What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

It's our show-and-tell for The Heartfelt Sampler, and I really wanted to have my quilt top done. I have the presentation ready to go for this morning. All I can say is—you have to wait to see what I accomplished. There is one thing I'll say—overall, I'm happy with the results, but there is definitely room for improvement. So, guess what? I'm down a new learning path! Or should I say REFINING the knowledge that I have. 

The girls don't know it yet, but I'm sacrificing some of their walk time this ...

I think I'm back on track with the sleep patterns despite being awakened by Murphy at 2 AM. I have no idea what her problem was, but a simple bark was all it took to wake me up. I did go back to sleep, so all is good!

What a day yesterday was. The weather was amazing! The sun was out, the temperature was in the double digits, and what can I say? The gazebo beckoned. 

I sat in my chair and read for a bit, napped for a bit, and just enjoyed the day. It was glorious. Even ...

OK—so I did NOT stop reading my e-book before bed. In fact, I finished the book. And let's just say that my sleep patterns are NOT back to normal. Now that the e-book is finished, hopefully, so will the sleeplessness. 

Hmm -- a word about the book - The Dutch Wife. Another war story that is based on horrific events that happened in the camps. I can't imagine where these prisoners gathered the courage to continue to live. There was another story intertwined, and I know how that character relates to the rest of the story, but I didn ...

I'm late again! OK—I've got the getting up and going to bed thing—no problem! The issue is that I'm wide awake in the middle of the night! So, I need to sleep in if I'm awake for a few hours. It'll get worked out soon! Thankfully, Murphy alerts me if I sleep in too late! 

It's been a long time since I had a day without a Zoom or had to be somewhere. A day when I could work on my stuff without an immediate deadline - as in a deadline the next ...

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 ...

The Zoom sessions for the "day job" are complete! For the remainder of the year, we'll be doing in-person events, and I have some booked near me! So watch for events at Sew Productive in Milton and Thimbles Quilts and Sewing in Windsor (Lasalle). They are going to be fun and informative, and I've been making NEW samples. 

That leaves one in-person event today (all packed) and two Zooms to prepare for tomorrow. The final writing assignment is almost edited, and I'm doing well. I'm a little behind schedule, but it's doable to complete it ...

I'm happy to report that NOTHING was running around the neighborhood last night or early this morning. On the wildlife front, all is quiet! Murphy is still sleeping, and we're good!

However, we had issues walking in the morning. Snow was on the ground, and Bear came home covered with mini snowballs on his legs. He wasn't happy, and I had to carry him part way. 

Winter is back with dog snowballs

Is it me, or do the days seem to run into each other quickly? It's not like I don't enjoy the days, but they are going quickly! The good news is that I went to bed last night and slept like a log. I woke up when my alarm went off. And seconds later, Murphy was beyond herself with excitement. I ran to the window to see what caused such a panic, and I spotted THREE raccoons chasing each other. 

That's a new one for me. I've seen them running up trees and waddling across the ...

We had our UFO Club in the morning, and I was one of the few who didn't meet the deadline. That's OK - I'll get it done for next month. I completed part of it, but not enough to say I put in a reasonable effort. I wish I had more time to focus on my UFOs - I'm to the point now where I need this project (Cabin in the Woods X two) off my plate as I'm getting bored with it. OK -- so I am working on applique, which stalls me EVERY time. I like ...

Thanks for your thoughts on mental health! I'm OK, and while I still haven't found those items, and I'm still "frustrated" by a piece of technology that isn't cooperating with me, I'm over that destructive feeling. Thankfully, it doesn't last long, but I wish I could control it. Thankfully, my mind tells me to throw things, but don't break things - like dumping an embroidery machine on the floor! 

Oh my gosh—this is just too cute to pass up. When I walk Lexi in the morning, the other two hop up in bed ...

I am even more annoyed with myself this morning. Well, I'm no longer irritated, but yesterday? I was very annoyed. I was putting together the presser feet I was going to demo in my presentation, and do you think I can find my Open-Toe feet for the PFAFF? They are not to be seen. Then I realized that I was also missing my Quilt Binder. I have two of them, and they are in big purple boxes. 

I'm VERY diligent about keeping all my presser feet in a specific location by brand. I'm anal about it. But ...

Well, I did not find that sample, but that's OK because I made new ones, and they are probably nicer than the old ones! It's still super annoying that I can't find them. They will turn up at one point, but where are they hiding?

I'm a bit strapped for time this morning as I have to be somewhere at 8 a.m., which is prime dog-walking time. So the blog will be short, and the spin class will be short, so I can at least get them outside and fed. When someone offers to do ...

 I am ANNOYED!!! And I'm annoyed at myself! 

I'm trying to get organized for the events over the next couple of weeks. The first one is tonight. So I'm organizing the samples, and I'm missing ONE. Actually, I'm missing a couple of samples. Now, thankfully, both of them are small and would take very little time to redo. It's the principle of the matter. I had one in my hand last week, and I swear I left it on the table. 

I've been searching for it, and nothing!! Thankfully, I had it in ...

Yesterday was another one of those days where I accomplished lots, but I don't really have anything to show for it! But my Fitbit Steps? Off the chart!! I've been walking at least 13 km every day for the last week. Some of that is intentional walking with the dogs and my afternoon walk, but also all the running around the house collecting samples, setting up equipment, etc. It's totally insane! However, I have aggressive goals, so I need 11.5 KM every day, so I'm not that much ahead!

There are days when I feel ...

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 ...

Someone suggested I run a defrag on my hard disk. Yes -- that's a good idea, and I must remember to do that. 

What I think I need to do is get myself organized first. I must write down each place where I have storage - how much I pay and what is stored there. There's Googe Drive, One Drive, and soon iCloud. I have Dropbox (which I need to cancel), my external hard disks, and my storage on the two computers. Wait -- there's also the phone and the iPad. Can you see the craziness of all this? And ...

My storage woes are far from being over. Every place I look - Google Drive, One Drive, my laptop -- everything is red-lining! The biggest issue is I need help understanding what is going on. I have files that are sitting on my phone that are also sitting on Google Drive. Some of them do not download when I download from my phone, but I see that I can do that manually on the computer. I best try downloading today and then manually moving what doesn't come automatically. 

And despite deleting many emails, the storage space has not budged. Why is ...

Today, there are two presentations, and both are as ready as they will be! There is so much to share with the groups, and I can only hope the message gets across. I get some questions and know that some are getting it, and well, I need to review for a few! The biggest issue with EVERYONE in any class is STABILIZER!!!! It's not that hard!!!! 

But all is good. Then I have nothing on the agenda until Monday morning, but I have eleven Zooms next week, one in-person event, Monday sewing, and a meeting. And that's the ...

What a wild day!!!! The temperature had dropped, but it was totally bearable with the sun! Those who were able to come to the full-day INPERSON session for the Husqvarna Viking Designer EPIC 3 went home with their heads spinning from the amount of information I spewed at them! The intent was to give them a broad overview of the capabilities, but we need MORE than one day!! 

I was fired up and had fun!!! Thanks to Brampton Sew n Serge for hosting the event. I wonder if there are enough people with EPIC 3 around to host a Zoom ...

While I don't have a lot to show for what happened yesterday, I did get stuff done! That seems to happen a lot these days! I have two classes to prep for this weekend, and I'm at a local store teaching all day, so my time has been spent prepping for that. 

For the life of me, I cannot find ONE sample that I'd really like to have today. What the heck could I have done with it? Sigh!! The store might have the same sample, so I'm HOPING! 

Yesterday was all about the weather - it ...