What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Travel days are so much fun! OK -- I know I shouldn't complain, and I'm not because I'm fortunate enough to be able to travel. I would say that half of the travel I do wouldn't be necessary if my family lived close, but we are all over the country, and hence, travel is required. For those of you with family within driving distance? You are lucky! 

Anyway -- the first thing was to get the girls walked and finish tidying up stuff around the house. Can you believe I even vacuumed quickly before I left? It's ...

Don't you feel great when you discover (reaffirm) things about yourself that make you happy? I have always been a neat person. By that I mean, I love having my stuff organized, in place, and readily available. I love organizing. 

However, when I started quilting and had a baby around the same time, my brain went totally mush, and my organizing skills went downhill rapidly. On top of that, I became something of a collector (OK—read: hoarder). And while I had great intentions of getting everything I had accumulated read or made, that wasn't happening. 

And then ...

OK --- you know how it is when you come across a new word, and you wonder about it, and then POOF -- that word comes up again! In this instance, the word is actually a name - Eilidh - pronounced like Hailey, but without the H. I thought it was a strange spelling, but it popped up this morning on something I was researching, and what are the chances of that? I'll probably see that name and that spelling in many more places now. That's so weird. 

It was a decent day - I managed to solve some of the problems that ...

THANKS to all who gave me great suggestions about the witty comments. I will reread them and memorize them because they were great!!! You are the best, and thanks for putting up with my little tirade yesterday!

And yes -- it was just a question of time before I approached the CJPA (Canadian Jigsaw Puzzle Association) to help. I love helping out, and used to help a lot with the quilt guilds I belonged to in the past. Then, when it became too political and cliquish for my liking, I stepped away, and I don't regret that decision. 

Thankfully, there ...

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 ...

OH MY --- I was exhausted when I got home. I had a decent sleep the night before, but it was short. Can you believe I went to bed at 6:30 last night and got up at 4:30 AM—that is a rarity for me. I had five minutes of awake time and 1 hour and 13 minutes of deep sleep! Phew --- I feel great this morning, and that was probably my best sleep score ever. Those sleep scores only give you excellent if the sleep duration is long. 

But let's step back and see what happened in ...

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 ...

Thanks for the suggestions on computers—I'll look into them because I'd love to get the old computer off the second desk! It takes up a lot of room! 

There was a lot of trepidation in the house as I unboxed the second HP printer. This time, I took pictures as I unboxed it. There's that heavy paper strap around the shrink-wrapped printer. And it worked like a charm. No need to bend deep to pull the printer out of the box. I was very impressed. 

Pull on the heavy cardboard strip to remove the printer

Then ...

 OH MY GOODNESS --- Someone mentioned in the comments that Southern California is already in fire season. Our thoughts are with you, and we hope there are no serious fires. We are so at the mercy of the weather in all we do and how we live our lives. 

I could go down that slippery slope of climate change, but I won't. All I have to do is think back on my short life to see that the weather is NOT the same as it was when I was a kid! 

Well, what a day it was yesterday. It was ...

Have you ever had one of those days? You have things planned, and all the tools and supplies are in place, and then BAM - something goes wrong, and the rest of the day aligns with that? That was yesterday!

The first item on the agenda was to set up the new printer so I could print the pattern I needed to make the blocks for the class on Saturday. How hard can that be? It's a printer. Right? Wrong! 

I unboxed the printer, which I thought was very cleverly packaged. The printer was on its side in the box ...

After getting some feedback from people, I'm glad M is using the trim from her dress for the wedding. Someone else dismantled their lace wedding hat, so her daughter could use it to wrap her bouquet! It was worth the four hours to take it apart!

To answer the question about the community project quilts, the group of 11 I'm working on is NOT among the ones Diane made. Someone did me a favor and picked up a bunch of scraps I was using to make scrap quilts for more community project quilts. She was looking for scraps ...

OH MY --- someone mentioned in the comments about Mary Ellen's book -- "It's OK if you sit on my quilt." Indeed, there were NO quilt police for her! Mary Ellen was quite the spitfire - I heard that from the shop owner where I used to hang out. And definitely, there were no quilt police in Mary Ellen's life. It's a great book. All three of her books that I have (well, technically, now two) are amazing. The amount of detail, flexibility, and freedom she gives is refreshing. 

We need NEW books like that. Books that give you ...

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 ...

Alright - Mother Nature! We've had enough! I turned the heat off yesterday morning, but I had to turn it back on later in the day. It never got above 10 degrees Celsius, and it's just cold with the wind. I see the temperature will go up later today, and the sun will come out, which will help. With all the rain, clouds, and wind, those low temps are cold! 

While it was a day for errands in the car, I also managed to start the appliqué. I got the stars done for both blocks. 

Progress on the appliqué ...

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 ...

Happy Mother's Day

I must say, it feels great to get back to sewing, and, well, I just picked a "random" project to work on. Actually, it's on my Visual To-Do list under UFO, so I'm allowed to work on it! I had picked five projects under the UFO category, and my plan is to finish them all this year. They are in various states of completion. 

When I first started the sew-along quilts, in year two (2004), we did something different. Instead of choosing one large quilt, we picked two small quilts from a four-season collection ...

What an insane day yesterday was! I started the day with Brooke, and we focused on the upper body to avoid further knee issues. I took shorter and slower walks with the girls (they were NOT impressed), and Murphy hung around the front door for a good part of the day, hoping to go for another walk. Then it was off to the dentist. I did walk there, but not before icing the knee to keep things under control. It's not that far, and if I walk slowly, I'm OK. 

Can you believe I got a reasonably good ...

I think I'm in big trouble, and I need medical attention. Not mental health medical attention, but physical. My leg has been bothering me a lot, and it's time I did something about it. I could barely walk yesterday - at least without pain, and that is affecting my good leg, so there is no time to waste. What do I suspect is the issue? Well, where do I start? Issues with the PCL, which is a tendon on the back of the knee, and the sciatic nerves.  

Don't you love how I'm self-diagnosing? I'll go ...