What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

It’s finally starting to feel a little cooler in the mornings around here, and I LOVE it! I feel alive with the Florida heat but some breezy cool Fall temps are amazing too!

Been keeping busy with a little bit of everything lately. I’m back to quilting, squeezing in a few days of pickleball each week, lots of cooking and cleaning and watching my Netflix novelas while I work. 

Between all that and everything else happening around here, there’s never a shortage of things to do!

Let me catch you up on what’s been going on ...

 This morning, Patrick's nurse showed up. Then I went out to get some tomatoes for Phil since he has been canning them. 

We arrived around 11 am and it was almost dead. The casino is losing business. It has to be. The games were playing a little better than when we played on Wednesday, but we are seriously considering stopping for a while. We did play for 4 hours, but we weren't winning enough ...

You already know that I’ve been making more time for fun stuff. That also includes hanging out with my friends!

When the kids were little, so much of my time and energy revolved around them and their homeschool lessons and play dates. And now, little by little, they don’t need me quite as much. The house is quieter. Everyone has their own schedules, their own activities, their own lives happening.

And I’m realizing that this leaves a little more room for my people, too.

I’ve been having lunch with one friend every other week, playing pickleball ...

I feel like I’m getting better at figuring out what I actually want more of in my life… and what I could stand to live without. 

I’m slowly letting go of some of the things that feel heavy and forced and adding more of the things that make me happy.

Sometimes it’s something big. And sometimes it’s as simple as cleaning the house with the music BLASTING when nobody else is home. read more

I have made a bit of an attempt to check that the cupboards are in order at work – everyone thinks I am the only person who knows where anything is;) Most of my week was taken up with longarm tuition. After 2 years this has really taken off so it is a pity that it will have to come to a halt, although some people seem to think that I can transfer all of the skills I have accrued in 18 years and it will just take them a couple of hours to pick up…

I am so fed up ...

Last week, my husband and the kids went to New Orleans to attend his grandmother’s funeral, and it’s one of those things that makes you stop and think about just how short this life really is. 

We’re all here for a little while and none of us get to know exactly how long that “little while” will be.

We might as well make the most of it.

The good days. The hard days. The ordinary Tuesday afternoons. The celebrations, the disappointments, the belly laughs, the tears, the mess, and all the stuff in between.

It’s all ...

Good morning, my friends. It was a hectic day of driving yesterday, but we got some "life" things taken care of. The biggest task was to get our leaking tire fixed. We dropped the truck off, drove to the RV park, checked in, got some lunch, and by then, the truck was ready. It seems we’d picked up a 5mm nail somewhere along the way. So, I dropped Mike at the tire place, and then drove back to the RV park to start some laundry. By the time I had the laundry started, Mike was pulling into our assigned ...

Good morning, my friends. It was a hectic day of driving yesterday, but we got some "life" things taken care of. The biggest task was to get our leaking tire fixed. We dropped the truck off, drove to the RV park, checked in, got some lunch, and by then, the truck was ready. It seems we’d picked up a 5mm nail somewhere along the way. So, I dropped Mike at the tire place, and then drove back to the RV park to start some laundry. By the time I had the laundry started, Mike was pulling into our assigned ...

One thing I’ve been thinking about lately is how important it is to try new things.

I’ll be honest I have never really had a problem in that department. lol. I’ve always been down for trying something new. But I’ve noticed that raising teenagers requires me to push a little more on this idea than I used to when they were younger. Pre-puberty they were ready to try anything! Now, not so much. 

As they get older they aren’t as easy to sign up for new adventures and experiences as they were when they were ...

A very Norfolk expression is “Slow you down!”-  meaning you should rush around less and chill out more.

That has NOT been me this week…

At work I bound 2 quilts, supervised 5 DIY quilts, did some one-to-one tuition, prepared for the Quilt Direct Open Day, attended the Tavistock Goosey Quilters exhibition, sold 2 machines, and carried out all of my usual side missions.

I was too worn out to do much in the evenings apart from veg out with Nessie but my Saturday was a blur of activity. I packed the non-essential kitchen items which means I obviously own ...

This has to be my second favorite weekend of the year behind Thanksgiving!! Autumn is on the way, football season has started and the Mountain State Fair is in full swing! I get to bring out the fall quilts, change the wall hangings and get ready for the next three months of cooler weather, wearing sweaters, and seeing the leaves change to glorious color. Settle in with a cuppa for a long and picture heavy post! I hung the Welcome Pumpkin on the wall near the front door to start the change of seasons in decorating. I like these flat ...

Good morning, my friends. It's been a couple of days of this's and thats's. I've been keeping up with my slow-stitching each day. On Tuesday, I stitched far enough to decide to move my hoop up.

For Tuesday's trip into town everything took longer than I thought it would. Happily, I was there early for my haircut and color, and ...

Good morning, my friends. It's been a couple of days of this's and thats's. I've been keeping up with my slow-stitching each day. On Tuesday, I stitched far enough to decide to move my hoop up.

For Tuesday's trip into town everything took longer than I thought it would. Happily, I was there early for my haircut and color, and ...

This was a very busy week! I had quilts to do at work and a couple of staff members were away so there were more than usual phone calls, demos, admin plus a full 2-day class with umpteen cups of tea to provide.

In addition, I did 2 evenings of overtime for the Singer Helpline. Since the weather has cooled down it appears that people are dusting off their sewing machines (or not!) and hoping that we will solve all their problems.

I had a good attempt at packing up the sewing room / spare bedroom. I am trying to vacuum ...

Good morning, my friends. We had another day of rain yesterday. Not as much as on Thursday, but still…a good amount. We had grocery shopping to do, but I wasn’t going anywhere until I had my slow-stitching session. I stitched up what I could in my hoop…

Good morning, my friends. We had another day of rain yesterday. Not as much as on Thursday, but still…a good amount. We had grocery shopping to do, but I wasn’t going anywhere until I had my slow-stitching session. I stitched up what I could in my hoop…

Yup. I know. I missed last week’s newsletter. It was bound to happen. 

My husband left town for 5 days, life got a little extra busy around here, and by the time I came up for air, the week was over. Sigh. 

I could’ve spent a bunch of time feeling guilty about it, but instead I decided to just pick up where I left off… and feel just a little bit guilty about it. read more

Finally, we turn the calendar page and it seems that fall may be coming. After miserable heat in August, I am looking forward to cooler days, wearing sweaters, the colors of autumn. Arising early, I love watching the view of the mountain ridges and valleys as it changes every day. The light in the early morning this day was diffuse because of low clouds. A little shower was passing through.

All the humidity makes the flowers happy. The dahlia has given me more blooms than usual this year. I let the previous blooms go to seed and collected them last ...

I had another unusually busy week long arming which makes me happy! There was a house quilt, postage stamp squares and a Kaffe Fassett diamonds one. In addition, there was class preparation to do and sewing machine demos plus an interesting phone call where the customer was irritated by me asking what brand of thread she was using – all she could tell me was that it was “cotton”. 

So now for some Big News… I am moving to Norfolk! It all boils down to Big Family Stuff and I want to be around so I can help out. Plus Nella ...

Good morning, my friends. It was such a busy day yesterday, but I got most everything done that I wanted to. It started with this pretty sunrise.