On being patriotic

I flossed TWICE and brushed once! Actually, that wasn't so bad. I have a bunch of those flossers, and they are mint (I found them in my floss stash), and if I keep them by the computer, I can quickly floss after breakfast, get rid of the excess seeds from my oatmeal, and that should keep the dentist and Vanessa happy! 

Six weeks for it to become a habit? OK -- we have to make a valiant effort here, as I know it is better for me. 

It is a tiny world! I'm heading out to visit my parents next week, and when I was speaking to my mom last week to let them know, she said, "Oh, there must be a quilt show". When I asked her how she knew, she said, "There is always a quilt show when I go out". Well, she actually means I go out for work, but that's OK. I don't think she really understands what I do. 

However, this time, YES - I am going out to the Saskatoon Quilter's Guild quilt show. I'm not going just for the show or to earn points for my airline status. I'm actually visiting my parents, and I needed to choose a time before the end of the year. This week seemed like a good fit. Being there for the show is a bonus, as I have always missed it in the past due to my crazy schedule, but this time, the stars are aligned, and I can make it. 

I've been chatting with other people, and they are also going to the show, so I've got a lot of people to meet! It's going to be fun, but I suspect the show will be insanely busy. Let's see how it goes. You can be sure I'll give you an update. 

I need to finish booking my travel arrangements for that. I'll have to ask my parents to move since flying to Saskatoon seems to be the most expensive city for me to fly to in Canada. I swear, I can fly to Vancouver twice for the same price as once to Saskatoon. It's all about supply and demand. 

Many of our neighbors to the south are very patriotic, and many have US flags hanging from their houses or flagpoles. I had a tiny flag attached to the light outside the house, but I wanted a large flag. I had been looking for a flagpole so it could hang off our garage. This summer, I found one and had it installed while we were on vacation. I took pictures a while back, but just didn't have the opportunity to post them to the blog. 

So here it is -- my symbol of Canadian patriotism!!! Oh Canada! About 7 neighbors in this area have flags somewhere on their houses! That's a huge number for a Canadian neighborhood!

My Canadian flag

Does anyone remember the pandemic shutdown? Of course, we do! It seems like forever ago, and it's hard to believe that our lives were affected for almost two years! That's a long time, but we have quickly gotten back into our usual lives. Well, that's a bit of a lie, especially for office workers. 

Anyway, the word on the street was DO NOT TOUCH anything with a bare hand or be sure to sanitize the crap out of it afterward. I remember walking around the neighborhood and needing to push the button to cross the street. Some had large buttons that you could push with your elbow, but others had a small button, inside a ring that you had no choice but to use your finger. 

Now look -- we have buttons that we can push or WAVE AT!!! I was leery of just waving, but it worked! I heard the signal "click," and the crossing light came on when the light turned green. 

New ways to summon the crossing light

WAIT -- speaking of being patriotic, I spotted this photo this morning on Facebook. It's a Quilts of Valour display in a church in St. John's, Newfoundland. The exact name of the church is gone. I only snagged one of the photos, but the display looked amazing. It fills my heart to see the outpouring of quilts, and I need to call my local rep and give her the ones that I have done. I had hoped to have more, but that's unlikely to happen this year. 

Quilts of Valour display in St. John's, Newfoundland

The strangest thing happened yesterday morning. The night before, I had a Zoom call, and as usual, when I was done, I just slapped the lid down on the laptop after disconnecting from Zoom. That puts the computer to sleep. However, when I got up and came downstairs, I could hear noises in the basement. I could hear voices. What? It's singing! I cautiously went down the stairs, and it's coming from my closed laptop. What the heck is going on? 

I had shown a YouTube video, and I guess YouTube decided to keep playing even when the lid was closed. What I was hearing was a Gregorian chant!!! Good grief - that kind of freaked me out!

Georgian Chant on YouTube!

I love this shelf to store my quilts on. It's low enough and yet, on wheels, so that I can move it from room to room. I needed to get it out of the guest room the other day, as we have a guest coming to stay for a while. So I rolled it out of the guest room and down the hall into Studio U. 

My quilt storage rack

I have a guild lecture coming up on November 5 (I think that's the date), and it's going to be easier to pull quilts and get what I need if it's NOT in the room. 

The Pony Express is still alive and well, and I see a few things are starting to pile up. Their time to move on will happen in about 6 weeks. In the meantime, two things got moved from my house yesterday, and I got two things in return. 

That is the bonus bundle for the Cherrywood Challenge. 

The small optional bundle for the Cherrywood Challenge

And the backing for my Colour My World quilt. I bought both at Stitch by Stitch in Kingston. 

The backing for Colour My World

We went out to dinner last night, and of course, it was wall-to-wall baseball. We didn't stay for all of the game, and well, they didn't win, but there are still potentially two more games! Go Jays GO!!!

Wall-to-wall baseball

Look at this cutie pie! She loves to sit in her bed and watch the world go by! And I love how she puts one paw on the edge of the bed! I took this from outside on a rainy day! She is so intense!!! 

MOM - you are blocking my view!

And here she is on a different day, but still with that paw over the edge! Oh Murphy! We love you - silly girl, but she desperately needs to go to the groomer, and I've been a negligent dog parent in making that happen. 

Watching the world go by!

Muprphy is like a small child. She loves to solve the puzzle of unwrapping all those blankets to get the ball. I need to rebundle it for her since everything is scattered across the floor from yesterday's puzzle-solving session, and I didn't put it back. Lexi could NOT care less about this kind of thing. Funny how different breeds like different things. Lexi is happy as a clam being outside, where she is currently and has been for hours. 

MOM -- that was so much fun - let's do it again!

I have two big classes this morning, and both presentations are good to go. I've come to realize that I take as long as I have time for the preparation. I had all week and it took all week! Why? Because I have time! 

And I will need to check out that book I mentioned yesterday, as I don't think I got the correct version, but I am less than 100 pages from the end of the other one. What is totally scary about the fantasy book is that it reminds me of some of the current world crises happening now. This book was written in 1992. YES --- there are some weird comparisons. So was that book a foretelling of the future? Or are world crises like these a more common occurrence than we believe? It involves religion and politics - go figure! But I should be able to finish before the due date. 

Speaking of due dates, can you believe that I finally got this book yesterday? Note the date when I originally requested it! 

I did put it on suspend when I went on vacation because I knew it was going to come while I was away. 

It doesn't matter - I have it now! 

Remember, we have a virtual retreat this weekend. 

Saturday, October 18, 2025, STARTS at 6 PM EDT

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82693702241?pwd=QpQkm8Ppppy1XwCPOqva1bcgJCWKdP.1

Meeting ID: 826 9370 2241
Passcode: 795071

Sunday, October 19, 2025, STARTS AT 3 PM EDT

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81073536036?pwd=uxRqMnK1aSKrmrcSO78w8QQs5g44eA.1

Meeting ID: 810 7353 6036
Passcode: 596838

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!

PS -- Don't forget to floss, stand up and sit down, go for a walk. Your health is important!

Spring House Retreat - celebrations!

Here's an interesting question from the comments: If you could be any age, what would it be and why? I think that should be under 10. Of course, the lives of today's children are so different from our childhood. What age would I want to be? I think 5. I would be old enough to be semi-independent but young enough to be in total wonder of the world! 

One of the most significant issues with growing up is maintaining that sense of wonder? Hopefully, you have the choice to be yourself and have parents, teachers, and friends who do not squash those dreams, creativity, and curiosity! 

While technology is here to stay, we must get those crayons out with our children or grandchildren. We must take them to the park and roll in the dandelions, looking for bees and bugs. We need to converse with them on car trips, asking why and having them ask us why. 

Luckily, that happened in my life, and I'll go to my end thinking, "Wow, I always wanted to know how the crematorium worked!" 

We have been behaving ourselves! In case you were wondering. 

So here's what's been happening. I'm happy to report that I have completed all the blocks for the 365 challenge until the end of April. That makes me one-third of the way through the blocks! Yes, I know there are still many more blocks, but at the end of every month, it is time to have a mini-celebration. 

April is now complete for the 365-day quilt

While we can be pessimistic, there's no need for that! It's all good news. I must start sewing the blocks together to see what it looks like! And I hope to plan a day or two at home to cut the next month's blocks. Then they will be ready to go, or I could use them as enders and leaders. I can DO THIS!!!!

I had thrown five partial spools of thread in my sewing box—thank goodness I did. Two days ago, I put the fourth one on the machine. When I went to wind a bobbbon yesterday, guess what? 

My fourth spool of thread

Yep—another empty spool! I'm on my last one, but thankfully, it has a fair amount of thread, so all is good! 

And it's empty!

I don't know what is happening to me, but I get easily distracted and am not at the end of a seam. I don't know how often I returned to my sewing machine to find I was partway through a seam, but I don't think I ever do that at home. 

A distraction!

I managed to get my Oh Canada Quilts of Valour quilt top together. I had to do some creative piecing to get pieces long enough for some outer logs, but it's together. That leaves two Ziploc bags of Canada-themed scraps, and I'll bring at least one of them back to the next retreat to figure out what to do. So all is good. It's all about progress! I wish I had MORE progress days in that area, but you do what you can and don't dwell on the entire picture. 

Quilts of Valour top done! 

I had to go out and get our dinner yesterday, so Dede and I also stopped at one of the local quilt shops to pick up something for one of the other ladies. I wasn't going to buy anything, and we even thought about having the store owner wing the package out the door to us. However, we thought that was a bit tacky! 

I bought some white fabric—you can never have too much white! I was interested in these bright rolls of strapping for bags. Now, I could rant about this because I think it's ridiculous. But if the designer can do it and people are willing to buy, then spend your money. 

I took two rolls of designer webbing to the cash to inquire about the price, as it was NOT marked on them. It was $10.75 a meter. WHAT??? Did I hear correctly? Yes, she said it was $10.75 a meter. But if I wanted "regular" webbing, I could buy the other stuff, which was $2.00 a meter. 

Regular and designer webbing

I bought a little bit of both and brought them back to the house to ask which people preferred. It was about equal. Wow --- that's insane, and people will buy that $10.75 because it belongs to a well-known designer. People --- where is your head? I would NEVER pay a premium (OK - except for yesterday) just because it has someone's brand on it. 

I don't care who the designer is - if the same product is available without your brand and is much cheaper - I'll buy the cheaper one. This same designer now has rulers - we didn't check their price. And there are scissors and many other notions, in addition to many fabric collections. OK -- if you want to pay that price, you go ahead. I'll use my old stuff. Or buy the cheap stuff! 

However, when I was at the store, I spotted something I had to buy, and I'm picking it up on my way home later today. You'll have to wait until tomorrow, but I was so excited! 

It's hard to see, but the sun was shining on the ice in the trees, which was so pretty. This house is ideally situated for the sun. The sewing room faces south, so we have blazing sun all day from sunup to sundown. I'm going to miss that as I move back to studio B. 

The late afternoon sun

We all come to retreat with different ways of organizing our projects. Look at this - I think this one beats them all. 

She has cut and marked all her little squares for stitch and flip corners. They are laid out in specific groups of ten. 

How is this for being organized? 

Here are two more mini design boards, and everything is laid out and labeled, with the corresponding fabrics on the second design board! 

More organization

And all those boards stack up neatly and get tied together with a ribbon!!!

The stack of mini-design boards

One of the ladies was running out of things to sew, so I told her I had a community project quilt with me and offered it to her to sew. This is the result—I'm glad one more top is done! Thank you so much for the help! You know who you are!

Community project quilt top - done

And that brings another day to an end! 

I packed most of my stuff in the car yesterday. I'm not taking forever to put it all in today, so I'm packing it a bit at a time. The sewing machines are still in the house. I pulled three projects to keep me going this morning. I finished one of them last night—the Quilts of Valour quilt. Will I have enough to keep me going this morning? Oh yes, the one I pulled is a doozy!!! Just wait until tomorrow to see that! 

Yesterday, we celebrated a birthday and had cake for dinner—wait—we didn't have cake for dinner; we had cake for dessert! 

Don't forget to be curious about something today! Ask questions - don't just accept things at face value. I want to hear what you learned! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!

Guilty as charged!

Here's an update! I could take a picture like this where you can't see what's inside, and it looks good! At least nothing is spilling out of the top, but it's not empty!

The basket of scraps

I'm definitely making a dent in that basket and watching some episodes of The Quilt Show. So all is good. 

I've made a dent!

I can do about 30 minutes before I get tired of standing. Hey, I can be moving all day, but I'm not good when I stand in one spot. It's boring, I suppose! 

But my shoulder was throbbing, and I needed to lie down to settle it. I have an ultrasound on the 24th or something like that, so let's see what happens. There are days when I think a sling would be good so the weight of my arm doesn't put pressure on the shoulder. 

I'm not sure how gracefully my body is going to age. I feel arthritis in multiple spots. That darn left leg is not a happy camper, and I suppose my knees are not all that happy, either. Getting old sucks! But I'll do what I can, and I refuse to stand still just because I have aches and pains. How positively boring that would make life! 

Let's focus on the shoulder for the moment. The new shoes seem to put the left leg in check, but I know that's only a placebo effect because I can feel it twinging in the background. 

But let's move on to happier things. 

I seem to spend a lot of time managing my scraps. I'm using up the batting leftovers to make them large enough to put in a quilt. At the maximum, I have to join four pieces to create a batting, so I don't deal with small scraps here. I'll use the smaller stuff for smaller wall hangings or table runners. 

Joining batting

Another flannel quilt is done. I've trimmed this one and will put the binding on it later. 

Community projects quilt - DONE

For the life of me, I could not find that binding. I searched Mount Projects and couldn't find it there, but I got a good overview of what's on the table. I finally found the binding in the laundry basket designated for these quilts, so all is right in the world. 

The next quilt is loaded on the long arm. I will finish this one, and then I need to take a break for one day to catch up on all the trimming and binding. Then, I can get back to customer quilts on Monday. 

At one point, I returned to the long arm, and the thread had run out. I checked the bobbin thread, and it was OK. Oh, great. I forgot that I had put an almost empty spool of thread on the machine. I totally forgot to watch that. 

Top thread --- DONE!

Speaking of small bits, as I mentioned, I seem to spend my entire day dealing with the small bits I save. I made good progress in my bag of fusible fleece scraps, joining them together to make squares that I use on the back of projects instead of stabilizer or batting. 

Making bigger squares

There is something therapeutic in doing this. I don't know what it is, but I'm guessing it's twofold. First, I'm excited about NOT adding to the landfill issue. Yes -- it takes time to deal with the small bits, but guess what? Am I in a rush to make more quilts? Nope! Do I have deadlines? Nope! Working like this helps me learn about patience and perseverance. Many of you would never consider this, but you should try it!! 

Why is everyone in such a rush? Just slow down, and you'll be amazed at what can happen. I created seven squares, so I have enough to work with this coming week. I certainly do NOT sew for the sake of sewing. I couldn't care less if I ever made another quilt. I certainly do NOT care about the latest sew-along or fabric collection, and I have zero FOMO for what others are doing. I sew for ME. And I honestly think if I didn't have such a large pile of crap to fill up, I'd stop sewing. NO -- that's not true. I'd still sew, but it's no longer my focus. I'm having way more fun dealing with the bits.  

I have to sew because it's my job, but if I didn't have to sew for work, I'd probably never start anything new and only work on what I have. GASP!!!! Don't worry - I won't give it up, and I look forward to starting the two new projects in the fall! 

Today, I must get started on my projects for QUILTsocial. I have everything laid out, so things look messy, and I'm OK with that. As I finish, it'll get put away. 

I also noticed my Fitbit was dead yesterday, as I had forgotten to charge it. Imagine my surprise when I went to plug it in. I used my power tower, and WHAT?????? I've had those towers for several years, and only yesterday did I realize they are NOT the same. 

A square design

An octagon design

That is hilarious and shows that if you make a mistake in something, how many people will notice? I cannot believe I didn't see the difference. I use both of them, but this was the first time I had plugged USBs into the second one! 

Both of my boxes arrived. One of them is still sitting, as I didn't have time to unpack it. I turned it backward, so you can't see the picture on the box! What do you think it is? 

A mystery box

The second box was filled with books. I know -- I do not need more books, but these are books for the Scan and Cut. I had purchased a book before and found it extremely useful, so I decided to buy more from the same author. Yes, there is YouTube, but I have to say that NOTHING beats a good old-fashioned book with pages. These were printed on demand from my favorite online store, so I had to buy there. You can't buy them anywhere else. I have to say I LOVE print on demand, and the quality is pretty darn good! 

Books for the Scan and Cut

Now I have a LOT of learning to do!!! 

I hope to get to some of that later today. No garden work happened yesterday as it was raining in the evening, and I wasn't excited to weed in the rain. This is a job that I can tackle later today. 

OH MY GOSH --- I'm also reading another hilarious book. 

Declutter your Data

The book isn't that long (150 pages), and the author spends time at the beginning describing what she will tell us and what digital clutter is. The author is Canadian!!!

The book was written in 2018, and at that time, she estimated that the average US household had 41.5 Terabytes of digital clutter. Can you imagine what that number is now? 

Before you go - that's ridiculous, think about it. How many camera cards do you have? USBs? Online storage or storage on your devices - smartphones, tablets, computers. Don't forget all the apps you use or have downloaded. 

I laughed when she said that most people tackle the problem by buying more storage—guilty!! And that only the truly diligent delete as they go. What is in the digital clutter? Email, photos, videos, presentations. Guilty—guilty—guilty—guilty!!! 

Thankfully, the book is short, so I should be able to breeze through it. And I hope to learn new strategies for controlling this mess. DELETE DELETE DELETE

Angela Crocker has also written another book, which I want to get. It's called the Digital Legacy Plan. Click on that link to read about it. Here's a sobering thought: She predicts that in 100 years, there will be 1 billion dead people on Facebook! I doubt Facebook will still be around, but you get the idea. What happens to your digital presence on the internet when you die? 

I get notifications of someone's birthday on Facebook, and they have been dead for years. That's something to think about, so I'll get the book and read it. 

They have the book at my local branch, which might be my errand today. I also saw the new library catalog, which isn't new but came up to alert me the old one won't be around forever. I have to log into the new one and will do it later. I need to verify the status of my account before I waltz in there and try to borrow a book—just in case!

I got part of one of my car errands done yesterday! CRAP!!! But that's OK; it just means I have to do both by Monday or Tuesday at the latest. Let's say we are one step closer to firming up my fall schedule!! Yeah!!! It has to be nailed down soon, and as soon as I know, I'll tell you. I'm trying to focus on things that will help you work smarter, not harder, and there are only TWO new projects should you choose to go that route. 

That's it for today. I have one Zoom this morning, and then I'll be hard at work! I sincerely hope you continue to work on cleaning out those drawers. OH -- remember that person who told me about the seven drawers she found in her living room? Tomorrow, I'll share with you what she found. I got a good chuckle!!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!

When decluttering becomes an obsession

The decluttering journey continues. 

I grabbed that basket of paper and took it to the kitchen counter. I love that kitchen space for my decluttering journey. It's big, the height is perfect, and there's loads of room. My kitchen counters are ALWAYS clear. There are a few minor things that I may do away with eventually, but for the moment, I'm not worrying about them. Let's say that my kitchen counters were NOT always clear. I remember days when there were a few free spots on our kitchen table to eat. The rest was piled with junk! The counters were no better. Note -- when I'm done decluttering for the day, my kitchen is back to how it's supposed to be! 

I separated out those patterns and did some more sorting. Things were going well, so I brought out TWO more boxes of paper that were sitting on the office table. 

I need to be very careful when I do this because I tend to take on more than I can handle in one day. And I did a bit, but it doesn't matter because I made good headway into getting rid of stuff and LEARNING to make decisions. 

Decluttering on the kitchen island

I found pages and pages of "to-do" lists that were no longer relevant, so I tossed them all. 

OLD to-do lists

Here's some of the stuff I found:

A card from when M went to summer camp in 2009 was put in HER pile. I need her to deal with her stuff (20 boxes at least) because I might have to tackle it if she doesn't. It drives me crazy when she refuses to deal with it when she comes. Dare I say that I've become obsessed with tidiness! 

Memory from camp 

A newspaper article about my parents when their farm was hit by a tornado in 2010? That went into the drawer with the family stuff to eventually make into a book. 

Article about parents' tornado

This is a quote that I had to keep. I couldn't stop laughing at this one! I've had it for years. I think I found a lot of stuff that used to hang on the bulletin board in my office when I worked in a real office from 2016 to 2018.

An appropriate quote for me

Another quote that I found extremely appropriate. Could I say that I found a nimiety of paper in the office yesterday? I know I should trash those, but I could take one of my "new" small sketch journals and put these gems in there. I get a kick out of seeing them, and I have no problem saving them. I LOVE quotes and instead of going to the internet to find quotes, I could go to my book! 

A fabulous quote

I also found this new word. I'm sure we've all had our share of these people in our lives—the friends who aren't really our friends, but they get close to us and become our enemies. Nasty people, but they serve a purpose in our lives, and the trick is to learn to ditch them before they can stab you in the back! 

Another new word

I found this note. I don't even remember what I was teaching in person or who gave it to me. Thank you, whoever gave me the note!

A welcome note on a frustrating day

I also found one more copy of my Tech Tips book. Since it's bound differently than the others, I think this might have been the original one. I might revamp this book and add to it. Should I? You know you can buy a digital copy of the book online, or you can get part of it for free by subscribing to QUILTsocial. Scroll down and you'll find the link on the right-hand side. 

My Tech Tip book

At one point, I had little piles everywhere. I found paper that went into the GOOS (good on one side) pile, some went into the "to be filed" bucket, and some stuff I kept in a CURRENT "to-do pile." And I got to put stuff in the office supply cabinet, and I knew exactly where to put it! 

Let the sorting continue!

I also had a recycling pile. Although it doesn't look like much, it's a start. Remember—every piece of paper that I throw away now is going to save me oodles of time when I need to downsize. That was the recycle basket. DH says we should just leave it for M to deal with. 

The recycling basket

But here's something very important that people don't understand about decluttering. It's not so much about leaving it for someone else to clean up; it's about recapturing that space in your house so you can live with freedom of clutter. And that feeling is like endorphins after running a marathon or doing a spin class. You cannot buy that feeling, you cannot take a pill for that, and the only way to achieve it is to physically clear the space. 

Let's say that yesterday, the endorphins were running high. I feel so much better when I walk into the office. I see empty spaces on the table, which makes me feel alive instead of depressed. 

Wide open spaces!

So this decluttering is for the NOW, not to give M a break; I want to reclaim MY LIFE NOW. 

More wide open spaces

I never got to the patterns yesterday as I went through those two boxes I brought from the office table. When I was done, the big issue was what to do with those boxes. So, I took stuff from the desk and shoved it into those two pretty boxes rather than using open tubs. It just looks nicer!!!

The remainder of the stuff got put back in the wire basket, and I have this to go through. I'll probably have to go through it ten more times before it's all dealt with. That's OK. It's like cleaning a very dirty floor. Clean off the debris first. Then, work through the layers until you are left with a shiny floor. That takes multiple cleanings, but the reward is so worth it!

A basket of stuff to sort through

I think I worked at it for two hours yesterday and made huge leaps and bounds of progress. If I could manage another two hours today, I might actually get rid of those patterns! 

I had quite a chuckle though, as I looked at the shelves on the bookcase. This entire section is related to DECLUTTERING. Could I dare say that I have a nimiety of decluttering books and magazines? LOL!!! At this point, do I even need to keep these? I seem to be doing a great job without reading them. Perhaps I've been wrong all along. Maybe I'm learning how to declutter by osmosis!! Now, I have read some of those books. Does anyone want a book on decluttering? That picture is an oxymoron!! At least it's neat!

My collection of decluttering books and magazines

I can see myself putting that entire pile in the giveaway box, BUT I need to deal with the desktop and tabletop first. 

OH -- one more important thing about decluttering. It is NOT enough to rent storage space to clean up your house. That is a total cop-out. Storage space is for the seasonal things you own that won't fit in your house. Storage units are NOT for the excess that you will never use. So, if you have a storage unit, get rid of it!!

I called the school yesterday, and they said YES. So I loaded all eight boxes of journals and papers, and off I went. It took a bit of time to get them into the office, but the secretary and the principal? vice principal? came out, and started going through them. They kept thanking me for the donation. 

They also said they love pencils and writing instruments. They once received a donation—yep, that was ME!! Oh, they remembered that donation and appreciated it. The teachers would have been in heaven yesterday. 

I did have an issue loading the car. Not because I think I've got a torn rotator cuff (My diagnosis. I know - that sucks, and I need to book an appointment with the doctor), but this happened. 

Oh Murphy -- you cannot come in the car

The front door was open and someone thought she was going for a car ride. Ah - Murphy - I think not!!

Then it was time to pop downstairs to get some work done. I got this quilt done. I had to babysit this one a lot because both the batting and the backing were barely larger than the sides of the quilt. I had to be there for the beginning and the end of every row, and so as not to forget, I mostly stood by it and watched it quilt. It's not a big deal. 

Community projects quilt - DONE

I got more work done, and I almost have the next quilt ready to go on the machine. It's a small one for me, and it needs to be in the mail by 5 PM today. So that's the focus today. Plus, I have a few other things that need to be tidied up, but not having to babysit a quilt will free up a lot of time. 

Oh, here's an update on the EXIT Game Advent Calendar. Yep, we're still working on it. We only work on it when we eat dinner together, which hasn't been often the last couple of weeks. We were both stumped by Day 16 and eventually had to look at the clue. We had to look at the entire clue and even then, it didn't make much sense. Well, it did, but we got started in one direction and couldn't think outside that box.  

Then we tackled Day 17 the other night, and WHAT? Nothing made sense, so we left it and went back last night. AHA—we found the starting clue, and then, after a couple of failed attempts, we easily got the answer. The trick was to find that starting clue. 

The EXIT Game  Advent Calendar

We tackled Day 18 last night after our success on the previous one, and crap --- we need to find the starting clue, and well, we can't find it yet!!! 

It's going to be a while before we can get back to it, but we should be finished by December 1 to start the new one for 2024!

Well, that's it for today. I sure hope you're tackling the clutter in your house. You'll feel so much more alive when the clutter is gone. The physical space is so much more appealing; the mental space is like winning a marathon. And I can't wait for the days when I can get up and quilt GUILT-FREE in a welcoming space!!!

But let's keep on tackling the drawers, and when you're done, you can move on!!

Have a super day!!! I'm off to spin class! 

Ciao!!1