What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

OH ---- I learn so darn much from all of you that it blows my mind! I just read the comment because we were discussing ways to use up those partially wound bobbins. Well, why can't you use the partially wound bobbins (from the long arm) to piece with, but on TOP, not in the bobbin? DUH!!! I knew that!!! LOL

Perfect because there are some rogue colors in those bobbins that have been there for eons, and well, I don't need them. Here's the thing, because I'm sure many of you are gasping at the thought ...

Oh my --- I love the comments!!! YES -- I can see some individualized sew-alongs happening!!! One for the Savannah quilt and one for the suitcases!!!! And that William Morris quote --- you bet -- we all need that one in our house, and I'm going to look at it every time I touch anything. Hmmm --- there might not be anything left. I'd better warn Lexi and Murphy!! Right now they are helpful, well, no, they are beautiful and always will be!!

I confess that I wasn't quite as productive as I would have liked yesterday, but then I went on ...

Just waiting for the email wth the photos to come through! It's been a super productive retreat so far, and we still have a few days to go. Can I finish the remaining quilt tops for the dog quilts? They will have to wait unit October to be quilted, but that's OK. 

OK -- the pictures came through, but some of them need a bit of editing; however, that doesn't seem to want to happen this morning. No big deal -- some are sideways -- we'll just have to let it go. 

This first picture is a bit weird ...

Lol --- yes --- depending on the time of year you were here at Springhouse Retreat -- many of us have watched the corn grow! There never seems to be a lack of entertainment in the form of the fancy equipment moving in and out of that massive driving shed! I find it fascinating!

I've done pretty well at my goal of making those eight quilt tops from the dog fabric. Here is number one. 

Dog quilt number one!

I want to keep them simple and easy to piece. I want them to be approximately 60 inches by 72 inches, and I ...

 ACK --- no pressure on the "paper" dolls!!!! But I'm intrigued by several ideas that have come to mind, and I will need some time to play with them. That will come in October! That fabric did NOT get put away, but was left on the current project table. And yes, as Elle mentioned, that newfound ten+ hours from not teaching software should go to clearing those Current Project tables. There is so much I can do with those ten hours. It doesn't really matter what I do with them, but I want to be productive -- whether that is ...

Oh my—we had an exhausting day! We started at 9 AM, and some people were wrapping up 12 hours later! YES—everyone was brain dead, but I think everyone learned a ton, and that's what it was all about! I thought I had hit the wall, but then most of us sat around and chatted for another hour or so, and it was all very nice! 

It's always a challenge when you invite a group of people, most of whom don't know each other, and hope it all works out. But everyone has a common interest ...

And I'm home again! That was the shortest "retreat" I've been on for a long time. But it was also the correct length for what it was! We only went for a weekend when we started going to retreats in 2006 - almost TWENTY years ago. That was too short, so now we go for six nights. Neither the machine embroidery workshop participants nor I could handle six days of learning machine embroidery! 

We were learning design positioning, and I was hopping around the room like a crazy person. But it was all good. 

The most important thing for ...

Thank goodness those links worked. I even tested them myself, but that was a weird situation. It had never happened to me before, and then it happened twice in the same post! 

I'm pleased to report that the machine embroidery workshop is a rousing success! Even the more experienced are going home with some new knowledge. It's been loads of fun, and we have another exciting adventure this morning. I will adjust the schedule for the one in May, but that is all. 

I usually sleep like a log here, but I was awake the night before for ...

OK  -- that is so weird about the links. Something is happening that reverts them back to my blog. 

Let me try this one more time. 

Quiltcon Winners

If the link does not work, search for QuiltCon Winners 2025. The link will pop up. 

The same with the Dignity Sculpture. Google search that topic, and the link will pop up. 

I have no idea why the links are reverting back to the blog. If they don't work today, that's three days in a row that the link has been reverted back. Do you have any suggestions, my IT friends ...

Here's an interesting question from the comments: If you could be any age, what would it be and why? I think that should be under 10. Of course, the lives of today's children are so different from our childhood. What age would I want to be? I think 5. I would be old enough to be semi-independent but young enough to be in total wonder of the world! 

One of the most significant issues with growing up is maintaining that sense of wonder? Hopefully, you have the choice to be yourself and have parents, teachers, and friends who ...

There has been much discussion about friends at this retreat. What is a friend? Do you have a friend you could call at 3 a.m. if you need help? As we went about our business yesterday, I looked at my pencil. Oh my!!!

Oh my!!!

I got quite a chuckle from that. 

But a bit of chaos happened at the house earlier in the day. You know what I'm talking about if you saw the picture on Facebook. Those red chairs around the firepit were calling for someone to sit in them. I had no takers. Seriously? We ...

Oh my --- you know what they say - what happens at the retreat, stays at the retreat, but I have a couple of things to share. The first is all about the water. Yes, we had a considerable discussion about drinking water - how much is too much? How do you test it? Do you need salt? All kinds of things. 

And this might be too much information for you, but here's the scoop. In the past, I would have been lucky if I had drank one of my water bottles daily. (sip, sip!). My water coach was only here for ...

WAIT—do I need to absorb the water I'm drinking? I need to get more information on that! Thanks, Linda, for that tip. I will check it out. Yesterday, I drank three containers, equivalent to 12 glasses of water. 

I think I can get into the habit, and I think I'm good with three containers a day. I just looked at the salt thing online and must do more research. How does one determine if you retain (and how much) that water to stay hydrated or just need to be in your body to flush stuff out? Questions ...

Yesterday was a bit of a crazy day. It seemed like I spent a lot of time on my phone—yes, my cell phone, which does not work at my house. It actually doesn't work well in my neighborhood, but it works just fine elsewhere. 

This means it's the connection to the tower, which I was told a while back. I need to be persistent in getting my provider to fix the connection. But sometimes, it's nice not to have a working phone! It's a good excuse not to talk to people—not that I don ...

Oh my gosh -- two excellent stories about using the good stuff or getting rid of it - read the comments from yesterday! And yes - it was a thing to pick that china pattern! But so much of it never got used. I'm excited to see Tammy using it every day, and I bet you think of your grandmother! 

So here I am in the big room at Springhouse Retreat and blog writing. I've been up for a while but haven't started sewing yet as I have some work to get done. That was a challenge as I'm ...

Thanks for the vote of confidence on my split 9-patch! I'm going to cut more strips and continue! 

The last day of the retreat is always sad because everyone has to go home. But it's also exciting because you get to come home, unpack, and see everything you did! 

Before I came home, I was determined to go through that bag of Oh Canada scraps and sort it out. This is what happened. 

I found several bags with pieces from various projects, but it was a hodgepodge. I unsewed any pieces that were sewn together. I also found ...

As of this morning, at 6 AM, I have not touched ONE project I brought with me. WOW—can you believe how well I packed? It was another very successful day, and I'm excited. However, I'm also learning (well, I know this) that having a plan is vital! 

In the past - long, long ago - I would flit from project to project. In my "new" life, I'm pretty good at sticking to one thing. I don't get distracted by what others are doing. I'm focused. There has to be a plan, or I will never get ...

I'm happy to report that my neck is feeling better. It's still sore, but it really only affects me when I first get up or when I put my head down, like on the pillow or lying on the floor to do my exercises. I just support my head, and all is good. 

YES - I've been stretching with the foam roller before bed, and I'm feeling much better. I've barely scratched the surface of what I will get into with the new exercise regime. I''m pretty excited about it. It's the bloating in ...

 Oh gosh—I just realized I'm eating my breakfast in front of my new laptop. That means there's going to be a mess of splashed milk! So I must be cautious!!! The bowl is moved off to the side! 

This is the most productive (knock on wood) retreat I've been to in a long, long time. I dug into the second bag of projects as I had finished everything in the first one, and I'll be taking that to the car later today. There is no sense in keeping all this crap in the house, and ...

It's an interesting retreat. Heck, all retreats are interesting, but they are always different. It's never the exact same group of people who attend. It's funny, as when I first started going to retreats almost 20 years ago, we were a set group of nine people, and we went together for years. Then things happened, and that group fell apart. Now, we have a larger group of people; it's never the same mix each time. That makes it interesting! 

How am I feeling? I'm pretty good. I'm realizing that I can't sit well ...