Back to the routine

I'm back!! At home, that is!  Even though it was nice to get away, I have to say that I was thrilled to get home. We've been in the same routine for months, and well - I like routine!

I did snap a couple of pictures of what people were working on, and I'll try to find those. I needed a wee cat nap before I left. I just do NOT function on little sleep, and well - I was a bit agitated with what had happened the night before, and when I'm agitated, I don't sleep. And I had a full out nap when I got home. Not in the gazebo - I needed a serious nap.

All is well today, I had a great sleep, so I'm ready for anything today!

We saw this car on the way home. Now, I wonder if that thing qualifies for any of the safety measures? I guess it probably had seat belts, and that was it! But very cool!  I did NOT take that picture in case you're wondering.

Cool car

We had one stop to make along the way to pick something up. That was accomplished with little fanfare. I got some cool stuff to play with, and that was all good.

I arrived home and was unpacking when this happened.

Don't leave me!!!!

I think someone was trying to tell me something. The moment there was enough room for her to climb in, she was in! And I had to PULL her out. Poor thing!!!!  But they were definitely happy to see me.

After my serious nap, we decided to hit the patio to have dinner. It was hot, so the perfect day to have a beer on the patio. It was nice to get back and see the wait staff and well - just get out. Of course, the wait staff all had masks, and we were all 6 feet apart.

AH - patio fare - at last

We asked what happens if it starts to rain (not that it was threatening). Apparently, it had rained the previous tonight. Everyone went into the restaurant with their food. They were NOT allowed to sit down. They were given boxes to box up their food, they paid their bills and had to leave.

People grumbled - seriously????  You are allowed to have dinner on the patio, and yet, they complain about this inconvenience??? Anyway - it's all a new learning curve for everyone. I see the mall is open as well. So things are getting back to normal - the new normal.

And I believe starting today, we can pick up books by appointment only at the library. I have a book sitting there for pick-up, so I might figure out how to make the appointment and make that happen.

The one advantage of only taking one laundry basket of stuff to retreat is that it doesn't take long to unpack. Now I need to start the process of getting the projects prepped that I couldn't finish. There was no time last night as I had to go for a walk after dinner.

Here's my tote bag that I was working on. The two pieces on the left are the outside of the bag, and the two pieces on the right are the lining with the pocket attached.

Tote bag pieces 

Here's the pocket on one of the outside pieces.

The pocket

I did some lines of fancy stitches on all the seam lines as the "quilting" on the bag. It's hard to see them on the outside of the bag, but you can see them here on the inside.

The "quilting" lines

What I had forgotten to take was the Decor-Bond for the handles. Those two pieces are now cut and ready to make handles.

The handles are now ready to be finished

I found a button for the pocket, dug out some fabric to make the cover for the bottom insert. All that remains to do is to cut the piece of corrugated plastic for the bottom insert. I'll dig some out today. I need to throw in a hand stitch needle for that button, and then I can finish this at the next retreat.

The tote bag is NOW ready to finish

Oh yes - with all the cancellations, the next retreat, which was a regularly scheduled one, is NOT that far away.

The laundry basket got emptied. Actually, there's a story about that laundry basket. I took my big sewing machine, and after loading it in the car, there wasn't room for the laundry basket. I put my stuff in the back of the car, which is NOT big. The back seat was reserved for someone who was coming with me. I had to unload the carefully packed laundry basket and dump stuff into a couple of wildly packed tote bags. I won't have to do that for the next trip, so I'm reverting to the laundry basket.

I've started to repack the laundry basket. Once I get the corrugated plastic for the tote bag bottom, that whole pile of stuff will go in here.

The retreat laundry basket

 Actually, the laundry basket was a useful reference as I worked on almost everything I took—no tons and tons of extra stuff.

Then I got home and found a HUGE pile of packages to open!!! How fun. I've been through some of it, but not all. I'll be sharing what I can with you over this week.

Packages to open!!

I did get a good part of the magazine quilt cut that needs to be in the mail by Thursday. Don't laugh! That big bag on top? That was the rest of the missing fabric. So it was NOT my fault that the deadline is so tight. Thankfully, it's a relatively simple quilt to piece.

On that note, I'm out of here.

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!!