What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I survived another day! Actually, it wasn't too bad once I got all the equipment set up for the second Zoom call. When the Zoom session is about software, the set-up is easy because everything is on the computer. But when it comes to showing the sewing machines, I need to do a bit more work. This is what it looked like last night behind the scenes. 

Behind the scenes on a Zoom call

I was too far away from my computer for my liking, so I need to rearrange that a bit. It gets tight with tripods and ...

 I had a productive day yesterday, but I didn't get as much done as I needed. I've been getting loads of sleep these days, but after dinner, I - well, I went to sleep in my comfy chair, and several hours later, I woke up and went to bed! I call it the hibernation factor. It's cold outside, and we want to sleep away the cold! 

I also went to spin class in the morning, and I'm always more tired on those days. But all is good, and I had a great sleep. Hmmm --- could drinking lots ...

The e-mail recreation continues. The only people I have yet to contact are those in the UFO groups and the Heartfelt Sampler. But if you were interested in anything else (Many Blocks, Out of the Box, Machine Embroidery, Digital Cutter), you should have received an e-mail from me. If you have NOT, send me a note, and I'll add you to the appropriate list. 

Then, once that is organized, I can delete the rest of the class e-mails for 2023. That's going to free up a whole lot of space! 

Based on some of the advice I've ...

There must have been some residue from the solar flares the previous day -- yep, more technical issues! But I worked around them. 

First, DH came to get his keyboard back! What??? No, that was the keyboard from the computer he uses every day. He was just loaning it to me for the evening. OH! But he happened to have a wireless keyboard to his other computer (yep -- we are NOT just one computer per family member!). So I had the joy of installing that, which was easy. 

However, it didn't work. Then I noticed THREE large white buttons. Apparently ...

And today is another day! I need to get through the next 2 ½ weeks (STOP laughing), and then while I still have things to do, I can at least take a day off! This schedule is silly, and I'm getting tired of it! It's all exciting stuff, but I would like ONE day off with nothing to do. But that will be here soon enough!

I made progress on my projects yesterday, so I got to sit in on Monday Sewing, but I still made progress on my goals. Then we had a software class in the ...

OK -- so this happened yesterday, and it's not about Murphy!

The best-laid plans went out the window pretty quickly! I took my car in for servicing and took my laptop to work on a document. However, when I got there to work on my document, I could not find it on Google Drive. Maybe their internet didn't allow that to happen? I checked and found it on Google Drive this morning. Sigh................

However, that didn't matter as I spent the entire time working on a blog post for YOU! Yep --- all the classes I'll teach in the fall and the sew-alongs/clubs for 2023. As usual, I ...

 Happy Fourth of July to my American friends!!  

Yesterday was a better day! I decided to leave all the technology behind. I quilted, I sat outside, and I went for a walk. Simple stuff! 

I got a customer quilt done. Yeah! I had to make the backing for this one, but that didn't take long, and I had loaded it the night before. 

Customer quilt - DONE

There were no issues with this one. As a matter of fact, there are rarely issues with the quilts I get. I only turned ONE quilt away in all my time of quilting ...

 I spent the majority of the day just sewing, and it was glorious! I did sew some of the homework stuff that needed to be done. I'll share that with you another day. I need to get some more writing done today to get the homework to the group. I did catch up on some other projects that needed to be done. 

Best of all, I spent it with two friends, and we had a fabulous time just chatting and sewing. Here's the thing - we ALL live alone - right? And did I not hear that it's OK ...

Wow -- this month (like all the others) is marching on and waiting for no one. If we don't take advantage of today, well - it won't be there tomorrow! I try to take advantage of every minute, but don't worry - I do get some downtime in there. I actually picked up a REAL book yesterday. I had let three audiobooks expire without reading them. I just couldn't bear the thought of reading. And I certainly had not picked up a physical book to read in weeks.

Why? I bet it's because of all the time I ...

I'm surprised, but then I'm not surprised. I love to sew and I love having the opportunity to sew totally uninterrupted. And that's what we do when we go to the retreat. However, I think I'm the ONLY one sewing! But that's OK.

Our current situation of self-isolation is one where we need to learn to take ourselves somewhere else. We can't travel, so why not pretend that we are traveling. And that's what I did. I make it to the "retreat" by 9 AM after I walk the girls and then I ...

If you're not familiar with this app on your smartphone, you should be. It allows a group to stay connected with each other. I now have two groups - one for my Monday sewing and we get to see what each other is working on. Not everyone is on the app - that's their loss because it's a lot of fun. The second is our virtual retreat group. I can't wait for the virtual retreat to start! I need to finish getting prepped. I have a week!

And NOW I have a third group. Our little family! When ...

I lied. I said that things were pretty much normal at our house. For me and the girls, not much has changed, BUT for DH, there are no sports programs on TV. There's nothing for him to watch. He's not into the highlights or whatever they are showing these days. He's getting a lot of reading done.

But for me, as I said, not much has changed. I walk the girls, I sew, and I read. That's about what I did before, but at least there would be a group meeting or sewing days or something ...

For those people who work outside of the house, this work at home/self-isolation thing must be very challenging. For our household, it's business as usual as both DH and I work at home all the time. Technically, our lives haven't changed a whole lot and we still haven't bought any TP. I just heard that even though Costco is bringing in up to 1,000 packages every day, the stock is still getting wiped out by the end of the day.

It's time to do some updates today. On my virtual challenges? Great progress. On ...

Yep - things were going along very smoothly in the technology department. Then yesterday morning when I turned on the PC (OK - so I woke it up - I never seem to turn it off), I got this error message.

Error message

So it's cold outside! This is what the temperature reading was on my car when I arrived at the gym this morning. Oops - now you can see how crazy I am and what time I arrived. Actually, I was late arriving as it took a bit of time to chisel the ice off my windshield.

It's cold outside!

Another great day with lots of stuff completed. The best part? Last night, I went to my dressmaking class TOTALLY prepared. It felt great to go and not have to make excuses (to myself). I'm the only one who really cares, but it doesn't look great when you're always making excuses or don't have the homework completed. I was even prepared for making samples last night and took my own sewing machine. More on that tomorrow.

I had to play catchup on the samples that were due last week. Making pleats, tucks, and darts, I had ...

I got a letter in the mail on Monday indicating that it was time for my biannual mammogram. UGH. No one likes to go for that appointment. But if I didn't book it, I know that you all would be concerned. I called the clinic yesterday morning and I got an appointment for 3 PM. Well, I wanted to get it over with, but that fast? Yikes! The clinic is not that far away - OK - it's 3 KM away, but that's not far at all. And I needed some extra steps since I hadn't made it ...