Computer Geek!

What has happened to me? I've been feeling a bit of a cold coming on for a couple of days. Instead of doctoring myself up and drinking lots of water and hot rum - OK, maybe not the hot rum, I let it go. How could I possibly get a cold when I haven't really seen anyone. Although one of the ladies who came to the retreat did stay home the first day because she wasn't sure she wasn't getting a cold herself. 

Anyway, as the day progressed, so did my sniffles, and when I went to make my presentation, I seemed to have a full-blown sniffling and running nose. I don't think it's a cold -- I'm going to chalk it up to being tired, although I don't think I am. Could it be allergies? My eyes were terrible this morning, but my nose is mostly under control. Let's see what happens. 

I may need a nap this afternoon, and I'm OK with that. 

Well, I'm down to ONE presentation, two classes, two lectures, and two clubs to end the year. There is still a lot of work to do to prep for this weekend, but I took tons of pictures yesterday, and they are all edited and need to be uploaded. I'm in excellent shape. Don't forget there is a Virtual Retreat on December 18 and 19. 

Let me start by telling you what I did NOT do yesterday: 

• No quilt got long-armed
• No double wedding ring quilt top got pressed
• No applique on the Enchanted Autumn got done
• Nothing got sorted or organized 
• No items were removed from the laundry basket
• No audiobooks were listened to
• No admin work got done
• NO baking shows were watched

Gosh -- it sounds like I did absolutely nothing all day. And that's not true -- I was in my glory, and I learned a ton. I am determined to learn the mySewnet embroidery software. I remember purchasing an earlier version of that software and was so excited at the prospect of what I could do, but I barely touched it. 

I will NOT let that happen again. I had the software open on my computer in the office in English, and it was open on my laptop in Studio B in French. And I had the manuals available on both computers, and I was puttering to my heart's content. Oh wait -- let's not forget that I had to use the scanner at one point, and I popped some stuff into Photoshop, although I don't think I needed to do that. I can do the same thing in the mySewnet embroidery software, except I don't know how yet. 

Starting next week, I plan to have both computers set to English. I'm OK with the French version, but it is much faster for me to learn the software in English and then "translate" the commands into French. I don't have a lot of space at the computer in the office, but I'll go to Studio B and use an entire table and have the manuals on the iPad, and it'll be a lot easier. 

I don't know how many manuals (reference guides) there are for the entire software package, but let's just say that there are HUNDREDS, probably a couple of thousand pages in total. The more I learn, the easier it all becomes. I may cave and ask my boss for a quick runaround of the sections I'm currently diving into, but I'm content with clicking and undoing and learning by trial and error. The best part is that if I make a mistake and have to redo it, I'll remember!  

Don't worry -- I'll share it all with you next week, but I want to share it with my Machine Embroidery Club first, and that's this weekend. Then you get to see what I learned next week. I confess that I'm at the stage in the learning process where I know enough to be "smug," yet I don't know enough to field questions or go beyond my little demos. But I'll be past that stage very soon. 

Someone spotted this quilt hanging on the wall in one of my photos earlier this week. OK -- so here's the scoop. This is about 20 inches square - maybe 24 -- I did not measure it. OH -- I just measured it -- 22 ½"!! 

This is a quilt that I designed for the Try-A-Triad challenge sponsored by the Canadian Quilters Association in 2020. We could use three colors -- red, blue, and yellow, and if memory serves me right, they had to be solid. 

Tri-Color Slash

You can go to the link above to see all the other challenges, and I "stole" this off their webpage. 

It was super easy to make. I made one square in a square block with a red center and yellow frame, and then I made a second square in a square with a yellow center and a red frame. I made two more blocks (sort of log cabin), one with a red center and the other with a yellow center. I want to say the blocks were about 12" when I finished. 

Then I slashed all four blocks in the same spot (twice), played switch-a-roo, and inserted the narrow blue strip before sewing them together. 

Next up was the quilting, and I went with a very dense echo quilting which was easy to do with my ¼" piecing foot and the Integrated Dual Feed on my Husqvarna Viking Designer EPIC 2. Lots of other ways to do the same thing on other machines, but it was super easy with the built-in walking foot.

The echo quilting on my challenge piece

I faced the quilt rather than use a binding, and there's a hanging sleeve on the top. 

The back of the quilt

Hmmm - - this gives me a great idea. Don't forget that I'm hosting a year-long sew-along that is essentially working outside our comfort zone and as a means to develop our creativity. Trust me, I'm like a baby learning to walk in other areas, and I'm plugging through the basic stuff. More on that another day. 

But if you are interested, check out my blog post where I listed the classes I'm hosting for 2022. One of them is called Out of the Box, and it promises to be an enjoyable time, and you'll definitely look upon quilting in a whole new manner at the end of the year. Remember, NO PIECE will be enormous. Even this piece above at 22" square is a giant compared to what we will make in the class. And it doesn't need to be completely finished. It's all about the exercise - the thought process and, in most cases, actually cutting a bit of fabric. If you haven't signed up yet, there's still time. All the instructions are in that blog post. 

Oh -- one other thing that I did was putter in the kitchen a bit. Look at how tidy it is. That took 20 minutes to put away a few things that got dumped on various surfaces. Look at my attractive green bag where we put our plastic bag recycling! I still have to put the new aerator in the pond - that's the box on the table, but everything else -- well, there's not much. And I'm happy to say that if you opened ANY of the cupboards, they are pretty lean. Next year, I may go through the cabinets and cull what we don't use any longer, but I'm pretty happy with the kitchen. 

Trust me, it wasn't always this way! I'd love to update the kitchen, but that's not in the budget for this year. Just wait until you see what's happening next week. Oh my! 

A neat and tidy kitchen

A quick note about walking. I'm almost done with my cross-Canada walk, only 37.5 KM to go. Can you imagine? I'm totally in awe of that accomplishment, and I'll be sharing more of that in a couple of days. 

But here's the thing -- if ever you are on a Google Map and you want to see around you, don't forget to use Pegman (the yellow guy in the bottom right-hand corner) to drag onto the map. If you see blue circles, someone has added a photo to the map. I'm currently on the Pacific Crest Trail in the middle of the mountain ranges east of San Francisco. There are no mapped roads for miles. BUT there is plenty to see because all those circles represent a view of the mountains and are spectacular. It makes you want to hike that darn PCT. 

Blue circles on Google Maps

On that note, I"m out of here!!! I really want to get back to the software today, and I will, and this time, it's going to take mere seconds to do what took me hours yesterday. Oh, don't worry - there is still a steep learning curve for some parts, but it's all one step at a time. 

Oh - it's time to give ourselves a new decluttering challenge each day. Today, it's kitchen counters or the kitchen table, or both! Here are some tips:

• Do NOT just move the items to another surface in the house. Deal with each item individually. If it is junk or garbage, then toss it out. 
• If an item needs to be repaired, then repair it TODAY. 
• Is the item essential enough to be kept? Then find a home for it. If you don't have a home, then consider giving it away. 
• Start a give-a-way box. 
• Do NOT say that Christmas is coming and you don't have time. It takes mere seconds to decide if an item is worth keeping or not. 
• Read or toss or file the paperwork. 

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!