Well that was a waste

I am no further along on Mt's quilt than last post despite being off last Friday through Tuesday. Last Saturday I did chores and running around, then all the kids were home for pizza and blueberry birthday cake for Chris (blueberry is his favourite). Tuesday Mt booked the day off work, inspected the apartment and got the key. My dad and I helped him move in his boxes (books and kitchen stuff) and a few tables for the living room. We went out with mom to pick up some things we missed and looked for curtains after dinner. This Saturday is his official move out day when we move the big things bed, couch, computer, excetera. Chris is off work so I doubt I'll have to do much heavy lifting. I'm really excited for him and trying to supress all other emotions I'm having.

Mt's kitchen

Thank goodness Mt laughed when I told him his quilt wasn't going to be ready. He's not too concerned seeing he plans to bring his laundry home regularily. He's not impressed with the thought of $5 per load to use the facilities in his building. He has also extended an open invitation as long as we give him 24 hours notice. While he's not an untidy person - dishes are his least favourite chore. It's a clean building but it's also an older building and the implications of not having a dishwasher didn't sink in until after he signed the lease. LOL I can just imagine the dish washing frenzy that will be going on before every visit!

Of course as soon as Wednesday morning hit I was itching to get in my sewing area. More running around after work the past few evenings so sewing has been on hold.

So what did I do Friday, Sunday and Monday??? They were wasted days where I lived like a zoned out couch potato thinking about all we have to do over the next few weeks and coming up with game plans for each step. I thought about working on hexies but even that seemed like too much effort.

Next post I hope to have some pictures of Mt's new digs all set up and progress pictures of my new sewing room! I would love to say there will be actual quilting progress but that's unlikely until my sewing room move is complete.

D's Stars finally finished!!

It's DONE!!! Meeting up with Jackie tomorrow evening for dinner then off to D's work. She's been told not to take her break until her mom gets there. She still has no clue about this quilt lol! Sunday afternoon I dropped in on my parents with the quilt as soon as it was out of the dryer. They've seen and heard about this quilt thoughout the process and wanted to show them the final product before I gave it away. Pictures were taken at their house.

As I mentioned last post, I ripped the binding off D's Stars a few times. I'd had enough with this binding so I scrapped it and started fresh. I had a few hiccups with the fresh binding as well. I found that my space felt awkward and was fighting to feed it though straight. I used my 90's singer for the binding, while I used my old 1948 Singer for piecing and my powerquilter for quilting. What was different, well its a different table, my ironing board was right behind me, I was on the rolling chair instead of my usual smaller chair and my table had my bobbin winder and some fabric piled all over the place. Hmm something to think about...

With D's Stars finished it's time to get moving on MT's Layers of Charm quilt. Again, I have a short deadline (see Big News below). I've decided to start with stich in the ditch then figure it out from there. I'm fretting over the binding now which is a switch, it's usually the quilting I'm stressing over.

Big News -MT and I spent Saturday together, he needed to sign his lease and took the opportunity to show me his apartment. It's tiny but we'll laid out, clean and secure. We did some running around looking at furniture, we found a beautiful couch but at 1500, this was his entire furnishing budget so we are going to keep looking. We did have some luck at Home Outfitters, he got a vacuum, the Henckel knife set he wanted, some pots and pans. He loves to cook and they had a major sale so it was a real score  He gets the keys on the 29th but officially moves in April 2nd. I have Friday the 25th off for Stat holiday and booked the following Monday and Tuesday months ago for 'me' days. Tuesday is the day he gets his keys. He's planning to take the day off as well so we can prep (unpack his kitchen stuff, hang curtains) and checkout Ikea to hopefully find a couch and some last minute things (dish rack, cutting boards, excetera) I'll be honest I'm not sure I'm ready but he is, so its time to let him fly.

Did I mention his room will be my new sewing/office. 16x19 room with big windows for natural light. I have tons of ideas but want to do this on a shoestring budget. More on this later.

Last but not least, while out with Martin on Saturday, I was finally able to make my way back to Michaels and picked up the second last Happy Planner they had on the shelves. Crazy! I bought the expansion pack and added March - June (planner goes July 2016 -December 2017). The paper and lifestyle expansions which has sections for recipies, budget, will need to go another Micheals to buy the larger rings (my local store was sold out).

Binding blues

Thursday night I was supposed to baste and start quilting D's stars. Instead I added another row. What was I thinking??  In all honesty Chris came home looked at it and said what I been pretending not to see - it looked uneven. 6x5 rows not 6x6 that I'd originally planned. Why the change,  because my batting which was supposed to be 60 by 60 wasn't - it was short in one direction so when I realized that it wouldn't fit I stopped making the joining pieces for that row and put the extra patches and corners to the side. With everything cut and ready to go that last row went together quickly.

Got up early on Friday and got the backing ready before work and was spray basted using a trimmed down queen size batting I had in my stash during my lunch hour. After work started quilting, I was on a roll until  around 11 when something felt off. I took a peak at the underside of the quilt and discovered a big wrinkle. Stitch ripping until 1:30 am. There was still a slight wrinkle but much better. Picked it back up first thing Saturday morning, it was ready for binding at 2 pm.... there was no way I could bind and wash/dry the quilt in under 2 hours. I'm a bit bummed I didn't get it done by Saturday night but also happy that I get to spend a bit more time with this quilt. I play with the idea of making another exactly the same to keep for myself but I think I need to work on something else.

Sunday was a lazy day. I did get some of the binding done, ripped, done and ripped gain. I don't know why it's just not working for me. Alarm set early tomorrow again. Hopefully I can figure it out before work at 8

Deadline looming & Panic has set in

D's stars top is finally finished. Now the quilting begins. I have until mid Saturday afternoon to get it basted, quilted, bound and washed/dryed. No pressure lol! Honestly, spray basting, stitch in the ditch so no measuring, marking or over thinking and binding by machine doesn't take that long so it's doable... Right?? Dinner is at their place so no prep work or extra running around on on my end. I can do this, I can do this. ..

I did find sometime to get to Michaels last week to see if they had received The Happy Planner. The shelves were bare, they are currently getting all new stock. I was told to come back in a week after their next shipment.

I was procrastinating itching to do some EPP one evening last week so I made a quick hexie pin cushion. As you can see by all the holes already in it, I put it to good use with D's Stars. I'm also thinking of starting a leader/ender quilt. Those little scrap pieces sure do fill up fast to keep away the thread trails/nests, may as well keep a basket of 2.5 inch squares to use instead and get an extra quilt out of it. :)