What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 I love the comments. Someone's Mother used to poke her between the shoulder blades if she was slouching! "Hey, Mom -- why didn't you do that for me?" But it's true -- our society as a whole is slipping into only doing things the easy way! We've lost our ability to cope with any kind of hardship (I'm grossly exaggerating there and generalizing), but you know what I mean. 

I talked to my Dad yesterday, and he was telling me about my brother. Their microwave died. So he took it apart. He found one issue and fixed ...

The walk with the girls was a little different yesterday. It was the first day of school, and there were lots of extra people around! ACK! Although I think there must still be loads of people keeping their kids at home, or they staggered the start times yesterday. The amount of traffic was not nearly as crazy as a normal first day of school. While I did see loads of people walking their kids, there were still many cars!!  I haven't spotted the speed cameras yet. 

I guess we'll be making 'new" friends as we start to see ...

 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 ...

 WOW --- It's my BIRTHDAY today! It's not a big birthday, but then every birthday should be considered a big birthday. With what happens to us each year, I sometimes think it's a miracle that we have lived one more year! 

So much has happened between this time last year. More lock-downs, lots of walking, LOTS of snacks, lots of new friends, lots of sewing. Well, it's been a super year, and I thank all of you for helping make my year such fun. 

I'm also one year older, so supposedly I'm that much smarter ...

 I'm all set -- I finished the Appalachian Trail and confirmed the address for my medal. I started the Pacific Crest Trail. Why not just dive right in? While I will always walk the dogs in the morning, there are some days when I wonder if I need that second walk. But the aggressive goals I've set for the virtual challenges get me off my butt and onto the road. 

And here's the thing -- while it's called a Virtual Challenge, I still have to WALK the miles to make that happen. It's not like I just ...

OH --- I LOVE Terri's idea about the shoebox. I intended to take the images of quilting designs and patterns and put them in an inspiration book. She says that doesn't work for her. Instead, she keeps ONE small box with loose pages from magazines, etc. Periodically she goes through and cleans up. Hmm -- that might work. I need to empty a box to try that out! 

That method will be faster  -- I like that idea! Thanks, Terri. I love that we can all learn from each other. I'll see how the day goes, but I might have ...

 It's a great day! Why? No idea -- it's just a great day! I had fun puttering yesterday - no immediate deadlines (OK -- so I'm in denial on that one), I do have deadlines, and I'll get to them this coming week. I puttered on homework for my upcoming classes, and well - it feels good to get the homework done way before it's due. Now I need to make up the presentations before I forget everything!

And I'm hooked on a darn audiobook. I look like some music-loving geek as I run around the house with ...

There's hope for us all. Did you see Elle's comment the other day? She had FOUR holders filled with magazines and is now down to 1 ½!!!  OH MY GOSH!!!!  That's impressive. First, I'm impressed that she only had 4 holders of magazines! But I will get there one day! The important thing is that I'm not buying at the same rate as I was, which is a good thing. 

There's so much repetition in the magazines. That's OK because, while for those of us who have been around for a while, it ...

 Is it me, or are the mornings starting to get dark? It's quite overcast this morning which doesn't help, but when I came up from Studio B, I noticed it was considerably darker than it has been. That can only mean one thing - the days are getting shorter. Well, technically, the days aren't getting shorter - there will always be 24 hours in a day, but the amount of daylight each day is getting shorter. 

So we need to take advantage of every second of it and do something outside! I haven't sat in the gazebo in ...

Oh my -- there needs to be a handbook for new homeowners. Some people have bought homes with things that they really don't know much about, or it might be their first home and no clue. The item in question is the sprinkler system. I'm not an expert on the subject, but I do know that you shouldn't water your lawn every day, and it's best to water it really early in the morning or late at night. Why? Well, there's less evaporation if you water in the late evening or early morning, and the darn ...

I have to laugh! I'm working on some individual and group virtual challenges. This is my second group challenge, which means that COLLECTIVELY we have a goal to meet. There were four of us in my previous group, and some of them weren't too serious about keeping up. OK -- two of them weren't serious, one was sort of serious, and then there was me. 

Now I'm in a different group. Yikes --- SUPER serious. I walked 14.5 KM yesterday and thought - wow - that was a good distance. I just checked the distances, and Helen Anne BEAT ...

 Oh, dear!! I'm slipping! We had a great time at Monday sewing until we got to chatting about our show and tell. I always do a show and tell, just like we would if we were in person! So things were going great - we were enjoying the quilts and other projects, and I'm always last. I showed my double wedding ring quilt with the curved edges. 

I mentioned that I had made the backing and the binding. Then Diane asked if I made bias binding. WHAT????  Oh my gosh -- I can't believe that I didn't make ...

OK -- so I did it! I am my mother's daughter - there's no denying it, especially when it comes to tossing stuff that seems valuable. I HATE to throw stuff away, but unlike my mother, I'm able to do it - I'm just slow. 

I had a peek at some of the stuff in my paper pile that's on the floor. OK -- I can easily get rid of some of this stuff. What did I get rid of? 

To show you that I'm not a slacker, here's my recycling bin BEFORE I started tossing stuff ...

 Yes -- I could tackle this office with gusto and get it done - probably in one day? NO -- my whacky attention to detail and having to touch every piece of paper - this won't happen in a day! I'm the turtle. Slow and steady is my pace, and well, that suits me just fine. 

As usual, I did NOT take pictures before. I just plunged in and got some work done. All the boxes that were on the floor in here are gone. OH -- that's so not true. The ones that were ready to go are gone. There are ...

While I loved being away at the quilt retreat, it's always nice to get back home! And yes - I switched pillows last night. It's too early to tell, but my neck does feel a bit better this morning. It's also that lunatic dog of mine that doesn't help! Walking Murphy is like getting mini-whiplash! She's so much better, but I bet that hasn't helped the situation. 

I couldn't help myself; I contacted Paula's daughter to tell her the quilt top was done! She LOVES it. And so she should - her Mom chose ...

 Hmm -- I discovered something this morning when I woke up. I've had a wee issue with some muscles in my neck, and I noticed that they were significantly less when I was at the retreat, even though I was sewing a lot. Could it be my pillow? My pillow isn't as thick and fluffy as the one at the retreat house - perhaps I need to try a new pillow. But I was off to the gym this morning! There are so few people at 5:30 AM. 

Well, yesterday was a great day! In the morning, I had ...

 In case you think I'm working too hard, you can think again! Yes -- I have a couple of deadlines, and  YES - I'm a wee bit behind, but I'm not stressing over it. I'm still walking a couple of hours a day for me, I play with the girls (OK -- mostly with Murphy, Lexi is too much of a princess to play!), and I'm reading. And to top it off, today, I'm off on an adventure. Technically, I shouldn't be, but I am. 

That all started because I had two places where I wanted ...

 The spin class went well! There were no issues with the knee, so that was good, and no swelling at the end, so that's even better. I'm going to have to move indoors for the walking as it would appear all that concrete isn't doing my knee any favors! 

A good number of the regulars were in the class, and our favorite instructor - Joseph! A big round of applause ended the class - I think everyone was excited to be back. It was hard to get going, but I ended up doing 27 KM, where I would normally ...

 Here's a question to ponder this morning. When you need to fix something - who are you going to call? 

Should you call the appliance repair people? Should you call a handyman? Or should you Google it? 

As you know, I got an F11 error on my dishwasher a while back. And no, I didn't have time to deal with it and was perfectly happy (not really) to handwash everything. I had Googled the error message and knew that there was a blockage in the draining system. The one video I watched was bizarre, and the guy was showing ...

I'm back to reading books. Well, listening to books as well. I took a hiatus for a couple of months, and I'm glad that I did. Sometimes, there's just too much going on, and my brain needs a break. I like peace and quiet, but not too quiet! I think part of the reason I didn't sleep as well as I should have when we were on retreat was that it was DEAD QUIET. My brain isn't used to that. 

But here's the thing about reading. How does one choose a book? NO -- I ...