What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I have my cycling clothes on and getting ready to go to the gym for spin class. It's back to the routine schedule. I've been slacking off for the last two weeks with the walking and spinning. It was rare that I made the daily goal of 11.5 KM of walking while away, but I did aim for 10,000 steps in a day! No big deal. 

I recently heard of someone's husband who had a cycling accident. He hit a bump in the road and went head over handlebars. He ended up bruised, scraped, and ...

Well, I'm feeling better and on the road to recovery! A downfall that I will blame totally on myself. Dehydration, lack of sleep, not eating correctly, and just the sheer schedule of that trip all did me in. I MUST remember that when booking the next trip. Do NOT overdo it, and NO late flights.

So the presentations went over well yesterday despite the lack of sewing on my part. I have one more today, and oops -- I haven't started that one. I guess the walk and the blog will have to be abbreviated this morning to make ...

 I'm up at an even more ridiculous hour than usual, and it's a Sunday morning! Yep -- It's the one day a year that I lose all sense of sanity and volunteer for the Toronto Marathon. I'll be dropping off tables and stuff for the water stations. 

It's a crappy job, to say the least, and each year I tell myself that this is the last year. Well, guess what? I'm doing it again! They are not super organized (NO -- I will not ask for a higher job, so things are organized!), and they have ...

Thanks for all the comments from yesterday. I'm rushed this morning, and my priority is to get the blog written before I leave! Someone suggested I do it last night, but after I finished packing up everything, there just wasn't time. 

I'm taking five machines. All of them but one will come home with me, and I hope to juggle the machines so I will always have one available to me for sewing at the retreat. I have to work three days that I'm at the retreat. Anyway -- you'll see this week. 

But here's ...

That was a CRAZY weekend! One class on Friday, THREE on Saturday, plus the Virtual Retreat, one more class on Sunday, and then Virtual Retreat all day Sunday. That's about 20 hours of Zoom in one weekend! Let's say that I'm getting my money's worth from my annual fee. And I saw a lot of familiar faces throughout the entire weekend!

I need to look at several other things to which I have a subscription and see if I'm getting my money from those. 

I think we all agree that the Zoom thing is here ...

Hello Jenny from Australia!!! She figured out the time zones and popped into our Virtual Retreat last night! How fun is that? It was Sunday morning for her, while it was Saturday night for us. Gosh -- I absolutely LOVE the Virtual Retreat. We get to stay in touch with our friends, and meet new people! And if you're traveling, as was Karen, no problem -- just pop into the call from wherever you are!

Yep -- those Virtual Retreats are here to stay! And so will the Monday sewing -- I can't help it -- if some of them want to go ...

 It was another successful Virtual Retreat. We had a few more people pop onto the call to check out what's happening, and welcome to all of YOU! We're not a scary bunch at all, and basically, the chitchat is much more exciting than sewing by yourself. And if you happen to finish something -- you've got someone to share it with. 

The diehards show up every month and stay for most of the day, and others just pop in to say HI; both work. My circle of friends has grown enormously through the monthly Zoom calls, and I ...

In all the years I've been posting to this blog, I've never had an issue with writer's block. How could I when my life is crazy? And it sure helps to look on the bright side of everything. I have behind-the-scenes issues and concerns just like everyone else, but I choose to keep them behind the scenes and keep their impact on my life small. 

I've so much to share today! First -- to catch up on those couple of photos I've been promising. Here's the first one - the keyboard situation. 

What a fantastic Virtual Retreat!! I think I accomplished the most I've ever done, and I'm thrilled. We had people from the US, Germany, and across Canada. Loads of fun, and I'm so pleased to say that I've made new friends, and we get to check up on how people are doing in other parts of the world. It's way better than listening to the news! Thanks to everyone who attended. 

I also dug out my Brother Label Maker and two rolls of tape. As the girls said -- why "save" that tape for a better ...

It was another successful Virtual Retreat! So many people stopped in to say hello. We had people from Germany, the US, Western Canada, and all over Ontario! So nice to see a few new faces join us and to see the regulars! I left at 9 PM both nights, and they were still sewing and chatting! 

I didn't end up taking a nap yesterday, but I did take a long walk, and I slept like a log last night. I'm feeling good this morning, and all fired up to get to spin class. 

Well, I don't have ...

 Oh my gosh -- we had the BEST time on the Virtual Retreat! You have to LOVE technology!! I had to be absent for part of it as I played chauffeur, but I could connect in the car once I dropped my passengers off, and I got to chat while I drove home.

There are so many things that we can talk about -- why do we need to talk about such a controversial topic like COVID? I have no issues with discussing it or it being a topic of conversation. What drives me crazy is when it gets heated because people ...

What can I say?   I have the BEST friends ever! We had so much fun at the Virtual Retreat. Where else would you be able to chat to quilters from various parts of Northern Ontario while they were in their studios? The joke at one time became - how north are you? Because as they joined the call, each was more north than the other! We had people from Western Canada and from the US. And then a couple of people were on the call whose houses I could walk to! 

Oh yes -- so much fun! And I get so much ...

 Oh my gosh!!!!  A totally random question, but a good one. Who will play the duck? Thanks to someone for posting that on the blog yesterday. If you know what that means - well, then you are a fan of Louise Penny. I bet some ducks have agents! 

WOW -- yesterday was another amazing day. OK -- in the sleep department, it wasn't amazing, but who cares -- naps are always good! OK --  why won't my Fitbit sync this morning? I'll figure it out later. 

I had a super productive day, and then we had the Virtual Retreat from 6 - 9 ...

So -- If I set my mind to do something - it usually gets done. There are times when that is all talk, and I procrastinate, but yesterday - I was DETERMINED. 

It started small and built up to this!!!!  Wait -- you have to wait just a wee minute. 

While I have quilting stuff that will soon have a looming deadline, I figured I could take a few minutes and grab some stuff in one of the boxes on the table. 

I started with a small pile. 

A small stack of papers to sort through

 Wow!!!!   We had so much fun at the Virtual Retreat, and we got to meet someone new. Hello to Kathy from Winnipeg. A lot of the usual suspects were present, and so great to chat with everyone! It's canning season, and I'll leave my friends to make their jam and jellies and other preserves. It doesn't make sense for me to make them since I don't eat them. I was tempted the other day when I saw homemade jams for sale, but then, I don't eat bread (or very little) so that the jam would ...

 OK -- I promise that tomorrow, I'll get started on all the homework photos. I have things to share with you from the Virtual Retreat. 

What fun we had! We got to meet Barb from Maryland!  Lots of familiar faces that stretched across the country and over to Germany. We discovered MANY things, including there's an imposter amongst us! That's all I'm going to say about it, except that we had a good laugh over it. 

We talked about everything and anything, including the FitBit and what it tracks and do they do anything with the data ...

 Do you ever have one of those days where everything you sew just seems to go together wrong? Yep - that was yesterday!

I had a great day with the two classes and the demo. I do a lot of prep work to make the class a success, but the students really make the class. It's their "show and share" that we ooh and ah over. Their questions make the presentation that more interesting and I swear they try to stump me! So far, I'm doing not bad in the answering question department!

But what happened? Well, I was ...

 It was a very long day, and well, the days have the same number of hours, but the number of things to do doesn't seem to get less. Now, why is that? I know people say that I'm doing too much, but I'm not on ANY committees; I'm not doing many magazine quilts these days, although I'm still designing and making them. It's just stuff in general. Trying to keep on top of it all, and that's never going to happen, so I'll just muddle along. Honestly - it's the small, seemingly ...

 Oh my gosh -- you guys are the best!!! There are times when I think I live in a vacuum waiting to be rescued by you all!! I will NOT be buying a new rain jacket - I just need to find some waterproofing stuff. So that's on the list of things to track down. See how those errands accumulate!! I can barely keep above the water on the errands, but I did manage to get a few off the list yesterday. You know how it is - one errand leads to another and so on. 

We have some house repairs that ...

 OH MY GOSH!!!!!   We had so much fun at the Virtual Retreat. And I accomplished so much - way more than I normally would. And can you believe - I didn't shut the call down until 10:30 last night. I'm dead serious -- we had a NORMAL conversation, the same as if we were in the room together. The best part? There was me, someone from Ottawa, and two others in northerly regions of Ontario. Totally distanced apart, and we would NEVER be able to do that in person. Am I hooked on Zoom? Oh, you bet! What I love ...