Out of sight - out of mind!

OK—let's see if the pictures load this morning. 

Success!!!! It took a wee bit longer than usual, but that's OK - the pictures are loaded!!!

I don't know what is happening with the squirrels, but they seemed to be having a party on our front step. The funny thing is that there are NO oak trees anywhere near this area. They are in the back in the forest, but not in front. Hmmm—someone called a party, and no one told me? 

The morning after a wild squirrel party

I think everyone knows that Michaels in the US and in Canada is bringing in fabric. Fabric has been in some of the US Michaels stores for several years, and it is slowly being rolled out to all Michaels in Canada. I have seen it a couple of times. I zipped off to one of my local stores (yes—there are THREE within about a 6 KM distance, which seems a bit obsessive to me). 

The fabric styles have definitely improved since it first started rolling out. Will it ever replace a full-blown quilt store? No. But you can find some nice pieces. I found this vintage map piece, which had to follow me home. If you are a crafter or need limited prints, this is a good place to start. If you are a quilter, it won't be enough. 

My find at Michaels

When I was prepping Studio B for the Facebook Live, I had to shift a few things around, and I spotted a shelf on the bookcase that had been hiding behind the temporary design boards. OH MY -- this shelf was a "to be sorted" shelf, and I had completely forgotten about it. I found a bunch of binders that need to be gone through. Mostly filled with patterns, but some great ideas for the upcoming scrap class. One more thing to add to the list. 

Folders to deal with

Of course, my trusty helper was with me. The poor thing - like all aging people or pets, she has good days and bad days. But I will say she seemed to take a downhill turn a couple of months ago, and she isn't going to recover. I swear she is depressed now because of the lack of mobility she has. But we are going to love her forever and will enjoy all the moments she has. 

MOM - I just supervise from the floor now! 

She can make it down the stairs no problem, but going up is a whole different ballgame. So I was alone during the Facebook Live, and she was outside in the backyard. I left the barricade open at the top of the basement stairs so she could come down if she needed to. I was praying that if she did come down, she would have to be content staying down with me, since I wouldn't be able to help her up!

And she decided to come down very near the end of the presentation. There were a lot of cords behind the scenes, and wouldn't you know it, she came to me, got caught in the wires, and sank to the floor. If you watch the video near the end, I had to bend down to disentangle her from the cords. 

Murphy got caught in this cord.

It was a tight space behind the sewing machine, but it all worked out. 

The space behind the sewing machine

While we were downstairs, it was quite windy, and this bouquet of cut flowers I got for my birthday got blown over. It was on its last legs, which is why it was outside. The glass vase didn't break! 

The flowers got blown over.

So yesterday was a new day and more work to be done. I'm happy to report that the sewing for the second class is done and the pictures have been uploaded into the presentation. I just need to sort them after writing the blog. That will make two of three presentations complete for tomorrow. Oh my --- one of the classes involves paper piecing, and let's just say that I've invented (not really) a brand new way to cope with finicky paper piecing, and once you wrap your head around it --- it's kind of fun! 

That's for the My Kinda Town class, which is only four classes this fall. If anyone is interested, you're welcome to sign up. 

You can check back to this blog post for more information. Just note that the first class is tomorrow at 1, not next week as originally planned. I love how the work turned out!! And of course, I'll share later - not the technique, but my work. 

So something else got unearthed in the stash room. Oh shoot—I didn't take a picture of the shelving, but the room has shelves on three sides, which means there are corners, and the things in the corners aren't readily visible. 

Wait—I just had time to sort the slides in the presentation and found my missing photo. Wrong folder!

Hidden corners in the stash room

I needed to dig out a bucket of fabric from beside the corner the other day. 

A bucket of striped fabric

I'll explain more about this basket another day, but remember those two striped fabrics I bought the other day? 

Two striped fabrics I recently purchased

Well, there are a few more colors from this collection in that green bin!!! 

Removing that big basket revealed another basket in the corner. Hmmm -- what's in here? And OMG --- what a treasure I found. 

What's in this hidden basket?

This is a basket of T-shirt bits that I have saved over the years. The T-shirts have already been cut up, and I had plans to make a T-shirt quilt from them. Oh my—yes—I have another group of T-shirts I want to make a quilt from. I'll have to squeeze them together and maybe make a backing from the other bits. 

I already have one T-shirt quilt. How many does one need? I love them because they are heavy!

BUT, I found something that I swear I still had, but didn't know where it was. 

I may have mentioned that next year is the 50th year of our participation in Katimavik. And we are attempting to locate as many people as we can. And oh my --- it is a very hard task. Of the 51 people in the group, I think we have located 20, 8 of whom have passed. That is a very scary statistic. 

During the program, or it could have been after, but likely during, we had some T-shirts made, and I wanted to find them. Well, when I spotted that basket, I knew what I was going to find. Well, I was hoping. This is when the hoarding tendencies of your mother come in handy. 

I found both of them!!! 

Katimavik T-shirt number one

The official Katimavik T-shirt

The bottom one has the official Katimavik logo. I also found my military beret and ascot! 

OH MY GOSH --- those T-shirts are almost 50 years old! Well, there are only bits of them, as you can see; I totally hacked them from the T-shirt. We have a meeting today, and I haven't done much searching for missing people, so I'd better put in a bit of time this morning. 

Our premier took away all the speed cameras in the province, stating - I have no idea what his rationale was- but he vowed to have more police checking on speeders in school zones. Hmmm -- the cost of an officer and a car versus a speed camera? Which costs less? Which catches more people? 

Anyway, on our walk yesterday morning, there were two cars, and it was easy peasy for them to catch people speeding through the 30 KM zone. I think one officer should have stood on the sidewalk with the radar gun and pulled speeders over, while someone went down the line and wrote out tickets. 

It's just a shame that no one respects the speed limit, especially in a school zone and right at school drop-off time. Well, shortly after, some stragglers are probably coming in. 

Of course, DH and I had a big discussion about which method was more effective to make people stop speeding. Do we ever agree on anything? How many schools yesterday did NOT have police presence? 

Oh my—there is a new long arm from APQS, and it looks pretty spiffy. I got a notification yesterday about trade-ins. I have to chuckle because the trade-in machines start from the year 2013. My machine is from 2006!!!! I definitely won't qualify for a trade-in. And it looks like when I am ready to downsize, and that machine can't come with me, I'd better just call the 1-800 Got Junk people and load it up! 

From time to time, our online Monday sewing group gets together for lunch. A few of us are close enough to make that happen, and sometimes people come in from a distance. We were five. DH was supposed to have the car yesterday, so I planned to ride my bike. The restaurant isn't that far away. He didn't end up using the car, but I still rode my bike. 

Super fun!!! I need to get out more often, and it was one of those days when it was windy on the way there and windy on the way back! I'm riding my townie bike with only three speeds, and my legs -well, they aren't used to riding out in the real world. I found it a challenge with only three speeds, but overall it was good. Great bike paths for about half the distance. The rest? Not so much!

There were only five of us, and you know what? It was nice. If there are too many people, you can't talk to everyone! We told the organizer she should cap it at 6 in the future!!! Can you imagine? That would be bad, but it is fun to visit with a smaller group. Which is why I like retreats with smaller groups. And there is little danger of anyone taking sides! 

Remember what we talked about the other day - about toxic people and choosing sides. 

OMG --- when I was walking Lexi in the forest, guess who I met! Yep—the very person I was thinking of when I posted these!!! There was no way we could avoid each other - we had to pass each other. I politely said, "Good morning." She responded, and we kept walking. I had so much I would have shared, since we had some great conversations back in the day, but then I remembered my stand and wouldn't cave!!!! She chose, and she didn't choose me, so I'm not going back. 

As close as we live to each other, it is very rare that we bump into each other, which is probably a good thing. 

As I sit at my computer, I can see the neighbor's house. The top half is wood siding, and it's never been touched since the house was built 30 years ago. They are doing some major work inside and outside - I wonder if that is for them or if they are prepping to sell? Anyway, they had a new deck and gazebo built in the backyard. Now they are trying to paint the back of the house and have to set up complex scaffolding to access the wood that is behind the gazebo, which is set very close to the house. 

I'm not a fan of their music, and Murphy is doing a great job of not barking her head off, so we are all getting along, and all is good. 

On that note, I'm out of here! I need to get a lot of work done today, and I would love to have an extra day!!!

It's going to be a wonderful day!!!!

Ciao!!!!