Why I love Facebook

I have accounts on several social media platforms, but I don't hang out that often. I know people frequently post pictures of whatever, but I post various photos of my girls and sometimes a project or two from time to time. But I mostly use social media for my classes - at least these days, and I use it to stay in touch with people in my life, but not close enough in distance or relationship to see what's going on. 

My brother's MIL is not well and likely won't make it out of the hospital. Her daughter just posted some pictures of her Mom, and while I never got to know her well, she is a wonderful lady and so nice to be reminded of all the worldly travels they took. 

And then I got a bit of a shock yesterday when I saw a post by a friend of mine, who I had met once, but we stayed loosely in touch through Facebook. I knew he was ill -- he has had ALS for some years and would post updates on things on Facebook. He also was an avid reader and would post his recommendations on Goodreads, and I loved reading his reviews and often read books he recommended. 

He was also an avid cyclist, and I remember asking him for advice when I was embarking on one of my long-distance trips. Several years ago, I made him a quilt with bicycles all over it. He said they hung it up in his room to view it every day. I got the nicest thank you note from him for it. He was such a gentleman. 

Well, you know where this is going. His condition has deteriorated, and it was time to say goodbye. He wrote the nicest note on Facebook to basically say goodbye to all his followers. He has chosen MAID, and I can only thank goodness that we have that option available to us. He made a choice to go with dignity or what dignity he had left. All the comments from his friends were gut-wrenching -- this was a well-loved and fantastic guy. 

But without Facebook, none of us would have been able to participate in his final years and get to say goodbye to him. So I say -- keep the staged stuff off Facebook -- who cares how many "likes" you get for a post. Use Facebook wisely -- it's a lifeline! 

He was also a brilliant man, and when he was first diagnosed, he proceeded to get rid of all his bicycles, tools, and everything else that he knew he could no longer enjoy. Can you imagine that happening to us with all our sewing machines and fabric? 

Rest in peace, Alan -- you will be sorely missed, and I'm going to have to choose my own books now! I wrote him that when we both cross the Rainbow Bridge (or is that just for pets?) that we need to go on a long ride together, but no hills! 

Anyway - enough of that. 

We had snow yesterday, and I had to take my MIL to the dentist. Of course, amid that darn snowstorm. The roads weren't too bad as the city was out in earnest, but I was more worried if I would run out of gas. OK -- so I like to live dangerously. 

My car has one of those calculators showing how many miles you have left in the tank. I wonder how accurate it is? This happens when you get below 100 KM left in the tank.

Low fuel indicator

 And then, on the monitor, you can see the countdown. I thought I shouldn't risk it below 35 KM! I know --- your dad told you to never go below a quarter of a tank. Well -- I don't care! My dad never said that! 

OH -- almost out of gas

I've never run out of gas before. Although I remembered years ago, DH got a new company car, and it had something similar. He was bragging about how accurate it was and how low he could run that tank. And BAM -- we ran out of gas! I have to laugh whenever I think of that story, and if that ever happens to me -- I'll never tell him! 

I put $70 worth of gas into the car. That's for 47 liters, so you know the tank was pretty empty. I've never put that much in my car, EVER. The price of gas here is $1.558 per liter. 

Here's an update on our group Virtual Walk across Canada. We're going to make it before the deadline of June 30! We're getting close to the Quebec/Labrador border. There are 21 groups ahead of us, but we're currently in position 72, which is pretty darn good considering that we are a group of 4 and none of us are runners. There are many groups with lots more people in them. We are the first little marker on the bottom left in this photo, and we need to go to the top right! 

Our progress across Canada

At our pace, we should finish by the end of March, which is one month ahead of what I had initially planned! Go team, go!!!!

Speaking of walking, this is Princess Murphy yesterday before our walk. 

MOM -- my paw hurts!!!!

Poor thing -- she hates standing at the door waiting to go out at the best of times, but with a sore paw? OH -- let's be a total drama queen and make it look way worse than it is. She was fine the moment the door opened. 

It does seem to be better, and she is licking it less, so that's a good thing. Thankfully, she doesn't even notice there's a pill in her food and gobbles it down! 

I spent most of the day sewing! I got all the sewing done for the three classes today, and for the most part, the presentations are done. OK -- let's be honest -- two are completely done, and one needs to be assembled!

Next week, I'll be tackling that paperwork to catch up on what didn't get done over the last couple of days. 

I swear this shoveling business and trips to the dentist with my MIL are time-consuming! And we have an easy situation with my MIL, as I know other people's time is much more consumed by elderly parents! I'll put that in my gratitude journal. 

Here's some show and tell from the second UFO group. OK -- this is totally weird -- it loaded the pictures in reverse order again!

Sharon is working on her 2000 Piecemaker Calendar and making excellent progress. The top is together, and she's working on the little bits of applique - birds in the trees, animals in the fields, etc. This quilt is STUNNING!!! 

Sharon's Piecemaker Calendar

Nancy is working on Fancy Forest by Elizabeth Hartman. Here are her 16 foxes. 

Nancy's foxes

Morgan was quilting quilts and finished one and a half quilts. This is the half, which is on her bed, still with some safety pins in it! I LOVE that. 

One of Morgan's quilts

And here's the other quilt that she quilted. This is absolutely adorable, and I love how she customized the people, including adding her dog to the quilt. I forget the name of the pattern, but it's LEGO people. 

Morgan's quilt - DONE

Mary finished the applique on the fourth (of 4) blocks. Now she's in the process of hand-quilting the blocks. 

Mary's appliqued Dresden plate block

Liz got the top (without borders) completed on this Marti Michelle pattern called American Beauty. Gosh -- we did that as a sew-along or a block of the month at Cockadoodle, many years ago. 

American Beauty

Shoot -- I don't have time for the rest of the pictures, so I'll post them tomorrow. But we are really cooking up a storm in those UFO Clubs. So much is getting done, and many of these projects have sat for YEARS. UNTOUCHED!!! It's so nice to see them get resurrected and finished. That warms my heart, and when it comes time to downsize, I'll be thrilled to pass along a quilt top or two or maybe even a finished quilt. That will undoubtedly be a whole lot better than passing along a box with an unfinished project in it!

On that note, I have just enough time to walk the girls before the classes this morning. 

Don't forget the Virtual Retreat TONIGHT!!!! 

Here are the links for today and tomorrow. 

Saturday, February 26   --- starts at 6:00 PM  EASTERN 

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

Sunday, February 27 -- Starts at 11:30 AM  EASTERN

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81693717518?pwd=STNoVVQzbDd4ZnROQndNNlpvcC90QT09 Meeting ID: 816 9371 7518 Passcode: 579285

See you tonight!!!

Have a great day!!

Ciao!!!!

A tribute to Lois

 I don't know all of you who read my blog. There are many of you that I've never met, and some friends and acquaintances have joined along the way. 

Yesterday, I learned that a blog reader passed last week, and I want to acknowledge her. Lois was a wonderful lady and her and her daughter used to read my blog over breakfast. She was the most amazing hand quilter, although she did take a machine quilting class from me and did some small projects. She was in her 80's when she did that. She was in my class for Sylvia's Bridal Sampler and created a gorgeous sampler quilt. 

She was from Western Canada (OK - the prairies), like myself, and well - those girls from the prairies have a kindred spirit. She was a member of the local quilt guild and was always showing off projects she made. The thing I remember the most about Lois is her smile. I don't think I ever saw her with a scowl on her face. She was 92, and while I haven't seen her in person for a while, I've followed her adventures on Facebook. She was a spunky lady (those good prairie genes!). 

She passed suddenly, and while a shock to all, it's the way I want to go. I want to thank Lois for all the joy she brought into my life over the years, and I sure hope she finds a way to continue reading my blog from heaven! 

Condolences to her family. 

It was a crazy day with lots of classes, and I was more or less stuck in front of Zoom for the entire day. But that's OK. 

First, let's have a quick peek at how to piece that background I shared yesterday. This is a safe (and easy) way to build an "improv" background. All the pieces are squares or rectangles. So no angles to worry about. Lay the pieces, so they sort of fit together. Don't worry - you can add and subtract or change the fabrics if you don't like them. 

The pieces for the improv background are laid out

Then grab two pieces and sew them together. These are not the same width and come from the bottom right-hand side. After I sewed these together, I trimmed off the excess. 

Trim off the excess

I kept going like that and built sections. 

Building sections

Here are the sections together. Notice that I changed the fabric on the lefthand side as I didn't like it. 

The sections are together

Trim off any edge that isn't straight. Super easy, and don't worry if the lines are not perfectly straight. There are NO quilt police. 

Trimming the edges with a ruler

And this is the final piece. No need to trim the outer edges - yet. This is the easiest and most interesting way to get a background to play with. Pick any color you want to play with, but I recommend keeping the background to ONE color. You'll see why later this week. 

The improv background

I'm trying to come up with 10 backgrounds that are all different. So I dug out my orphan block box. I might find something that'll work. 

The orphan block box

Hmm - several flying geese blocks. That could work. 

Random flying geese blocks

A series of machine embroidered letters. 

Machine embroidered letters

I found some 9-patch blocks. 

9-patch blocks

But I settled on these three purple blocks. Where did these come from? I don't think they are mine. 

Three purple blocks

And I found four drunkard's path blocks. I'll play with those as well. Everything else went back into the box. 

Four drunkard's path blocks

I dug out a couple of somewhat matching fabrics to make the fourth purple block. I just made a block up, but if you're stuck, find a pattern for a 6" block(or whatever size you need) and make it. Remember, this is supposed to be fun and freeing, not stressful. My fabrics are NOT the same, and I'm OK with that. They are close enough. Remember - this is ART; it's not going to become an heirloom. 

Fabric to make the fourth block

Here are all four blocks. That's a pretty good match. Good enough!

The four purple blocks

I did try rotating the blocks and thought this was the best configuration for what I had. 

Another background to embellish

I think I'm going to leave this piece just like that. This is one of the backgrounds I'm going to work with. Notice that while they are not quite the same value, the colors are the same. You might want to be bold and mix colors, totally up to you. But I wouldn't - not yet. 

I'll share with you what happened to the drunkard's path blocks tomorrow. No time today. 

But I also pulled out a single piece of fabric. I have something in mind for what I want to do with this. I've got this idea brewing in my head and literally pulled the first piece of fabric in the cream basket. I opened it up to see if it was the right size. Yes - it's slightly larger than the backgrounds I'm making. And then it hit me - the pattern on this piece will be PERFECT for my idea. I love when that happens. 

A plain piece of fabric for one more background

So in between Zoom classes yesterday, I had to zip to the drug store for my second shot. Then I had to wait 15 minutes, so I browsed the store. I ended up buying a couple of things, but not before I checked my blood pressure. I haven't done this in a LONG time, and I love how the screen has changed. Look at me - I'm in the optimal range. They have an optimal (green), normal (yellow), and high (red). My pulse was a bit higher than normal, but hey - I just got jabbed in the arm!

Optimal blood pressure

Well, that took all of two minutes, so I wandered all the aisles. I even went down the baby aisle. OH MY GOD - you are kidding me!!!!  A stroller mount for a tablet or a smartphone! Seriously?? I won't even comment on this. OK -- I can't hold back. What happened with talking to your child while out for a walk and teaching them things around the neighborhood or looking at things together. OH - I forgot because Mom probably has a mount for her phone on the handle, and she's too busy talking to someone else to pay attention to the child. Sigh.............................

A stroller mount for a tablet

Back home where I spent the afternoon with MY peeps on Zoom. All the components for the Double Wedding Ring quilt are pieced and trimmed. This is the one that I'm finishing on behalf of the daughter of one of my students. 

Double wedding ring components - trimmed

I'm setting it aside for a couple of weeks, but I have used up all the fabric that she had cut. How many blocks can I make from that? No idea, but we'll start piecing and see where it goes. There's more fabric in the box. But I'm down to three project boxes and two bags instead of the EIGHT or NINE project boxes delivered to me. 

It's Monday sewing, and I'm ready to go. I had to clean my machine this morning after the five bobbins ran out. I changed the needle, and I'm ready to go for a good week of sewing. It wasn't that dirty, so that was a good thing. Don't forget to take the lint out of the feed teeth. 

Lint from the sewing machine

At the moment, my ender and leader project is another row of trees for my All in a Row quilt. 

Flying geese for my row of trees

It's a fairly calm week this week, although I do have some random appointments that are scheduled. And I have to prep for the upcoming classes this weekend. Yikes - it's like being on a sewing treadmill. 

I have five items on The Task Master from last week that didn't get completed. And I added eight this morning. It's about setting priorities! I simply look at that list and see what needs to be done. Although I will say that I need to sit my butt at the computer and get some writing done! I'll move back and forth between the computer and the sewing machine this week. 

Don't forget that there's a Virtual Retreat this weekend. Saturday, June 26 from 6 - 9 PM and Sunday, June 27 from 10 - 8 PM. It's going to be loads of fun, and I've got lots of stuff to sew. Hey -- if you're working on the backgrounds for your art pieces, I'd love to see them. 

On that note, have a super day!!!!

In closing, I want to send a shout-out to Lois!! Thanks for all the memories. You were a remarkable person!

Ciao!!!!