The good, the best, and it gets even better!

 

I'm afraid to say anything about my internet. I did my first Zoom call yesterday. I was just a participant and no issues. Then I hosted an hour and a half call and no drops. Then another hour-long Zoom call and no drops. Wow -- the feeling of doing the presentations and now having any drops is refreshing. Then a couple of hours on Zoom in the evening and no drops. 

The total number of hours on Zoom (over 7) and no drops and VERY successful Zoom sessions all day and well, I felt like I had won the lottery!!

Daphne sent me this link about internet woes, and you know what? Something like this could very well be the culprit. But what? Where are those tester guys when you need them??? Check the story out; it's hilarious! 

I did get more information about the retrograde from M. Yes, there is a Mercury retrograde. It lasts until November 3rd. But I'm totally ignoring that!! By the way, the retrograde means that the planet appears to be going backward. I hope I got that right; I can't seem to find the e-mail that she sent me. My inbox exploded yesterday, and I need to check if there's anything urgent. The rest will wait until tomorrow. 

We got another barn block assignment yesterday, and of course, we got to see new stuff in the store. Oh my - I was placing an order before the call was even over! How crazy is that? Oh, yes - you can still buy online. Who says we are suffering?  I'll pick up my purchases at the retreat in a couple of weeks. 

The bonus this month is baking cookies. Baking cookies?? I don't bake cookies! Oh - I can bake cookies - I just don't. But I'm going to give it a shot. Perhaps, I can bake those cookies and take them to the retreat? OH -- I just looked at the recipe. No - I'm going to bake those cookies and keep them for ME!! They look good. 

Of course, after one of the Zoom calls, I now had more writing to do. One of the documents went out the door early this morning, and there are two left to write. Since it's the Virtual Retreat all day today, that isn't going to happen, but I can make it happen tomorrow. I need to get ahead of these writing assignments, so they don't become an issue. I'm working on it! 

Now that the students have seen the homework for this month, I can share that with you. 

I searched Long Time Gone quilts on the internet and found this one that I really liked. It looks like this version was made by The Quilt Bee, a store in the Niagara area that has since closed. I love the coloring and contrast. 

The Quilt BEe version of Long Time Gone

I dug out my scrap boxes to see what I could find. I pulled the whites, greys, blacks, and the oranges. I searched through each and pulled out the solid fabrics or those that read as solids. The rest went back on the shelf. And the oranges, I'm going for a rust color more than orange. I seem to have loads of colored scraps, but I don't seem to use white that often, as there aren't many scraps in the bucket. 

The scrap boxes for the next quilt

Here's the sad thought. There's more than enough fabrics in those four shoeboxes to make this quilt and probably one more. I might not even have to touch my stash! How many quilts are there in that stash room? 

Here's my first block! It looks awesome!! 

And there's the back! 

It's going to be so exciting to see this quilt progress as we are a LOT of people in the class and so we're going to get a huge variety of quilts!!!

One of my Zoom sessions got canceled yesterday, and I was OK with that. So I went for a walk and ended up at Indigo, where I saw a copy of the Tula Pink book that we're going to be using for one of the on-going classes coming up. If you don't have a copy, I bet you could call this store (Erin Mills Town Center) and get the book. The store is NOT in the mall, but close by. 

Tula Pinks 100 Modern Blocks 

I have to say that the quilting section is almost non-existent these days. But then I don't need any books. 

Although I would like to find one book and I SWEAR that I've bought the darn thing. That would be the Cherrywood Challenge book for Prince. Did I lend it to anyone???? Would you admit it if I did? 

The book for the Cherrywood Prince challenge

Then I stopped at the library to pick up yet another book! I know - I MUST stop this madness or read faster.  Anyway, I had a peek at some of the other titles and saw this book. I thought the title was quite appropriate under the circumstances. You can read the synopsis of the book on Goodreads. Maybe we need a good wake-up call like this to stop the nonsense that is going on now. 

Five feet apart

So today is a wide-open (Virtual Retreat) day to sew all day. Or I can just sit and chat if I want, which is what I seemed to do a lot of last night, and I'm OK with that. I did get part of the homework done for a class this coming weekend, and that's what I'm going to focus on all day. But I hope to get more done, so I'd better stop talking and more doing!!

Here's the link for the Virtual Retreat today.   That's Sunday, October 18th   START TIME 9:00 AM, and we sew until 8 PM this evening. 

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85430654164?pwd=ZUo1NXZlM3I1L2pQdHBOb2tmeVBFUT09 Meeting ID: 854 3065 4164 Passcode: 820143

I was going to shut down at 9 last night, but we were having some great conversations that we stayed on for an extra half hour! It's such a great way to connect with others. Even if we could get out, I could never sew with all the people that came on the call. We had people from all over Southern Ontario. Loads of fun!!!!

I didn't have any takers on the beginner Machine Embroidery class, but there is interest in running a club. So I think I'll add a Machine Embroidery club next year. So watch for details on that. 

On that note, I'm out of here!!!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!