It's all about the photos!

 

I have ONE last photo to share with you for Route 66. I met Neil when we cycled across Canada in 2013. We stayed in touch with social media. He's retired and is an amazing photographer. A while back, I had posted my progress on Facebook, and he alluded to a great photo he was going to post when I finished. Well, here's the photo!!!

Me at the End of the Trail for Route 66

Isn't that hilarious! He photoshopped me from one photo where I held a sign as we entered a province (I think it was Quebec). I LOVE IT!!!! And I swear, it looks like I'm really there!

Well, there's no time for slacking as I have another aggressive walking goal to reach before the end of the year. I dare not share it with you for fear of you calling me totally crazy. I'll share as I get closer to the finish line. Let's just say that I dropped my car off at the garage to get the winter tires on, and I walked home. Then I walked the dogs, and in the afternoon, I took the long way to the garage to pick up the car—over 15 KM of walking. Eat, sleep, and repeat! Only 44 more days, and that madness will be gone! 

That wind chill is getting a bit nasty! But it was a glorious, sunny day, and my knees are feeling great these days, so I'm taking advantage of every spare minute I have. OK - so I'm lying there - I have to make those spare minutes. It's a bit crazy now, but then when is it not?

Yesterday seemed to be one of those days. People dropping stuff off, people picking stuff up, phone calls to arrange things, and well, it just didn't seem to stop. 

I did a bit of prep work for the upcoming blog posts, and I managed to get a quilt quilted. 

Customer quilt - DONE

I love the holly pattern that I used, but it was one of those hilly ones. You have to be careful to not make the pattern too large, or it won't fit in the safe zone. I was JUST OK on this one. See how the pattern interlocks? So it takes a larger area to stitch, but I did a little jiggling, and all was OK. 

A WIDE design to stitch out

I was dealing with a lot of photos yesterday. I decided it was time to download all the pictures from my phone to the hard disk. Hmmm - over 11,000 pictures! I think that was in one year. YES - I do need to go through them and probably delete most of them. But there's no time for that at the moment. I hate that I just copied them. Now I have to go in and delete them from the phone. All are now deleted, but have you noticed that when people share photos on What's Up, they end up in your phone? So I've got a lot more stuff to get rid of. I just went into ONE directory on my phone. I've got screen captures, photos from others, and a whole lot more to deal with. 

I've got to try and deal with the photos because I've dumped my phone several times now (all with approximately the same number of photos), and I really must deal with them. Perhaps if I book a day to make that happen. I would really like to start by having them all in ONE spot. That would be huge. AHA -- I just checked the calendar - I've already booked a day to do that!

I also have some more cleaning to do in Studio B. I'm getting rid of a sewing machine and its embroidery unit today, so that helps. I went through three of the four tubs of samples. I kept a few samples out that I'd like to photograph for my presentations or that I want to replicate with fabrics that I like. So hopefully, I can get some of that done today. 

Samples to take photos of

The biggest issue is going to find room back in the tubs for those samples. They were bursting at the seams when I got them. I guess I'll just have to sit on the lids!!!

One of three tubs I've sorted through

There's one more tub - that giant blue one. Once that gets out of the way, I can hopefully finish sorting through the stuff at the bottom of the stairs. At the very least, I could put all of it under the long arm, but I really hate to do that unless it's been sorted or it won't get done. That's going to be another date booked on the calendar to make that happen. Once that is done, I think I can actually say that EVERYTHING in Studio B is ORGANIZED. Won't that be grand??? Don't worry, I'll give you a tour! 

Empty space under the long arm!

I'm thrilled to death with the progress that I've made over the last year. The sorting is almost done, and now all that's left is to work on the UFOs and try and get them done and out of the house. Well, even if they don't get out of the house, I just want them done! Or at least in the "to be quilted" pile. 

So yes - there truly is a light at the end of the tunnel, and the best news of all is that NO new projects are being added to that UFO list. I did buy one or two new projects this year, but less than five. I've started and FINISHED several projects, mostly for magazines. I've finished some of my own UFOs, and they are sitting in the "to be quilted" pile, but that's OK. I'm going to have to tackle that area in December and see if I can't make a dent there. I'm sure that I'll focus on the Quilts of Valour and the other community project quilts sitting there. If I can get some of that cleaned up, I'll be even happier. 

Oh my - at last, I finished that book. Holy - it was a struggle, and it made ZERO sense. None - but I'm happy that I read it. Oh seriously - that's a stupid thing to say! Well, the next one is going to go much quicker, and I'll have to carve out a few minutes here and there to read it. The list of books is long, and I must get through some of them soon, or I'll have to return them!

And on that note, I'm off. I've got two presentations today. I want to update the slide show for one of them, but otherwise, I think I'm good. 

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!!!