What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I swear this winter is hanging on as long as it possibly can. We had a cool, but sunny day yesterday, and things were melting like mad. There is still some snow on the small pathway that leads to our backyard, and I was so tempted to help it melt by shoveling what's left, but I didn't. What will the neighbors think!!!!

And I spotted a house on the next street over that is the same house as ours, but with a metal roof. It faces the same direction as our house, although perhaps not quite the exact ...

Creative block!!! Where do I start this morning? 

Just kidding! All I need to do is write one word, and then the rest just follows. I have more to write about The Artist's Way, but I'm leaving that until tomorrow. 

Lots of things happened yesterday, and they were very exciting. Let's take a look. I recently went through my pending folder, which was exploding, and I did quite a bit of checking things off the list yesterday morning. So that was a positive way to get some paperwork done. There are a few more papers on the ...

I fell into bed last night, totally exhausted. After the heavy upper body workout with Brooke in the morning, working with the embroidery machine and the giant quilt, plus a walk to the dollar store and the grocery store, I was done! But that's OK -- it was a productive day! Plus, I finished listening to a book, which I have to share the details with you. 

Let's start with the giant quilt! It is 109 by 109 inches. It is done, almost trimmed, and ready to be dropped off later today. 

Customer quilt - DONE

I am leery of ...

Thanks for the information on the cadaver tendon use!!!! Apparently, the medical field has been using that technique for years!!! Who knew? And yes -- a lot is missing from the story of the man with the broken tibia/fibia. He's in bad shape, and I don't remember all the details - tendons pulled away from the knee and the broken bones (right at the knee cap) or something equally horrible. I must remember to ask his mother again. 

Another day - another project!!! And I managed to get through another item on that paperwork list, although a new one came ...

OH OH OH --- I love the idea of using the soccer quilt as a NICU quilt. I will look into that!!!!! Thanks for the suggestion. 

I cannot say enough about the Microsoft support team, which is also located in India. I asked yesterday! Every person I've talked to has been great, but the most important thing? When they say they are going to call, they call at that time! We usually set a two-hour window because they could be on a call with someone else, but for the most part, they have called right at the start of the ...

There are so many thoughts going through my head this morning. I heard some disturbing things yesterday. You've been in this situation - you might have been on a train, at the grocery store, in the airport, at the dinner table, and what is everyone doing? 

They are on their phone! And what are they doing? Endlessly scrolling through countless Social apps -- Facebook, IG, X, Pinterest, Facebook, IG, X, WhatsApp, X, Pinterest. It's ENDLESS scrolling. 

The sad thing is that you are devoting YOUR PRECIOUS hours left in your life to being entertained by total nonsense! What are you ...

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 ...

OH MY!!!!!! When I sit down to write the blog, I have to come up with a title, and some days that's a struggle because nothing super exciting happened. But there are days, like today, when I have many titles! I called it "The Best of both worlds," but "Happy Dance," "Exciting update," and "The email saga continues (part two)" would have worked as well. 

It was a good news day all around, so I'm excited. 

The knee update is all good. I did a short walk with the girls in the morning. While I feel perfectly fine ...

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 ...

I had a thought when I was out walking yesterday, and Tammy confirmed it with her comment. If you were a doctor and you wanted to help your patient, wouldn't it be great to see their sleep history? Or see their heart rate history? And other trends? 

I totally get that different brands track things differently. That was evident when I had the Galaxy Watch for a while, and I hated how it tracked steps slightly differently from the Fitbit. But it's all relative if you only look at your data! 

Speaking of data, I did NOT get ...

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 ...

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 ...

 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 ...

Good grief -- I don't think I'm going to have issues completing my 2026 Conquerer goal. Wait -- I didn't say that out loud—I don't want to jinx myself. But it's super easy to fit 10K a day into my schedule. It's the extra 2K per day that I scheduled last year that was challenging. But then I have vacations, and work days, and I won't always be able to get in that many steps. 

I chuckle because yesterday, I wasn't sure I was going to make it. I didn't really want ...

While I might be inspiring you, you are inspiring me, too! I hear your words of encouragement in my head when I want to quit. And then I think about how fun it will be to share the finish with you the next day, which keeps me going. 

I think starting the blog, almost TWENTY years ago, was a very good thing. They say journaling is therapeutic, and I believe it. It just took me a bit of time to get myself organized so that I knew how to deal with the physical and mental mess around me! 

But if ...

Oh crap --- it's likely that I messed up the links again. I'll repost the link for that video on how learning a second language can save your life. Please tell me that it is only some links, not all!!!

Here is the missing link from yesterday. 

I cannot tell you how happy I am these days! Getting those niggling little UFOs done does way more for my happiness level than money or happy pills ever could. And I've taught (forced) myself to be persistent and focused. And get the darn thing DONE - don't just move it ...

It was a wonderful day - AGAIN! I took tons of pictures, but not much to share with you. It was all for the two classes and the UFO club this weekend. The two presentations are totally prepped. I give the groups until 6 AM the day of the class to submit their pictures. I had an issue getting back to sleep at one point, so I was up in the middle of the night. Everything is DONE for today. Nothing new came in, so nothing new to add this morning! 

I will have to share the homework for Colour My ...

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 ...