What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I've been keeping a secret for months—OK, two months —and now it's time to share what I did. The only reason I kept it a secret was that I wanted to share all the details at once, and I just didn't have time to make that happen. 

As you know, M and Dillon were married on June 11, and my - how quickly time marches on. It's almost one month since that special day. 

It was about four weeks before the wedding, and I got this ridiculous idea that I could make them a special gift ...

Phew—yesterday was a whirlwind of a day, although I certainly took my time doing things, and now I'm going to pay the price this morning as I finish the tasks that I was supposed to finish yesterday!

There is nothing like having several open suitcases and mad packing! Actually, what I love is being able to change the number of suitcases I bring—I'm bringing samples—lots and lots of samples, so I have three suitcases. Two with samples, and one with clothes, which I still need to pack, and I'm leaving in three hours! 

There ...

Thanks to everyone for your lovely comments about the wedding. Can you believe that, even though I am always taking pictures, I have very few from that day! I have no pictures of myself and only three shots of the bride and groom. No pictures of any guests and none with other family members. What was I thinking? 

But they had a photographer who took a ton of photos, so I guess we'll have to wait until those come and try to get a few shots. 

We were busy that day, and yet we were not. I'm happy ...

NOOOOOOOOOO -- time goes by so quickly, and it's time for us to leave today. I confess I'm a bit sad. Not only were we here for a beautiful wedding, but we had a wee vacation, and spent a lot of time visiting with friends and family. Not nearly enough time, but we did what we could. Not only do we have to go home, but others must as well. Several people left yesterday, and I think the last of the guests, including the bride and groom, will leave tomorrow. We have a two-day journey home, so we need ...

What a wild and crazy day! I feel like I lived through a very surreal moment! You know - you go to weddings all the time (OK -- not all the time, but time to time), but you go to weddings, and they go through the formalities, and everything is beautiful. And you hope that one day your child(ren) will find someone they deem worthy of themselves to marry. 

And then it happens, and well—it was a beautiful day. Absolutely beautiful. But I'm going to start at the top. 

After writing the blog, Little Bear and I were out ...

Today is the day!!! The big wedding, but FIRST - I have to tell you about yesterday, and then you'll hear all about the wedding tomorrow. 

I'm not sure where the others were, but I asked the previous day if anyone wanted to go for a bike ride! I had a couple of takers, but when push came to shove, they were working out in the gym! But that's OK - I thoroughly enjoyed riding the bike. And sometimes being by yourself on a bike is best! 

Off for a ride

However, I had to sign a waiver, which ...

Thanks for the kudos on the quilts, but I have to say the library quilt was all KU's idea, and so was the theme of the other one. We just got very lucky to make it all happen. I was just the supervisor! 

Well, this was a first that we had two travel days to reach our destination, but we are here! We are at the wedding venue!!!

Since I was up at a ridiculous time, which meant the blog came out on time back home, it's going to be super late this morning for those back home ...

Travel days are so much fun! OK -- I know I shouldn't complain, and I'm not because I'm fortunate enough to be able to travel. I would say that half of the travel I do wouldn't be necessary if my family lived close, but we are all over the country, and hence, travel is required. For those of you with family within driving distance? You are lucky! 

Anyway -- the first thing was to get the girls walked and finish tidying up stuff around the house. Can you believe I even vacuumed quickly before I left? It's ...

At the beginning of May, I pruned the geranium of its leggy twigs and set them to grow roots. Now, just four weeks later, the jar is full of roots, so it is time to put them in pots.

One plant went into this pot that had the mother plant. There is a lot of space and I’d like it to fill in a bit.

The other one got a pot of its own. I could have used a bigger pot and planted it deeper, but this will do for now. I can always transplant it later.

The bargain ...

Looking out the window one morning this past week, I spotted a deer crossing the driveway. This one is obviously pregnant, so I am looking forward to seeing a little spotted fawn in a few weeks.

Sitting on the veranda one day, I was enjoying the cool mountain air, reading a book while sitting in one of the rocking chairs. I almost missed the wild turkey mom crossing the meadow towards the driveway with 7 baby turkeys. I quickly jumped up to get the camera with a long lens, and waited for her to bring them out of the azaleas ...

Mission accomplished! The two (lengthy) presentations are together! I love putting the presentations together, and I spend quite a bit of time sewing, taking pictures, scouring the internet for inspiration or ideas, and amassing the information into a somewhat cohesive storyline that makes sense! 

And I learn so much from doing that. It's amazing what you can find on the internet these days. And yes -- you must be careful that what you see makes sense. It has to make sense to you, but it might not make sense to the next person. Or you may not like the idea ...

I know!!! Wasn't that video about the Ro-Ro carriers fascinating? And now we understand why things cost more, and it's cool to think some of our cars crossed the ocean on a boat! Basically a giant floating parking garage! 

I am home. And I'm unpacked! I'm on a tight turnaround, and I didn't want to keep my samples in the suitcase longer than necessary. Plus, I have to do laundry today. So that's all good! The bonus is that I already have almost 1000 steps - something I didn't get many of while I ...

Yesterday was a glorious day here. The temperature was pretty decent, and the sky was blue. I started the day off by taking a walk along the waterfront, which is just a few short blocks from here.

The seaplanes had no issues with fog and were frequently buzzing across Stanley Park. Oh well - I'll just have to come back to do that trip. I've flown over Vancouver Harbour once, and the view is spectacular. 

The seaplane and clear blue sky

It was earlyish in the morning when I went out. I think the temperature was 4 degrees Celsius ...

It's time for a change!! Hopefully, there won't be too many rabbit holes to go down today, and I need to get back into the swing of things. Good grief -- I've become a slug with bad eating habits, and I don't like it one bit!!! 

The first change -- I'm up much earlier!! And I plan to go for a long walk this morning, since I don't expect M to be up too early. I'm good with that. The good news is that there is no rain this morning. While I came dressed for ...

Oh my-- I have a few things to learn about knitting, but that's OK. What I noticed was the number of large loose sweaters in the store on Salt Spring. Oversized chunk sweaters are back!

My hands will get used to it! 

OK -- here's a hilarious story about knitting sweaters. When I was young -- very young, OK, young, in my late teens, I knit a sweater for my then boyfriend, who was a large guy, so it took a lot of knitting. I forgot about that sweater. He tracked me down one day a couple of years ago ...

Well, the blog is really late today! Yesterday was a whirlwind day filled with MANY Plan Bs, and I just went with it. But I didn't get to bed too early, and I was exhausted, so I just luxuriated in bed this morning, and I'm OK with that. I'm in a different bed again! But one that I was in before on this trip - more on that in a second. I'm here to stay until I leave for home. 

I finished knitting my cowl - at least the flat part - it's folded in half in this ...

 I should have said that the blog posts will be out of whack time-wise - at least this morning, since I am now three hours behind my usual time zone. 

And YES -- the chocolates could have been on sale, which is why I didn't get the senior discount. DUH! I didn't notice that fact when I picked them up. There are days when I wonder how I manage to get through the day and still be alive! 

This is NOT good news for my foot - I think I'm going to lose another toenail. It's looking pretty sketchy ...

Dare I say that everything is done? Well, that would be a total lie! I had so many plans to accomplish so much more, but everything takes longer than planned. 

I got done what absolutely needs to get done, but the quilt that needed to be quilted - notice that got downgraded from quilts to quilt. It didn't. I will have to do that next weekend when I'm back! I made a promise, and I need to follow up on that. At least that day when I'm back, I have NOTHING else on the list of things to ...

I didn't have a chance to check out the list of smart devices, but YES --- we have tablets, iPads, computers, three sewing machines, the front door, and a smart TV (forgot about those last two), one Alexa, and well, I'll have to check the rest of the devices. No thermostat connected and no fridge or microwave! 

You laugh— a friend of mine just purchased a dishwasher, and it's Wi-Fi enabled. Why? I hope to have some time today to connect those pods, and then we can hopefully get a handle on this Wi-Fi issue. 

It's going ...

OK -- Now I'm curious, as are a couple of other people. What retreat house (or venue) in Eastern Ontario are you attending that has late check-in? Is this a new trend in quilt retreats? 

I guess if your retreats were always like that - that works, but seriously --- with the new system, we are paying the SAME MONEY and losing an entire day of sewing. I'm not a fan and will not go there in the future for that reason. 

If they dropped the price, I might consider it. The rationale for the late check-in is that they can ...