A little fun with AI

The masses have spoken. There will be NO new sew-along until Colour My World is done! Let's not get ourselves into any kind of mess! Thanks for making me see the light of day! I do NOT need to start another project. And by September of next year, there might be something else we want to sew! 

When I attempted to use ChatGPT to compile those documents from the QUILTsocial website, it didn't work. Someone mentioned that ChatGPT wasn't really meant to scrape data from websites. It creates things, but it doesn't do the dirty work! I'm not sure that's a good way to describe what it wasn't meant to do. What do I know - I'm totally ignorant of this AI stuff. 

However, another person and their husband, who are experts in databases and compilers, decided to write a small script for some program, and voilà — I got what I wanted! Their DH is retired, so this was the perfect little task to keep him on the edge!!!

A big thank you to everyone who reached out to help resolve my issue. I have the information in a spreadsheet, and now I can proceed with what I want to do with the data. 

But I thought I'd have some fun with AI that was a bit more in tune with what it's supposed to do. 

I was walking Lexi and thinking about what else to put in the presentation for our Monday sewing group. Sometimes, it's pictures of quilts from quilt shows, sometimes, it's what we are working on, or what we have finished. But yesterday, it was all about what people had embroidered on those oversized felt totes from Dollarama. Good grief - I bet the store is wondering why people are buying multiples of them! 

I haven't embroidered one yet, but I'll get there, and then I'll post a picture. But last week, I also challenged the group to make a cake using some form of AI. Oh my --- the results were hilarious! And I would say that we are pretty good cake makers!

We had a wide range of cakes, and even though it's just words (typed or verbal), the variety is wide and shows that it takes time to really think about what you want on your cake. 

I swear the cake in this picture went through some kind of natural disaster! The machine looks like it was hammered with something, and there is NO icing on that cake! I think it also makes a difference which AI program you used. 

A cake with a battered sewing machine on top

This cake was created using a sophisticated AI image generator, and the person who made it is highly skilled in this area. We even got a front and a back view of this cake! 

That's a gorgeous cake

The difference is quite remarkable! 

I made my cake last week, and can you guess what parameters I included? 

My cake

It was something like, 'I want an orange sewing-themed cake with a crazy quilter on a bike!' This is what I got! I LOVE it, and I could actually make this. Well, someone with good cake decorating skills could make this! 

This past weekend marked the first two games of the American League East (baseball, for those who didn't know), and although I'm not a fan of watching baseball, it's our team! 

I noticed that one of the Monday group had posted a picture of her dog dressed in his Blue Jays gear. 

A loyal Blue Jays fan

And while he looks pretty happy, I knew he would be jumping up and down after those two incredible wins. So this is Charlie cheering his team on! He was cheering so hard, his hat fell off! 

Go Jays Go!

When I was walking Lexi, I decided to have some fun with the Monday group, so I downloaded ChatGPT to my phone and asked it to create a picture. My parameters were to create an image with six dogs (the six dogs of the ladies in the group - I hope I didn't miss anyone's dog), with Blue Jay jackets and hats on (I guess it didn't want to hide the faces of the dogs in the front row with hats! Lexi probably said, "I'm beneath wearing a hat," anyway! And then listed the breeds: a black lab, a cockapoo, a golden retriever, a Bichon frieze, a chocolate lab, and a husky. This is what I got!!! It's hilarious!!!!

Dog baseball fans!

I was trying to make a more elegant cake, but I ran out of computing time on the free version of the app. Hmmm --- I could have loads of fun with this. Should I pay the monthly fee? I would get way more fun out of this than I would watching a streaming service. I'll have to think about it! I am a stickler for using real stuff. But can you imagine what this will do to Stock Photos? I created that picture while walking the dog, and no edits or changes were made from the first, very rudimentary commands. Yikes!!! Scary stuff!!!

Please don't ask how I got all the dogs to sit together so quietly! 

Oh, gosh — I need to get myself organized, as I've been looking for something I purchased about a month ago. Of course, I couldn't find it. But when I was searching for something else on my desk, there was the darn box! My desk is currently in an unfortunate state, but I'll get it cleaned up! 

The missing box! 

During Monday Sewing, I managed to make some progress in the tidy-up area. I had a couple of mats for my Momento cutter that needed to be cleaned, and now they are ready to go for the next cutting session. And even better, all the mats are put away! 

Cleaning the large mat for the Momento

When I was at Sewing Machine Magic two weeks ago, they have LDH scissors for sale. I had a look at them and decided to upgrade my cheap thread snips with a nice new pair. 

LDH scissors

I got the solid black ones, and I haven't used them yet, but they are now sitting beside my sewing machine. I'm looking forward to sewing something later to try them out. 

My new thread snips

After removing the cutting mats from this table, it looked a whole lot neater. I pulled out my small cutting mat and, with the ironing station right behind me, I proceeded to trim some half-square triangles. 

Trimming half-square triangles

I'm happy to report that all the ones I've recently sewn are now trimmed. That is excellent news, and I need to stay on top of it, which I'm doing a great job of now that I'm aware of it and not just letting these things build up. 

More half-square triangles trimmed

I still have this container of them sitting on the ironing surface, and I'll save that for the occasional cut or do them while on Zoom calls. 

The remainder of the half-square triangles

It was time to clear all the crap off the floor. I was growing increasingly tired of it, and I can't believe I lived with clutter strewn all over the floor for years. And then I dare to discuss hoarders. I didn't even see the mess until I had no choice but to pick it up when the floors had to be replaced. The cutting table is a disaster, but that's on the agenda for later today. 

Nothing is on the floor in front of the cutting table

I have a lot more to share with you about Studio B, but time doesn't permit it this morning. On my walk, I stopped by Indigo (a book/gift store) to see what was there. This is a very dangerous place for me to be, but I won't buy books because I can get them from the library. However, there are so many I want to read! Help!!! I confess that two jigsaw puzzles came home with me - they were on sale! OK - one of them was! The second one was a jigsaw puzzle, and then you had to solve a mystery. I have a couple of those, but there are more every time I check. 

Jigsaw puzzle and a murder mystery

More murder and puzzling 

They also have a nice selection of the non-Advent calendar EXIT Games, but I didn't buy any. I need to check which ones we have. One of our sewing group members, who is currently in Austria, spotted an EXIT Game Advent Calendar on the shelf. Now the language with that one would be a challenge!

EXIT Games!

However, they had started a jigsaw puzzle, and I had to stop for a bit. It's on their community table! I've never seen or heard of this before, but I wanted to help the cause by lending a hand. 

Community table at Indigo

This was the table when I arrived. There are three chairs: top left, bottom right, and to the bottom left of that photo. The puzzle frame was sitting on the table with the bottom facing towards the rest of the table. And a large number of pieces were still in the box. 

The table when I arrived

So I put out a couple of handfuls of the puzzle pieces and turned the puzzle so that when someone was sitting at one of the chairs, it would be in the correct orientation. 

Now this is much better! 

Believe it or not, but I even managed to find one piece and put it in the puzzle. 

I completed the mountain top!

Anyone want to join me at Indigo to do some puzzling? I might have to go every day! I wonder how long they would allow a person to stay without being too obvious that they were there for hours? 

Would anyone else stop by to chat and puzzle with me? It might be fun to see what happens. It's a rainy day today - a perfect day to work on a jigsaw puzzle. 

I'm getting closer to finishing the writing - I hope, no, I really need and want to get it completed today. I have so many other things that I want to tackle. No deadlines, but I want to move on! Today's the day to make it happen. 

Be sure to check in tomorrow, because Studio B is not the same as you've seen it lately. It probably looks even worse! 

I had a couple of issues with falling asleep and then staying asleep. Now, why is that? So I was creeping around the house, tidying up and opening windows since it was so warm. My little pouch slipped to the floor in the office, and I accidentally stepped on it. A few seconds later, I hear the car alarm go off. No way! Yes way! When I stepped on the pouch, I somehow activated the panic button on the key fob. Go figure! In a real emergency, I probably wouldn't be able to touch that button if the key fob were in my hand!  

Anywyay - if you get a chance to make a cake with AI, send it my way! It's a hilarious task to undertake, and it doesn't take much to create something, however good or bad.

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!