On a Quilt-Cam Saturday in May -

The struggle was real!

And this had been neglected for far too long -

Nothing gets me motivated more than watching other people dig into their sewing room space and make order out of chaos.

I found myself home on Friday evening, with no energy to throw in a decent Quilt-Cam, plus – I had NOTHING with me to stitch.  That was all left 100 miles away at the cabin in Virginia. 

As I crawled into bed on Friday night – putting things in order for my Saturday ahead, I knew some things had to happen before I could do anything else.

All of the book orders that had come in while waiting for drywall guys to do their thing at the Quiltville Post Office, and the arrival of the counter top guys for the cabin – those were priority and by noon they were all waiting on the front porch for my mail lady to pick them up yesterday afternoon.

I saw an opportunity for Quilt-Cam ahead, but I needed something to sew!  And before I could cut anything to sew, well dang!  This mess had to GO!

How does stuff get like this?

And while at it – some other horizontal surfaces needed unburdening too.

Up went the announcement for Quilt-Cam via Facebook and Instagram with a start time of 2pm Eastern.  I had 2 hours to whip this place into as much shape as I could, and cut some blocks out in the process.

Some of the comments on that post asked if I would share how I tackle such a mess.

I’d like to know how I cam MAKE such a mess to begin with!

But the easiest way for me to do a studio clean up is to put everything that is out of place on top of the table side of my longarm.  And then just start putting things where they go. 

What I like about this method is that it allows me to have all of the other corners decluttered in a hurry, and I can vacuum the floor which instantly makes everything feel better. and all the “junk” to put away is at table height so I am not bending and stooping.  Some stuff hit the trash, some was entered back into the stash after folding.  Some strips were rehomed into the Scrap User’s System -  The strips you see over the rail of the machine in the top photo are sorted by size and color family making it easy to put them back where they go.

I didn’t get it 100% done before 2pm rolled around, but it is MUCH BETTER and I’m not feeling the shame anymore.  LOL.

We had some fabulous shares!

R. Kämmer sent in a photo of her amazing Under the Sea hexie quilt  finish– made with 1/4’’ hexies!

I´m so happy to catch you on Quiltcam today, it´s always so much fun to sew with you! 

And this year I will finally attend your mystery sew along! Because my huge 1/4 inch hexie Quilt is finished! 

Meerbedeckt (Covered by the ocean)

Check out Laurie’s gorgeous On Ringo Lake blocks!

And oooh…that green vintage Bernina!

She writes:

This was the first time I’d ever seen a LIVE quiltcam, and I love it!
Rainy Saturday here in Minnesota, and I’m working on my Ringo Lake. Slow but sure as I go through my scrap stash.

Beautiful!  And it is never a race – enjoy the process! 

Wonky Wishes by Sharon!

I love the pops of yellow/gold in it!

She writes:

Hi Bonnie,  I finished my Wonky Wishes I was working on last quilt cam time!   I love this pattern and enjoyed making it so much and now ready to machine quilt it.   

Thanks for all you do, you are amazingly talented!   
Sharon in Nebraska

Sharon, it’s wonderful!  So many happy scraps in this one.  Thank you for sharing!

Beautiful Redeye Treadle!

And Geese on a String from String Frenzy!

From Cynthia:

Hi Bonnie! I’ve been learning to treadle and your pattern is the perfect project! I’m getting close to finishing building the strings and will be adding the orange. 

It’s been a crazy cold and wet couple of days here in Utah and we have more of the same in the week ahead.

No gardening so I’ll be inside treadling. Thank you for quiltcam and it’s now coming in clear for me!
Cynthia Fox

It was so wonderful to see what folks had to share, and read what they had to say about where they are and what they are doing.  Our lives are all spinning so fast – but this one thing, the love of fabric, needle and thread ties us together.  We are linked.  Knotted.  I love that!

As Cynthia eluded to – there was a section of Quilt-Cam that didn’t stream so well over on Facebook Live.  it had nothing to do with my connection, it’s just one of those glitches that happens.  There is nothing I can do to fix it, and short of ending our session and starting a new second feed (which I didn’t want to do) all we could do was to keep going. And it did eventually clear up at about 19 minutes in.

The other thing I am dealing with is VERY VERY slow download speeds here in Virginia.  I came back up this evening hoping to just download our video over cell data.  NADA!

I am actually writing this post from the Quiltville Post Office hooked to the Century Link Slow-Fi.  LOL.  It is telling me that it will take 2 hours to download the video from Facebook.  SO – I’m doing something I hope will work.

I’m just going to use the Facebook embed link and see what it does.  In the mean time I will let the download continue (for the next 2 hours) and then upload that to YouTube when I can and then switch out the video feeds because I think the YouTube version embeds at a larger size.

In a pinch – for those who DO Facebook, this Quilt-Cam is the pinned post at the top of my Facebook page.  You can watch it there.




As I said - this is the first time embedding a Quilt-Cam directly from Facebook so let’s see how it goes.

There is a little speaker icon in the bottom right of  video.  Hover your mouse over it and click it to turn on the sound and adjust the volume. 

**UPDATE** It took 2 1/2 hours, but the YouTube version is now live on my YouTube channel.  This should be helpful for those who are hearing impaired and benefit from closed captions that Facebook doesn't offer.  CLICK HERE to view on YouTube.

I loved making these blocks!

You’ll find the pattern for Blossom Time in my Addicted to Scraps column in the March/April 2019 issue of Quiltmaker Magazine.  Digital copies are also available.  I’m kitting up more and will be using these as my Leader/Ender project until our new OFFICIAL one is released in July.

And don’t forget that our Quilty Box Gift-Away is still ongoing!  Enter to win ON THAT POST.  Drawing to happen Tuesday.

This happened last night!

The doohickey you see on the right is an instant hot water dispenser. We have one at our Wallburg house and we love it.

Bathroom faucets are also in!

Hooray!

The only thing that remains is the kitchen backsplash – they needed to trim some off as it was too tall, so that will be coming back for installation at some point.  Who knows.  I’m just happy to have functional sinks again.

My friend Irene is on her way down from Kentucky.  I’m looking forward to having the next several days with her here.

Let the Sew Fest begin!

Quiltville Quote of the Day

Vintage bow tie quilt found in Kentucky.

I find this to be so unbelievably and amazingly true!

Following my passion has been the most amazing journey-

Happy Sunday, everyone!