What wildlife do you have in your backyard?

Yes -- I need to figure out how to change the stride on this new fitness tracker. I haven't found that yet, BUT I found the sleep app. Someone at the retreat mentioned that they use the sleep app to monitor their sleep, and I dismissed it. How can this app know so much about your sleep from a little band around your wrist? You think I would know better by now. 

So I did that last night. And I had looked at my previous night's sleep. OMG -- it's pretty bang on. And the snoring? There's even a snoring component on this tracker/app. And yes, I snore, but only for a very short time - 18 minutes apparently in the entire night, and it was not very loud. YES -- my phone recorded a few snippets of it! OH MY --- nothing is secret any longer. 

WOW --- so there is loads of information in this app, but I don't want to be married to the darn thing. So it's fun to play around with, but I'll likely turn all that fancy stuff off because I won't pay attention to it anyway - it's just for the fun of it right now. Another reason for turning it off is that it wears the battery down, and I don't want to be charging it every day, even with the new fancy charger. 

I arrived home to find my pair of pants had arrived. What? In that very flat envelope? Yep - I opened them up and my first thought - those pants are way too small. However, before going off on a tangent, I tried them on. OK - they fit, and when I went back to the website, they had a "just right" fit and a "loose fit". I didn't go for the loose fit even though I wanted to wear the long johns under them. I don't have time to reorder a new pair, so I'm off to the shop this weekend. I know -- I'm not a very smart shopper, but that's OK. I also wanted a bit thicker fabric, but hiking pants these days are super thin!

I think I might return the pants anyway, they are a bit too short for my liking. And even though the fit is just right, I might want them just a wee bit looser, or I might have to cut out sugar for a week! 

But overall, if I had paid more attention to the fitting chart on the website, it's pretty darn accurate! 

My collapsible water bottles arrived, so that is good, but boy, the mouth of those things is WIDE, but easier to fill. No plastic one-use bottles are allowed in the park, and we are required to drink three liters of water each day! That is to combat high-altitude sickness. Thankfully, our guides will be boiling the water for us. I guess these guys have to carry all the water up unless there are wells along the way, which I highly doubt. You never know. In hindsight, I might have gone for two larger ones, but these will be fine. 

Collapsible water bottles

Then, for fun last night, I shoved all my clothes into my backpack and weighed it. I need to add my hiking poles and my shoes, which in total probably weigh three pounds at the most. The entire bundle of clothes, including my winter jacket, weighs 8.6 pounds! That includes the long underwear, a couple of pairs of pants, shorts, shirts, etc. It also consists of the packpack, which weighs just under 2 lbs. I bet the small pack that I'll use for carry-on will weigh more! I have to check this particular backpack because my walking poles are in it. This is for three and a half weeks!

I'll give you the final numbers when I get everything organized this weekend. 

Back to the retreat. I continued to work on the geometric quilt and completed four columns. I swear I took a picture, but I don't see it. I didn't get a chance to press the columns, so that will happen later. 

I chuckled as I packed it up because look what's in the bag. YES -- that is a ruler and I need it to trim the triangles. So if I ever want that small Sidekick ruler, you must remind me it's in this bag!

The ruler is in the project bag!

I have put this project beside the computer because I plan to rip more columns apart during the next Virtual Retreat at the end of August. Then it'll be ready for the next quilting retreat in September. I know --- silly planning, but it's the way it is. We're not going there. 

I still had time to mess around with stuff before we left yesterday, so I pulled out this bunch of squares of Halloween fabric. 

Halloween fabric squares

The intention was to cut them in half on the diagonal and insert a strip of fabric. I had chosen this green. 

Possible block configuration

However, my trusty retreat friends said that if the quilt was going to community projects, inserting that strip was a lot of extra time and effort for someone who may not appreciate it. And besides, some of my squares would have looked funny cut up. 

It didn't take much to convince me of that change, so I laid out all the squares to get the colors somewhat distributed, and I was good. Yes -- I could distribute them a bit more, but really? Will it make a lot of difference? I don't think so. 

Layout for the Halloween squares

I had one left over, and the background was pretty light, so it got rejected. I stacked the squares up by row, and they are back in the retreat bag for the next retreat. 

One reject square

When I got home, I emptied the bags and put away what I could, and then I prepared things for the next retreat. So all I need to do is grab the project bags and go! The one on the left is for the projects, and the new bag on the right is for the tools, and I put one extra project in there. Oh my, how far I've come when it comes to packing for quilt retreats. I used to take MANY project bags, and most of them would come home untouched! The next retreat is a week long, and I have a few extra things in there, but not much. 

Ready for the next retreat

As I was putting away that green Halloween fabric from the squares, I sort of "gasped" when I saw how much Halloween fabric I still have. Do NOT judge me on this! This tub is filled with Halloween fabrics. 

Halloween fabric

And there's this stack. Just what's sitting on top of the tub. I think it's time for another intervention! If you want to read about it, here's the blog post. Of course, I can't do the same thing because now I've told you about it, and it wouldn't be as much fun! 

More Halloween fabric

I stopped on my way home from the retreat to make a Pony Express drop off. And another item was delivered way on the east side of the city by someone else. I LOVE the Pony Express. While I had a quick visit with a friend, she showed me her pillow that was recently displayed in the Creekbank Sewing Center show of wool appliqué pieces. I believe this design is from Sue Spargo, and she won third place (Viewer's Choice) for her gorgeous wool appliqué cushion. Congratulations, Elaine - well deserved!!!

Wool appliqué cushion

This is the kind of wildlife that we are used to seeing in our backyard. Oh yes --- the two girls were beyond insane when I arrived home. At first, they didn't know I was here because my sister-in-law had arrived for a visit, and they were in the backyard with her. But when I yelled at Murphy to be quiet because she was barking after hearing the car in the driveway, she came running. She's an idiot!

MOM -- I'm sitting on the wet mat! 

This is the kind of wildlife M and Dillon live with. 

It's a BEAR!!

Yes - that is a black bear, and they live on the north shore in Vancouver, and if you look at the map, the heavily forested area is right there on the edge of the city. Dillon has shown me pictures where the black bears were right in their backyard, where he lived before moving in with M. Yikes!!! But no one was stressed at the ball game. I think there were two bears, and they had fun frolicking on the ball diamond and then ambled off to the forest! 

I have one writing assignment done and sent. The second will be sent shortly after we finish the walks this morning. And then I need to get to work on the remaining three, which should be OK. That's my focus for the weekend. 

And if you want to read the latest in QUILTsocial, here is the link for Day Four. It's all about creating appliqué shapes in several ways. 

The final post in that series is about creating custom quilting designs in the Creativate Embroidery Software. 

A few more things to tidy up travel-wise, and all will be good! 

By the way - who turned off the heat? I swear the temperature and the humidity have dropped drastically, and the difference is quite shocking! 

On that crazy note, it's time to get the day started! 

Have a super day!!

Ciao!!!!