Mom's HOME!!!

The best part of going away is coming home! My plan was to be packed up and on the road by 2:00 PM. I was the last one to leave, and it was 1:45 -- perfect. 

OH -- before I forget, I checked the app on my phone, and my Sonos speaker works with my Alexa app. I know -- it belongs to that online conglomerate. More on that another day, but it works! I just need to connect it. So many little things, and it's hard to keep on top of it all. 

It took me forever to get home as I had to make a detour to pick up something that I had forgotten to get when I was at the training earlier in the week. Sigh.............   The GPS took me on a very scenic tour of the area, and I passed several barn blocks. 

A barn block

I love how the colors in this one match the barn. This was the only one where it was safe to stop and get a picture. The rest of the roads I was on barely had any shoulder on them, and I wouldn't stop. 

I picked up my new metal hoop for the embroidery machine, and then I was on my way home. 

So I have been trying very hard to pack light for the retreats. This is what the car looked like on the way there. 

Lots of room on the way to retreat

It was packed but not uncomfortably full. And I was getting rid of FOUR sewing machines/sergers packed in the car. Phew -- the car will be that much emptier (or so I thought) on the way home. 

NO  -- I picked up four boxes of stuff at the training session and a HUGE sewing machine in a box. Needless to say, the car was jammed with things on the way home. 

Packed even tighter on the way home

It was packed even tighter on the way home. Sigh.....................

And when I got home, it took forever to unload it all. 

All this fit in the car

I had removed some of this when DH walked by and said, "what is all this?"  He even questioned how I got it all in the car. As if! I'm good -- I played my share of Tetris when I was younger! Besides the extra boxes and sewing machine that I brought home, there was the coffee maker and the humidifier that I always take to retreat. My bag of foodstuff, my clothes, and my office backpack. I had two bags of projects and a couple of oversized pillows that I demoed in the training session, and it all took up a lot of space! Because of the training, I took the PFAFF creative icon 2 and the embroidery unit with me, as I usually wouldn't take that big machine. 

The next retreat will be better -- less stuff and a smaller sewing machine! I HOPE!

Let's just say the two girls were quite happy to see me. Even Miss ALOOF Lexi came for a cuddle and stayed to get more. Murphy was just Murphy! But once I started to carry stuff in the house, they left me alone. That's boring stuff! 

Mom's HOME!

But at dinner, she was by my side! Silly girl!!!!

OK --- so I totally slacked off on the walking this past week. The numbers are the lowest I've done in years. It was 4:30 by the time I got home and had everything out of the car. I was going to take the girls for a walk, but I had bought tea, and I needed to sit down and regroup. Then it was dinner, and I didn't go for a walk! I'm heading to spin class this morning, so I'll be back in the groove this week. 

Now that I'm done the virtual walk across Canada, I don't need as many KM in a day. No, let me rephrase that -- I don't need as many WALKING KM -- I still need CARDIO KM, so I might get my bike out as I'm behind in my goal for the year by about 300 KM. The biking will give my legs a bit of a break from walking. 

I took a couple of pictures at the retreat before leaving. This is Kathi's thread stash! It's a great way to store thread, and she has a LOT of colors. 

Kathi's thread stash

There was a green square of fabric behind Katheleen on the floor during most of the retreat. She was so busy that there was no time to pick it up, and none of us stooped to pick it up either. Maybe we were all waiting to see how long it would stay. 

Before she left, the piece got picked up, but we spotted this thin piece of the same fabric (or close) on the floor once she was gone. So even though she had to leave a bit early, she left something to remind us of her!!!

The scrap behind Katheleen's spot

Dede was quilting some projects and decided to check under the stitch plate to see how dirty her machine was. OH!!!

That's a LOT of lint

It's amazing how dirty a machine can get from sewing! That's a lot of lint. It's all clean now and ready to sew! I'm NOT a fan of sewing machines with a stitch plate that screws in place, as one is less likely to open it up and clean it! 

Did I get anything done at the retreat yesterday? Well, yes, I did. I finished two things, but I'm only going to show you one. 

My pinwheel quilt

I got all the pinwheel blocks together, except for the bottom right corner, where I have to add two more. I love it. Each one of those half-square triangles is 1" finished. Does it need a border? I'm not sure! I'll add the two triangles and then contemplate my options. White border or a colored one or nothing? 

The other one is for my Out of the Box class, and while it looks like nothing at the moment, I'm going to make you wait until it's complete before I show it. 

Today is Monday sewing -- yeah -- more sewing! But I have a few small things to finish off -- sleeves for two quilts, some ripping (more on that another day), and those two half-square triangles. The key is to get these things COMPLETELY done before I set off with more stuff. The norm is to set them aside, and that's just going to create clutter. I need to get them done to move them out of Studio B. 

I stopped at Micheal's to get some supplies so I could play with the Scan and Cut. I dug it out, and I'll be calling Stitch by Stitch in Kingston today to place an order for the newer mats and cutters. I also wrote a note to Heather about the AMAZING service I got from her staff. We definitely need to do more of that. If you get good service, you need to tell the shop and tell others. 

We NEED to keep small businesses alive in our world. Imagine the daily satisfaction those employees get than do those working in a warehouse picking packages! I won't get started -- not today! 

So these ladies are allowed to come back to retreat. Why? There were absolutely ZERO extra goodies. No one baked cookies, no one brought junk food, or if they did -- it was their private stash. That's how I like it, and I wasn't tempted, nor was anyone else. We basically ate the same as if we were at home. I feel great. I think we will have a new rule for the retreat --- if you bring baked goods (other than for your meal), you have to put them in the car. In other words -- don't bring any! It's the same for junk food -- it stays in the car or in your room! 

I have several things to prep for the weekend, so I'd better organize myself. It's incredible how quickly things creep up! 

Oh my -- we are becoming so much more technologically focused in our sewing world. Scanners, software, embroidery machines, and we want everything to talk to the other. I said yesterday, "wouldn't it be nice if our EQ8 could print to PDF?" And then when I looked it up -- it can!! DUH!!! And it's all about creating SVG files for the cutter now. Yes -- we WILL get all these file formats to talk to each other! I have the software to do it -- I just need to make it happen! You just wait -- I will have a show and tell for our machine embroidery class this weekend!

Well, that's it for today. There's so much to catch up on, and I need to finish putting away everything that came home with me. It will take a while, and I need to get to the long arm this week -- heads down for sure. 

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!