What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Consider this a post-Christmas, end of year, holiday wrap-up post. You might remember my initial foray into needlepoint, my birthday plaid. Our daughter took it back for finishing and surprised me by attaching it to the lid of this sweet little basket. I absolutely love it! It will hold my treasures and be a constant reminder of a wonderful weekend that we shared together. I don't know how

Consider this a post-Christmas, end of year, holiday wrap-up post. You might remember my initial foray into needlepoint, my birthday plaid. Our daughter took it back for finishing and surprised me by attaching it to the lid of this sweet little basket. I absolutely love it! It will hold my treasures and be a constant reminder of a wonderful weekend that we shared together. I don't know how

I need to spend a bit of time this morning answering the comments. So many good comments!! Thanks so much - I appreciate them all! And I especially appreciate you following me along with my craziness! I don't write for you - I mostly write for myself. That sounds somewhat unusual, especially when it's published for everyone to see. 

But I write because it helps to clear my brain, which would explode if I didn't get some of this silliness, creativity, and knowledge out of my brain! I've also used it to follow up on things because, let ...

I'll share the story of the long lost connection in a minute, first I have to explain what new path I've gone down. As you know, I have a love/hate relationship with technology. I have no issues with technology working or not working at the moment (knock on wood). My problem is understanding various file formats and how they work and do different things in various graphic programs. 

In one instance, a vector file is required, while a raster file is needed somewhere else. Do you understand those terms and what they are all about? And what ...

There are several things I have learned over the years in setting expectations for how things turn out. 

1. You can over-plan! You spend so much time planning the event that when it actually happens, it's melodramatic and a let-down. The event occurs in a flash, and there's no time to enjoy it, especially if you're constantly watching to see that everything happens as planned. I suppose part of the event is the planning, but that's not me. I like to wing things! 
2. You can do anything alone! I do not know why doing things alone has ...

Oh, I did not throw that dead skunk into a neighbor's yard!!! I have a large woodlot (my forest) behind my house, and the skunk will decompose and return to the land in a safe and friendly environment! I do NOT dispose of garbage over the fence. I should have been clearer on that, but I assumed (and we all know what happens with that) that everyone who is a regular reader knows I have a natural woodlot behind me. 

Someone said it would smell. I've seen and smelted enough dead animals in that forest—we've lived ...

Slow and steady! Therapeutic! I hope others feel that because after the Virtual Retreat, I think a "few" people have been organizing their sewing spaces. I heard people having been refolding their fabrics so they fit nicely on the shelves, scraps have been pitched, patterns are being reevaluated, and a whole lot more. 

Doesn't it feel good? I swear, the more that I slow down and actually accomplish those niggly little tasks, the more I want to do them and actually get something done instead of shoving it to the side. 

Let's take a look at what is ...

OK --- so I can see how people get scammed. In addition to my scratch lotto ticket, I found a Lotto Max ticket, and well -- I might as well take that with me to see if it's a winner. YES -- I know I can have the app on my phone, but I haven't reinstalled it since I got the new phone, and I rarely buy tickets. 

I get to the mall and scan the Lotto Max ticket, which is a WINNER. $10!! There were two employees at the kiosk, and one of them was busy, so this woman popped ...

Oh --- running short on time this morning; I'll deal with the comments tomorrow. I love comments, so thanks for sending them along. 

We all know that you must be careful when searching the internet as sometimes you don't necessarily get what you want. At least my secondary search was CLEAN but unexpected. 

I was searching for the power tower, so I could figure out where to buy it. This is what I wanted. I love the bilingualism in the photo. The measurements on the left are in inches, and those on the right are in millimeters. A true ...

This year was our neighborhood group’s turn to host the guild’s Holiday party, and we have been working on it for months. We set the theme last spring and began looking for the materials we needed. Settle in for a long and picture heavy post, as I catch you up on all the prep and secret projects, and show you the final result. We had a wonderful time, and the guild was delighted.

The first thing we decided was to make it an afternoon tea rather than a meal. We decided to make teacup pincushions for all the ...

My second new quilt start happened this week with yet another block-of-the-month class. This one is based on a pattern called "Cream and Sugar" by It's Sew Emma. I've decided to adopt the lower-contrast neutral palette as illustrated; I think it will be pretty and a nice way for me to experiment with value, it will be fun. One of the class participants expressed that she thought beige quilts were

My second new quilt start happened this week with yet another block-of-the-month class. This one is based on a pattern called "Cream and Sugar" by It's Sew Emma. I've decided to adopt the lower-contrast neutral palette as illustrated; I think it will be pretty and a nice way for me to experiment with value, it will be fun. One of the class participants expressed that she thought beige quilts were

So far, so good!  I headed out Thursday, along with some of the other Essential staff wives, for a retreat/conference in Dallas, Georgia; Cultivate 2020.

It was a LOT of fun!  I love road trips in and of themselves, but this retreat was really intended to pamper and encourage the participants and a great job was done of it!

I mean, wow!  Our lunch Friday was served in high—tea time—style! Each of us got our own tiered tray, that then went home with us. We went home with a ton of swag, including the gorgeous (and yummy ...