What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

OH - I love the fact that puzzles helped calm someone down. I can see that. I find it extremely relaxing to sit and work on a jigsaw puzzle. I am going to try to always have one on the go since I have learned how to tackle my addiction to them. 

MOVE OVER MOM!!!! 

Hello everyone, this is Murphy and Lexi, and we have something to say. 

It's the girls -- Murphy and Lexi!!!

We love our Mom, and she is very good to us, although we do NOT get nearly as many treats as we need. We are starving ...

Taking my computer out of sleep mode was a good thing. Before I knew it, the syncing had finished, and my folders in the Classic Version of Outlook now have email in them!!! I must get busy and start deleting and resorting what's in there. I don't want to have to go through that again. 

And the program is no longer frozen. It wouldn't allow me to do anything while the syncing process was happening, so that is one positive thing that happened!!!

I went to the post office to check on my missing parcel, and they ...

Despite this newfound focus, it seems challenging to move ahead. WAIT --- I know that I'm getting things done, but the progress seems slow. I know it's not, when you consider how many hours I actually sew each day. I make the most of the time I spend in Studio B and call it a day. There is NO RUSH to get these things done!

Oh my gosh --- what am I complaining about - I still accomplished a LOT. The abbreviated "Dear Jen" is now quilted. I was hoping to get it trimmed, but that didn't happen. A job ...

I fell into bed last night, totally exhausted. After the heavy upper body workout with Brooke in the morning, working with the embroidery machine and the giant quilt, plus a walk to the dollar store and the grocery store, I was done! But that's OK -- it was a productive day! Plus, I finished listening to a book, which I have to share the details with you. 

Let's start with the giant quilt! It is 109 by 109 inches. It is done, almost trimmed, and ready to be dropped off later today. 

Customer quilt - DONE

I am leery of ...

Last week, I took a class on Thread Painting, taught by Carolyn Tabarini and sponsored by our local guild. She was our guest speaker at the morning meeting with an impressive trunk show of her work. These two pieces have light threads on black backgrounds, all free motion machine stitching.

A thread painted dragonfly was stitched over a background of thread painted fabric. The background is done in pastels to provide texture.

This flower is thread painted on pieced log cabin block.

Examining it closer, the color blending is apparent.

Thread coverage is denser in some areas and lighter in ...

I LOVE hearing all your stories of repurposing projects, prepping for upcoming surgeries (good luck), and ideas for my Prince challenge. It's a process to be sure, but when you have a plan, or whatever you want to call it, life is good. I know the times I find hardest are when I have something (or multiple things) to do and no plan. Sometimes that is as simple as writing things down. 

I had several computer tasks to do, and I kept reviewing them in my head. That was taking up a lot of energy to keep track of ...

And the busiest weekend for February is over! I survived it, and all the work got done on time, so my new time management is working out. By time management, I mean I have reduced the number of classes, which made time management so much easier. I didn't juggle my time better - I just had less to do. There's a huge difference, and I feel so much better!

I will always have things to do, but I will always ensure there is time for me!

If you remember, I talked about doing a couple of Zoom sessions on ...

OH MY!!!!!! When I sit down to write the blog, I have to come up with a title, and some days that's a struggle because nothing super exciting happened. But there are days, like today, when I have many titles! I called it "The Best of both worlds," but "Happy Dance," "Exciting update," and "The email saga continues (part two)" would have worked as well. 

It was a good news day all around, so I'm excited. 

The knee update is all good. I did a short walk with the girls in the morning. While I feel perfectly fine ...

For the record, I do NOT give my dogs people food. Currently, three adults live in this house, and TWO of them think it's OK to slip them the occasional tidbit of food, including veggies. I'm OK with the veggies, though some are not safe for dogs. And for this reason, those two dogs hang around those two people waiting for the tidbits. Trust me, I have repeatedly said, DO NOT FEED the dogs people food, and it falls on deaf ears. Thankfully, it's not a lot of food, but I keep repeating the message. 

Since this ...

As I was lamenting the loss of my distribution lists with the sewing group, TWO people piped up that they keep theirs in Excel. Of course, both of these people are familiar with Excel from their working days. They were pretty adamant that I should use EXCEL to manage my lists. 

WHAT? I do NOT get that. The issue is: why would I enter the darn lists twice (Outlook and Excel), which would require duplicate management? I already struggle with duplication. Some lists are needed year-round; others are temporary for my ongoing classes, which last about 9 months. Then those ...

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who believes that if you fill your retirement with busyness, it's not right! WAIT --- I get it -- it's your retirement, and you can do whatever makes you happy, but why would you want to be filling the days with running around and not have time for spontaneous stuff? Nope --- I will not let that happen to me. 

And I stand corrected, the movie with the book communication is called Interstellar! Thanks for the correction!

Speaking of free time, I sometimes have to double-check my calendar to make ...

My friend, Diana, gave me this kitchen print fabric recently. She had purchased it for herself, but lost interest in making anything with it. I thought it would be perfect for an embroidery project for the kitchen. Measuring it out, I could cut it into four rectangular pieces about 18 x 20. Adding a band with the embroidery would bring it up to a great size for use.

Red and teal are such a popular combination, not only for modern kitchens, but also the ones vintage inspired. I pulled threads to match the colors in the fabric, and assigned the ...

Happy Groundhog Day! I think I'd like to watch the movie tonight. Moving along...

Along with that came headaches—I ...

The Girl Gang quilt is finally on deck. This is the project I was looking for last week, and finally found it Monday morning. Yay!

While working on the recent baby quilt, I had a little epiphany about quilting; specifically, how to get it done with less angst, aggravation and still be happy about it. Y’all know I have been digitizing some edge-to-edge designs but I also want to make some block-specific background designs—think Kimberbell’s background quilting and Designs by Juju’s backdrops. Combine that idea with the Brother Luminaire’s ability to scan a design from ...

Oh my goodness -- I love hearing your stories about decluttering! Yes --- it was great to take notes when you are learning, or find tips in magazines or patterns you wanted to make, but at some point, you get past the point of needing/wanting that stuff. When we accumulate so much of it, and it gets tucked away, it gets forgotten. 

KUDOS to any and all of you who are whittling away at that crap along with me. I just don't buy it when people say, "OH, my kids will take care of cleaning my mess." Why? Why would ...

All babies are special, and the ones in my life get a quilt.

I know I have said this on multiple occasions, but my granddaughter Cheyanne told me via FaceTime that she was going to have another baby ON MY BIRTHDAY. I was just giddy! But a sequence of events has pushed the arrival to an earlier date. I finished piecing the baby quilt top in November, but had put off the quilting of it until we got a little closer to the April due date. But we also know that babies come when they tell you they are coming ...

At the guild gift store at our last show, I bought a cute mug with a mug rug to go with it. I just loved the idea, so I made a couple of mats and found mugs to go with them. I put them out for sale at the Fall Fiber Faire at our local quilt shop last fall, and sold all but one.

This one was the first thing sold that day. The mug is huge, and really cute.

You’ve seen the one I did with the Paris theme fabrics. I found the mug first on this set ...

Good grief -- I don't think I'm going to have issues completing my 2026 Conquerer goal. Wait -- I didn't say that out loud—I don't want to jinx myself. But it's super easy to fit 10K a day into my schedule. It's the extra 2K per day that I scheduled last year that was challenging. But then I have vacations, and work days, and I won't always be able to get in that many steps. 

I chuckle because yesterday, I wasn't sure I was going to make it. I didn't really want ...

While I might be inspiring you, you are inspiring me, too! I hear your words of encouragement in my head when I want to quit. And then I think about how fun it will be to share the finish with you the next day, which keeps me going. 

I think starting the blog, almost TWENTY years ago, was a very good thing. They say journaling is therapeutic, and I believe it. It just took me a bit of time to get myself organized so that I knew how to deal with the physical and mental mess around me! 

But if ...

How many times have I lamented that I need just one more day? A few I know. Well, guess what? I just got one more day!!

I had something planned for today, and it got postponed until next week. So that gives me one more day to prep for the two classes and the UFO Club on the weekend. YAHOO!!!!!! 

I will warn you that this blog might be a bit off-putting to some. It's filled with great joy, much happiness, more energy than you probably need (It's only five AM), so I apologize. Heck no -- I won ...