A balancing act

I'm happy to report that my neck is feeling better. It's still sore, but it really only affects me when I first get up or when I put my head down, like on the pillow or lying on the floor to do my exercises. I just support my head, and all is good. 

YES - I've been stretching with the foam roller before bed, and I'm feeling much better. I've barely scratched the surface of what I will get into with the new exercise regime. I''m pretty excited about it. It's the bloating in the gut that drives me crazy! 

Now, here's something that you can quickly try at home. As we age, balance is critical and will prevent falls and all that fun stuff, but only when you have proper footwear! Can you stand on one foot? And if so, for how long? You should be able to do that for at least 30 seconds (eyes open). And if you can't, you need to practice. Easy peasy to do 30 seconds on each foot. The hard part is when you close your eyes - I'm good for about 10 seconds with my eyes shut! 

So, while brushing your teeth, waiting for the kettle to boil, or whatever, try that balancing act!!!

There are a few things I need to learn about this new laptop—well, it's more about how Windows functions than the laptop itself. The biggest one is saving pictures from an email. I have to save each one individually rather than batch save, but I can manage. 

Yesterday was super productive, so let me show you what I did!

Here's the quilt top for that black-and-white fabric. Half of that top was already sewn together, and I decided it was a useless size, so I made it larger so it could be a lap quilt. 

Quilt top

However, I don't know what I was thinking, as it's now 8 blocks by 12, which is a ridiculous size. So I'm going to add two columns, and that will make it a perfect lap size—60" by 72". I have leftovers of orange and gold for the sashings and loads of black and white. I might even have some with me. I have one project in that stack that needs some evaluation. More on that tomorrow. 

This next project is an adopted project from that donation. I was all prepared to sew the Halloween squares together, but I saw the pattern she had in the bag was to cut them in half—just like I did with mine! Oh yes, this was another fabric exchange from many years ago, and I see MANY of my fabrics in that bundle!! I've decided to do the same thing, as it's much more interesting than just sewing the squares together. 

Halloween squares

I'm sure I have some black or other color in my Halloween stash that would work. So I'm not even tempted to go to the quilt shop to find something. 

The next project was an I Spy quilt. Again, this was the result of some fabric exchanges many years ago. Be careful what you participate in!!!! It also came in the donation. 

The first thing is to take stock of what's in the bag. There were loads of squares already cut, and I thought they were all 6 1/2" inches. There were some pieces of fabric, so I cut enough squares to make a quilt top and some 6" squares for another quilt. 

Cutting fabric

I swear this kind of project is so relaxing and meditative. I do NOT want your crap to deal with, but I feel so excited working on this kind of thing. 

When I was done, I had enough 6 1/2" squares to make one quilt top, some extra 6 1/2" for a second top, and some 6" squares for a third top. I'm aiming to have no duplicates in each quilt. There were a couple of Halloween pieces that will go in my Halloween bucket, as well as one piece of flannel. There is some yardage, and that will go with my other novelty prints.  

The bag is now sorted

Did I mention that I LOVE unpacking when I return from a retreat? Yes - I love putting everything away and getting prepped for the next retreat. It's crazy but fantastic therapy!!!

I laid out the 6 1/2" squares this morning to sew the top together. 

Laying out the blocks for the I Spy quilt

I realized that some of the squares were only 6". Good grief—obviously, I didn't look too closely the day before. But no worries. Rather than go to the car—hey, it was 4 AM, and it was COLD outside—I decided to trim everything down to 6". 

Trimming the squares down

And before I knew it, the quilt top was together. 

The I Spy quilt

However, what was I thinking when I laid that out? It's too small. Well, not so small that it's out of whack, but the proportion is out of whack. So, I need to add one more row to the top or bottom. When it gets light, I'll rescue the 6" squares from the car and sew that last row on. Then I'll be happy. 

It's always amazing at a retreat that if you need something, someone probably has it. We needed two small mirrors for a stack-and-whack project. YEP—someone had them!!! They are cosmetic mirrors, but they worked for what we needed. 

Testing fabric for stack-n-whack

I had brought an embroidery sample to stitch out. Before I could do that, I needed to do some cutting on the digital cutter. I didn't bring my digital cutter, but two other people did. I provided some micro lessons and didn't feel guilty borrowing one to cut my images. 

Then, I got to play with my old embroidery machine. Yep, this is my pink and orange machine, and I got all my embroidery done. I did another test this morning, and it's stopped, so I'll go rescue that later. 

Embroidering samples

I still have some more experiments to stitch out, but that's all the fabric and supplies I brought for this retreat. Plus, it's super noisy to do embroidery in this room. You can't hear the music, it's hard to talk. I don't want to discourage people from bringing the machines, but it would drive me nuts if it was all day. 

I also finished these blocks. Well, the block centers are done, and I've added as much sashing as I had with me. I need more (lots at home), and I suspect I'll find the same thing with the size. No worries; I have lots more fabric where this came from, and I'll make it into an actual lap-sized quilt, and it'll go in the donation pile. 

Blocks are done!

I emptied the second project bag onto my table. I'm doing exceptionally well this retreat. I have some small projects and think I'm down to less than double digits. I'll see how well I get through these last ones. 

The last of my projects for this retreat

I'm also madly working through the enders and leaders pile. If I run out of things to do, I can always trim these little guys!

My enders and leaders

I also hope that I don't run out of thread!!! I didn't bring any more, so I'd better remember to stock the retreat supply box when I get home!!!

Almost out of thread

Well, that's it for today. I have things to sew, and I need to get to it!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!