What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I went to bed last night utterly exhausted! My afternoon walk was only to the library, yet I did well over 13 KM in the day! How did that happen? Back and forth to the long arm, back and forth to the storage room, moving boxes and fabric, and everything else! 

But -- Studio B is almost back to normal, and I'm so excited! 

First, let's chat about advent calendars. For whatever reason, I got on a roll with advent calendars this year. M got an adventure calendar, and she's already solved the first clue! I opened up ...

The writing is done! Am I getting better? Or am I better prepared? It seems to take less time than it did in the past - I think my hands are getting faster at getting the thoughts on "paper," and I'm better at editing as my grammar improves. I used to fight with Grammarly to understand what they were telling me. It does NOT like Passive Voice, and I used to struggle with writing in the Active Voice. It's all good -- the writing is done!

 I feel like I'm behind, and I've only got up! Actually, everything is on time! I want to do so much, but I can't quite yet. 

The writing is almost at an end. The last assignment was a struggle because I was doing something new or something I don't often do, and I didn't want to do either. My brain hurts! So much learning to do and then communicate in words. I just want it done so I can get downstairs and tidy up! After the writing is done, I might take the rest of ...

We have heat again! We had heat in the house, but it wouldn't go above a certain temperature. The technician was shortly after eight and made several adjustments, and YES - I needed to clean the filter. It amazes me that since we now lease the furnace, the company is NOT pushing down our throats to have it serviced. When we owned the furnace, they were on us like a dirty shirt to have it serviced twice a year. I'll be making some notes in my calendar to get that done. 

Furnace repair in action

And it's probably ...

So many Advent Calendars -- so little time! Is it next year so I can order one? OK --- so that's pushing time limits a wee bit. But now that I've investigated advent calendars and found out how inexpensive some of them are, compared to the quilting ones -- I want a different one. Maybe I could "cheat" and buy one for myself this year!! No one will know! 

Had great presentations yesterday, and OH - boy -- I should learn to read the instructions. I seem to make things up when I'm sewing, and well -- if it works and it's ...

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to get on the bandwagon with what everyone else is doing? Advent calendars have been around forever (as has almost everything in this world -- more on that another day!). When M was home, we had MANY advent calendars, and it was fun to watch her open each one -- some had chocolate in them, some had other goodies, and one was to build a Santa's workshop that we lovingly put away each year so she could reopen it the next. 

Since she moved, there have been no advent calendars. Well, that's ...

Have you noticed that if you type dog backward that it spells god? Yes -- sometimes, I think that is their attitude! At least at my house. 

I saw a host of funny dog pictures yesterday as the dogs got out in the snow, and for some of them, it was their first time! Hilarious! 

My girls? They've seen snow before, but they have fun on the first day. 

I swear these girls hate having their picture taken. I plop them in the snow and ask them to look at me; this is what I get! They can't even ...

You do not want to see my house at the moment. A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks, and there hasn't really been time to keep things under control. I swear as the day went on yesterday that it got worse!

Here's that heap of quilts that need to be bound. I was hoping to tackle that this morning, but that's not going to happen. 

Quilts to be bound

The cutting table is buried, and I need to cut stuff this morning. I doubt there'll be time to deal with it, so all ...

OK --- so the lawn furniture got put away. Phew -- we can all rest easy now. It wasn't so much the furniture; it was shutting off the tap to the backyard that was the critical thing here. I noticed that DH put one piece in the shed, but it was the largest piece, making it a challenge to get the rest in there. But I managed. And I drained 200 feet of garden hose, and it's all stored away. The deck is mostly swept -- I would have used the leaf blower, but it was at the back of the ...

I've been humbled! Someone thought I was getting along too well, and I was brought to my knees. Personally, I think someone has a voodoo doll of me and stuck pins in my head! My sinuses just had a field day with me yesterday, and I was brought down! 

That and the damn phone, which I'll mention in a minute. 

During Monday's sewing, we had been chatting about sleeping. Yes -- I have my bad nights, just like everyone else. For the most part, I have zero trouble sleeping. On Monday night, I went to bed and fell ...

Thanks, Carolyn, for the offer to bind quilts!!! I will start working on the binding as soon as those quilt backs are DONE! Only three more to make! 

I never get too much done on a Monday, as I seem to chat more than I sew! But I got the next quilt loaded on the long arm, and the next piece of machine embroidery prepped and ready to go. Plus, I cleared up a few things, and those worktables are almost clear! So it was a good day!

Worktables are almost clear!

Oh my -- I have serious allergy issues these ...

 You had better sit down for this one. Even I was exhausted when I went to bed! 

I'll start with the quilt report. Yes --- more quilts are done for Quilts of Valour, making numbers 5 and 6 of eleven. Can I get five more done by Thursday evening? 

Quilts of Valour quilt Number 5

Quilts of Valour quilt Number 6

I know I will - - I'll make it a priority. Even with automation, quilting two quilts in one day is time-consuming! 

Four of the remaining five quilts

And I played bobbin chicken, and I won! I was getting close ...

 I'm at the Quality Inn for the night. Well, the night is gone, and I'm getting ready to start the day. I had to laugh as they asked me when I checked in if I had pets. Can you imagine Murphy and Lexi in a hotel? There's a white duvet on the bed! Nope -- it's not going to happen. 

I laughed at the event as Heather mentioned that she was off to the vet as she has a 7-month-old Golden/lab mix. He's a boy, and she needs him fixed to calm him down. AH ...

This has definitely been a transition year for all of us. Some of us are comfortable being out and about, while others are not. Then new outbreaks occur, and we move back to our bubbles. It's crazy trying to organize something, especially with the demographic we find in quilters. And we have become comfortable in our Zoom worlds!!

I'm writing this at night because I'll be on the road early on my way to Kingston! And I owe you some e-mails and some comments on the blog, so be patient! 

I don't have much to share ...

Oh my --- we seem to be having some PASSIONATE discussions on our Zoom calls lately. Yes -- I am pretty opinionated, and well, some of those discussions come onto the blog, as in the cost of those fabric kits. I have another issue about that, but no time this morning. 

I will say that we are all still friends and have no hard feelings. We did have a great time at the Virtual Retreat, and we met Debbie again, who has walked a Camino! That was exciting, but I didn't want to bore the rest of the group to death ...

It's 6 AM, and where are my retreat friends? Most people know that I go to bed early, but I've been known to stay up later -- I just don't always say that. But I'm pretty consistent on when I get up. Last night, I was working on something (you'll see it later today) that needed to be done, so I stayed up a bit later than usual. As a matter of fact, I was the one that closed the call last night. 

And then I was up early this morning and have already got a ...

I took MANY pictures yesterday, and I have nothing to share with you today! OK -- that's a lie because I always have something to share. But while I spent the entire day immersed in quilting stuff, I have NO quilting pictures to share. 

However, if you are part of my Pre-Cut or Scrap class today, you'll see TONS of stuff. I have a lot to say about pre-cuts and scraps and how we have a love/hate relationship with both. But I LOVE putting it down on paper. Finding just the right picture to show what I'm ...

I admit that my grammar is not my strong point, and I hated English in school. All those rules about dangling participles or whatever they are called and what verb tense to use, and let's not confuse worse and worst! I admit that my grammar (hopefully) has improved somewhat with all the writing I've done over the years, and I have to thank Grammarly for that. 

I would say the most significant error for me is being too verbose! I add words like "do" and "that" and others that do not add value to the sentence and make ...

It's hard to get back to reality! Therefore, I worked on bindings instead of doing stuff I should have been doing! 

I want to work on the next batch of bindings for the Project Linus quilts. My goal is to get the next set of ten quilts bound. And yes -- it never fails; those joins end up at the corners. 

Another join at a corner

Diane has prepared all or most of the bindings for this batch of quilts. Ooops --- two of them were a wee bit short, so I had to dig through my flannel scraps to find ...

 A travel day -- always my favorite day of any trip. Well, only when things go well, and yesterday was a great travel day. 

My flight was at 10 AM, so I left the house at 8:30 AM and was at the airport by 9. You have to love Uber and HOV lanes, which make it super easy to get there even in rush hour. Since I was already checked in and had only carry-on luggage, I zipped to security. There were no lines, but I still went through the NEXUS line. 

The biggest challenge was a couple who seemed ...