What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

It was a positively boring day yesterday! The third-level Microsoft support called, and she took about 5 minutes to poke around my Outlook setup, then decided it needed to be escalated to a higher level! Yikes!!! But Microsoft and Google don't seem to like talking to each other, and there's an issue with syncing. Now I understand why it takes so long for my email to sync - that's always been an issue, but I never thought much about it. If Microsoft is willing to spend time on it, I'm happy to oblige! I have another call ...

I'll get the bad news out of the way first thing, so you don't have to wonder what's going on. I've been extremely careful on the sidewalks all year. I'm watching for ice patches and have had a few minor slips. Yesterday? I was walking Miss Lexi, so I can't blame powerful Murphy for this one. But I slipped. I didn't break anything - PHEW!! But my left leg (of course!) went out in front, and I swear I looked like I had just thrown a curling rock, which isn't bad, but I ...

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 ...

Here's an update on several situations. After a few messages back and forth with M, it seems that if I read her text correctly, the designer will make the veil; it's my job to embroider it!! OK -- I think I can handle that. Thanks for the tips from everyone. Now I just need to find out the timing --- and she's in BC, and I'm here! But that's no issue!

As for the house? We didn't have any leaks yesterday, even though the sun was out. My towel stayed dry all day. I spoke to ...

Wow -- it was so warm yesterday (plus 2) —it was obscene! We had a little bit of snow in the night, so I got that shoveled when I got back from walking the girls. 

So here's a question for you—how well do you know your neighbors? I'm pretty observant, and because I walk daily, I get to see things as they change. Like the neighbor who is now retired because they shovel their own snow rather than have a truck come and do it. 

However, I am not as good as I think I am!! There is ...

I love all your comments about being busy in retirement! I will always be busy, but I guess my point is that I see retired people constantly signing up for commitments. They head up a committee, take tons of classes, or make themselves accountable to SOMETHING or SOMEONE, and that accountability fills their day. It's almost like working again. 

You need to be busy, but if you decide to take a day off from quilting, who will care? I want to be busy, but free of deadlines and headaches! And being accountable to others. While I still have responsibilities ...

FOCUS --- it's a tricky thing! But I have my visual list and my blue UFO bin, and I refuse to let anything get in the way of finishing those projects. Oh -- there are loads of things to do, but I know I can't do them all, so I picked a few, and that's my goal! It has taken me a very long time to get to that point, but I refuse to get sidetracked!

Just a teaser: this is the project Dede and I worked on. Wait—soon you'll get to see it yourself. Absolutely stunning ...

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 ...

Oh my -- the day was filled with stories. I wasn't as productive as I would have liked, as there was a computer glitch along the way, but the issue got resolved; however, it took a LONG time. BUT I learned something new, and what used to be a two-part process is now a one-part process, so that is good! 

I futzed around with my Canva file until it was the way I wanted, then sent it to the printer, and it was ready to be picked up! I can't say enough about the folks at Sherwood Copy & Print ...

I get that folks on Vancouver Island don't get as much snow as we do, but yesterday I saw a picture of someone MOWING their lush-looking green lawn, and that grass was LONG! 

For everyone who is missing snow, here are a few pictures. If only it were easy to ship to you!

This doesn't look too bad, but it gives you an idea of how deep the snow is in my residential area. That is at least 16 inches piled up on either side of the sidewalk. The sidewalk plow had gone past a second time the ...

 LOL --- I have entered a couple of things into my electronic to-do list, but it's going to take some work to get started to make it truly useful. Baby steps. Meanwhile, I had made a paper list of 12 things I wanted to accomplish in Studio B this week, and I crossed two off yesterday and almost completed 3 more! These are all small things - not actually piecing a quilt, but finishing off bags, or other small items. But all is good!

I get a daily email from the to-do app listing my tasks. I'll have to check ...

OH!!!! I'm an idiot! OK -- maybe not an idiot, but I completely forgot there's a Virtual Retreat TODAY!!! I usually post about it and post the links several days in advance, and it slipped my mind. I didn't put it in the calendar, and I say I'm on top of things!!! Watch for the links at the end.

 And I'm behind this morning—it was a weird night. I woke up in the middle of the night - completely wide awake. I lay there for a while thinking perhaps I'm not really ready to get ...

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 ...

How quickly the clutter returns to the desktop! I must set aside a few minutes each day to deal with the stuff! 

How quickly the days are flying by!!!! Can you believe that we are almost two weeks into this year? ACK!!

How quickly has our snow come and gone! Here are a couple of pictures from that folder that I accidentally deleted. The little plow came by very early in the morning and cleared the sidewalk. While we still have to shovel - well, some people think they don't have to - we still need to shovel the snow out ...

OH, I just realized that the title of yesterday's blog AND the first picture you see of a volcano erupting were perhaps a bit dramatic!! BUT getting that much work done in the office was dramatic! 

I listened to this audiobook MANY years ago when I started my decluttering journey. I just checked my blog and the date was March 10, 2014!!!!! Well, I listened to it somewhere, and I suspect it was before I started because the first room I tackled was the bedroom, and that's the first room mentioned in the book. For the record, and ...

Thanks for the wishes and the vote of confidence on my 2026 word - GOALS. Someone mentioned they had goals for 2025, and while they met some, they didn't hit the mark on all of them. And you know what they said? They FORGAVE themselves for not making the mark! That is a critical statement because if you set a goal and don't achieve it, and then you beat yourself up, what is the point of that? 

If you have to change a goal, there's likely a good reason. Was the goal too aggressive? Did family or health ...

Some of you beat me to it! I was going to post about the QUILTsocial cover today! I'll do that later in the post. Thank you!!!! It was the one day that I wasn't wearing my orange headband! KU had made me a dark purple one, and I was wearing that! But no worries -- you all know who I am without the orange hairband! It's the people that I meet infrequently who remember me by the flowers!

HEY --- I never even thought of chocolate croissants for breakfast. WAIT -- can we rewind the clock? I ate chocolate (my ...

As promised, here are the links to the journal cover tutorials I've written over the years. Note the date on these tutorials - July 2014. This is the SECOND set of tutorials I wrote for QUILTsocial. I'm sure my writing style and grammar have changed significantly!

This is the basic tutorial on making a journal cover. I think the method of adding the lining is clever, and there's no reason to leave an opening along one side to turn it inside out. 

Making a collage journal cover. Perfect way to use up scraps or create a personalized cover ...

Mission accomplished! The two (lengthy) presentations are together! I love putting the presentations together, and I spend quite a bit of time sewing, taking pictures, scouring the internet for inspiration or ideas, and amassing the information into a somewhat cohesive storyline that makes sense! 

And I learn so much from doing that. It's amazing what you can find on the internet these days. And yes -- you must be careful that what you see makes sense. It has to make sense to you, but it might not make sense to the next person. Or you may not like the idea ...

 Oh my— I read the comments every day, though I'm terrible at responding directly. In addition to your comments, I also get spam comments, which I delete when I see them. 

Can you believe this one? It was NOT a general comment, as most spam is -- it picked up on things I said and replied to them as if it were a real person. That's pretty freaky!

I am thrilled to report that I accomplished a lot yesterday. I have almost completed everything for one class. It was a long day, but I needed to get this done ...