What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. While it wasn't my most exciting birthday, nor my most productive, I was happy to just putter around. And that's what life is like when you're as "old" as I am! 

I'm just kidding—someone mentioned that old is ten years older than you actually are, and I think that about sums it up. 

The good news is that my leg, sciatic, and knees seem to be doing so well. Knock on wood! We don't want to jinx anything. But I'm feeling so much better from the stretching ...

OH - it was a slug on the rug kind of day! Well, not exactly. I went to the gym this morning, and instead of using the spin bike, I am trying something else. It's a sideways elliptical - I must check the name because I don't think that is what it's called. 

I do fifteen minutes - it gives me cardio, and you can change your position so while you can stand, you can also do a squat while still moving sideways. OK - that sounds bizarre, but it's challenging, and my legs were rubber after 15 minutes. Well ...

As for the boxes, I told the electricians to leave them. Yes - I know! But they will just dump it all in the garbage, and I can't live with that. So I separated all the junk into the garbage and put the boxes and packing foam in the recycling! I can't help myself! I hate when people just throw everything away without sorting. I am my own worst enemy! That's why I'm so slow when I'm tidying up!

However, there is quite a mess in the garage at the moment, after all the garbage was ...

Oh my—could I be running out of gas with Down on the Farm? NO -- I must forge ahead - I must get it done! 

One of the things I did was to test a new fabric for the grass. While I won't be remaking the grass section today, I did need to cut grass fabric for the final block. So I dug out something I think will work and cut a piece to see what the contrast would be. 

Well, it looks a bit messy in this photo, but YES—there is enough contrast. 

Testing the new fabric for ...

You are right -- 30 years is NOT old for a house, but the electrical stuff in the house is old! Many of the plugs were outdated or broken. That is not good news for safety and for our environment! Yet again!!!

OH MY -- I never thought about the QUILTsocial blog posts and AI. But you are right—you cannot tell it is AI. The voices and conversation are super smooth and sound just like two people casually talking - literally the way you would have a conversation in a podcast. DH says, I should be happy that it's NOT my ...

OH MY --- I had to finish that book (Grounds for Murder by Betty Ternier Daniels) last night. I think it was 8 hours in total, but since I was busy sewing this intense quilt block, I had to turn it off each time I needed to find pieces to sew. There are so many similar sizes, and obviously you are sewing two different fabrics together - I had to do a wee bit of unripping from time to time. 

But you are NOT going to believe this. At one point in the book, the main character mentions a small village in ...

We all had a decent night. Murphy is content to sleep outside - I just don't get that, but if it keeps her happy, then I'm willing to do it. But should she ever bark, I'll be like the Dad in The Night Before Christmas - "I awoke with a flash and flew to the window and tore open the sash!" That will be me! But so far, so good. And when I brought her in around 5 AM (that's kind of the witching hour for raccoons), she was happy to sleep in Lexi's bed, but when ...

Let's get back to the T-shirt quilt. All the shirts are cut up and hanging on the wall.

The first part of the T-shirts

Make that two walls. This second wall also includes the backs of the T-shirts, and thankfully there were only seven of those. There are 44 T-shirt fronts and seven backs. 

The second wall of T-shirts

I sent a note to Dillon to ask how to proceed, as they will not all fit on one quilt unless we make a giant quilt, and I'm happy to do that if that's what he wants. 

Let ...

I will be the first to admit that there are days when I should be enrolled in anger management training. However, I will say that it's not because of what I do - it's what others do to me. Within the last two weeks, I received SIX requests for information on my personal travel plans from the same person. I'm past the point of caring if anyone else knows.  

I asked why they needed to know that information, and the answer I got was lame. I decided (spitefully—I admit it) that I wasn't going to provide ...

 OMG!!!!!!! When I read the first line of Daphne's comment, I was going to say - I used to work at the Main Office of BMO in Old Montreal. The number of days I had lunch in the park across the street, right in front of Notre-Dame Basilica. But seriously? There is a plaque in the BMO Museum about the Pauline Vanier Scholarship! I did not know that, and I hope Daphne got a picture. That was ME!!!!!! I should tell you that story someday. I have photos at home -- it was a really big to-do. And it was a ...

WOW --- what great stories of coincidences!!!! And, amazingly, our brain makes these connections! It's an amazing tool, and we need to use it or listen to it a lot more than we do!!

Good progress was made at the retreat house. I moved another bag of finished projects to the car last night, leaving one bag of projects and my knitting bag! We are here until Sunday, so I should be able to touch most of the stuff I brought. Well, let's see, since some of them are small, but still -- despite my panic packing at the end ...

OH MY --- there are so many stories of how people just "randomly" meet, and it's meant to be. The blog is going to be late, as I listened to another story of just such a situation. Life is so full of coincidences, or are they really coincidences? The next time a coincidence happens --- think about it --- that happened for a reason.  

I am not sure that I'll go for a walk this morning - at least not in the direction that we have been going - down the local road. The black flies are out, and, well, I had a ...

Art is art! Oh my—I love Tammy's comment about the CN Tower from yesterday's blog. The person who criticized the block recognized it as the CN Tower. Mission accomplished!!! I NEVER think of the good comebacks at the time. 

Imagine if we were all quick on our feet and could put the "Karens" in their place immediately!! I have to work on those witty comebacks! 

And it was time for our UFO Club. The amount of UFOs that most of us have is obscene, but slow and steady, and we will whittle them away. That's my ...

Should I say "be careful what you wish for?" We went from winter to high summer overnight! Yesterday was a blistering hot day with lots of sun! What a change, and I think we have heat today and tomorrow, and then back to mid-teens! That's OK -- it's nice to walk around in shorts and sweat!

It was an interesting day, and for some reason, I decided it was important to spend time gardening, which was NOT on my to-do list. But that's OK. It's stuff that needed to be done. 

First, let me give you an ...

I see I am not the only one who pushes the long arm to the limits! Yes—you can get away with minimal excess on the backing, BUT only if it is your quilt and you are the operator! It's fiddly, and you must babysit that thing along all the edges! And sometimes things happen, like when the pin (I no longer use clamps) that holds the elastic grip on the side gets caught on the machine bed. I had to do a wee bit of ripping yesterday. But not a big deal because I was standing there and ...

Let's start with the puzzle stores - actually, there are many sources of puzzles, but here are the main ones that I know of. 

Puzzles Canada - Georgetown. A warehouse of puzzles that is open to the public, and they sell MANY brands, sizes, and offer free shipping over a certain amount. You also get 10% back in reward points, which you can apply to any future purchase. They also sell The Occurrence puzzles, which are made in Merrickville, Ontario. HIGHLY recommend visiting the store or the website. Check the website for hours as they do NOT open until NOON. 

Puzzle ...

Something very bizarre happened yesterday, and it sure gave me pause for thought. We only have one home phone, which sits in the living room. We do hear it ring, but never answer it. There is an answering machine attached to it, and I check it from time to time. It's mostly junk if there are any messages at all. I heard the phone ring and the announcement that it was Bell calling. I had heard this the day before, so I was wondering if they were trying to contact me. 

I thought I had better try to catch ...

OH -- there were a few comments about husbands cooking -- to be clear, mine took over cooking before the pandemic, and like Tammy's, he is constantly saying, "Oh, this is very good." While not implying that his cooking is better than mine, there are just subtle comments. Or, maybe I'm reading too much into the comment. However, he has recently gotten a more demanding job, and while he still works from home, he often doesn't have time to cook, or he finishes work at 8 PM and then decides to cook -- I'm on my way to bed ...

What is with this weather? It's May 12, and we have frost warnings! The heat is still on in the house, and I am mostly wearing my Patagonia down sweater when I'm out walking the girls - with mitts on! At least it did warm up in the afternoon, but I see we have a frost warning again this morning. 

The good news is that with shorter and slower walks and lots of ice, I'm doing OK. Better than OK, and that makes me happy. 

However, someone is very unhappy with the short walks and is protesting. Every time I was near the front door, guess who was there? Demanding that I take her for another walk. How does she know her walk was shortchanged? Lexi is just happy to get out and doesn't care how long the walk is. 

However, the morning walk with Murphy was bizarre. I think I had mentioned that we had some lightning ...