What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

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 ...

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 ...

Poor Murphy had a good news/bad news kind of day. I'll tell you the quilting stuff first and then what happened. 

We had Monday Sewing, and I love our conversations. Between the group, we know EVERYTHING! Plus, we get to learn about tools (both old and new), and everyone has a different view of them. It's all good. OK—I confess that I'm VERY opinionated about many things. I'm also the first one to compliment someone on their skills, but sometimes, they also have some very bizarre ideas, and what is that all about? 

I ...

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 ...

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 ...

HA - how do drawers magically appear? Well, I have drawers in several pieces of furniture in my house that I rarely use. So when I actually see them, I'm surprised. And I will confess that I need to go through them because I just don't remember they are there. I know these three drawers have junk in them or at least stuff that I don't use. That's for another day. 

I'm happy to report that the orange basket is empty!!

Empty!

Soon, you won't see the orange basket with the green scraps. While I didn't finish it last night, it's close. I saw quite a bit of the bottom at points of my excavation. 

A large part of the bottom is exposed

Of course, I can't leave things alone, and I have to "fluff" those scraps. This is how it looks this morning. You have to look way down to see what's left. I should have no problem finishing that tonight. I have now officially finished watching the 700 series (2010) of The Quilt Show, so ...

I'm surprised at how "quickly" this basket of green scraps is disappearing. Wow—who knew that it could happen so quickly once I put my mind to it? It has taken eight years to get to this point. Well, maybe not eight, but I started the project eight years ago, and the water incident was about six, so it's been a long time. It feels good to get this cleaned up!

The basket is almost empty

At one point as I was picking out the pieces, the bottom actually peaked through the scraps. I confess before I take ...

Slow and steady! Therapeutic! I hope others feel that because after the Virtual Retreat, I think a "few" people have been organizing their sewing spaces. I heard people having been refolding their fabrics so they fit nicely on the shelves, scraps have been pitched, patterns are being reevaluated, and a whole lot more. 

Doesn't it feel good? I swear, the more that I slow down and actually accomplish those niggly little tasks, the more I want to do them and actually get something done instead of shoving it to the side. 

Let's take a look at what is ...

Some of that euphoria popped out of me yesterday as I attempted to play with some technology! I almost gave up technology at that moment! 

So I have a couple of digital cutters and I needed to cut a file using one specific one. I turned it on and went to connect it and NOTHING, despite the fact that it said it was connected to a network. Why??? I was frustrated! 

Then I went for a walk, and when I came back, I realized that this cutter had never been used by me! It appeared to be connected to the ...

I seem to be relegated to saving stuff! OH - I mean rescuing, not saving, although those words could be used interchangeably. That story to come in a minute. 

Since we were not supposed to have electricity in the morning, I had planned my day accordingly. Part of that planning was to pick up tea since I couldn't boil the kettle when I returned from walking the dogs. 

I also had to go to the bank, so I altered Miss Lexi's walk to do both. She is happy to walk a new route since there are new smells. 

MOM ...

FREEDOM!!!

OK -- so I'm not entirely off the hook as I have urgent paperwork to do this morning, but I spent most of yesterday just puttering and doing what I wanted, and it felt glorious! 

I am determined to keep things under control - OK - until the next crisis hits, but if I keep myself organized, those deadlines shouldn't be an issue? Perhaps I'm deluding myself. That's OK - I can live in a dream world. 

But the biggest issue for me is keeping the space clear. Why is that so hard? I seem to need a table ...

Oh my goodness --- I guess I'm not alone in getting mail for the previous owners of our houses. What surprises me is how much of this stuff there is around and what that is costing the world in general. In terms of postage, paper, and resources, it's insane. There must be a way for these companies to write a small program and run it annually to find mailings to the same address with different names. A quick follow-up would eliminate the duplication. I may never get it resolved. And YES - years ago, I sent the letters back, with ...

Oh my gosh—someone posted a comment that they had to BUY scratch pads to make lists, etc. I wish I was closer because they would NEVER have to buy another scratch pad again!

I didn't get a chance to call the school yesterday, but first thing this morning! 

While I was in the mood, and on a high from the previous day's success, I decided to tackle more stuff in the office. 

I grabbed one of the shelf supports from the supply bag and fixed that shelf. While it's not the same type as what is ...

Yesterday was the complete opposite of the previous day. I accomplished lots, and I went to bed, exhausted but happy, after walking over 20,000 steps.

Quite a bit still needed to be put away, so I got out my audiobook and got to work. I also had to start packing for Quilt Canada in one week, so as I was sorting and putting away, I pulled out the samples I needed for that show. 

Stuff to put away

Of course, my faithful companion was right there with me, lying in the middle of the floor space. It doesn't ...

Before I forget, here's the latest development on the Gordie Howe International Bridge: The gap is almost closed!! It's been fascinating to watch, and it will still be approximately one year before the bridge opens. 

Much has been happening here, and getting work done is hard! But I did. 

The quilt back is finished. Yes, I was short fabric by a smidge, so I added another piece. No big deal! That got rid of the remainder of a bolt of fabric. 

A quilt backing

This quilt is ...

LOL --- There was no need to trick DH into cleaning the spice drawers. Once we established the space where the ones he wanted to keep were, he went through them pretty quickly!!!

He wants to keep this, but what an unruly mess of containers for everything! 

The spices to keep

This is the throwaway pile. WAIT—I'm going to go through that, pull out the utensils, and check those before they go in the garbage. It seems a shame to throw all those spices away, but most of it has been hanging around for years, so the spices are ...

Well, I made out that list of things to do, but I didn't get to check any of them off yesterday, although I made progress on several things. The couple I worked on just generated more stuff to look at!

However, there are a couple of things that I need to address before I forget. I did look at the drawers in the desk. There are three of them. Here's the first one; it looks neat and tidy, so there are no changes. 

Drawer number one

Here's the second drawer, which is actually the top drawer. Hmm ...

Despite the fact that I had that Facebook Live yesterday and things had to get organized for that, I took time to clean out a drawer in the filing cabinet. OK, so I didn't finish, but I made a good effort. 

I was only going to pull a few files and then decided to take them all out. 

The empty drawer

There are four drawers, and I picked one. The files got scattered onto the kitchen table. 

The kitchen table as the sorting station

Years ago, someone told me we should schedule ME days in our calendar. Those would be days when you get to do things for yourself. I've tried but have been unsuccessful, and while yesterday wasn't really an ME day, I didn't sew and ran around for ME.

I made a list of things that needed to be done—emails that needed to be responded to and many other things. I went to bed last night with two things left on the list. Both are responding to emails, so I can do that while I'm away. Yep ...