Using a serger to benefit your quilt making

Thanks for your comments about the Facebook Live. OH GOSH -- I wondered if anyone could hear Murphy barking! No one else was home, and I could do nothing - the show must go on! Next time, I'll find a hidey hole for her with NO WINDOWS. I imagine she was barking at the squirrels in the backyard. What a silly girl!!! Thankfully, she didn't go into her full-blown ballistic mode!

For those who missed the session, you can watch it at this link. Knowing when the link went live was challenging, and I was trying to watch the laptop screen at the beginning! Next time, I'll start looking directly at the primary camera a few seconds before!  

If you want a WRITTEN copy of most of what I said, there are two ways to get that!! I know!!!

The first is to go to QUILTsocial and check out these links. These posts were written in May 2023. 

Day One -- Getting to Know the Husqvarna Viking Amber Air s600 Serger

Day Two - Piecing a quilt top on the serger

Day Three - NINE ways to use the serger for quilting

Day Four - Why a Coverstitch is handy!

Day Five - Troubleshooting when things go wrong!

The second way to get some of that information is via the QUILTsocial magazine - Issue 28. It was a free download in January 2024, but now you have to pay ($4.95) if you want to download it. It's free to view online. All five of the blog posts are in the magazine. 

I can't say enough about how valuable a tool QUILTsocial.com is. I've made so many tutorials or reviews of projects and techniques. When teaching a class, I often send the links to my groups because there is so much exciting material, and it's already done! I have lists for many topics!!!

And while I'm far from finishing decluttering my hard drive, the little bit I've done already makes a huge difference in finding things. 

 Another successful Zoom is under the belt! I used to do a lot with slides in a presentation, but for some of these, it's just as easy to do with the real things, and that's what I did last night. 

I got everything prepped; it didn't take long, and I was all set. I LOVE those little orange stools. They are so handy for the tight spots I have to sit in for a presentation. 

The "before" of the Zoom call

See how neatly everything is stacked in the appropriate pile. 

And then when it was over? Yikes -- things just got thrown onto the floor! It's a mess, and I need to tidy it up later today. 

The "after"

And there's another class you can sign up for. The first session was supposed to be this weekend, but we goofed on getting ourselves organized, so the new dates are March 23 and April 20. You can sign up for it through Thimbles and Things. If you already have a Class Pass, all you have to do is send me an e-mail with your pass number to get signed up!!! These dragons are super cute!! Should I make them in Harry Potter colors? Chinese Fireball, Hungarian Horntail, etc. 

New class in March and April

My calm January and somewhat calm February were fun. March will be stupid, and it's time to start booking travel for the year! Yikes!! There goes the peace and quiet! 

My massage was awful. At one point, I almost called "uncle" and was going to beg her to stop! Yes - my shoulders were so tight, I knew it wasn't going to be pleasant, but I needed her to get the tissue moving. I can blame NO ONE but myself for not stretching more and not standing up straighter. I'm better at the posture thing (OK - so that's probably all in my head), but the stretching? What's stretching? I NEED to do it. 

Today, there is nothing on the agenda! I mean as far as appointments or meetings. Lots of stuff on the TO-DO list, though, and I'll spend the morning doing paperwork to clear some of it. And I just dumped a bunch of things on the floor beside my chair that I need to deal with today. I MUST do that. 

I've got to start writing again soon, and well, it's going to be busy! It's March, which will be busy - I still have one week of peace and quiet! 

Remember, it's Virtual Retreat on Saturday and Sunday. Here are the links. 

Saturday, February 24 - starting at 6 PM

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89816483795?pwd=Mjc3M3pvVmZPdjdsQzlHS3Zhck52dz09

Meeting ID: 898 1648 3795
Passcode: 248667

Sunday, February 25, Starting at NOON

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82983517671?pwd=ODdsa1FJenQwdFNaQWFTNGd4bEhPZz09

Meeting ID: 829 8351 7671
Passcode: 117636

Oh, one last thing -- I spotted this video I posted on my YouTube channel a while back. I always tell people they should use a STILETTO (Quilter's Awl) instead of pins. Check it out.

OK -- time to get the girls and the boy sorted out for their walks, and I can figure out how to spend my "free" day!!!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

What goes up................

I'm home! I thought I might have to sleep at the airport last night, but I managed to get home. It was very late, and I'll nap later today. Wait for that story!

The day started with the daily geocache; although I knew there was an Adventure Lab at the airport, what if I forget? Someone has posted a geocache at many of the hotels in the area, and they are quick and easy to find. 

My geocache of the day

So all was good in that area, and I had to take the car to get breakfast as it was raining. Very welcome rain, so I didn't mind. But I got a chuckle out of my car parking the night before. 

Remember I said that I parked indoors. Well, not exactly. Yes -- there was SOME underground parking, but I was on the cusp! So half the car was wet, and half was not. 

My "indoor" parking

Toronto has moose - Winnipeg has polar bears. I spotted a couple of them but only got one picture. But they are decorated depending on their location to match their surroundings. This was a Canadian-named hotel, so having maple leaves all over it made sense. 

Decorated polar bear

Then when I got back to the hotel, it was time to repack the sample suitcase. I had crammed stuff in the night before and needed to organize it. The rain had momentarily stopped by this time, so I did it in the parking lot. 

Packing the sample suitcase

It is interesting to look at some of your stuff in the daylight! Those "white" squares are not all white! Some of them are a definite cream, but not visible in the lighting in my house. But I'm OK with that -- it reads as white. 

What happened to those "whites?"

And while I was standing there, I heard a rattling noise and looked around to see an empty can rolling around the parking lot. It was bizarre because the can rolled right up to my feet, and it wasn't going in my direction when I spotted it! A message in a can?

A message in a can?

We had a full house for the serger class, and the ladies had a great time making their serger bag and learning about the PFAFF Amber Air 7000 and the Husqvarna Viking Admire Air S600. Both are the air threading sergers with cover stitch, and well, I would NOT be without mine. They are beautiful sergers, and you can do much with them! And I have a ton of samples that I want to make!

Serger class

And Brenda and Margot are with me at the end of the day. It was so much fun to spend time with them and get to meet new people as well. Some of the attendees were part of a huge family. How huge is huge? They were 19 siblings in that family. Yikes! 

Brenda, me, and Margo

Then it was off to the airport, which took a bit of time as there was construction on one of the bridges. But I arrived, quickly got rid of the rental car, and checked my bag, which did NOT get weighed even though I was careful to keep it just under 50 lbs. The suitcase got plopped onto a giant conveyor belt, and I assumed it was in the system. WRONG! 

When they asked for people to gate check their luggage, I was asked if I had a checked bag. YES, but apparently, it was NOT activated in the system, whatever that means, so it got activated, and both bags arrived home. It didn't take long for the luggage to come out when I arrived in Toronto. 

I spotted this chocolate store, but I didn't buy anything. I was bad and ate jelly beans that were sitting in the store, so I did NOT need any more sugar. 

Chocolate store at the airport

And yes, the plane was late! But only by 25 minutes, so that was OK. As I was waiting at the gate, I had to chuckle. Each crew member is an individual person -- well, of course, they are, but they are just peons in a system and most likely get "randomly" chosen for these flights. The captain arrived and was waiting, and then the first officer arrived, and they didn't know each other, yet they were a "team" flying the plane. It just seemed weird to me that two strangers would get together to get us home!

Here's a view of smoky Winnipeg after we took off. It was very hazy, but guess what? There were NO talkers on the plane! I almost died! 

Winnipeg from the air - the airport is on the right

So it was a quick flight as I could nap on the plane. I usually put the map on the screen, and I think there was a problem as it showed us flying from Vancouver to Winnipeg, not Winnipeg to Toronto. 

OH -- we are flying away from Winnipeg, not TO Winnipeg

Oh -- I forgot to tell you my escalator story. So I arrived at the departure level of Winnipeg airport after dropping the car off. Oh boy -- where are the escalators to take me upstairs. Found them! Now I probably should have gone to the elevator - remember, I had a 50 lb suitcase, a carry-on bag, and a backpack. But no -- I can easily do the escalator - I've done it before. 

I'm about 3/4 of the way up, and I took my hand off my carry-on, which I thought was entirely on a step. It was not. So it fell backward and proceeded to slide down the entire escalator!! HELP! I couldn't leave the other big bag as it was teetering, so I watched as it kept sliding down. Thankfully a man was at the bottom and grabbed my suitcase, and since he was also on his way up, he brought it up. THANK YOU!

So I arrived in Toronto, got my luggage, and headed to the Uber pickup, which requires going down an escalator. I've done it many times, so I wasn't worried. I got to the bottom with no events and opened the Uber app to find this. 

Price gouging!

That's price GOUGING if I ever saw it. A ride that is usually $40 was over $100! There was no way I was bowing to that pressure, so I was off to find a taxi. Guess what? The taxis are one level up! So there I was at the escalator once again with all my luggage. I asked where the taxis were because I couldn't spot them. It appears that I'm not good at reading signs at the airport. 

As I trundled off to the taxi stand, I rechecked the app. OH -- the prices have gone back down again. So I hit ORDER and took my bags back down the escalator. Only to have the app not work, I got a message that the prices were higher due to high demand, and I couldn't get the low fare. CRAP! So back up the escalator with my bags to find the taxi. 

Before I got to the taxi, I spotted the limos. I asked the price, which was $20 more than the normal Uber price, so I grabbed the limo and was off without further ado. 

So even though the plane arrived at midnight, I arrived home at 1:30 AM, and I live very close to the airport. Let's say I got my workout in for the day by pushing and pulling that luggage up and down the escalators for an hour! 

It was great to be away, but it's even better to be home! I'm not sure what's on the agenda for today, but I definitely will need a nap and get myself organized for the weekend. I have FIVE Zoom sessions, and then it's also the Virtual Retreat. 

Here are the links for that:

Saturday evening (June 24) starts at 6 PM

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89254233911?pwd=VGQrTnFybW1HMWpleHA4M2Q2NGVwZz09 Meeting ID: 892 5423 3911 Passcode: 982797

Sunday (June 25) starts at NOON

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86119598156?pwd=ZDFxcElxS0NmeTRjczdSR2FXd3N2Zz09

Meeting ID: 861 1959 8156
Passcode: 053861

On that note, I'm off to make a pair of girls very happy!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!