Still on a roll!

Someone must have wished me luck yesterday! The Essential Triangle Tool I was looking for!

I'll admit I did said a quick prayer to the patron saint of lost things, St. Anthony.  He almost never fails me.

 I took a class called "Geese on a String" at Mountain Quiltfest 2019 with instructor Bonnie Hunter this past May. I blogged about it - Mountain Quiltfest 2019.
I purchased the ruler straight from Bonnie herself 😊.

After class, I packed everything up nicely into this plastic bag.

Unfortunately, I never got back to working on it. It's another UFO, but I am determined to return to it!

With the Essential Triangle Tool located, I became determined to complete clue #3.

Clue #s 1,2, & 3 safely stored in a box.

Honestly, I was a bit skeptical that my 1/4 inch seam would be compatible with the Essential Triangle Tool. I also changed the presser foot on my machine to the quilter's 1/4" guide. I was certain I'd have to do a few sample half square triangles until I found the perfect seam.

But it was nearly perfect on the first try!!

I only need to clip one dog ear. That's it! No trimming necessary!

the first two sets for Clue #4.
Yes! I'm still on a roll!
Wishing you progress on whatever you are working on too.  See you soon!

No stopping me now!

We had planned to go on a road trip today. Just as we put our shoes on the thunderstorms started and the weather report showed it would continue storming all day.

We decided it's better to do our road trip on Monday.
And so, instead of being on the road, I got to work in my sewing room much of the day!

I opened a box labeled "crafts and books."

Surprise! It was old computer magazines and catalogs.  The box was my Hearts stuff and not mine! Most of it went into recycling and one item went into his computer room.  Another box gone! Yay!!

Of course, since I was in my room, I took some time to finish the sewing part of clue #3 of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt Frolic.

Isn't this little duck fabric is too sweet!

It makes me smile and want to cuddle something!

now my half square triangles are ready for trimming.

And I'm painfully aware that if I used Ms. Hunter's Essential Triangle Tool ruler, I'd probably just have to clip dog ears. But can you guess where my ruler is?  It has yet to be unpacked. I couldn't wait.  The end result is the same. By the time of this update, I'm half way through trimming.

However, peeking into the next clue is revealing to me how much easier it will be with the Essential Triangle Tool. So! wish me luck that I find that ruler in the next few boxes!

(and yet, I have other triangle rulers that I can figure to use in much the same way that is demonstrated. Also, Bonnie Hunter includes traditional rotary methods for cutting the required pieces. So I am thankfully not at a halt without the tool!)

One other item I'm keeping my eye out for is my portable design wall. Again, it's not necessary for me to continue, but it is quite helpful.  Especially as I want to continue working on my son's fiance's quilt. I think last I told you about it was in my blog update One thing leads to another.  Eeeep! that was back in July! I really don't want this to become another long term Unfinished Project!

Alright then! I think I'm ready to unpack another box. I'll let you know if the items turn up 😊

what's to stress about?

I am not sure what I am going to blog about today.

Life is busy, as it is for most around the Christmas season.

I continue to put my new house in order, there are still unpacked boxes in almost every room.

I guess there are some tell-tale signs of that I might be slightly stressed about putting my house in order. 

Some kitchen items are missing and I'm coming to the conclusion that two drawers were perhaps left behind. I can't recall checking that side of the kitchen to make sure they had been emptied when the packers packed everything up.

Specifically, the kitchen knives are definitely missing. I had it in my head that the rolling pin was in those same drawers. So when we were at the grocery store buying cookie ingredients, a rolling pin was purchased as well.

And we made cookies...

 

... Texas shaped cookies!! 😆💕

Then I cleaned up. Went to put the new rolling pin away....

and there was my old rolling pin...

 ... in the drawer...

... in plain view...
... ready to be of service at a moments notice!
🙆 now i have two rolling pins. Want to come roll out cookies with me?
I quickly checked all the drawers again for the kitchen knives, but no such luck there.

Actually, aside from the few missing utensils, setting the kitchen and the living room and most of the other rooms has been quite easy.

To my surprise, it's my sewing/craft things that has me stressed.

I have a vision of what I want my sewing room to look like...
...all the yardage pieces of fabric folded the same way to fit perfectly into the shelves

... all the smaller fabrics between 1/4 yard to 1/2 yard folded into boxes

... all the smaller scraps trimmed and kept neatly in boxes...

... But it's not happening as quickly as I would like it to set up.

This is my room as I am blogging today.

I have debated with myself how much of my mess I want to show you.
But this is part of my quilting/crafting journey and that's what this blog is all about!
Some might call me a perfectionist (in the crafting area) but Never! is anything perfect.

When getting ready to move and getting rooms in order for the packers, my sewing room got the least attention. It was a mess.  Fabrics and projects mixed together. Books in every corner. ..knitting, crocheting, yarn, styrofoam balls, and a ton of miscellaneous crafting things.. all placed in my room.

Mind you, my room made sense to me! but what does a mover know about my organization?
I purposely stayed out of the room when they were packing because I knew I would micro-manage and majorly slow down their work. I figured I would sort it when unpacking...
was that a mistake or not?
a blessing in disguise, perhaps?

This is how my unpacking is going...
Each box is a mystery.  Only labeled with the words "Sewing Room."
Some have the additional word "fabric" or "books" or "misc."
When I eagerly unfold the flaps there's no telling what I'll find.
I love the easy ones that have the folded fabric on the mini-bolt cards (pictured above)
but too often it's a Pandora's box...

obviously fabrics were grabbed up and shoved into a box.
Everything mixed together.
LOL, those poor packers, they were probably at a complete loss as to what was what in my room.
It's not their job to organize or clean, they just grab whatever is there and put it in a box. Breakables are wrapped with paper, lots and lots of paper is used. No breakables in this box.
For me, on this end, having to handle and sort every item, is an eye opener.
I. Have. A. Lot. Of. Stuff!!
a lot of forgotten stuff!

This little John Deer Christmas stocking was hiding in this particular box. 🎄
Maybe at the time I made it I didn't like the way it turned out. But now I think it's super cute! I'm gonna send it out to a special someone as a belated Christmas gift.
I've already gone through 3 boxes before i opened this box, I'm not going to sort this one at this moment and so I'm not going to show all my goodies 😜.  I think you get the idea of what I'm dealing with here!

I do want to show you that the mini-bolt cards don't work quite as well as I would like right now.
They are a half inch taller than the shelf space...
these are the standard cubby shelves from Walmart or Ikea.

I'll turn the mini-bolts on their sides for now. But I'm hoping as a reward for unpacking all my boxes, my Heartbeat will have custom floor to ceiling shelves put in that are tall enough to accommodate the height. 🙏
I had 100 of these mini-bolt cards. they were quickly all used up (or I haven't unpacked the last few empty cards yet.) It's obvious that I could use more. For now I'm just going to roll up the fabric on a mini-bolt and slip the card out and stack it on the shelf. I might like it enough to not need to purchase more mini-bolt cards... we'll see...

I have also found out that fabric pieces bigger than 1/2 yard don't fold as well into the the scrap boxes and less than 1 yard pieces don't stay well on the mini-bolts.
I plan to fold them to half the width of the cubby and I can put two stacks side by side.

Setting up is going to take time. a lot of time.  I won't stress that it's not instant. (I also have to remind myself that it's been the holidays, most of my time has been spent enjoying my kids that were visiting and not in my sewing room!)
I have come to see these Pandora's boxes as blessings.
I can let go of a lot items that I am pretty sure I'll never get back to using (those styrofoam balls for instance. And fabrics too! can you believe it?)  I'm happy to pass them on to someone who will be happy to use them now.  I think Scrap Creative Reuse in Denton, TX is a great place to donate those items.

In the meantime....
I have started a new project. LOL, that's not news, right?
My quilting friend Judy Stokes is a huge Bonnie Hunter fan. I've written about how big of a fan in my blog post Mountain Quiltfest 2019.
Judy is of course participating in this year's Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt Frolic. Her enthusiasm is contagious. I couldn't resist having a look at Bonnie's blog Quiltville's Quips & Snips to see what it was about this year.
The second sentence in the intro to the mystery says, "This year it’s all about the Texas wildflowers!"
And I was hooked!

And it's ever so convenient as I'm sorting through my fabric!

I've found enough to start with the clues!

Clue #1 complete:

Clue #2 complete:

and I'm working on clue #3: (yes, I'm a trimmer)

Clue #5 was released today. I'm slightly behind, but you know what? I'm OK with that!
I'm unpacking. I'm visiting with family. I'm piecing at my sewing machine. I'm attending sit and sews. And I've joined the Denton Quilter guild!
I am busy and life is really really good!