What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I'm home! It was hilarious because I hadn't even boarded the flight to come home when I was checked in for the flight tomorrow morning. Yes, it's a bit of a crazy scheduling situation at the moment, and while (fingers crossed) it looks good to get away tomorrow, there's no guarantee that I'll get home on Sunday! But I'm a gambler! Plan B or Plan C will be implemented if need be. And what are they? I've no idea yet, but I'll think of something if I need to. 

The flight home ...

Well, it was a long day, and not without a few glitches, which HAD to be solved. But the good news is that everything got done! I even used up all the extra samples I had made the day before. I wasn't sure I would use them, but I did! 

Everything for Project Two is tagged, bagged, and labeled. It's all packed and ready to go to the airport early in the morning. 

So, my original plan to take a carry-on didn't happen. As I set aside stuff to take, I wondered how many pairs of scissors ...

And so the marathon starts. Actually, it starts tomorrow, and there won't be much of a break until October 9th. So, yep - one month of total chaos and running around like an idiot! But it's all going to be fun, and there are lots of different things happening, so stay tuned. 

As for the trip preparations that need to be done by tomorrow for my 7 AM flight? I made progress - perhaps not as much as I would have liked, but as I was working, I thought that if I finished all the samples I had started the ...

 About decluttering: Once you get the bug, you will NEVER want to return to your old ways. The surprising thing is that it takes much less time to stay organized than it does to be messy. If everything has a home, it's easy to put stuff away, and there are no decisions to make. You could do it while talking on the phone! 

I wanted to add a couple of things that I thought of yesterday. 

1. If you take something out to look at it or work on it, try to finish it (OK—that's hard) and then ...

Oh gosh—I'm a hypocrite!!!! I went to the event and brought something home! No, it was not a brand-new, top-of-the-line sewing and embroidery machine, although it was very tempting. No - it was a charm pack. 

A charm pack

I got caught up in the moment! When they went around with a bag of prizes, I reached my hand in, and this is what I got. Wait—I cheated and peeked into the bag to get something I might use rather than some swag that I would not! I can easily sew those squares together and make a child ...

Thanks for the comments—there are always so many good ones! I laughed when I read the comment about decluttering and how so many people start—let's say on September 1st, which happens to be today—or they begin on New Year's Day, but they lose interest after a week or so. 

That happens!!! And it has happened to me in the past. I'd get excited and say, "I will get this place neat and tidy." And then, I didn't. However, every time you decide to tidy up, it is the start of making this a ...

There are several things I have learned over the years in setting expectations for how things turn out. 

1. You can over-plan! You spend so much time planning the event that when it actually happens, it's melodramatic and a let-down. The event occurs in a flash, and there's no time to enjoy it, especially if you're constantly watching to see that everything happens as planned. I suppose part of the event is the planning, but that's not me. I like to wing things! 
2. You can do anything alone! I do not know why doing things alone has ...

Thanks for all the suggestions on taking the pill! Well, not THE pill, but my weekly pill. I will try my new alarm and see what happens. Quite frankly, I'm a dunce, and why did I do what I did? Well, there are wonders in this world, and that was one of them. It's not my most brilliant move, to be sure. If that doesn't work, I like the idea of these other medications that don't require a weekly pill. I'll definitely look into those. 

So there is some GREAT news this morning. The last ...

Sometimes, I get asked how I do so much in a day. There are a couple of reasons:

1. I don't watch TV and try to keep my screen time (Facebook and Instagram) to an absolute minimum. 30 minutes daily is a good goal because it's a massive time waster. I don't do Pinterest, which I've heard is a black hole. I'm also highly selective about what I stream and attempt to avoid clickbait at all costs. That is clutter for the mind—I no longer cope with clutter. 
2. I can start work the minute I ...

What a surprise when the girls and I took our morning walks to find this. 

The path is paved!!!

The pavement ...

I think I'm almost back in my time zone. I slept great—only woke up once and actually got up to do some work. I went back to bed, and I should be good today, although a nap every once in a while is highly recommended. 

Getting back early from a trip is great, but what does one do with the "free" time? OK -- you know I'm not one to sit around, so I've been busy! 

WAIT -- let me tell you about my souvenirs. I'm not a huge fan of souvenirs and certainly NOT a T-shirt ...

Yesterday was all about getting from one continent to another! I had a terrible night's sleep in the hotel. It wasn't terrible, but I just couldn't get to sleep. I tried everything—eating something, going to the bathroom, reading, counting sheep, thinking about projects I have to work on—and NOTHING. At last, I fell asleep and woke up when I needed to. 

There was construction going on outside my window at the train station, but it wasn't loud—I think I was just excited. I'm certainly excited about typing on a full-sized keyboard!

The ...

 As I write this, I see stormy clouds outside the window. The flight is on time and expected to leave in 5½ hours. Let's pray that it stays on time. Last year, the flight was delayed and it was exhausting. But at least I'll be in the Maple Leaf lounge, which helps. 

There are pros and cons to leaving first thing in the morning or last thing in the day. On long trips like this, I'm good to leave at night and hopefully get a good sleep on the plane. So, if all went well, I should ...

And there was yet another learning curve yesterday, and I succeeded! It has to do with email. I almost have the blog post ready that lists my classes for the fall. Writing the post was easy, but finding the dates and times took work! For one of the classes, you have to sign up with me, and I know people like to receive an acknowledgment of their email. I won't be able to do it for a couple of weeks. However, I can set that up via email, and I did. I tested it, and it seems to be ...

What are they doing to my forest? OK, so it's a woodlot, not an endless forest, but I call it my forest—it sounds more impressive! There are a number of entrances to the forest from the sidewalks surrounding it. Since we have lived here, all but one of the entrances has had a paved path for a brief distance into the forest. In all cases, the pavement has prevented erosion on the trails (small hills), which has been good. 

You've heard me mention the erosion. That has only been in the last five years? And I swear ...

 Before I forget, here's the photo of the reorganized books. 

Reorganized bookshelf

The top shelf is all the quilt-themed novels, which I'll deal with another day. The middle two rows (and there is a double row on the second from the top shelf) are all series books. I'm a stickler for reading books in the order in which they were written - at least in a series, and so if I want to read a particular author, I check my shelf and correlate it to the order of books and what I've read and I either grab ...

I got up this morning feeling content! What a great feeling. I'm making progress on the list of quilts to be quilted, I have a few bindings that need to be put on, and I need to get back to writing those last blog posts. But I made phone calls yesterday to get on top of some upcoming events, and well, it just feels good to be in control! And if I can't, I need to learn to live with that. I think I do a good job, but sometimes things go awry. Right now, the stars are ...

 Yep -- here I am at a quilt retreat. It's a small group (intentional) and is one of the most relaxing retreats because of that! Plus, it's an excellent opportunity to catch up with friends we rarely see. After getting all the morning stuff out, I loaded the car and was on my way. I think this is our third or perhaps fourth retreat that this small group has done. 

I always look at what I bring and think do I need all that, but I've cut way down on what I bring. OK - so I threw in ...

What did I say about getting three things done in a day? Despite having good intentions, I only accomplished three things and not all of what I wanted to do! I finished a few projects on Mount Projects, but I'll share those tomorrow. They were needed for the machine embroidery class this morning. 

A customer quilt was also finished, and all quilts have been trimmed! 

Customer quilt - DONE

The third thing I did wasn't on my list, but it was a task that needed to be done. I'll be away for a few days at a quilt ...

 We had a lot of rain yesterday, which was the aftermath of the latest storm. The forecast said we should expect buckets of rain the entire day. Well, it was a bizarre day, to say the least. It poured, then the sun came out and dried everything up—OK—maybe just the sidewalks. Then it poured again, then the sun came out. I managed to walk the dogs and my afternoon walk with no rain! 

Now, I get that we had nothing compared to those when it was a real storm, but it was a very bizarre weather day. DH ...