Scored on the road (shopping) trip!!!

From the comments, I see I shouldn't save any emails with attachments. And YES -- I agree 100%. However, I have been lax about that, and now I'm paying the price. Well, it just means that I have to do a lot of deleting. 

DH and I chatted about it last night. Why are companies doing this? Changing our phones so we have things like auto-backups, and they don't tell us? Because most people will be lazy and just add more storage (for a price). I refuse to be that person. 

DELETE DELETE DELETE is the new motto!! And it's something that has to be done CONSTANTLY. 

What a road trip that was! I picked up my passenger shortly after 9 AM, and we didn't get home until 5 PM. It took a bit longer than I planned, but boy oh boy—the trip was a total success, and I scored on so many counts!

Our first stop was to drop off a quilt that I had quilted for someone. Her house was along our route, so it was easy. She wasn't home, but that worked out OK. We called her and dropped the quilt off in the garage. We also saved her bacon by turning off the water for their new lawn so her husband didn't think she left it on!

Back on the road, we arrived at our first destination about 11:30. I would not normally drive that far to a quilt shop, but I had left some things behind when I was there a couple of weeks ago. Where were we? Heather Bell's Sewing Studio. She doesn't have a super online presence, but she is a PFAFF dealer, and she also has BATIKS. Lots and lots of batiks! 

A small sampling of the batiks at Heather Bell's Sewing Studio

Except for a few bundles, she sells only batiks! And if you are looking for LIGHT batiks, this is the place to go! 

The cream/white batiks!

The store is attached to her house, and it's not huge, but spread out over several rooms. There were a lot of cars when we arrived, and oh my - we were not expecting that! However, it was all good news since there was a SALE!!!!! A good sale - so that was even better. 

I took the bucket of batiks I sorted the previous night, and with the MUCH APPRECIATED bundles of swatches from my other friend, I found some beautiful batiks to fill the gaps. 

My bucket of sorted batiks

The swatches of batiks

What I added to my collection

OH MY --- doesn't that bundle look yummy! I was so excited that I wanted to dive right in and start sewing last night. But I didn't have time. I had to get dinner ready for the little guy, then have dinner myself, then walk the dogs, take a phone call (while walking all three dogs), and then work on the puzzle. But I'm going too fast. Let's backtrack. 

What am I going to do with all those batiks? I have been a fan of Jacqueline de Jonge patterns for years. I have several that were done before her new cover style. By the way - I bought one meter of each color, except for the remnant. It seems I mostly have stuff from her Rainbow pattern collection. But as I quickly browsed her site, so many patterns are reminiscent of other paper piecing designs!!! I have a lot of that other designer as well. We won't go there! 

My collection of Jacqueline de Jonge patterns

I should have checked the date on the one on the bottom right, but it is definitely one of her earlier patterns. As is the one in the top left. They are also easier than some of the others. The second from the left in the bottom row is the one that I am searching for. Obviously, not the pattern, but the project box. I swear I started it - I remember teaching it, but where is the project box? I'll likely find it and find TONS of batiks. But that's OK. 

Anyway, I would LOVE to start one of these, and two of them are very easy. I know - I know! I said I wouldn't start anything new, but those two are pretty basic and would be fun to have as a new project. Just to "test" out the batiks! I'll see how it goes, as I still have a LOT of sorting to do. And basic things to catch up on. 

With all the commotion and people, we were at that shop much longer than we had planned. I hope to get back and run some classes for Heather. We didn't have time to chat yesterday, so we'll do that on the phone. 

We stopped at Tim's for something quick as we were now running behind. Here's a better picture of the SNITCH (Harry Potter) that you can fill with Timbits. 

The SNITCH box at Tim's

OH MY—the special Timbits you can buy have a golden sprinkle on them. It may not be readily visible in the picture! I must say I splurged and had a tea in the morning, which isn't a big deal, but I ended up eating two of their cookies. OK -- loads of sugar, but it was one day. I can live with one day. 

Golden Snitch TimBits

Our next stop was Ye Olde Fabric Shoppe in Stratford. I had several things that I was looking for, and this is a big shop, so I was hoping we would find what we needed. I knew they had a wide variety of stuff. 

I didn't have time to take pictures, but I was looking for a backing, borders, and some background fabrics. And I scored on all THREE counts. I don't have time to share the pictures this morning, but I will take pictures and share tomorrow. Let's just say that it pays to ASK questions when you are in a quilt shop and can't find what you are looking for. A few impulse buys ended up in my basket. Again -- you'll hear all about that tomorrow. 

BUT LOOK WHAT Dede found!!!! 

Adorable mini quilt prints

OH my goodness!!!! There were pinwheels, flying geese, hexagons, stars, log cabins, and probably something else. There were several different colorways, and I wanted one of each! I did not - I got one. I checked my fat quarter to see what collection this is from, and I don't have a selvage edge on my fabric. I quickly tried to find a mini-quilt image on fabric, and all I'm getting is mini quilt patterns. I might have to call the store. 

But imagine what fun you could have with that! The scale might be a tad small for our Show and Tell quilt by Elizabeth Hartman. Those blocks are 12" square, and I'll have to check to see if the scale would be correct. It might work! 

Show and Tell my Elizabeth Hartman

Don't yell at me - I just had an epiphany. I have tried to delete emails in the past, and I never see any of my storage free up. I empty my trash regularly and get rid of spam and that silly Important folder. But I never touch one folder: the SENT folder. Imagine how many attachments are in that folder? I feel protective of that folder and don't want to empty it in case I need to go back and find something, which I have had to do. But imagine if I went in and deleted every email with an attachment? That might quickly free up a lot of space. 

Hmm -- let me check that out. OK -- I just sorted them, and there are MANY. I'll go in later and delete all the class stuff I sent before 2026. That should help. Then I'll keep deleting stuff from my file structure. I'm working on 2025 right now, and everything before 2025 is already deleted. 

Sometimes people come back in a current class and ask me to resend because they can't find the stuff, so I don't want to get rid of everything. Just keep the current one and delete the rest. 

I went to bed a little bit later than usual because I was listening to that darn audiobook! Oh my --- the plot twists keep coming. There was even one point when I gasped audibly at the plot twist. 

And all the while I was working on my jigsaw puzzle. At last—I got over the hurdle, and I made excellent progress last night. 

Excellent progress on the jigsaw puzzle

I now have two windows and a door of books to complete. I love when that happens. And don't worry—the next one is already sitting on the table, waiting to be put together!

Oh my --- too much running around and looking for things this morning, and I need to get to the gym for 6 AM to meet with Brooke. I am feeling much stronger these days. I wish I was a bit leaner, but that will come. Anyway, I think I'm becoming a gym rat again, which I am happy about. I will get to the point where I can easily do 10 push-ups with 90-degree elbow bends from my toes. Hey -- it's nice to have a goal!!! I know -- you are saying - who cares? Well, I care. Because should I slip and fall, I need to get myself back up!

Lots of computer work and phone calls today. As we were driving yesterday, I must have said at least ten times - NOTE TO SELF - you need to do this. I hope I remember everything! I need to take a notebook and have my passenger take notes. I suppose I could do that through the Notes app and hands-free, but then I will forget the note, so that doesn't help me one bit. 

It's going to be an AWESOME day!!!

Ciao!!!