A day of mysteries!

Today, all is revealed, as there were several mysteries at play. 

First—the fabric with the quilt blocks I bought the other day is part of an Anna Marie Textile (division of Northcott) collection. It's called Piecework, and it's not new - it's from 2025. See how often I get out? 

Here's a reminder of the fabrics; you can check the link above for the rest. As mentioned, Ye Olde Fabric Shoppe had all or most of them. 

Piecework collection by Anna Marie Textiles

Second mystery—the darn storage for my email. While I didn't get a chance to delete all the attachments in the SENT folder, I managed to get rid of some; there was ZERO change to the amount of storage. OK -- maybe this morning, the storage will be different. NO!!! How can that be? There has to be something that is even more hidden? This is NOT the first time this has happened. I've deleted huge files from all the classes in the past, and there's still no change in the amount of storage. 

Hmmmm—what could be the issue? Well, that's still a mystery to be solved. 

Speaking of mysteries -- that book - My Husband's Wife by Alice Feeney? Oh my -- plot twist after plot twist. Who knew that was coming? It's insane, yet the plot twists are plausible! I still have about 50 minutes, and how many more plot twists can there be? 

But here's the FUN mystery that is now solved. Remember I shared this logic puzzle book I bought a couple of weeks ago. It has 50 puzzles, and they are fairly easy, so I can sit down and do one or two with no trouble. I'm on number 25! 

Puzzle Book

However, one puzzle just didn't make sense. One clue was one of those either/or clues, but it can't be both. Well, the clue wasn't happening for me. I checked with a friend whose son is an EXPERT at this kind of thing to see if I was messing up. Nope—it didn't make sense to him either. 

I tried to find the book online to see if there was a correction. Nothing. After looking at the fine print in the back of the book, I discovered the book was "written" by Dr. Garth Moore and Laura Jayne Ayres. Well, I know who Dr. Garth Moore is! I have watched some of his online videos for solving problems - especially in the EXIT Game series. 

Well, let's just reach out and see what he has to say. We emailed back and forth multiple times yesterday, and it appears this book was NOT supposed to be released in North America. But I'm not going there. 

Anyway, he agreed with me that the clue was not well written. He explained how to interpret the clue, and with that hint, I was able to solve the logic problem with ease. He has offered me a free subscription to one of his puzzle websites for a year. Hmmm—I don't need more distraction, but I'm going to take him up on his offer. 

A very nice person and someone who cares about their customers! But you should check him out - he is the KING of puzzles (at least in Britain) and has books (yep -- even at our local library), puzzles, and videos. He writes for kids and adults, and I see our library has a lot of his ebooks. 

Now what about the mystery in the forest? They spent THREE days, and I don't know how much material was brought in along with all the equipment. 

They brought in many truckloads of fine and coarse gravel and dumped them at the end of the street, along with a load of larger rocks. 

Piles of gravel to repair the path

More gravel

They also brought in a couple of pallets of what I thought were paving stones, but they were actually large plastic grates used to control erosion. 

Compacting the gravel

They had a roller to pack the gravel, a backhoe, and something else. I didn't really pay attention, but many people were involved, and as mentioned, it took three days. 

I also noticed they broke the end section of the sidewalk with the heavy equipment, but when we walked there yesterday, they had even removed the broken piece of concrete and installed a new one. WOW!!!! 

They repaired the broken sidewalk the same day!

In some instances, they have made the path very thick. 

That's a very thick path.

In a couple of areas with a grade, they installed the larger rocks along the sides. I wonder if they graded that path so the water runs to the sides and then through the rocks? Hmmm - more mysteries. 

Murphy enjoying the new path.

So this is the transition between the new part and the old part. 

The transition

I still prefer the old path, but this section didn't erode. 

What the original parts still look like

This is the spot with the biggest erosion issue. I notice that you can see the path of a bicycle, so how compacted is that earth? I almost wish we could have a violent downpour to see how this stands up. I totally get that the plastic landscape material will hold the soil in place, but what about the layers on top of that material? 

The new downhill!

See, those rocks are pretty substantial. 

Grandma -- BIG ROCKS!

I still think they should check out how the Spanish deal with steep hills and water erosion. Either tile/pave it over as they have done in other sections of this area, OR grade the path slightly to one side and then put channels (ditches) along to handle the water. In some instances in Spain, I saw the channel cut diagonally across the path. 

Let's see what happens. I may still dig out those pictures of the paths in Spain and send them to the city if we run into more issues!

OH MY -- I realize this is the weekend for the Virtual Retreat and I'm strapped for time! But we can have one on Sunday afternoon from (3 - 9). I'll post the link tomorrow. I have a very busy day tomorrow and YES - I'll be hosting my scrap class (the first one) from downtown Toronto!!

Here's a sneak peek at my purchases from the day before. I found the perfect fabric for the borders and binding that I needed. I have ZERO issue buying new stuff if I don't have it in my stash. But if I can make do with what's in the stash, then I'll go with that. I had reached the point on THREE projects where I needed to buy something. 

The border and binding fabric for two quilts

Then for the My Kinda Town quilt, I'm using these prints as the background. I think I mentioned that I have tried to use these for multiple quilts, and none of them worked. 

My backgrounds for My Kinda Town

But for My Kinda Town, the backgrounds are perfect. 

A block from My Kinda Town

However, I only had six of those fabrics, and I needed two more! 

I managed to find one more in the kids section of the store. I had checked out, and Dede and I were chatting with the store employee. I then asked her if they had the Tula Pink fairy frost, which someone suggested on my blog. No, but then she asked what I was looking for. OH -- we have some of those in the far corner by the pink fabric. So we trotted over there and sure enough -- they had a variety. I eliminated some of them and found three that will work. 

Three new fabrics

Silly me - I should have asked as soon as I got there, but I did not. I'm glad I asked because now my search for those prints is over. 

I also spotted this vinyl, which is to die for! It's so soft and beautiful. 

Soft vinyl

I found something in the sale area that makes more sense than anything I had in my stash for this quilt backing. It's a nice quilt I want to keep, so I was happy about that. 

Backing for my quilt

And I had the urge to buy something Halloween. Don't ask me why - so this is what I got! 

A Halloween pattern and a mini-charm pack

I am NOT a fan of Tilda fabrics, but these buttons were to die for. Yes - an impulse purchase, which is why I shouldn't go shopping!

Tilda buttons

Because it's going to be an insanely busy weekend, I went to the used book sale last night. I had one goal in mind, and I grabbed some cash. Not much cash, but enough to make the trip worthwhile. 

Oh my --- the sale is on the lower level of a mall; they used to be on the main level, but this is actually better. It was crowded, and the line-ups were long. 

The used book sale

But I found the table with the puzzles and selected a few. I only spent 2/3 of what I took. I had an IKEA bag with me, and they fit in there like a glove. I was there and back within an hour! This is not the first rodeo for the volunteers from the Mississauga Symphony. They know how to process piles of books and take the cash! 

Oh my—look at Murphy and Bear. Bear sure keeps the older dogs on their toes. Murphy used to like sleeping up there, but she doesn't anymore. I'm keeping it around because I know Bear likes it too. He spends many hours watching the activity on the street. But at some point, I'll move it to the garage. It does take up a lot of space. Thank goodness I bought the stairs because he can go up and down at his leisure! 

The neighborhood watchers!

I think the girls like the two walks a day instead of one long one, and I'm getting pretty handy at managing three dogs. I wouldn't do it forever, but the occasional walk with Bear is fine. He's only here for a couple more days. It'll be good when it's just the two girls. Murphy is still attempting to define herself as the Alpha in our house! 

I had so many emails come in yesterday, and I was trying to respond as they came in, so if you sent an email yesterday, I got it, just no time to process!

I compiled the distribution lists for the second scrap class. If you are considering signing up, I'd appreciate it if you do that today. Otherwise, it's a ton of logistical work to keep sending welcome emails to the stragglers. 

Well, I have a lot to get done today, so I'd better get started!!!

It's going to be a wonderful day!!!!

Ciao!!!

Done, done, and DONE!!!

Yep—all three presentations are ready to go. All the sewing was completed, the pictures were loaded and sorted, the reminder emails went out, and all is good in the teaching world. 

It was a fun day, and it was so nice to just sit and sew. I had to take pictures, mind you, but still, it was fun to listen to my audiobook and sew. I had to backtrack a lot because I missed part of the storyline. I really need to connect my new noise-canceling headphones. The open earbuds suck for listening to audiobooks while sewing. 

I can't even begin to imagine listening to a book with a speaker! When you are moving around all the time, and the noise of a sewing machine - how the heck would you even hear? 

While lots was accomplished, nothing is available to share with you, but after today, I can share! So fun to start (legitimately) several new projects! I have tons of UFOs to finish, and I had better get my act together and spend some time on those as well. 

Remember the striped fabric I chatted about the other day? Well, here is a picture of the two new ones added to the bucket with the previous ones I purchased! 

Striped fabrics

You can make a very cool quilt with ONE striped fabric, including these. I've made it multiple times. Heck -- I've done an entire series of quilts with striped fabric. I could almost have a trunk show. 

Sigh -- why have one when you can have many! I actually have a wall hanging that I made using one of these batik strips. I still need to do some machine embroidery on the quilt top, and I really need to finish it! 

As I was reassembling the sewing tables for Studio B, I had a chuckle. Remember the days when we thought it was acceptable to put the power bars on the floor? Whose silly idea was that? I'm very happy to have them on the table (yes—it might look a bit messier), but it makes it easier to access the cords. I'll never put the power source on the floor again. 

My power tower ON  the table

I'm surprised that those power towers still work. I have three of them, and the two in Studio B seem to get knocked on the floor every once in a while. The housing is cheap plastic, and I swear one day they are going to stop working. So I try to be careful, but it doesn't always work. 

There is no other way to say this except that I am a dolt! Remember my flying geese for the two winter quilts? Yesterday, while sewing, I decided to use them as enders and leaders. And I was making very good progress. 

Progress on the flying geese

Some time after dinner, I realized I made TWICE as many as I needed! Seriously?? I have no idea what happened. WAIT -- I know what happened. I looked at the cutting instructions, and it said to cut 44 of the little white squares for the corners. So I made the silly assumption that I should double that and make 88 flying geese. In fact, I only need 22 per quilt. I now have extras! 

We had a meeting about our Katimavik 50th reunion, and it was so nice to see a new face I haven't seen in 50 years. WOW -- but we have located at least one other person, and they are deceased. How is that possible? The ratio of the living to the dead is very high! 

Several of us had tried to find a particular person, but her name didn't show up in any online searches. Someone ran her name through Ancestry and POOF—there she was. And then, of course, her name now pops up in the online searches. Perhaps we are missing the others the same way. Her obit was listed in her maiden name. I don't understand how the silly internet works. 

I may have to retire my shorts in the morning—it is getting cooler, and I'm quite happy about that. I don't mind the heat, but I'm not a fan of the wicked humidity we sometimes get. The one thing I will say is I'm thrilled that we installed those ceiling fans, and I often use them at night to recirculate the air in the room. They are so quiet, you do not even know they are working. 

Here's a blast from the past. When I was going through that box of memorabilia looking for stuff on Katimavik, I spotted this autograph book. Did you have autograph books? Of course, it was all the rage when I was young, and my grandmother gave this to me. 

My autograph book

I took a picture of a couple of the entries! How fun to have their handwriting and dates in my book. 

My grandmother

This is one from my great-grandmother. I was in my teens, or was it my early 20s, when she passed. 

Great grandmother

And oh my—it appears I had a nickname I don't remember from high school. 

A friend

Yep --- I was a blusher, and well, I guess I still blush. Perhaps not as bad! 

Remember the signs on the forest indicating the path was going to be regraded?

Work on the forest path is upcoming.

Well, look what got placed at the entrance to the path. 

Serious equipment to fix the path - at last! 

And one more piece of equipment was dropped off later in the day. I suspect they'll rip it up next week. This is much more substantial than dropping a blade and grading it. Hmmm --- what can we expect? 

But as I chatted with a neighbor in the morning, we watched the dump truck and a very long trailer back down our street and around the bend. Let's say the driver was pretty experienced, as he whizzed around the corner with that large trailer like it was nothing. We were very impressed. 

I had to do some pond maintenance in the morning - cleaning the filter. I grabbed a handful of muck from the filter and threw it. Of course I did, and it went SPLAT on the gazebo post. All that open space, and I had to hit the post! Let's just say that I was never good at playing baseball!! I had to wash it off with the hose. 

Seriously??? I hit the post with the muck? 

Of course, my supervisor was sitting there watching me and wasn't very impressed with how silly I was. Actually, she was probably laughing her head off! 

OH MOM -- you are so silly.

I've decided to take Murphy for shorter walks, but twice as many. That breaks up the physical walking for her, and she loves to go for a walk, so she is happy to go for more walks in the day. 

It is so challenging to see a person or a pet struggle. Yesterday was the first day she didn't come to Studio B while I worked. It's so hard to know what to do for her. I'm sure she is uncomfortable or perhaps even in pain. I must see if I can get her some medication without the drowsy effect to help her feel more comfortable. 

We will just keep loving her and hoping we still have lots of time to spend with her. I'm sharing this with you because I don't want it to be a shock to anyone, and I don't want to pretend that all is OK when it's not. She may surprise us all and live for many years, and she is far from death. But slowing down. 

She has a new routine and doesn't want to be left alone on the ground floor at night. So I help her up the stairs and lift her onto the bed, where we have some cuddles, and then she is happy to sleep on the floor for the night. I have to fetch her in the morning for her walk, as I think she doesn't trust herself on the stairs to come down. 

I have some travel coming up, and I'm a bit worried about it all. DH won't provide her with the same care as I do, and I hope she is going to be OK. I'm even contemplating cutting my quilt retreat short, as I have to be away the following week for work, and two weeks in a row away might be more than she can handle. 

The things we do for our pets!

The other day we had chatted about how smart squirrels are, and if you haven't watched Mark Roper's videos on the mazes he makes for the squirrels in his backyard, you should check them out. In the past, a squirrel would never think of entering our backyard. Yesterday, I spotted one on the deck just having a grand old time doing something! Lexi doesn't hear so well anymore, and Murphy doesn't move so well, and the squirrels have figured that out. I may need another guard dog! 

I promise there will be loads of FUN things tomorrow as you get to see my homework for THREE of the new projects. I had to switch a couple of classes around, which meant three new projects started today. That is only a one-time situation - thankfully, as it was a challenge to get all the work done!

Oh -- and we have a surprise guest coming tomorrow! 

Anyway, it's time to get moving!!! Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!

Out of sight - out of mind!

OK—let's see if the pictures load this morning. 

Success!!!! It took a wee bit longer than usual, but that's OK - the pictures are loaded!!!

I don't know what is happening with the squirrels, but they seemed to be having a party on our front step. The funny thing is that there are NO oak trees anywhere near this area. They are in the back in the forest, but not in front. Hmmm—someone called a party, and no one told me? 

The morning after a wild squirrel party

I think everyone knows that Michaels in the US and in Canada is bringing in fabric. Fabric has been in some of the US Michaels stores for several years, and it is slowly being rolled out to all Michaels in Canada. I have seen it a couple of times. I zipped off to one of my local stores (yes—there are THREE within about a 6 KM distance, which seems a bit obsessive to me). 

The fabric styles have definitely improved since it first started rolling out. Will it ever replace a full-blown quilt store? No. But you can find some nice pieces. I found this vintage map piece, which had to follow me home. If you are a crafter or need limited prints, this is a good place to start. If you are a quilter, it won't be enough. 

My find at Michaels

When I was prepping Studio B for the Facebook Live, I had to shift a few things around, and I spotted a shelf on the bookcase that had been hiding behind the temporary design boards. OH MY -- this shelf was a "to be sorted" shelf, and I had completely forgotten about it. I found a bunch of binders that need to be gone through. Mostly filled with patterns, but some great ideas for the upcoming scrap class. One more thing to add to the list. 

Folders to deal with

Of course, my trusty helper was with me. The poor thing - like all aging people or pets, she has good days and bad days. But I will say she seemed to take a downhill turn a couple of months ago, and she isn't going to recover. I swear she is depressed now because of the lack of mobility she has. But we are going to love her forever and will enjoy all the moments she has. 

MOM - I just supervise from the floor now! 

She can make it down the stairs no problem, but going up is a whole different ballgame. So I was alone during the Facebook Live, and she was outside in the backyard. I left the barricade open at the top of the basement stairs so she could come down if she needed to. I was praying that if she did come down, she would have to be content staying down with me, since I wouldn't be able to help her up!

And she decided to come down very near the end of the presentation. There were a lot of cords behind the scenes, and wouldn't you know it, she came to me, got caught in the wires, and sank to the floor. If you watch the video near the end, I had to bend down to disentangle her from the cords. 

Murphy got caught in this cord.

It was a tight space behind the sewing machine, but it all worked out. 

The space behind the sewing machine

While we were downstairs, it was quite windy, and this bouquet of cut flowers I got for my birthday got blown over. It was on its last legs, which is why it was outside. The glass vase didn't break! 

The flowers got blown over.

So yesterday was a new day and more work to be done. I'm happy to report that the sewing for the second class is done and the pictures have been uploaded into the presentation. I just need to sort them after writing the blog. That will make two of three presentations complete for tomorrow. Oh my --- one of the classes involves paper piecing, and let's just say that I've invented (not really) a brand new way to cope with finicky paper piecing, and once you wrap your head around it --- it's kind of fun! 

That's for the My Kinda Town class, which is only four classes this fall. If anyone is interested, you're welcome to sign up. 

You can check back to this blog post for more information. Just note that the first class is tomorrow at 1, not next week as originally planned. I love how the work turned out!! And of course, I'll share later - not the technique, but my work. 

So something else got unearthed in the stash room. Oh shoot—I didn't take a picture of the shelving, but the room has shelves on three sides, which means there are corners, and the things in the corners aren't readily visible. 

Wait—I just had time to sort the slides in the presentation and found my missing photo. Wrong folder!

Hidden corners in the stash room

I needed to dig out a bucket of fabric from beside the corner the other day. 

A bucket of striped fabric

I'll explain more about this basket another day, but remember those two striped fabrics I bought the other day? 

Two striped fabrics I recently purchased

Well, there are a few more colors from this collection in that green bin!!! 

Removing that big basket revealed another basket in the corner. Hmmm -- what's in here? And OMG --- what a treasure I found. 

What's in this hidden basket?

This is a basket of T-shirt bits that I have saved over the years. The T-shirts have already been cut up, and I had plans to make a T-shirt quilt from them. Oh my—yes—I have another group of T-shirts I want to make a quilt from. I'll have to squeeze them together and maybe make a backing from the other bits. 

I already have one T-shirt quilt. How many does one need? I love them because they are heavy!

BUT, I found something that I swear I still had, but didn't know where it was. 

I may have mentioned that next year is the 50th year of our participation in Katimavik. And we are attempting to locate as many people as we can. And oh my --- it is a very hard task. Of the 51 people in the group, I think we have located 20, 8 of whom have passed. That is a very scary statistic. 

During the program, or it could have been after, but likely during, we had some T-shirts made, and I wanted to find them. Well, when I spotted that basket, I knew what I was going to find. Well, I was hoping. This is when the hoarding tendencies of your mother come in handy. 

I found both of them!!! 

Katimavik T-shirt number one

The official Katimavik T-shirt

The bottom one has the official Katimavik logo. I also found my military beret and ascot! 

OH MY GOSH --- those T-shirts are almost 50 years old! Well, there are only bits of them, as you can see; I totally hacked them from the T-shirt. We have a meeting today, and I haven't done much searching for missing people, so I'd better put in a bit of time this morning. 

Our premier took away all the speed cameras in the province, stating - I have no idea what his rationale was- but he vowed to have more police checking on speeders in school zones. Hmmm -- the cost of an officer and a car versus a speed camera? Which costs less? Which catches more people? 

Anyway, on our walk yesterday morning, there were two cars, and it was easy peasy for them to catch people speeding through the 30 KM zone. I think one officer should have stood on the sidewalk with the radar gun and pulled speeders over, while someone went down the line and wrote out tickets. 

It's just a shame that no one respects the speed limit, especially in a school zone and right at school drop-off time. Well, shortly after, some stragglers are probably coming in. 

Of course, DH and I had a big discussion about which method was more effective to make people stop speeding. Do we ever agree on anything? How many schools yesterday did NOT have police presence? 

Oh my—there is a new long arm from APQS, and it looks pretty spiffy. I got a notification yesterday about trade-ins. I have to chuckle because the trade-in machines start from the year 2013. My machine is from 2006!!!! I definitely won't qualify for a trade-in. And it looks like when I am ready to downsize, and that machine can't come with me, I'd better just call the 1-800 Got Junk people and load it up! 

From time to time, our online Monday sewing group gets together for lunch. A few of us are close enough to make that happen, and sometimes people come in from a distance. We were five. DH was supposed to have the car yesterday, so I planned to ride my bike. The restaurant isn't that far away. He didn't end up using the car, but I still rode my bike. 

Super fun!!! I need to get out more often, and it was one of those days when it was windy on the way there and windy on the way back! I'm riding my townie bike with only three speeds, and my legs -well, they aren't used to riding out in the real world. I found it a challenge with only three speeds, but overall it was good. Great bike paths for about half the distance. The rest? Not so much!

There were only five of us, and you know what? It was nice. If there are too many people, you can't talk to everyone! We told the organizer she should cap it at 6 in the future!!! Can you imagine? That would be bad, but it is fun to visit with a smaller group. Which is why I like retreats with smaller groups. And there is little danger of anyone taking sides! 

Remember what we talked about the other day - about toxic people and choosing sides. 

OMG --- when I was walking Lexi in the forest, guess who I met! Yep—the very person I was thinking of when I posted these!!! There was no way we could avoid each other - we had to pass each other. I politely said, "Good morning." She responded, and we kept walking. I had so much I would have shared, since we had some great conversations back in the day, but then I remembered my stand and wouldn't cave!!!! She chose, and she didn't choose me, so I'm not going back. 

As close as we live to each other, it is very rare that we bump into each other, which is probably a good thing. 

As I sit at my computer, I can see the neighbor's house. The top half is wood siding, and it's never been touched since the house was built 30 years ago. They are doing some major work inside and outside - I wonder if that is for them or if they are prepping to sell? Anyway, they had a new deck and gazebo built in the backyard. Now they are trying to paint the back of the house and have to set up complex scaffolding to access the wood that is behind the gazebo, which is set very close to the house. 

I'm not a fan of their music, and Murphy is doing a great job of not barking her head off, so we are all getting along, and all is good. 

On that note, I'm out of here! I need to get a lot of work done today, and I would love to have an extra day!!!

It's going to be a wonderful day!!!!

Ciao!!!!