Pacing as in time management, not walking back and forth over the same ol’ ground. I have about a week of “me time”. My DH is out of town as of about an hour ago. I will miss him in a few days, but right now, I am breathing and stretching and relaxing. Not that life is stressful with him around, but my introverted mind enjoys being alone, no one to care for, no scheduled things to do or meals to plan. Just me and the dogs for now.

On my list of things to accomplish and work on this week are:

• Tilda appliqué
• Custom quilting on Black/white/red quilt👍🏻
• Message in a bottle construction
• Quandary quilt top👍🏻
• Quilting Sparrows bed size quilt
• Quilt Licorice and lollipops top
• Bind two customer quilts👍🏻
• Cut and start Quandary quilt top👍🏻
• work on birth sampler👍🏻
• catch up on Starry Skies blocks (2)☑️

I think this is doable, for now it is written down. I am thinking I’ll just leave this post open for the week and add to it as I work on each project listed above.

Friday: I finished cutting all the pieces for the Quandary quilt. I had to iron the black yardage first, which I did while watching the LA machine stitch out the last rows of the B/W/R. Yay for multitasking. Once that quilt was off, I attached the backing and batting for the small woodland friends quilt. I worked on the sampler, I am in the top section now, lots of color changing. I managed a bit of straightening of the sewing room too. I had to move the ironing board to the LA area, and there were a few piles of things under it, that needed to be put away. I made the first block of the Quandary quilt too, wrong the first time, but an easy fix. I need 16, in different color combos, best to get the mistakes done with the first one.

Saturday: I worked on the 16 twelve inch Quandary quilt blocks, once I got the hang of the pattern they went together easily. There were a few mistakes, but I quickly remedied them. I “found” my small Rowenta travel iron when I moved the ironing board the other day. I really like using it with the wool pressing mat set up next to the machine. I had been using the full size iron, but it is getting too heavy to keep using it for piecing. I just need to remember to unplug it, as there is no auto shut off. No cross stitches were made, I am thinking of ordering a frame for it, there is a 40% off sale at one of the web sites I order from.

Sunday: I sewed together another eight Quandary blocks (#2’s) and half finished 12 more. These are 6 inch finished, same as the #1’s in design, but smaller. I want to finish those today and maybe start on cutting the pieces for the Bunny Run! quilt. I have fabric that I ordered for it here, but not the fabric I ordered first. That order has the panels in it, so maybe I’ll hold off and wait until that gets here. It was sale fabric from a Henry Glass line called “You are my Sunshine”. Really cute in muted tans and reds and browns, non gender specific baby quilt. I got a good start on the quilting of the small Woodland friends quilt. I am using one of my go-to designs – Forest Floor- in light blue. I cross stitched a bit too, got a good start on the cradle, the end is in sight. I started this June 10th, so a month of monogamous stitching. I wonder if I’ll feel like going back to Consider the Lillies, or maybe another small?

Monday: Got the rest of the Quandary block 2’s done, not without some un-stitching. I made one block 3, just to see how it is put together. There is not much difference, these are the border blocks and there are 52, with block 4 being the four corners. I managed a few hours of cross stitching, I should be finishing in a day or two. I was so proud of myself for stitching the hummingbird, only to find that I did it over two threads and not one, it looked like a giant hovering pterodactyl over the crib. I’ll try again today.

Tuesday: I finished the yellow #2s and the green #2s, making 16 blocks today. After that I trimmed and bound the two customer quilts I had finished long-arming. I received the quilt kit for another customer in the mail this morning. It’s pretty simple, a yellow brick road pattern with some really nifty halloween prints. I’ll start that soon, maybe do a few more quandary blocks. I finished the baby sampler, including the reduced size humming bird, yay! And I finished the woodland friends quilt on the LA. Might bind it tomorrow, but I have to make some binding first. Also bought two digital quilting designs for the Licorice and Lollipops quilt. I want to quilt it next, before I forget my “vision” for it.

Wednesday: No quilting or sewing was done. I spent the whole day cleaning out my garage. I clocked 22,704 steps doing it, almost nine and a half miles. I still have work to do on it, and a bunch of stuff to re-home or safely dispose of. I did manage a bit of cross stitching, I re-started the Consider the Lillies piece, I sewed the word “Consid–” before I went to sleep. I also measured the baby sampler for a mat and frame and got those ordered too. Thursday will be a bit more productive in the studio.

Thursday: Started off with a bang, I ordered 21 yards of Tonga Batik for the Stormy Sea quilt pattern. This is a Wing and a Prayer pattern, that I also have a complete set of digital quilting designs for. I may end up making this for myself, or gifting it, but I really like the theme and design of it, it reminds me of the Atlantic Ocean. I grew up on the south shore of Long Island, the ocean was an omni-present feature. Now that I live two thousand+ miles away from it I miss that. I do get to see the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean a few times a month, but it’s a different scene. Gemini quilt block is done, there were a lot of pieces in this block. I sewed in the morning and then in the late afternoon, finished around dinnertime. I really thought I would be able to finish both Gemini and Cancer. I want to work on Quandary tomorrow, so we’ll see if I have the energy to do the cancer one after that. I did pull the MinaB block out and sewed on four leaves before dropping off the sleep.

Friday: Pedal to the metal, I got sixteen more Quandary blocks done. Which is four different color ways in two sewing sessions. Only made one error, in the angle placement on one set. I have sixteen more set up for today. I also would like to get the bed sized Sparrow quilt on the longarm. I need a backing that is wide enough, so I found some that will need to be sewn together. I’d like to find something appropriate for the licorice and lollipops quilt. I ordered two remnants that I think might work color-wise, but I might just go with a solid. I cross stitched a few more letters, completing the word Consider and started a floral motif at the top of the page. For extra credit, I sewed two more leaves on the MinaB block. I wanted to make chocolate chip cookies, but it ended up being too hot in the house to turn on the oven.

Saturday: Finished 16 more Quandary blocks, which means I have 20 more to do before assembly – sixteen more #3 and four #4 . There are some more HSTs for the center, but those are quick and easy. Strangely, these 16 blocks took a lot longer than the last set, my rhythm was a little off? I put together the backing for the sparrow quilt, just need to get it pinned onto the leaders. While I was printing a few other things I printed the Cancer FPP sheets this block is only 4 pieces and some border blocks, less intensive than the gemini block. The FPP pages for the first bird in the Birdwatchers project BOM, the Common Loon, also got printed. And, yes, I got to the cookies 🙂

Sunday: I finished up the last 20 blocks for the Quandary quilt. Most of them are for the border. Next week I’ll send some time putting together the sections that become the center of the quilt. Nothing is on point, it is strategic color placement and size of sub blocks that makes this design work. Later in the day, I vacuumed the house, and even my sewing room. The colorful dog ears were threatening a coup, they were migrating out into the hall way and catching rides on the dogs to the outdoors. I finished the day by packing up the three customer quilts and a bit of cross stitching.

Monday: Only a half day of retreat time left. I have to go to the airport at 2pm to pick up my DH. I did start to miss him a bit, but it was a good break for me. I got a lot more accomplished than I thought, but not my whole list. I think I underestimated the amount of time piecing the Quandary quilt was going to take up. I bought the fabric on sale from Fabric Depot, it was a left over Craftsy kit that they were liquidating. The price was very good, and there was plenty of fabric. Hopefully I can make a profit on it, the amount of time spent making it will figure into the selling price. I spent about 40 hours on piecing it, and it’ll probably be another 20 by the time all is done. I have a few things to work on this coming week, that I didn’t touch the past week. Especially the hand appliqué on Tilda and MinaB, perhaps when I am long arming the three quilts next up in the line. I will get a few photos together to add to this post and hit publish. Thanks for reading through, if you made it this far.

Be Kind.