Published

Oh my -- another magazine quilt published! This time it's in the Fons and Porter Quick + Easy Quilts. I hadn't forgotten about this quilt as I already have it back, and it's been sitting on the banister. I've been looking for the magazine for a while, but I couldn't it when I went to Indigo last week. The selection of magazines is pretty sketchy these days. Although I do find that some stores are better stocked than others. 

December/January 2021 issue of Fons and Porter Quick + Easy Quilts

From time to time, I include a story with my submission, and in this case, it was all about using scraps. OH my -- they published my little blurb! Well -- it's all about using up, making do, and buying only what's necessary to get things finished. 

My blurb about my scrap quilt

I know that doesn't help the economy or the local quilt shops, but hey -- I can't keep buying. I have no room left, and I'm madly trying to get things used up because my time as a quilter is one day less every day. Not that I'm going anywhere anytime soon, but I have so much already that I certainly do not need more. 

I have a bag sitting beside me with fabric for FIVE quilts to send to Diane, and I'm not even touching my stash for most of what goes to her. I've long since lost count of the number of quilt tops Diane has put together during COVID. And none of that fabric was purchased. And none of it came from the stash room - it had either been donated to me, leftovers from magazine quilts, or from my days when I worked for a fabric company. Yikes!!! 

Yesterday was like a merry-go-round. I made progress on answering e-mails, getting out Zoom links to stores for classes starting this week or next, and I'm not done! And 15 minutes before starting a presentation, I realized that the topic was different from the one that I envisioned giving, so that required a fast uninstall and reinstall of the mySewnet embroidery software so I could change the language from French to English. I sure wish we could keep both languages installed simultaneously, but that's not possible. I can have ONE or the other, but not both on the same computer. 

It doesn't matter - I'm getting super fast at doing that! 

I must say that when all this sewing machine/embroidery software stuff came out a couple of years ago, I was totally lost. I couldn't get the apps connected to each other; I didn't understand all the components, but now? I can very confidently give that presentation, and hopefully, I'm making it clear to others just how they all connect and work to make our sewing/embroidery lives so much easier! 

Then it was off to quilt the quilt of the day. 

Customer quilt - DONE 

Now, I will say that this quilt was a challenge. WAIT -- that's so not true. The quilt was fine - no issues with the quilt. It was the COMPUTER that gave me grief. 

I've received this error message at the end of a row for the last FOUR quilts that I've quilted. 

Error message

When you touch OK, it boots you out of the program. WHAT?????  Someone in the User's Group suggested I was hitting the FINISH button too soon, which is possible, but this has never happened in the past. 

When this happens at the end of the row, you do not have a registration mark to move to the next row. Unless you saved the pattern for the entire quilt or took note of the measurements, you're not sure that you have the exact same size pattern. Well, let's just say that because I happen to know this part of the software very well, it's a snap to get it back where it needs to be, but it's still time-consuming, and that's time that I don't want to waste these days. 

I've learned to take a picture of the set-up screen BEFORE I start quilting, and it saved my bacon yesterday. 

The vital settings for this quilt

I must call or try some experimenting with this to see if, in fact, I am hitting that button too quickly at the end. I don't think it's me. I ended up shutting the whole thing down at one point, and that seemed to make it happy, and I was good for the remainder of the quilt. Let's just say that something is NOT right. 

Sometimes, the technology works, and other times, not so much! And at one point yesterday, I had to reboot my desktop computer - it was so slow, and there were hardly any windows open. Thankfully, there were no issues when I had to switch out that software on my laptop.,

Here's a shot of some of the trees near my house. These trees always turn this vibrant red and are the last to drop, so we get to enjoy the show for a while. 

Fall leaves

I'm not sure I should share this next photo because it's hideous! This is from a Facebook memory of six years ago. There's Alex Anderson and me! We were at Houston Quilt Festival. But look at my hair!   Look how cute she is and all nicely quaffed. Me? I look like my Dad and my brother! Speaking of Alex, I haven't watched any of her live videos for months! I need to get back to that, but there just doesn't seem to be a lot of extra time to sit and sew and watch the videos. I need too much brainpower for what I'm doing lately. 

Alex Anderson and I at Quilt Festival in Houston - six years ago!

I did turn the sewing machine on at one point during the day, but I never even got close to it! I have one presentation tonight, and all is prepped, and YES - I have the correct presentation lined up! 

Last night, DH and I went to the movies. Something we haven't done for a long time. Our local theatre now has a VIP area, and we decided to splurge since we haven't been to the movies in a while. And YES -- I had popcorn and pop (very rarely do I drink it, but once in a while for a treat!) for dinner! James Bond's movie was great, but long so I didn't get to bed very early. 

At the VIP theatre

The seats - or should I say the recliner chairs are fantastic. Much better than at the other VIP theatre we used to go to, and this one is much closer. Footrests, headrests, and heat!! Now, what more could you ask for? 

A barking dog in the middle of the night?  I have no idea what Murphy's problem was, but she alerted us that a rabbit was most likely on the front lawn. Like I care!

And there were two porch pick-ups, and I spent a bit of time chatting to them both. I haven't seen one person in a while, and it was so nice to connect, albeit short because I had my presentation to do. Yes -- we need to communicate with our friends a bit more often, but it's been hard, as everyone knows. 

So today will be filled with answering more e-mail; I can't even keep up with what comes in in one day and then never seem to have time to go back and deal with the ones I didn't get to.  And any of the junk stuff? Every once in a while, I do mass deletes. It's silly. I'll get there, but it's not going to happen anytime soon. 

E-mail is great - I love it and am not sure how we functioned without it. But sometimes, it involves tons of follow-up. Thankfully, I was able to clear a couple of those follow-up e-mails yesterday. Perhaps today will be equally as productive!

On that note, it's Wednesday, and I've got a date with Joseph - our fantastic spin instructor! I have to laugh at the class. I go to the class to crank out my 30 K. I set up the bike (seat and handlebars) and immediately get on. It probably takes less than 30 seconds. However, some people have arrived before me, and it takes them a LONG time to get organized. I can sometimes have 2 KM already completed before they even get on the bike. They are the social people! I just want to get it over with! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!