What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I was on a roll yesterday, and I never did get out on the bike. I was exhausted by dinner time, and I could barely do some stretching, let alone get out on the bike! 

Well, it was a super productive day, and honestly, we need to be careful what we wish for!  

So, I've decided that I need to resurrect The Task Master. What is that? It's simply a notebook where I write down what I need/want to accomplish that week. Why did I resurrect it? I want to be able to see what I've ...

 I had one of the best nights of sleep that I've had in a long time. No aches or pains, no waking up with thousands of ideas flowing through my head. Just one long continuous sleep! Yeah! Now, if we could only bottle that and make it happen every night, that would be awesome!

Somehow, the stars are NOT aligned at my house, and I will be happy when today is over. Why? Well, have a look. 

On Friday night, I was reading on our deck. It started to spit a bit of rain, so I decided to move ...

From time to time (OK - every day), I check the stats on this blog. I'm not sure that I even understand how to read them, but I LOVE how the numbers change depending on the topic. The ketchup story? Lots of readers - so can you tell me who is searching the internet for ketchup? Appears that lots of people are. 

I'm happy (OK - thrilled) to report that today is Friday! What does that mean? Well, it's Step One of reopening in our province, and that means non-essential stores are open (if they choose to be), and so ...

Well, things don't always go as planned. We all know that, and we should expect that to happen. It seems to happen to me every day. But that's OK - I made some progress yesterday, and that's all I really care about - progress. 

Speaking of not getting things done, I missed an ENTIRE week. I was certain that I had someone coming yesterday morning to estimate some work we want to be done. I postponed walking the girls so I could finish the prep for the morning's presentation. Then when the person didn't show up, I ...

Out of wall space? How about making some quilted pillows?

I might not have thought of this, if I hadn't been asked. A neighbor saw my pandemic porch quilt show (the subject of my last several blog posts), and commissioned me to make four 18" pillows, including two with scenes from our town, South Pasadena, which is part of Los Angeles. We negotiated a price and a backing color - grey - and I was off. It took about two weeks, and here they are. 

The first one in the lineup above represents the town's Gold Line MTA Train crossing ...

Happy New Year! 

I hesitate to say it, since I said it last year, and look what happened.

Pink is the first color of the year for the rainbow scrap challenge. I hope to follow a plan for working on this challenge this year.

1. grab color wire basket and sort

 I keep my fabric chunks in wire baskets by color. Some baskets are in tidy shape, others, not so much. Pink is very tidy and full.

2. decide ufo by color -prioritize as #1

pink -2 love pillowcases, 2 baby flannel quilts, zuckerwaite ( any progress is progress)

3. make ...

I have made pillowcases a few times on the blog, using different techniques and patterns.  I’ve shown you the burrito (or rolled, or hot dog) method, and a quick serger method.  Some have had pockets, and my favorite Travel Pillow Case has handles too.  For Autumn Jubilee (#AutumnJubilee2020), I thought it would be a quick and fun project to add some fall color to your bedrooms and guest rooms, and show yet one more way to do a pillowcase project.

Begin with the selection of some pretty fabrics, you’ll need the main fabric print and two accent fabrics ...

Do you remember in some magazines way back when they would have set up two rooms? They were basically decorated the same, but one was filled with items that were high priced and the other was normal priced stuff? Could you always guess which was which? There were many times when I preferred the low-end room over the high-end room.

Well, yesterday was a bit like that. I was back at the training and I learned enough tips to make it worth my time to be there. It's one thing to be self-taught. Quite another to have an expert ...

I won't bore you with the details of how my FitBit logged 21,000 steps yesterday. Let's just say the girls were happy, I got some errands done and I used my gym membership! If I do that for a couple of days, I'll be right on track! Phew - I CANNOT get so far behind that it's not possible to catch up. One of my teammates suggested that I could change the end date. WHAT????  NO WAY - when I make a commitment I could NEVER change the end date. Unless something very significant got in the ...

For our seventh Make of Christmas we are bringing back an oldie but a goodie. In this replay on how to make a pillowcase, I show you how to use your leftover yardage or novelty fabric to create a custom pillowcase with no raw edges.

That means we cover how to do a hot dog roll to get all of your raw edges concealed in the pillowcase sleeve, and how to make a French seam, which sounds way more complicated than it actually is, to give your pillowcase a finished look with no raw edges. No serger needed!

This video ...

It was a very quiet day around my house yesterday. Of course, I had work to do. I had lots and lots of paperwork to get done. I've started sending out e-mails with dates for next year's events. Like the Sit n Sews and that list of people is already long - I can't add anyone else to the list at the moment. Sorry!

But watch the blog because there'll be upcoming events that you can participate in no matter where you live. Those have to be up by the end of next week.

I do have ...

When I booked the pillowcase sewing day a couple of months ago, I had NO idea that I booked it on Giving Tuesday. Yes - Giving Tuesday is a real day! Trying to counter all the hype of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There's even a website for the day!  Who knew? Anyway - it was a perfect time and I think I'm going to book the date for 2020 to do the same. In case you want to book the date - it's December 1st. It's already on my calendar.

Not only was it a day of giving ...

I've been taking applique or embroidery to Monday sewing and frankly - I can't do it all day. I get bored and that makes me sleepy. I thought it might be the sitting all day but nope - it's the applique. Note to self - try to avoid ALL hand applique in the future! Unless the project is small. I have a couple more hand applique projects to finish and I might just switch to machine applique. I can do the prep there but stitch at home. Something to think about as I get stuff organized for 2020.

So for ...

With the crappy weather we had yesterday, it was a perfect day to sew. And indeed, I sewed and quilted the entire day and I was happy as a clam. I'm going to have to name those sewing machines one day so I have "company" in the studio. Otherwise, I have the radio going in the background and life couldn't get much better.

I'm taking a break from the audiobooks for the moment. I'm finding the listening and working is too much or too - I'm not sure what word to use, but I don't ...

Do you remember that I made a commitment - well a goal at least of making and donating 100 pillowcases to Ryan's Case for Smiles? That date is fast approaching - Tuesday, December 3rd. If you're interested in helping us sew that day - you're more than welcome to come. No need to bring a sewing machine or a serger. I'll have multiple sewing machines and sergers set up that day. In addition to sewists, we're going to need pinners for the first seam, pressers, and finishers so there's a job for everyone. You can e-mail me ...

It's a tad chilly outside, but thanks to not sleeping well and a few dying embers in the wood stove, I've got a nice fire going and we're toasty warm. While I wouldn't want to deal with a wood stove at home, I like having it here and I'm pretty darn good at keeping it going (roots from when I was a child), but Paula is our main firestarter here and I'm perfectly fine with that.

So it's technically day three this morning and I'm still using the serger. Can you believe ...

Phew - I'm glad that yesterday is over. While I had a load of fun, it was a very long day.

I have to be quick this morning as well as it's RETREAT day. I promised myself that I'd be out of the house by 7:30 and the car is packed except for my food and my clothes. AH - we have a slight problem. Due to some panic packing and taking a LOT of stuff for Ronda, there seems to be a space issue in my car. BUT - I'll make it happen. It's called -  hold ...

I'm not sure why I feel it's my mission to use up every little scrap of fabric, but I do know that I'm tired of moving this stuff around and I'm tired of seeing it and I'm tired of it niggling away in the back of my mind.

It's time to get this stuff used up and then onto the fun stuff. Don't worry - I'm still doing some fun stuff in between, but I really, really want to get this scrappy stuff used up. And it's going to happen. Remember how ...

OK - I'm now obsessed (possessed) with this darn clean up thing. There was a pile of stuff in the living room and it was getting out of hand. So I loaded up the car and I was off to the recycling depot. Got rid of 7 or 8 boxes of stuff. Phew - that feels good and the living room looks a whole lot better. There's some stuff slated to go to the retreat with me next week, but there's still a couple of things that I need to get in touch with the person who said they ...

I have NOTHING to do and NOWHERE to go today! OK - so there's technically nothing on the calendar although I have slated this as a CLEANUP day. There's a TO-DO list, but nothing is due today and no official places to go. I LOVE IT and the weather is supposed to be glorious. I'm pumped - I'm super excited. I've got loads that I want to do.

Another fun day at the Monday Sewing group. I've been spending the last couple of Mondays doing hand applique all day. I just couldn't take another day ...