What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I've been learning so much about myself and how I function (or don't function). First, while I thought I was managing my stuff well, I wasn't. I was productive, yet I was struggling to meet deadlines. OK, I am productive, but I struggle with paperwork. And there are so many things to do. 

The same is true for my quilting. There are just so many UFOs, kits, and other things. 

I'm learning that focus seems to be a huge factor in making stuff happen. OK, so that's not rocket science at all. But when you ...

I got rid of more CDs/DVDs yesterday. A few more have made it onto the desk to be looked at this morning, including a new box of 10 CDs that's not even opened. So that will be easy to cope with. Everything fits into one container now, which is good news. I'll just keep whittling those down until I get to the end. You can't imagine how exciting this is! 

I went to spin class yesterday and had a great workout, but I have to say that I got more UP feelings (those endorphins) from tossing ...

As you know, I was very frustrated yesterday by the earbud situation. My voice kept cutting out on calls, the earbud mic dropped, and I could not move around and chat. 

I mentioned that frustration on my first call yesterday morning. I think there were ten people on that call, and can you believe that THREE of the people on that call have something different than earbuds? They are using what's called open-ear technology from a company called Shokz. Three people—that was amazing! 

Here's a picture of what they look like. 

Open earbuds

Dilemma!!! I struggle with the microphone on my laptop. The microphone could be better because you must be directly in front of the laptop before it picks up my voice. Yet I see people on Zoom calls, and they are at the other end of their room, and we can still hear them. Not so with me, except if I happen to be on the phone at the other end of the room, and then it picks up my voice clear as a bell!

I've been using Jabra earbuds, and the first pair (hand-me-downs from DH) worked very well ...

In this wonderful world of technology, miracles can happen. 

No --- I don't think my phone is fixed, and if someone should call me and I happen to pick up, I'm on pins and needles for the conversation, expecting my voice to drop. I hate being on the cell phone and almost never accept calls unless they're from my boss! Texting is the way to get in touch with me. 

No -- the miracle happened with my printer. 

But wait—I slept great last night, and my sleep schedule is back on track. Yeah, and then in a couple ...

Soon, you won't see the orange basket with the green scraps. While I didn't finish it last night, it's close. I saw quite a bit of the bottom at points of my excavation. 

A large part of the bottom is exposed

Of course, I can't leave things alone, and I have to "fluff" those scraps. This is how it looks this morning. You have to look way down to see what's left. I should have no problem finishing that tonight. I have now officially finished watching the 700 series (2010) of The Quilt Show, so ...

I haven't had a chance to check out that video on the wonky quilt yet. I hope to do that today. 

I had a Zoom in the morning and also had to check the equipment for my upcoming Facebook Live tomorrow. It's on Applique and on the PFAFF page. The microphone I want to use isn't working, and this story is why I LOVE to shop locally and in person. I seem to be missing a cable. I've used this configuration in the past, but used earbuds instead and I have to say I'm not ...

Before I forget, here's the latest development on the Gordie Howe International Bridge: The gap is almost closed!! It's been fascinating to watch, and it will still be approximately one year before the bridge opens. 

Much has been happening here, and getting work done is hard! But I did. 

The quilt back is finished. Yes, I was short fabric by a smidge, so I added another piece. No big deal! That got rid of the remainder of a bolt of fabric. 

A quilt backing

This quilt is ...

I got a chuckle from the comment on yesterday's blog. The minute something is in your hand, deal with it—toss, keep, and put it immediately where it should go. I'm trying very hard to do that. I'm still dealing with quantity at times, and it's overwhelming. I'm also still at the sorting stage, where I don't want to make decisions until I see the entire picture of that group of items. 

But I'm making progress, and YES -- when I have something in my hand, I try very hard to make that toss ...

I was away at the start of the week, teaching and demoing at Barnyarns in NE Yorkshire. I had chosen to travel by train which was great because I could do some work on my laptop and read a book but not so convenient as having a car at the other end. The Premier Inn in which I was staying was a couple of miles out of town so nowhere to go out for food in the evening. The event was well attended by people keen to investigate purchasing a Q-Series machine or just curious or just tempted by Prosecco ...

Someone asked what will happen to the house. Actually, there are two houses on the property. One is the original house that my parents moved to the farm when they bought it in 1956. Hmm—I had better check that date—but it's somewhere in that era. Perhaps I can ask Mom today because I probably know, but yet I don't know. 

That house was heated with a wood kitchen stove and two oil burners—one in the living room and one in one of the bedrooms. There was no bathroom and no running water. I lived there ...

Can you explain this to me? 

I spotted this when I was on my way home from one of the morning walks. 

A friendly dog walk? I think NOT!

Hmm -- where is my techie? 

This is what happens when you are NOT a professional but think you are. I've been trying hard not to store data on the hard disks of my computers. I use several online storage places, and I have two external hard disks—well, actually, I have four, but I was only using two. 

In an effort to clean things up—yes, when I'm supposed to be sewing—I decided to empty the old one. I knew it was finicky and needed to get the data off it. 

I took it to the Geek ...

Yep -I'm deleting from SENT and then emptying the TRASH folder. I don't have time to deal with it today, but I'm happy knowing that I've found a good part of the culprit. However, I'm still a long way from cleaning up that email. I'll do a little bit each day! If I were to add up all those "little bits" each day, I'd need a long, long day!

But all is good! You can't sweat the stuff you can't deal with that day. Just tuck it in the back of ...

OH --- so I perhaps found part of the issue with my email. Someone had mentioned it before, and someone mentioned it in the comments the other day. 

I don't have the pictures to share with you this morning, but here's what happened. I did a disk cleanup -- somewhere on my computer, I found that, and it cleared up maybe one GB. That's nothing -- I need gobs of space.

So, I went into the SENT folder in my email. Hmmm  --- I figured out how to sort them by size and got a chuckle. The first category that came ...

Yet again, I have had a week when what I was meant to be doing (on paper) was not what I ended up doing, not that those things were not valid in their own way;) I did get 2 customer quilts done before Nella pointed out that she would like to spend some time with me in the last week of her Easter hols. The custom quilt had to have a few thread tails sewn in and the red flying-geese one was a bit of a challenge because the customer wanted the echo quilting to look exactly as it did ...

No need to be alarmed – the title does not refer to a sad music album that I have written! It has been a week when I seem to have lost and broken more things than usual. I hunted high and low for some Swiss Army knives, blaming everyone else in the house for hoarding them then eventually found them at the back of a drawer where I had put them. When I was unspooling some thread off a Bernina bobbin it jumped out of my hand and disappeared under a really awkward cupboard. I looked everywhere for a quilt that ...

About that shelving - it's still in the garage. At the warehouse, we attempted to release the shelves with a mallet, but the little things that hold the shelves in place are NOT the little black plastic ones I've got on my other shelving. These are sort of rubberized WHITE ones. One of the guys told me in his experience that once these heavy-duty shelves are together, they are NOT coming off. I might try the wood and hammer method, but getting two guys to move it might be faster. I can't deal with it right now, so ...

OH --- someone mentioned that it was funny I went to the bank to deposit that $20 bill! Well, I was pretty sure it wouldn't go through the ATM, and I asked the teller, and he said NO. I thought this polymer bill was introduced years ago. I was a bit surprised that it was in September of 2015. Seriously? I thought it was older than that. AHA --- a bit more research and it was, in fact, introduced in November 2012. A commemorative note in honor of Queen Elizabeth was introduced in September 2015. 

I could have spent that $20 ...

I survived another day! Actually, it wasn't too bad once I got all the equipment set up for the second Zoom call. When the Zoom session is about software, the set-up is easy because everything is on the computer. But when it comes to showing the sewing machines, I need to do a bit more work. This is what it looked like last night behind the scenes. 

Behind the scenes on a Zoom call

I was too far away from my computer for my liking, so I need to rearrange that a bit. It gets tight with tripods and ...