What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

OH --- what a slug this morning. Thankfully, new beds do not bother me, so I've been sleeping well. However, I had noisy neighbors last night, and then during the night, the temperature dropped, and the wind picked up considerably. I could hear it howling all night and creaking the window and walls. As a result, when the alarm went off, I decided I would not walk in that weather - I would for the girls, but not me. I lazed in bed for quite a while before I got up!

The final day of meetings is over, and all went ...

It was Day Two in Monreal, and all went well yesterday. My French must be used more, especially in the sewing environment, to become proficient with all those terms, and I MUST make more effort to make that happen. 

Someone posted this on Facebook and forwarded it to me, and I thought it was hilarious. 

I know that I say this all the time, and I don't like that I say it. I'd like to be busy all the time, but NOT stupid busy. Now, how the heck am I going to do that? Can I be better ...

 Oh, I forgot to look for a geocache at the LOVE sign, and I bet there was one there. You have to understand, though, that when you're with a group of 8 other people, none of whom are into geocaching and they are hungry -- one doesn't take time to geocache! 

However, that didn't stop me from geocaching in the dark yesterday morning. 

I knew we had a heavy agenda for the day, and there probably wouldn't be time to get out for a walk. However, I managed to log 13 KM yesterday! Yep --- no cheating involved ...

 It was one of those days. I still have a couple of quilts to trim, and that other quilt is almost off the long arm, but the top is still pinned to the leaders. It's lying nicely on the long-arm table, and I'll deal with it on the weekend. 

We had two AMAZING club sessions yesterday. One on EQ8 and the other on Digital Cutters. So much information and so little time, and I hope the participants get as much out of the sessions as I do. We had design exercises in EQ8, and it was amazing to ...

It's New Year's Eve. Another year has passed, and what do I have to show for it? There are lots, but I tend NOT to keep track of what I accomplish in a year. Well, that's not entirely true -- I know how many KMs I've walked/ridden my bike or spin class, I know how many novels I've read, and I know how many quilts I donated (more or less) and well, I'm so highly motivated that I don't really need to know how much else I got done. It was a lot ...

With the beautiful weather, it would be hard to work indoors, so I asked the "boss" if I could take the afternoon off. She said YES, and I was gone! It was a 15 KM+ day walking, and I got to walk someplace different. 

Can you believe it was 10 ABOVE yesterday? No sun, but it was warm and really too nice to be in the house. 

Warm temperatures

I live in the 6th largest city in Canada, but it's a strange city. It's comprised of many small villages that were gobbled up as the main city grew ...

What an AMAZING day yesterday! Some great discussions on tools that quilters buy but never seem to use to their fullest extent! Things like digital cutters, EQ8, and embroidery software! We have enough interest to form clubs for all of them, and I want these groups to be manageable, or we lose the ability for everyone to chat. So we'll see how many people sign up! 

I now have a bit of paperwork to prep for each of them, and I have this afternoon and tomorrow to do so.

The minute that we were done, I was out the ...

Yikes -- I see Torry is on Book FOUR of The Seven Sisters series! I finished Book Two and needed a break! She will be ready when the 8th book comes out sometime next year. I'll be behind - as usual. But that's OK. I don't mind. 

Having a decent narrator for the audiobooks sure makes a difference. I'm currently listening to an audiobook (more about where it came from another day), but the narrator is literally reading (not narrating) the book. No inflection; she barely takes a breath. The nature of the book is simple, but the ...

I'm excited to hear I wasn't the only one that loved the York Heritage Quilt Show. Sadly -- it's over, but there's so much in the quilt world to keep us entertained! The organizers should be very pleased as the show was well organized and had lots of entertainment. 

I'm back home. I finished up at Thimble Quilts and Sewing Company (Windsor) around 4 PM and headed home. In the SNOW!!! What's that all about? I heard it was supposed to snow yesterday EVENING, not in the morning. Around 11 AM, I went out to ...

I'm HOME!!!!! I got home just after 11 PM, which was good considering that I didn't leave until after 6:30 PM. Everything got crammed into the car -- how do I ever travel by plane? I guess I just take a lot less stuff! But this was what I faced all the way home. 

A lone foggy night

Don't worry -I was in a parking lot when I took that picture. But as the afternoon wore on, the fog rolled in, and it stayed. It's still foggy this morning. Thankfully, there wasn't too much traffic ...

Someone offered a good suggestion about the charging cords: to have them in a separate bag. This would work IF I had duplicates of the darn things, which I do not. I should buy a second power supply for the laptop, but I don't have a second charger for my Fitbit, and I have no plans to buy one. So if I label the darn phone charger instead of quickly grabbing what I think is the right one, I should be OK. It's the first time EVER that I've made that mistake!

So the worst day of ...

 Oh my -- it would appear that I'm back in the swing of things, and it only took one day! I have guild presentations this month -- some on Zoom and some in person. I have to travel to a quilt show (Courtepoint Quebec Salon 2022) for work. Oui -  in French, no less, and there are new store openings, classes, demos, and lectures to prepare! Yikes --- I knew this was all coming, so I'm not surprised. It just seems that I went from ZERO to 100 in 60 seconds. 

Actually, it's not all that bad -- it's just a ...

I have to laugh as I looked at the title of yesterday's post -- The eleventh quilt is done! The deadline for this particular push on the Quilts of Valour quilts is November 11. Yet the date yesterday was October 1? How is it that I finished something more than a month in advance? You know --- finishing the last quilt at the 11th hour? I think the old Elaine is still walking the Camino! However, I want to do a second grouping of 11 quilts, and that one may be down to the wire!

Anyway -- something has changed in me ...

 It was bound to happen. I've been so lucky with all the bushwhacking I've been doing. Zero issues with plants that didn't agree with me. 

However, yesterday, I decided to explore a trail that wasn't good, and now I'm in trouble. Let's start at the beginning. 

I thought I'd go geocaching one more time, but I got about 3 KM from the house when I realized I did NOT have a pen. OK -- so maybe I'll go exploring and see if there's anything easy to get, and I'll go today ...

 Oh my -- they will have to pry all ten of us out of this house tomorrow! In the past, we've consistently filled the retreat house with the maximum number of people, and we were pretty happy, although we were always cramped, especially for sewing. Then during the pandemic, only a few of us could go, and we liked the peace and having plenty of room to work. 

So this house can sleep 12, and we weren't sure if we wanted to fill it, so we came with ten. But it could easily hold twelve people, and for sewing ...

So if I were to attend a quilt retreat in heaven, I would want it to be a super retreat. Well, I'm not in heaven, but I think we hit the jackpot in retreat houses. Yes -- I'm on quilt retreat again, and this one got planned simply because this new house opened, and I WANTED to be part of the action. 

If I were looking for the ideal retreat, this is it. It's hard to find fault with anything here. You can check it out - it's called Spring House Retreat. Let's see -- it's ONE ...

So before I tell you all about the back, let's talk about the firsts! 

As you are probably aware, I love to find geocaches. Now I'm not a huge geocache person as I haven't hit 600 yet, but I like to do it from time to time. And it's something fun to do in a location you are visiting. As with all things I love, there are many ways to measure what you do - the number of caches you find, the level of difficulty, the size of the container, and many other things. One thing that ...

It would almost appear that I've lost my commitment to quilting! I haven't - but I'm just trying to get other things done and show you (and me) that I'm not a one-trick pony! 

I walked the girls yesterday and did a few chores around the house because now that things are looking great, they have to stay that way! And then I was upstairs to see what I could do about that massive stack of receipts. Yes -- I could have taken the lot and dumped it in the box that goes to the shredder, but that ...

I MADE IT!!! It was easy to get that last 5 KM in and done before 9 AM! I've finished walking the Pacific Crest Trail -- at least virtually. 

I'll write more about it when I get home. 

Alas, the weekend has ended, and I'm on my way home this morning. It was a great weekend; I learned a lot, and I could pass along some of my knowledge, which is always great. As they say, you will retain 95% of what you teach! So I'm always looking for a teaching moment. 

And we've been so ...

 Yesterday was about as close to a perfect day as you could get! The temperature was perfect; there was zero humidity, and the sky was blue with little wind. I had no appointments or immediate deadlines, so I got to do what I wanted, and well -- it doesn't get any better! 

I hopped on my bike to get some KMs. I went zipping around the city again, and I swear it was like being a kid. I was out exploring! There is so much more open to you on a bike than in a car. First, in a vehicle ...