something else to learn.

Speaking of learning, here's a really good article with some food for thought. It's all about doing something different. I'm for that.

On that note, I'm out of here.

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!!