What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Oh my—what a treat yesterday was! I had nothing on the agenda, and I could do what I wanted when I wanted. I certainly needed that mental break. I haven't even cleared up the tables in the film area yet. 

A bit of tidying needs to be done

I'll do that later today, or maybe I'll do it during Monday's Sewing and set up for the final presentation. Yeah! Then, I think April will be very quiet except for my "personal" classes and a couple of challenges I must work on. A few quilts need ...

YES—I know I should shut my computers down once a week. I should attempt to do that on Saturday night and boot everything up on Sunday morning. It also helps that if you send an email with pictures to yourself, you actually touch SEND! Oh, I don't know how often I've done that. I "send" an email and wait for it to arrive, except it doesn't. Then I decide to resend it, only to find the draft on my phone. FARCE! 

Today stretches ahead of me with NO commitments. Yes, there is a Virtual Retreat today ...

WOW --- Rose didn't even need 20 questions! One guess! I'm impressed and how the heck did she zero in on that? Check out the comments - I won't say here in case you're still guessing. 

It's good that I'm not afraid of a blank page, also known as "blank page syndrome." I face a blank page every morning when I write the blog, and sometimes, it's very early in the morning, and sometimes, it's shortly after getting out of bed. I don't think I was much of a writer when I was ...

I had a feeling that yesterday was going to be a fantastic day, and it was. When I got to the gym, Joseph approached me and said that the first seven minutes of his video were for me. And sure enough - my new adventure was documented on the screen! Keep in mind that the videos he plays are usually extreme sports or other crazy things that people do. While this isn't exactly an extreme sport, it has some element of danger. Good grief - who am I kidding - there's an element of risk in crossing the street! 

The Monday ...

OH my -- I always get a chuckle from the comments, and I need to get back to answering them individually. I'm not a math nerd, so I don't calculate how much batting cutoffs get used in a year, but it is shocking when I see people throw those batting bits away. I "glue" them together for smaller projects like table runners, bags, placemats, etc. I am working my way through the batting cutoff closet, and once April is here, I plan to be on the long arm to try and finish up some community projects where I use ...

I hate it when computer programs don't work how I think they should! But that's OK - there's always a workaround, and perhaps there is a better way, but for now, I'm OK with how it works. Things are good - my schedule, while not slowing down, is comfortable. 

I hung my calendar in the office to enjoy the photos and be reminded of my upcoming walking/hiking journeys. What exactly is the difference between the two? It doesn't really matter. I will enjoy January for a week, then switch to February for a week, and then ...

Delete, delete, delete - the number of spam comments seems to grow by the day. Today was all about license plates. Have I mentioned anything about license plates recently? NO. And digitizing - I  may have mentioned that, but it's all part of our new world filled with AI and bots that are supposed to do a better job than humans. Well, not exactly. I'm reading some articles about AI, and it seems that no one can even define what it is and how it's supposed to work. So, how are we going to figure it out? We won ...

Good grief -- I'm not sure what is happening to the blog. Every day for the last few days, I've been getting at least five new comments from a bot. One day, it was all about nursing, then renovations in BC, ordering license plates, and, let's not forget, the machine embroidery. It's crazy! So I just delete, delete, delete!

I am not about to lower myself to use AI to write anything, even though I'm encouraged whenever I open my computer. If I open a blank document to write, I'm encouraged to use it. Here ...

The blog is a bit late today, as I was at the gym with Brooke. Oh boy—what an eye-opener it was this morning. When I had my massage this past week, Misty mentioned that my right leg was significantly more muscular than the left. I mentioned that to Brooke, so we did some testing. EEK!! Both legs are very weak, but the left one is worse! It's almost embarrassing to say this, but I've let my legs weaken.

Yes - I walk a lot, but it's flat urban walking, and well, I'm not sure I get ...

 So, did you have a chance to read the 50 Ways to Keep a Quilter Happy while on Vacation? I had a blast writing that series, and my mind is spinning to develop a new, fun theme. 

If you didn't check out Numbers 50 - 49 and 48, here's the link again. 

And here are the next three. Numbers 47, 46, and 45. 

Two more presentations are finished for this week. The Machine Embroidery series, honoring National Embroidery Month, is winding down. I have a few more this week, and most of the weekend is free, so I have ...

So what happened yesterday? Two of the three links in yesterday's post were incorrect. I fixed them, but rather than you having to go back, here they are again. 

Here are the 2025 QuiltCon winners and the Dignity sculpture in South Dakota. 

Some days, things just happen! 

Yesterday was a better day, but it was still one of those days. I was in Studio B doing some embroidery. I knock a box of fabric on the floor. GRR. My thread breaks. GRR. I can't find the screwdriver to change the needle. GRR. Well, you see what it was ...

It's time to put my money where my mouth is. I've been harping about decluttering and organizing, but I found a mess yesterday that needs to be dealt with. 

I had collected all my stabilizers in one place, sorted them by type, and purchased large tubs to store them. 

Let's be clear that they need to be separated from batting (fleece), fusible webs, and interfacing. The "underground" world of sewing is mysterious. All four categories are needed to make our projects look amazing, but you never see them. 

I recently wrote some articles for QUILTsocial on a ...

DH came home a few days ago, but I've barely seen him. He's sick! And he better keep that to himself because I do not have time to be sick. I'm unsure what the issue is, but I went to the pharmacy to get him some ginger ale yesterday. I made it to the store at 4:50 p.m., they closed at 5 p.m. because of the holiday! It was my lucky day! Everything is back to normal today. 

After walking the girls, I cleared the end of the driveway, which looked great. 

At last ...

What a whirlwind day! I ran between Zoom and shoveling snow and Zoom. But there is good news—wait for it. 

This was after the first shovel in the morning. This picture was taken around 8 a.m. and the snow was covering up my handiwork as I finished. 

8 a.m.

Noon

Then, there was the shovel session at 3:00 p.m. Each time, it took between 40 - 50 minutes to shovel. Is ...

Well, there's nothing much to discuss this morning except the snow! I didn't want to repeat what happened last week when I had a foot of snow to clear from the driveway, so right after my three Zooms, it was time to grab that shovel. 

And this was what it looked like as I finished Round One. Yes - it was still snowing, so as quickly as I shoveled, the snow fell on the other side. But getting rid of at least that much will help. 

Round One

Just before we started the Virtual Retreat, it was time to ...

Yes -- it's OK to be a Pollyanna. It'll drive those negative Nellies to weep, and that's OK. It's nice to be positive, and I must keep the gentle critique in my back pocket for the next time! So many people are unaware of how they converse and are perceived, and some do NOT come up for air! 

Oh my—I have two of the three presentations ready, and the third won't take long. But the timing is tight! I've got to try a little harder next month so that it doesn't come to ...

I should mention that we live on a court, so there's no sidewalk plowing. The street that our street joins is also not cleared by the city. However, the next street over the sidewalk is plowed. It all works out, but it's annoying that homeowners can't do some work. I wonder how I'll get to the plowed sidewalk this morning with the girls. I'm walking on the street, I guess. 

So when I was in BC last year—Penticton and West/North Vancouver, to be exact—I would NOT want to live there if there ...

OK -- we talked about comments the other day and how the power of suggestion, even in your mind, will trigger things. Well, where did this comment come from? 

The mystery of the internet, for sure! 

I have a favor to ask all of you, particularly those who live close to me or are on the Pony Express. You could always send the items via mail, but I don't want people to incur costs. 

A local group of sewists meets at the library several times a month—maybe even once a week—to make medicine dolls. These dolls help hospitalized ...

Before I get into today, I want to clarify one point. In all the decluttering, I have perhaps "strongly" advised everyone to stop buying, which is undeniably true. 

Here's the thing—we live in a bizarre world where our wants are dictated by marketing people, who are motivated by CEOs who want more profit on the bottom line. This goes for any industry. Did you know that marketing and research people intentionally make products that appeal to our want mentality? 

We have wants that must be fulfilled, so we buy, buy, buy. Sometimes, we buy and bring home a ...

OH MY! As I create a folder each day to store the blog photos, I date it. It's January 25 already! Where has the time gone? 

Someone mentioned the stand-up/sit-down exercises. The chair height is important! Obviously, we are NOT doing this from a step stool. If you can do that, then you're still young! But try various chair heights, and as you become comfortable with one height, find something a bit lower. I get it that some of us have knee issues, so the height can't be too low. But how easily can you get ...