How do you measure a meter?

It was a wild night! I hate it when you go to bed tired but can't fall asleep. The last couple of nights, I've been tired and tried to read my book. I could barely read a couple of pages, and I was fast asleep. Last night? Not happening. So I read more and more pages of the book. Let's say this is one of those psychological thrillers that well --- do you want to know what happens? This one is called Watch out for her" by Samantha J. Bailey, and it was creepy from the opening sentence, "I watch people". Yikes!!!

It's a bit disturbing to read, and that's what the storyline explains. What's really disturbing is what the heck happened, and what is continuing to happen? The story is unfolding in the past, and the present, and it's just creepy!!!!

When I couldn't read any longer, but was still not tired, I got up and worked on my puzzle. More on that in a minute. Yet - I'm still up before anyone. But I think a nap will definitely be in order this afternoon. 

I finished the puzzle before we went for our morning walk. Four pieces are missing! But that's OK -- you still get the enjoyment of making the puzzle. I made a note and put it in the box. 

The completed puzzle

Later in the afternoon, I packed that one up and got out the one that I brought with me. No clue how big or how many pieces, but from the bag inside, I knew it wasn't a big puzzle. I tried using the puzzle sorting trays, but I think it's going to take some time to get used to them. At some point, I emptied the pieces onto the table. It took no time at all to turn those pieces over. 

Breaking out puzzle number two

And then I built the frame, which was pretty easy, although I was missing one piece for a long time. What's interesting is that the entire side of the box is the puzzle, including the puzzle's name and the brand at the top! And as you can see, it's very long and narrow - just like the box. 

The border of the puzzle

After I read, but was still awake, I popped up and finished the puzzle. I know -- it was ridiculous o'clock, but that worked for me. There is a nasty glare from the light, or I probably would have finished much earlier. But that's OK. It's done, and there is ONE piece missing. Well, I bought it for cheap at the thrift store. I don't care. By the way, the puzzle has 300 pieces! No - I didn't count them; I counted the pieces along the sides and the top/bottom and multiplied! 

My second puzzle is complete!

This was a DowdleFolkArt puzzle. So I can pack that up, and it won't be coming home with me. 

We took a trip in the afternoon to one of the local quilt stores. Yikes -- you sure don't buy stuff willy-nilly anymore, not at the prices in this store. The lowest price I saw on solids was $14.98, and we saw fabrics at $28.00. Most of the prints are $22.98. That's obscene, and this store tends to price things a dollar or two higher than others. Loads of variety, but not cheap!!

This is the fabric that was $28. It's a yarn-dyed cotton by Anna Marie Horner. Where would you use this stuff? I sure the heck wouldn't use it for a quilt - it's too expensive and thick. And to make a jacket? Not with those patterns - at least not for me. If you want to learn more about these fabrics, check out this document. I think preparing this document was an excellent idea, but I still don't see myself using it. Making a bathrobe? Not thick enough. A light wrap—I could do that —but again, the colors are so off; I just wouldn't buy any of this. 

Yarn-dyed cotton

But in looking at the cotton prints by this same designer, they are wild. I like wild - no, I like bright. But when I see some of the quilts made with the wild print, you can't see the pattern, so why would I do all that piecing and not be able to see the pattern? I guess I'm old-school now. And you know what? I'm very OK with that. 

 Besides, I have loads of fabric at home to make quilts, so I don't need to buy much new stuff. This kind of thing would just sit on the shelf and never get used. I like to try new fabrics, but not at that price. 

When we got back from the shopping trip, it was finally time to get something done on my placemats. I decided to quilt them before assembling them. But wait! Before I could do that, some of my fleece pieces were not large enough. Thankfully, some odd pieces were hanging off, and I was able to use a triple zigzag to stitch them into a usable piece. And thank goodness for others having the same machine brand as me, so I could borrow a foot as I had only brought ONE - my 1/4" piecing foot. 

Had to borrow sewing machine feet

And these pieces of fleece came from somewhere. Why was it cut like that with markings? 

Where did this fleece get used?

Oh well, it all worked out, and I got four pieces of fleece that were the correct size. Then onto the quilting. Now I did a bad thing and quilted some straight lines along the pattern lines. But I didn't use a walking foot, which I should have. One of the other ladies even has a walking foot that I could have used. Not using the walking foot caused the fabric to shift slightly, even though I started from both ends. I'm working with my old sewing machine (the ONLY sewing machine I own), and, well, the feed teeth aren't that great. I am not taking the placemats apart. They are a bit wonky, but they will be fine. You can't really tell in this picture, but the one end is slightly skewed.

The quilted center of the placemats

 I happened to have black thread in my retreat supply box, so that worked for the top. And can you believe that in my bobbin tray, I had TWO bobbins of orange thread? I'm using any color for piecing blocks. My goal is to use up all these colors!! 

My bobbin collection

That worked perfectly for the back. Seriously? I couldn't have gotten that more perfect if I had tried. 

The orange thread on the back of the placemat

The next step is to put on flat piping on all eight sides. This is NOT a fast placemat. Since I am going through all layers, I decided to baste those piping strips on, and I used a long stitch and a different-colored thread in the bobbin. As I put the final round of fabric on, I'll remove all the green basting thread. Smart!!!! 

The green basting thread

I didn't get even one placemat finished yesterday, and I'm OK with that! But everything is cut and prepped, so it should go quickly today. I didn't have anything for binding, as the instructions say to make the top, then sew the backing and the fleece in, and turn it inside out. Since I quilted through all layers, I need a binding. I bought a solid black fabric at the quilt store, and now I can completely finish them later today! 

Someone else is working with fleece to make a car seat poncho for a child. That stuff is fluffy, and she was vacuuming frequently to get rid of the fluff! At first, I couldn't figure out what all the noise was about! 

Vaccuming up the fluff

Helen Anne and I went for a walk in the morning, but that wind was NIPPY!!! While I was warm, my face was cold! I should have stopped and wrapped my face a bit more with my scarf! 

And the weirdest thing happened in the morning. I was trying to pair my new iPad to my Sonos speaker. I couldn't get it to work. So I turned off the Bluetooth on my phone, and it still wouldn't work. It was searching, but no luck. Restart the iPad, turn the Bluetooth on and off, and nothing. Then, as I held the speaker in my hand and NOTHING was connected to it, it started to talk. What? Then it was gone. 

Then it was back, and I could hear things about baking. What's this all about? Then I remembered that someone had connected to my speaker the night before. They were up and in the kitchen. Are you listening to a baking show? No. But WAIT -- she had been listening to a baking hack on some social platform. Yep -- that was the culprit. Her signal kept coming and going because I kept turning the speaker on and off. 

Why her phone was still connected to the speaker is beyond us, especially since she was trying to listen with her earbuds! Yep—we got a good laugh over that, I got the speaker connected to the iPad, and all is good! 

OMG --- I had another chuckle yesterday. One of the ladies was measuring some yardage that she had brought. She folded it in four and laid it on the cutting table. She whipped out her measuring tape, and this is how she measured it. 

WHAT? Measuring a meter with centimeters?

What? She measured it in cm!!!!!! I never or very rarely use that side of my measuring tape. 

This is how I would measure a meter. 

Measuring a meter in inches! 

What a hoot!!! I'm pretty OK with most things metric, and it really makes a lot of sense because everything is based on 100. 100 cm makes 1 meter, and all that fun stuff. I'm good with Celsius for temperature and pretty much have no clue what 70 degrees F means. But when it comes to inches and centimeters, I'm challenged. So I buy fabric by the meter, because that is how stores sell it. But when I work with the fabric, I work in inches!!! 

It's all about how we used and learned the metric system when we were young! 

So a bad thing happened here, and I can tell you about it. The other night, we were chatting about what meals people were preparing for the week. Desserts are optional because they are usually laden with sugar, which isn't a good thing for any of us here, and it's all health-related. One person mentioned that she almost brought those marshmallow/peanut butter/butterscotch chips squares. OH MY GOD - I haven't thought of that in a long time. 

Well, she surprised us by going home and making a batch. I do NOT need this. She also had other cookies, and I stuck to ONE small piece of this because I do NOT need it. I do NOT want it. But it was good to relive memories by having this one piece. 

A blast from the past

For months, I've been thinking that I need to get back to eliminating sugar from my diet. It's incredible how quickly the pounds can pack on by eating refined sugar. But with so much travel and coming and going, it's been hard to eat super healthy. And I confess that a few pounds have found their way to my midsection, and I feel awful because of that. 

So I must get back into the groove when I'm home, and I am NOT deviating from this. It's not that I consume a lot of refined sugar - I'm trying to think where I've strayed, but I have, and it's mostly with sweets. It shouldn't be too big a challenge to cut that out. I'll likely keep my two small squares of chocolate every day just because. But the fancy cookies and squares? They are gone! And I've had a few too many fancy hot chocolates in the last while, and those need to go, too. 

I don't think it'll be too challenging, and I need to get back in the groove. I'd also like to do a bit more weight lifting, but I can only introduce new stuff slowly. I'll make it happen. 

I see that it's windy again this morning with lower temperatures, so we'll still go for a walk, but it will be brisk!

And on that note, I'm out of here!!!!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!