Slow and steady and all will be done!

I thought I had a system to remind myself to take my once-a-week bone density meds, but I haven't done it in weeks! I got an auto-renewal at the drug store, and I'm weeks behind. I'm going to have to set a task on my phone to remind me early Sunday morning. It is the most ridiculous thing in the world. I told the doctor to not give me that prescription, and when I renewed it, they forgot and sent the old one to the drugstore instead of the one I can take with food. Sigh..................

Hopefully all this strength training will help, and I can stop taking that pill. I should look to my personal trainer for inspiration. I'm not sure how young she is, but she participates in bikini fit challenges. Oh my ---- something to aspire to! 

But onto bigger and better things! 

Here is the garage. The line of crap on the right side is my sorting for the recycling depot. There are piles of styrofoam in the middle for recycling. And a few boxes of wires and lighting stuff that need sorting. 

The garage, also known as the sorting spot.

The left side is a bit messier, but not that bad. A little bit each day, and it will get cleaned up! And I'm OK with that. I need to sweep the floor and start moving the stuff I want to keep into the far left corner. My goal is to get that space tidied up by October 1. I guess I can say that I've tackled the garage several times, but never gotten to the bottom of the piles of junk. 

The other side of the garage

I found a company that will come to the house to pick up books, so I have notified them that I need a pickup, and I now have 9 boxes of books for pickup. I still have three bags and one box in the office that I will try to sell or give away to other places. If no one takes them, they can go to the thrift store bit by bit. 

My pile of books for donation

Once the last two boxes for the electrical stuff and those books leave the office, I'll have lots of room! It's not bad, not perfect - far from it, but progress is being made. 

There are so many great quotes online, and of course, I had to stop to find one. This quote is so true—I could rush through the entire thing in a day. I could be exhausted and hate the process. I do what works for me. I'm slow and methodical, and I'm not about to change. I don't want to change! At least not with decluttering. 

Here is an interesting question DH and I seem to discuss frequently. Yep - it's the use of AI. I lament about my calendar, and he says I should use an agent to help me. I don't need or want an agent to deal with my calendar. Seriously? I have trouble enough trying to remember things that I personally book - actually, I don't, but that sounds way more dramatic!) My problem is finding room to schedule something in. I'm not talking about a one-hour meeting like he needs; I'm talking about booking a quilt retreat, or a weekend away, or a day to help pack and ship puzzles. 

I don't need an agent to show me what to do - I need more weekends!!! I have wide-open weeks, and weekends are booked. Well, that's not completely true either because I have weekends open - just not the right ones! 

Then DH suggested that I use AI to help me research my subjects. Seriously? We are in totally different worlds. I'm a creative person, and if I'm looking for a quote, how the heck will AI know which one is the perfect one for me? I like to be in control and pick the one I like the best, and it takes mere seconds for Google AI to find them. I do NOT want some AI suggesting what I should use. 

And there are times when I'm researching something and something else pops up, and that is the beauty of manual research. Besides, who doesn't remember searching those card catalogs at the library? I was in my glory when I discovered those! 

So what is wrong with Murphy? She was outside and started to bark around 10 PM. Not a lot, but enough. So DH brought her in, and she went upstairs. Why? She lies in the bedroom at the back of the house so she can hear the backyard noises and the waterfalls. She slept like a log and didn't get up until I coaxed her downstairs this morning. Then before I could move my barricade to the basement steps, she went downstairs. Sigh..............

At least, we have a workable solution as long as she can do the stairs. I don't understand why she slips on the basement stairs, which have those carpet treads, and yet she can sneak her way upstairs, which are just wood. The mysteries of an aging dog. 

While you can't see it in this photo, the spider (and he's a giant one) is happily spinning his web, and it's huge. It covers a huge portion of that open space. I have no idea what it is connected to, but it's big. The spider is probably big because he is capturing lots of insects with that giant web. 

A giant spider web

I was madly stitching out embroidery samples on both machines. Here is one of them. It's a polar bear made with felting (acrylic wool on cotton). He's so cute, and I want to add some words of wisdom to him. I hope to make that happen today. The samples will NOT be finished as in quilted and bound or made into a bag, but that's OK. I feel he needs a can of Coke! 

My felted polar bear

I have a couple of other samples, but forgot to take pictures. I'll try to do that today, or perhaps I'll wait. 

I went through a lot of bobbins. 

A lot of bobbins got used.

Wait -- before you gasp at the quantity, all of those were partially used, and I was tired of seeing them in my bobbin box, so I used them up! They went in a bag and will be donated to someone who uses them for fidget quilts. 

What fabric do you use when you make samples? I needed some plain fabric to test out some quilting - wait until you hear about the new functions on the PFAFF creative icon 3 for quilting! Anyway, I got to the point where rotary cutting wasn't happening. I was ripping the fabric as it was faster and easier. GASP - I never thought I would say that.

RIP!!!!!!

And the room looks like a tornado went through it, but that's typical when I'm in intense work mode. 

Studio B in disarray - again!

I created a few embroidery files to stitch out today, and I'm searching for two things to embroider on, and I haven't seen either. I swear I have them, but where the heck are they? I might just go to the thrift store to see if I can find replacements, or I have one other tub to check. Darn annoying! 

And then I spent the evening with the puzzle. Actually, it isn't that difficult of a puzzle and rather fun, once you get into it. Can you spot the duplicate doors? They are almost the same, and that threw me off. I'm definitely working by color and still have red and miscellaneous. I should be able to finish that by Monday night and pack it in my suitcase. Oh yes -- I know puzzlers across the country, and why not share my wealth rather than donate it back to the thrift store? 

Progress on the puzzle

Now that I've worked with it a bit, as I scour my design boards, I can quickly identify the location of pieces and find them a home. And in my slow, methodical way (I will never be a good speed puzzler), I try to find a home for all the pieces I pull. I had some yellow pieces left, and by scouring the picture on the box, I found a home for all of them. Now that's satisfaction! I'm onto red later today. 


I have to share these with you. Yep --- it's my daily dose from Thought.minds on IG. I love seeing what they post, and so much of it is true! OK—so the artwork is AI-generated; you can't have everything. If only we could live with all those words of wisdom. I think the goal is to pick one we already do well or believe in, then find a new one or just think about them. And try to be a better person. Not perfect - just better. 

OH MY --- how true is this one!!!! I'm not quite like the dog, but it doesn't take much to give me joy. 

And I love this!! You have to read it a few times to realize what they are saying. But are you a chicken? 

Let's face it - panicking doesn't work! 

And on that happy note - I'm about to panic! Kidding—I just have lots of work to do and am trying to declutter the house at the same time. Have you noticed that it's nothing for me to declutter these days? I may not do a lot, but almost every day, something gets put away in its home or finds a new home. It's a habit that can become addictive, which is good since the flow of stuff to deal with is steady!

I have enough samples to take with me - any more is icing on the cake. 

Have a wonderful day!!!

Ciao!!!

Just an ordinary day! LOL!!!

AHA -- the wasitabands without elastic are yoga waistbands. I should have guessed that, but it's what everyone is wearing to the gym and outside the gym! And yes—buying shorts in the men's department, and even better if they come from the thrift store, probably works as well!!! Thankfully, we have so many choices, we are bound to find something that works for us. 

We have all had those days where we intend to do one thing and something totally different happens. It's kind of like my August - I was supposed to be relaxing the entire month, and well, that wasn't the case. But you know what? That's just how I roll. I'm not a relaxing kind of person. WAIT -- don't get me wrong - I can be a slug in a heartbeat, but I need to be doing something - just not perhaps at every moment. 

If I were to completely retire - would I survive? I'm not sure. I have loads to do, but if I were the one to dictate the schedules 100% - would I be happy? Thankfully, I have friends who take charge of my schedule from time to time to keep me on track. And work does as well. I would be bored out of my mind otherwise, even with all the things I have to do. 

I had some stuff to do in the morning, and then I was ready to go downstairs to start cleaning up the cutting table and get that sewing machine out of the box. DH arrives in the kitchen and asks if I could pick up lunch when I went to the recycling depot. WAIT -- I wasn't exactly planning on going to the recycling depot that moment. I had contemplated doing it today. Then I remembered he was going to be playing golf, and thus I wouldn't have a car. Shoot! 

So I quickly packed the car with easy stuff. I grabbed all the ballast that had been sitting at the curb waiting for the scrap guy to come around, and he never did. So I grabbed some of the crappy outdoor lights and loaded them in the car. I didn't have time to sort things, so I grabbed the big things that didn't need sorting. 

Then I finished packing up the last boxes for my SIL and loaded them in the car since the UPS store is not far from the recycling depot. The UPS store owner knows me from all the quilts I sent to the US, so I get very good service from him. He didn't like the way one box was packed, so we opened it up and added more packing. 

My load of stuff for UPS and the recycling depot

You have to admit there is some satisfaction in tossing this stuff into the bin. Heave ho! 

The white ballasts are now in the bin.

But they will take all the wiring because someone along the way strips the wire to get the copper on the inside. My kind of people. So now I'm going to sort out another load and will take it another day. I don't have time until I'm back from my whirlwind trip. 

I have to say that it is so refreshing to have clutter-free zones in the house. At the end of the day, it takes mere seconds to get things back where they belong. We have a couple of rooms that fit that bill, and there are others in various stages of tidiness. It all works, but the more I clean and tidy, the more I want it clean and tidy. DH hasn't quite subscribed to that agenda. He wants neat, but doesn't know what that means! 

After lunch, I remembered I had purchased a new bra from the lingerie store but never picked it up, and I found out the store was closing. Apparently, they had been trying to contact me at my home number. So I was off on another errand, and at the same time, I was going to stop at the garden shop to get that weeding tool. 

At the lingerie shop, I bought a couple of other bras since they were on sale and I'm stocked up for a long time. I just don't want to add or subtract too many pounds, or they won't fit properly! That's OK - my weight is pretty steady. 

The garden store was a delight to visit, and I hadn't been there in years. Oh my --- look what they sell!

You can buy puzzles at the gardening store.

Yep -- that's a rack of puzzles. The darn things are everywhere! I did not buy a puzzle. 

They also have small needlework kits. I guess this is for the backyard. I mean to do while lounging in the backyard! No kits followed me home. 

Cross stitch and punch needle kits at the garden store.

They had some lovely furniture, and I looked to see if I could find a replacement for my zero-gravity chair, but I didn't find anything I liked. I've thought of this egg chair, but it's so big and, well, I'm not sure I would like it as it would fill the gazebo. So it stayed in the store. 

An egg chair at the garden shop

But yes—did you glimpse that orange bench? 

A beautiful orange bench

It's beautiful, but where would I put that? Actually, I have a spot for that bench. Hmmmmmm

And they also had this orange Adirondack-style chair. It was very comfy, and I contemplated that, but I prefer something I can stretch out in. So no furniture came home with me. 

The orange Adirondack chair

However, something else caught my eye while I was looking at the furniture. Look how beautiful this lawn ornament is! I added it to the collection along the back of the fence. 

My new sunflower garden ornament

And this metal flower as well. 

And a new metal flower for the backyard

They add a bit of color to the backyard. WAIT—did I get the weeding tool? Of course I did. 

The weeding tool and new garden gloves

I also picked up a new pair of garden gloves, so I'm all set to do my gardening clean-up this morning. That weeding tool works amazingly to clean between the boards on the deck. That was one of the reasons I bought it. It wasn't expensive, and I should have bought two, but they only had one. Now to see if it removes those errant weeds along the edges of the gardens and rocks. 

At last I made it downstairs! And I cleaned up several more bags of triangles. Thankfully, a few more held triangles that were no longer on my radar screen. So they got tossed into the scrap bucket. 

Triangles that are too small

I even found a couple that had been sewn together, and those got tossed as well. We all know that with anything, you must set boundaries or guidelines - what do you want to keep, what will you use, etc., and then you need to stick to that. Don't second-guess yourself because someone else does things differently. Make your rules and then stick to them!

Some of the now too-small triangles were sewn.

While I have made inroads into clearing those bags - I'm aiming for at least 4 a day, there are a lot of bags, and this could present a tripping hazard, so while I'm trying to clean the floor (vacuuming), I picked up the bags and put them in a bigger bag to clear the floor. Safety first!!!!

Still a lot of bags of triangles

I got the grass section cut to replace the one I made in the rooster block for Down on the Farm. I was hoping to get that sewn, but that didn't happen. It's on the agenda for today. 

The new grass section for the rooster block

The pile of scrap was exploding out of the box, and the two pet mats got filled and serged shut. 

The pile of scraps

The serger is now on the floor, and the new PFAFF creative icon 3 is sitting on the table with its embroidery unit. I can't wait to sit and play with it today. It's an amazing sewing/embroidery machine with so many cool features. I'll be doing a Facebook Live on it on September 9th, so be sure to mark that in your calendar so you can watch. 

Although I have an appointment with the physio today, I hope to get some serious sample making done. 

I still have so much to clean up - the shed, the garage, and the office; however, I don't have time at this moment. I hope to take two more loads of crap to the recycling depot before winter, and that will make me happy. I have boxes of books to schedule a pick-up and just so many other things. The hardest part of the clean-up is finding places to take things, and now I have enough places to take things that I can focus on clearing it all out, and then I'll have space to deal with what is left. 

While I keep saying I think we have everything dug out from the deep corners of the house, I keep finding other things. However, I think this is it - I honestly think we have hit all the areas at least once. But I notice that it's time to start at the top and go through the closets again, and this time, I need to be even more ruthless than last time. When the drawers don't close properly, it means you have too many clothes. 

While I was placing the new lawn ornaments in the backyard, look who plunked herself down and looked like an ornament. She looks so beautiful in that picture. 

MOM - can I be a lawn ornament? 

She is no longer on the pain/anti-inflammatory meds and seems to be doing just fine. She is still freaked out about staying in the house when we go to bed. If we try to force her to stay in the house, she goes mad and wants to sleep on the leather media chairs, which I don't really want her sleeping on. She's allowed to sleep on the loveseat in the living room, which is bigger and softer. But NO - she wants to sleep in that chair. 

MOM - I need a bigger chair

And last night, I got up at 2:30? and noticed her in Lexi's raised bed. Of course, I disturbed her and then shut the door, and she wasn't happy. The next thing I knew, she made it up the stairs by herself (GASP) and then slept in the bedroom for the remainder of the night. I should pay attention to that saying - let sleeping dogs lie! 

For my downtime last night, after I pulled the machine out of the box, I dug out the next puzzle. OK—I have a stack on the table of what is next, so I just pulled the top one off the pile. This one is doors and should be somewhat easy since it has big patches of bright colors, but there's lots of grey, brown, and black filler on the tops and bottoms of the doors, so I'm sure it won't be super easy. Can I finish it by Monday night? 

The next puzzle

I got this in a recent email. In case you are wondering what I will do with all my HSTs—there are LOADS of blocks you can make with them. Yes - mine are small, but does that matter? Absolutely NOT! And if you add sashing (or not), you can get some cool patterns. I have books just for HSTs, so it won't be difficult to find a pattern. The issue will be the color and value!! And deciding on one! Or two or three! 

As you can probably see, that came from the Quilting Daily people. 

As you know, we get all kinds of crazy things in our feeds, and this one came from "thought.minds" on Instagram. Oh my goodness -- they have so many of these mindsets, or philosophies, or whatever you want to call them, and they are wonderfully illustrated. But this one? This was how my day went yesterday!

Of the 15 included in this set, I think I concurred or followed all of them. Most of them were awesome life lessons; however, there is one I would like to change. I feel like I spend a bit of time on each line, but too much on the longer lines on the left and not enough on the lines on the right. What are they? 

From the left: to criticize, to gossip, to get involved, to encourage, and to help. 

Well, there you have it - another crazy day in my supposedly simple life. How does this happen? It's just me, and I wouldn't have it any other way. 

But now I must focus and get some major accomplishments under my belt today! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!

Done, done, and DONE!

As for the boxes, I told the electricians to leave them. Yes - I know! But they will just dump it all in the garbage, and I can't live with that. So I separated all the junk into the garbage and put the boxes and packing foam in the recycling! I can't help myself! I hate when people just throw everything away without sorting. I am my own worst enemy! That's why I'm so slow when I'm tidying up!

However, there is quite a mess in the garage at the moment, after all the garbage was removed from the backyard. While it looks a mess, it's not that bad. And I plan to take a trip to the city's waste area, as I have other things in the garage that need to be dumped off. 

The mess in the garage

Again - I know most people just leave it at the curb, and when you do, it all goes in the landfill. But I have wood, metal, electronics, and some old appliances that should go in the proper bin, so I'll pack up a carload this week and make that happen. DH wanted to go see a movie, but I might forgo it and get more of this cleaning done. I am not around all of next week, and I'd like it done before I go. We can wait two weeks to see the movie. I also have samples that need to be made. 

If I'm lucky, I can fit it all in one load and be done with a lot of crap. But I suspect I have a lot of sorting to do in the garage before it's all dealt with. That's OK. Even in its current state, our garage looks way better than most in the neighborhood. 

The electricians (2) spent the entire day in the backyard, and it looks amazing. Some old lights hadn't worked in years, the gazebo plug wasn't working properly, and it was an issue keeping the heater and aerator running in the winter. We ran an extension cord across the backyard from the house. Lots of small niggly things that had just been left over the years. 

Look at one of the plugs on the side of the gazebo. No wonder it didn't work - an entire hole had blown in the back of the plug. How safe was that?

A hole in the back of the electrical plug

I happily wound up the extension cord and brought it into the house. 

Winding up the extension cord

As predicted, the morning was chaotic. I drove DH to the train, and on the way I explained the morning and said (jokingly), "How will I ever cope with all the chaos? I'll be frazzled." His reply was, "You will do just fine; you can handle the chaos," or something to that effect. I believe that was a compliment, and that's why he trusts me to do all this stuff without any interference from him. First, he can't be bothered to deal with any house-related things, and second, I am calm and can handle the chaos. 

Once I was back, I managed to sneak in a walk with Murphy, and she wanted to sniff everything, especially this giant branch, which she attempted to bring home. 

MOM - can I bring this stick home?

Silly girl! Then the cleaning people arrived, and I was still buzzing around trying to put the last of the misplaced things away and put the recycling out, etc. Yes -- isn't it strange how we tend to clean before the cleaners come? I'll tell you all about that story another day. And for me - it really isn't about cleaning - it's about tidying, so they can clean! 

I managed a quick walk with Lexi and happened to meet our landscaper at a job site down the street. Perfect timing, so I asked about the path light in the front that wasn't working. They had installed that light when the front was done. Turns out the units are not under warranty, but the bulbs can be replaced, so he is now in charge of that. 

The electricians arrived just as I was about to leave for the vet with Lexi, so I spent a few minutes getting the lights organized in the backyard and checking what they needed. 

Then Miss Lexi and I were off to the vet, and she was so happy. The first thing she did was walk up to the scale, which was in front of the window, and she could have stood there all day! 

MOM - the view is amazing!!!

But when I went to take her to the examination room, she wasn't too happy about that. She got a good check-up, and all seems to be OK, although, like all older dogs, her hind legs are weak. Aquatherapy! I guess we need to build one of those small pools with the built-in wave flow so the dogs and I can swim in a very small space. I am not a swimmer, so it would mostly be for them! I think they are called swim spas. I just checked the price - on sale, the cheapest - $30K. I think we will pass on the swim spa!!!!

While I like the new vet very much, the technician is very timid (she's very young) when it comes to taking blood. Just find the vein and jam the needle in - OK - so that sounds a bit harsh, but you know what I mean. She hesitates. It took 20 minutes to get bloodwork from Lexi, and I decided to leave the room in case she was more comfortable without me there. Of course, they got it when I wasn't in the room! Lexi is such a princess! 

Back home, the cleaners were gone, but the electricians were still here. Theirs was an all-day job. 

I think they left around 3:30 PM. That was a total of 7 days of electricians, as we had two people working yesterday. The invoice was within my budget, so I was OK with that. I have two lights to return, which is pretty good considering the way they were purchased, but everything I did purchase was amazing. One light just wouldn't fit where I wanted it, and we didn't need the second one. More on that light another day. 

I forgot to take pictures during the day, but I got a couple in the night. OK -- so I was waiting with anticipation for the lights to come on last night, but they didn't! However, when I got up early this morning, the lights were on. I think we need to have a look at the timer to see how it was set. 

Here's what the pond now looks like at night - well, technically, it will be only the evening, but for last night, they came on sometime during the night. 

The new lights in the backyard

And there's my resident frog who has been hiding in the gazebo all summer. He is now sitting under one of the lights. 

The backyard frog!

The gazebo also got some work done, but I didn't manage to get photos. Hopefully tonight, but the floor looks so much better without that massive extension cord sitting there. I just need one more thing for the gazebo, and I think I have no place but to get it from my favorite online store. I must order that today. 

I have already started a new list for the next round with the electricians. A new outlet in Studio B, a lighted house number, and some small things. So I will have my list handy, and if we think of something, we will add it to the list. No MORE waiting! 

What's left? I need to clean out the shed - I've been meaning to do that for a while, and the electricians needed to get in there - there's an electrical panel in there for the backyard, and so lots of stuff got pulled out. I shoved it all back in last night, but I need to get it organized and buy an outdoor box for the cushions. I'll put that in the shed, but I need to get one. It might be a runaround day today. I can't afford the time, but I might take the time to get everything done. I'll see how it goes. 

I packed up four boxes and took them to UPS to ship to my SIL. I was able to get two boxes for some of the specific items I had (I needed certain sizes), and I now have those, so I hope to pack another three boxes today and get those off as well. I'm striking while the iron is hot, and I am ready to get rid of things. Two trips to UPS and it should all be gone. 

But the big question, I know, is: what happened in Studio B? Did the final block get done? With all the phone calls and such, I wasn't sure that the block would get done. I don't think I have ever ripped out as much as I did on this block. I just seemed to make mistake after mistake. My head just wasn't there, yet I needed to get that block complete. 

By lunchtime, this is all I had accomplished, which was slightly more than half. 

What was completed by lunchtime

I stopped to mess with some of the triangles in that basket that was on the floor. I decided to pull out all the plastic bags filled with triangles. How many could there be? 

OMG -- I think I pulled over 40 small bags of triangles from the basket. Those would be bags that someone else gave me, or bags where I put the cutoffs from a specific project. 

Over 40 bags of triangles for HSTs

And of course, when I took all that out, the basket wasn't nearly as full. 

The basket is practically empty after removing all the bags.

With this Down on the Farm project, I have managed to sew quite a few HSTs, so that is good, and there's a lot more to sew. 

I sorted through a couple of the bags, and thankfully I found a few that were too small. 

Triangles are too small.

I found a bag that would give me 3/4" finished, and then I just gave myself a lecture and said, "You do not need to rescue every piece of fabric in the world. Let it go."| And these are now in my overflowing scrap bin. 

More triangles that are too small

It was only after dinner that I could get back to the block, and I literally had to force myself to finish it. Not because I didn't want to, as I was exhausted, both mentally and physically. But I needed it done, so I kept looking at the clock, and by 6:30, I was done! And here it is - the cat block!

The last block

And yes, I used the new fabric for the grass, and you can see it just fine. The grass gets a bit lost in the post, but guess what? You can still see it just fine, and I'm not changing it. I pulled the three fabrics needed to replace the grass section in the rooster block, and I might just redo that section today. I won't have time for the turtle, but it sure would be nice to be completely done with this quilt. At least get all the blocks done. I have the grass in the rooster block and the turtle to redo because of contrast issues. 

Now here's the thing - as I was sewing this block, I thought to myself how much easier this would have been to sew the quilt during a sew-along. Then I would only have to deal with one or two blocks a month. I would feel like I'm making progress, and if there were any frustrations, it would only be one block. I would also be getting other things done! Hmmm -- there's a lot to be said for sewing in a sew-along! 

And don't forget that I am very thorough in my pattern testing, so I was looking for consistency in the cutting instructions, the written directions, and the diagrams. That takes a lot of time, and if there is an error, then I flag it and have to go back and double-check. Plus I wrote it in an email to the designer. 

All is good. I'm waiting on a new, clean copy because I have two things I want to recheck, and I need it to do that. 

I think I've been working on this thing nonstop since July 25. And nonstop is an incorrect term, as there were a few days when I didn't touch it. It was an intense 20 days, and I feel like I have got nothing else done, which is exactly that in my sewing world. 

I swear technology just hates me. I had something to scan yesterday - 15 pages- and when I went to scan in the afternoon, the scanning app on the computer just looked at me and said, "I don't think so." I found something else to do, but I checked a couple of times during the day. 

Finally, when I was about to sit in the backyard and enjoy my book and some watermelon, that's when it decided I could scan. So I took the time to scan the document. And of course, when I went to send it, my email said it was too big. So I had to zip the file this morning and send it. 

Sigh..................

But everything is coming together. The entire upstairs is looking pretty spiffy. One bathroom is completely empty. Studio U needs a bit more work, but it's mostly sorting quilts. It's just looking good. The only problem is that now -- everything needs to be put away immediately! But that's only the rooms where everything has a place! One day, the entire house will be like that. And I LOVE IT!!!

Now I need to tackle the office, the shed, and the garage. Which shouldn't be too big of a deal. I might handle the shed today and get everything organized in there. All this decluttering takes time! But it sure feels good when it's done. This will be the second go-around for the shed, but when things don't have a home - well, you'll see what I mean. 

On that note, I'm off to the gym today. I didn't have time for any stretches or exercises yesterday, and I need to make that happen today. But I was lugging boxes and moving around, so it's not a big deal to miss a day!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

Down on the Farm - Block Ten - DONE!!!!

You are right -- 30 years is NOT old for a house, but the electrical stuff in the house is old! Many of the plugs were outdated or broken. That is not good news for safety and for our environment! Yet again!!!

OH MY -- I never thought about the QUILTsocial blog posts and AI. But you are right—you cannot tell it is AI. The voices and conversation are super smooth and sound just like two people casually talking - literally the way you would have a conversation in a podcast. DH says, I should be happy that it's NOT my voice talking. The feature only seems to be available on the Android phone. 

I'm still dealing with the aftermath of the electrician - pulling garbage from the boxes and flattening them for recycling. I wonder how many screws that are made are never used? All kinds of hardware come in anything you buy, and many times, they don't get used. Yep -- I could keep them, but what will I do with them? 

Then I have five boxes of stuff left over from when M's friend helped her clean the room, and I need to deal with those since I found someone who will come and pick up the books. So that is all in the hallway - either upstairs or on the main floor. And I'm trying to pack at least one box for my SIL, who wasn't able to get everything in her car. I should have checked her car before she left, since I could have packed some of this stuff in there. Take it out of the boxes and tuck it in the cracks! 

The house is in an uproar, and it needs to be tidy by Tuesday when the cleaning people come. I haven't told you the story about why we have cleaning people rather than a cleaning lady. But that will have to wait for another day. 

And it was only last night, when DH said, " Put the chicken in the oven," that I GASPED. I had completely forgotten to get the door fixed on the big oven. How long ago did that glass shatter? Goes to show that we do NOT use our oven often. Instead, we use the toaster oven. And it works for us. 

On top of all that commotion, I'm trying to get the Down on the Farm quilt finished!! I finally have the tenth block complete. My computer is having a hissy fit this morning and will not let me open email. So, before I finish, I'll try rebooting to see if that helps. 

As I've mentioned, I'm not only making the quilt, but pattern testing it at the same time. That means checking the sewing instructions against the diagrams and the cutting instructions. I almost got it right. I am out by two pieces, so I've requested an updated copy and will find those two missing pieces. When each block has 100+ pieces (don't panic - they are big blocks at 13½" by 20½"), it isn't a big deal to be missing a couple of pieces. It's the darn grass -- there is so much of it!!! But since the pattern is being sold, I know that if people find a discrepancy like that, they will not be happy, so I'll find it! 

The first two blocks on the final row.

And I have the next block cut out. This one should be much easier! I need to move on to other things, so I need to get these last two blocks complete ASAP. 

Block eleven is cut out.

Although you can't tell, I was out in the garden on Friday. I spent my half hour or more and did some more weeding. Yep -- as soon as I get the weeds out, they start to grow again! And that darn creeping vine -- you just can't get rid of it, and I didn't do a good job last time because I had run out of time. 

The creeping vine also grows between the rocks at the back of the pond. I don't have a picture for this, but imagine me playing Twister on the rocks as I attempt to pull out the vines. I had my little knee cushion and was facing head down towards the pond. One slip and OOPS - I was going to take a bath. Thankfully, no one got wet, and the weeds are gone! 

The rocks on the pond are free of weeds.

I never see all the fish at once, but they seem to be thriving, and once we get new outlets in the backyard, there should be no danger of them dying this coming winter. I have a new aerator and the heater still works. 

I am going to try to stick to my 30 minutes once a week to maintain and repair a few things in the backyard. If I'm in a good mood and the weather is decent, I may spend more time. I also need to find one of those hand-weeding tools -- it has a curved blade and looks mighty dangerous. I could buy it online, but I want to buy it in person. While I hand-pick the weeds, some have tough roots, and the tool will help pull them out so they don't start regrowing immediately after I yank off the top. 

I am also trying to clean up the bedrooms, which are in a bit of disarray after the electricians moved furniture to access the outlets. I decided to start in Studio U, which is quite a mess, because I had cleared a table for my SIL to work on. OK -- so she did jigsaw puzzles! But all my quilts have literally been stacked in heaps in that room, and it is time to get it organized. 

This isn't quite the before picture, but there was batting all over the room, quilts and samples everywhere, and well, I need to get it organized. It's been a long time since I've done anything in that room. 

An uproar in Studio U.

The sewing table looks marginally better, and I've started pulling samples for my upcoming trip; the items on the left are the ones I'm taking. 

The after, which still looks messy.

The cutting table needs to be put back in place. I've moved a fair amount of stuff to its proper place in the guest room where there is a big black cubby bookcase. I have sorted the table runners, and they are in their proper case. I found some linen storage bags at the thrift store, and they work perfectly for table runners. Now I need to assemble all the small wall hangings, and they will go in another linen case. Hopefully I can find space on my rolling cart, which has resided in the upstairs hallway for a year. It needs to be put back in the guest room, but I have to finish packing my SIL's stuff first. 

What I need is to sort the samples into what I want and what I don't, and find homes for what I don't want. It sure would make life a lot easier. I'm going to have to do that with the quilts. There are so many that I will never use for anything. I've got to get that under control and soon!

All the batting bits got stored back in the closet. I swear that I emptied a lot of that out and was using it for that group of community project quilts, but more has come in!

The batting closet

I store my trimmed HSTs in that room. And there were stacks of them strewn around the room. So I gathered them up and put them away. 

HSTs to be sorted and put away.

I'm not going to go into much detail because I'll be covering this in my scrap class, but this is a tin of trimmed HSTs. 

A tin of trimmed HSTs

I got a chuckle because the box is so full that some of them seem to be exploding out of the bottom. 

HSTs trying to escape

Others that no longer fit in this tin are in plastic bags, stored by size, and yes, they are labeled. I found another tin while going through some stuff, so now I have a new space to store those HSTs. WAIT -- I also have a couple of tins in the basement, so I could easily pull one of those back into duty. 

More bags of HSTs

I am determined to get those triangles under control - just like I have with the rest of my scraps. It's the final frontier of the sewing space! So I sorted the triangles on the tray by color, and I'm working my way through them. 

Triangles ready to sew into HSTs

There was one basket of unsorted triangles, and I'm slowly sorting them and adding them to the tray. 

Triangles to sort 

I also found a basket of triangles, along with two other containers, in Studio U, and my plan is to sort through them all. Can I deal with them by the time I touch on this in my scrap class? Time will tell. 

Another basket of triangles to sort

Every day, I spend a bit of time dealing with a bag or a handful of the triangles and sorting them. 

Sorting triangles for HSTs

BUT --- this is the question. How small is too small, and that's all I'm going to say about this. 

How small of a scrap will you keep?

The tray looks a bit fuller now, although I've been sewing, so it looks much different this morning. 

Lots of triangles on the tray, ready to sew.

And when I got bored of sewing, I would press and trim a few. It doesn't matter what you keep, as long as you have a home for it, or you are working on it, or have plans to work on it. Hmmm --- could someone define that phrase - "plans to work on it!"

Trimming HSTs 

I have had to ban myself from going to the thrift store. The lure of finding some amazing puzzles at reasonable prices and having coupons to use is just too much! If I take two bags, I can bring home twice as many puzzles. Sigh.................. My name is Elaline, and I'm a hoarder. Let's just face reality. 

BUT - I am working on them, and my intent is to give them away. I now have three in my giveaway box and gave a couple to my SIL. All were ones that I had finished. 

I spotted this little gem, which looked intriguing. It wasn't expensive, so I bought it, and it only has 100 pieces. Thank goodness for that. 

An IMPOSSIPUZZLE

The pieces were fairly large and cut into two different shapes. Hmmm -- the shapes were the same, but the orientation was different. Each piece had two holes and two knobs, but half were horizontal, and half were portrait. I'll take a picture so you can see what I mean. 

Anyway, there was no way that you could identify which parts of the candy cane fit into another, so this is one puzzle that I tried every piece in every place. I started by making the border and then worked row by row. And yes, once or twice, the piece that fit was the LAST one I picked up. 

Working row by row

Thankfully, each piece clicked properly into its rightful place, and I could then verify the pattern. It didn't take that long, but it's the first time I've had to do that with an entire puzzle. 

Just the middle is left.

And there it is -- done!!

The puzzle is done!!!

And there's a random picture of Lexi sleeping. This is one of her favorite places. WAIT --- where the fan is sitting is her favorite place, and I think she is making a point - move the fan!!!

MOM - move the fan!!!!

I'm well on my way with the next puzzle. This month's theme for the Canadian Jigsaw Puzzle Association is wild animals. I bought this one because it reminded me of the safaris we took last year. It's only 500 pieces, but the shapes are very weird - a lot of circular ones with four holes, and ones with four tabs. It's good to have variety in shapes, pictures, and the number of pieces.  

The next puzzle

Do I have a technique? I usually start with the border (one piece is still missing) and then by color, but after that? Well, I will go piece by piece if necessary. 

The weather is totally wacko! Yesterday morning was cool but humid, so it felt clammy. Today it's cool and dry, so it feels cold. And then it heats up in the daytime. I'm OK with the weather, but it changes so frequently, and one day it's very humid, and the next day it's dry. I prefer dry over humidity. I think the girls do as well. 

We tried to keep Miss Murphy in the house last night, but she wasn't having anything to do with that. So we let her out, and she slept like the dead. I went out at 11 to bring her in, but she was dead weight, and I couldn't lift her up, and she wasn't moving. She came in about 6 AM and is fast asleep in Lexi's raised bed. I hope to take her off the meds on Tuesday, so we'll see how she reacts at night then. 

I'm madly listening to audiobooks while sewing, tidying, and cleaning. It's the e-books that I'm struggling with. That requires some dedicated time, and when I try to read before going to sleep, sleep comes quickly! Perhaps today, I can spend some time in the gazebo. 

On that happy note, it's time to get moving!!!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!