That dog needs a bath!

 AHA  -- Elle asked about the status of my cutting table, ironing station, and sewing space. I'm happy to report that all THREE of them are clear EXCEPT for the current project that is on the slate. Well, let's be honest and say that ½ of the cutting table is clear. I don't have time for pictures this morning as I'm heading to spin class, but I'll share them with you tomorrow. 

As Elle mentioned, it's great to have something prepped and waiting on either of the stations, ready for the day rather than go down and try to figure out what to do. 

This is what's sitting waiting for me to finish today. 

My trimmed scrappy blocks

YES -- those are the scrappy blocks. Here's what happened yesterday. 

I attacked the rest of those scraps, determined to finish the squares. At one point, I realized that I had enough leftovers to make 72 squares, which meant making the binding a wee bit longer before I moved on. 

Seventy-two untrimmed squares!

Then I was down to the last bits. 

Scraps for the last block

Here's the last block. 

The last block

And this is all that was leftover. 

The leftovers

Well, there's still some yardage of that green which now resides in the bag with the other flannel scraps. The bag that I started with produced a quilt with 72 eight-inch blocks. Can you believe it? The sad news (or perhaps good news) is there's plenty more where those came from! 

I decided to trim the blocks, and as I was trimming, I realized that a couple of them were just a tad shy of the 8½", so I set them aside. I grabbed a bit more of that green flannel and will add a bit to the sides this afternoon when I get to the sewing machine. Then that one is done. 

I'll grab the other bag of scraps during the next Virtual Retreat and work on that. That bag isn't as large, and I suspect that I'll get a wheelchair-sized scrap quilt from it. Then onto the five or six baskets of flannel scraps that remain. Once this current grouping is done -- I'm through with scraps for the moment -- it's now time to get to work on other projects and start prepping the homework for this month. 

I first need to look at the calendar and create my homework list with due dates, so nothing is forgotten. It would be easy to miss something with all the clubs and assignments, so a list will be made, and one by one, I'll check them off. This will be a monthly thing, so do it on the computer and print several copies!

I'm happy to report that all the homework assignments are gone. I have to make a checklist to send to the free motion class attendees this weekend. This class is HANDS-ON, so I want my video set up done, and I want them to be prepped and ready to sew. If they don't sew, they won't get much from the class. 

So the morning was spent at the computer, and part of that was checking out new books. I've been waiting for this one to appear as an audiobook, and I had to laugh when I saw the wait time. 

A LONG wait time

It usually says the number of weeks, but this is a brand new book - I don't think the library has even received it, so several months it is. I have NO DESIRE to read a book the moment it comes out, and there are so many other books to read that there's never a rush to read a specific one. 

OK -- the rest of the pictures are about the dogs or the backyard. Here's my pond at the moment. The heater and aerator are keeping it nice and open. At least one part of it, which means it is dark inside for the most part, and hopefully, the fish are finally sleeping. 

The opening in the pond

And then we have Lexi and Murphy, who were terribly worried about the rabbit under the deck again. And if I had NOT blocked off that hole, the two of them would have been under the deck in a flash. I have no plans to take all the snow off and remove boards again to rescue that silly Murphy. The deck will get a slight remodel in the spring with permanent skirting over that hole. 

But the two of them were outside for hours trying to flush the rabbit out. They haven't clued in that Little Bear is tiny, and he could sneak in and grab the rabbit, but they haven't thought of asking him!!

Needless to say, Murphy (AKA as Pigpen) was precisely that - a mess. 

Murphy is a mess.............again

If she wasn't crawling under the gazebo and getting muddy, she was in the snow. Sigh................

Chilling in the snow

But when we got home from dinner, I had no choice. She had made a mess of herself with a bathroom issue and the mud from the afternoon, and well, she ended up in the tub. 

Murphy in the tub

This is NOT the ideal spot to wash her, but I had no choice. She was pretty content to sit in the tub for the most part. She did NOT get a thorough wash, but at least the caked mudballs on her tummy and her back end are clean. She also got a haircut in the necessary parts. 

The water was filmy

I'm going to try and book one of those self-wash dog places as she needs a really good bath, which will last for a day if that long. Sigh......................

And with the warmer weather, Little Bear is venturing out further. He even made it to the forest. He was in his glory and loves to sniff and mark his territory. 

Little Bear in the forest

I decided to visit the chiropractor for some deep tissue massage yesterday. Oh my god -- that hurt, and I thought I was OK until I went to bed. I had this pain in my low back that was - well, quite painful. I finally fell asleep, but woke up very early. I think I'll be having a nap later today. I MUST get back to MORE mindful stretching, and if I plan to go to the gym on Friday mornings, that should do the trick. I still have loads of flexibility; I just need more stretching. 

Well, I'm off to expend some energy on the spin bike, and I hope the steam room is open!!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!