Keeping On Top of Things

If I did not have a notebook to hand to jot things down then cross them off then I would have no idea how I spend my time. It may seem that I have “produced” very little but there is always something going on. 

As a non mathematician I had to make a spreadsheet with all of the Q-series accessories that we will need to order for FOQ and I will have to do a similar thing to place a thread order. The Bernina UK Longarm Academy classes have been selling out quickly - the last time I looked there were only 5 places left out of a total of 48 which is terrific. 

Of the other minor but important tasks for the week I sent off an entry form for the World Quilt Show, tidied ONE teenager’s clothes that had been in a heap for months, had a few more bright ideas for my next Opus Magnus, sneaked in a few chapters of the epic novel  and did not deal with my paperwork;)

I had a huge customer quilt to do which was pretty challenging at 112” x 106”! For all the years that I had a 14ft quilt frame I rarely had to deal with anything that big. There was very little spare backing and I had a few issues sorting out some “bosomy” areas so I was relieved to get it finished. 

As a complete change of scene I produced 5 “Clam-Up” pouches to hold essential items at FOQ including thread snips, spare needles, tissues and mints. It was really good making the pouches in a batch because I could work on the same stage for each one, not muddling up the instruction pages and not having to continually swap threads or presser feet. Only one has a slightly wonky bottom for some unknown reason but on the whole I am really pleased by how smart they look. 

The 3 customer quilts that I did later in the week were far less stressful than the huge one in that each one was only 56” square and they were fabulously flat. I was even able to have a go at a hand-stitch experiment on the binding of my Warli quilt while I supervised Q-matic gliding along nicely. 

The pink sari quilt that I bought in India has a zigzag of kantha stitches along its binding so I came up with a version of that. What I failed to notice was that the Indian version does not wrap right around the binding and is therefore more secure. It may mean that I need to add anchoring stitches or beads to be on the safe side…

The first thing I am going to do in the coming week is gather up materials for my next Big Project / Magnus Opus, based on some antique Indian textiles, and make some sort of start on producing samples. I am aiming to have it ready for FOQ 2020 rather than struggling to complete it for this year - Let’s just say, I think it may take some time!