Color My World Show and Tell Part One

What a great idea—those rose photos would make great puzzles!!!

I'm tired of talking about my projects for next week. Let's just say that symmetry or lack thereof has thrown me for a loop this morning, and I think I'll be making a trip to the fabric store. And that's all I'm going to say about that. 

Let's discuss Color My World. Someone asked me yesterday if they had missed the photos, and NO—with all the commotion going on, I totally forgot I was going to post the completed quilt tops. 

Plus I need to post the dates of the new classes. I won't do that today, but let's have a look at the Color My World quilts. 

The original four corner buildings were the Eiffel Tower (Paris), Centerpoint Tower (Sydney, Australia), Big Ben (London), and One World Trade (New York). 

Color My World by Wendy Williams

Right from the beginning, when I showed some other examples, the participants got excited about changing the four buildings in the corners and wanted to switch some or all of them out. It became an obsession in the class. Every month, I "nagged" them about making the choices for those four corners IF they were going to swap them out. If they were happy with the pattern, then they didn't have to worry. 

If they did decide to swap them out, they needed to start thinking about finding a pattern source. OOOPS -- since those corner blocks are so oddly shaped, they would have to draft their own patterns. This sent some into a tizzy, and others took the challenge head on! 

We chatted about perspective, shape, proportion, design, methods of creating patterns, and so on. It was quite the challenge, and I think almost everyone decided to do something different, at least in one corner. 

I believe three people in the group had started this quilt when it ran as the Block of the Month with The Quilt Show back in 2021, but they never completed it. 

Without further ado, let's see what we have. Keep in mind, this is only a small portion of the quilts. Others are close to completion; they are working on the final corners, and I'm not going to include them until they are done. So consider this Part One.

They are in alphabetical order from my list. 

All four corners were customized on this one. A lighthouse, an elevator, and the other two are machine embroidered - wheat sheaves and prairie lilies! 

Bonnie

Note that all the windows are the same color. This made it easy to cut the houses as you didn't have to find that extra color for them! And the center blocks on the outer row were changed into parks, and I love how the big tree emphasizes the compass points. The four corners are the CN Tower, a church, a mountain scene, and the building where this person and her husband met.

Brenda

Three corners in this quilt were changed. The four corners are the Eiffel Tower, the CN Tower, the Peace Tower (Ottawa), and a tree with the night sky behind it. Some people chose to create buildings or scenes specific to their lives, and others wanted emblems of Canada. 

Carole

Lots of Canadian symbols in this one - a totem pole, an Inukshuk, a lighthouse, and the CN Tower. I wish I could share close-ups of all the unique blocks! That would fill another blog post - perhaps if there is enough interest, I might do that! 

Cathy

Lots more Canadian symbols in this quilt. We had one session where we brainstormed different ideas, mostly Canadian-themed ideas, and some came up with other great ideas on their own. This one has a lighthouse, the Big Nickel, the Peace Tower, and the CN Tower. The Big Nickel wasn't on our collective list, but is important to this person! I just love how everyone dove in and fit patterns into that wonky block shape. 

Cloe

This next person had to make some decisions right at the start! She has split the background in half - so we have night and day on the outer ring and seasonal on the inner ring. And then when she did the applique for the trees on the inner circle, she made all kinds of different shapes, and she made those trees seasonal!! The four corners are CN Tower, a lighthouse, Malahat Skywalk, and a grain elevator. Just keeping the background colors in order would have been a huge task! 

Darlene

I forgot to mention that people used all kinds of colors in the center compass as well. I love the fact that they encouraged each other, or perhaps it was peer pressure, to do things differently. Once they got started, there was no stopping them!! The outer buildings are the CN Tower, the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, and a hand- and machine-stitched Tower of Pisa! 

Elaine C

Although this one isn't stitched together, I'm including it because all the blocks are laid out. I am especially proud of this person's work. She was one of the people who started the quilt with The Quilt Show. The inner ring to the second black road was complete. She had stalled at the outer buildings. I asked her why she didn't continue, and it was all about the four corners. I ensured that she got the encouragement she needed to make the decisions. Sometimes, making the decisions is harder than the actual work. 

Well, she blew me out of the water with her choices and how she assembled them. She has a Peace Tower, a totem pole on the land, with a whale swimming in the water, the CN Tower, and an Inukshuk. 

Elaine M

A different background style with small birds. I have forgotten to mention the outer border. Some decided NOT to put the border on, and others chose to put a border of a different color and size on the outside. Another way the quilts were customized was the roads. Notice there are no lines on these roads - just one color of fabric. 

The small houses in the outer row are customized, as are the trees. The four corners are a lighthouse, CN Tower, grain elevator, and a totem pole. 

Elizabeth

I'll finish off with this one today (running out of time), but there are still eight more to chat about, and there might be a new one completed and posted in our private Facebook Group. I'll talk about the other eight tomorrow. 

This person decided that after the outer road, she was done! She didn't need another big quilt, and it fits perfectly on her round table. This one is quilted and bound! 

Katheleen

What I love is that everyone did their own thing on making this quilt. From using a busy print for the background, to different fabric choices in various spots, eliminating the detail in the roads, customizing the blocks, making their patterns, changing the trees, and so much more! I could NOT be prouder of the group for their accomplishment!!! 

We ended the final class with a discussion about quilting because it is better to have the quilt quilted than to wait for someone to custom-quilt the darn thing. 

So stay tuned for the next round of pictures tomorrow. 

To finish off today, I have two more pictures to share. It's all about that darn jigsaw puzzle I'm working on. I always pull a bunch of pieces relative to the area I'm working on. Most jigsaw puzzles dictate how they need to be assembled. This one was top down. Those trees were a challenge, and I got stuck and thought I would never finish. But I managed to find a home for almost all the pieces I had pulled, but there were still a few holes. 

At last - progress on the puzzle

Before I put the design boards back on top of the puzzle to avoid temptation today, I pulled the next set of pieces. Well, this part looks easy, so I had to put some of it together last night. But then I said, STOP —this will be something to look forward to tonight! I have five nights to finish it - that should not be an issue. 

Oops - got a head start on tonight's part.

And on that happy note, I'm out of here. I have a lot of work to do again - but it's all coming together. I have multiple projects that now need some finishing. I still have a bit more machine embroidery to do, but I might take a break today and finish all the small things. Then I can go back to machine embroidery. 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

MOM - We hate cats!

I didn't take a picture of the progress on my puzzle, but I'm working through the green forest! Are these pieces reflections, or are they the trees? Hmmm..... I started creating a section that wasn't attached to anything, since it was easier to work on. Then I discovered that my section was upside down and fit beautifully into the top part. 

I work on it for about an hour each evening. After that, it becomes too challenging for my brain, which is interesting, since there are other puzzles I could work on for hours. This one is slow and steady. My only deadline is to finish it before the end of the month, which I should be able to do. I want to log my puzzle into the Facebook post. 

But if you think that 1,000-piece puzzles are a challenge, how about this one? It's a 40,000+ piece puzzle by Ravensburger. I think there are two in existence. One is in the link above, and the second one can be spotted in this video that Brenda sent me last night. 

I would love to do one of those puzzles. In fairness to the puzzler, the pieces in these ones come in ten bags, one for each section. Did you see the price? That Mickey Mouse puzzle is $1,000!!!! I have several puzzles larger than 1000 pieces, and when I have established myself a bit more, I shall dig one out and tackle it! But to go for the 40,000+ one? Maybe when I'm a senior! LOL, I mean retired!

One thing I have learned about our girls is that neither of them likes cats. When Murphy spots a cat, she goes insane and barks like a feral dog! If only she could get her hands on the cat! 

To my surprise, Lexi had a similar reaction. The other day, when we were walking, she stopped, planted her feet, and started to bark. Our Husky does NOT bark. She may yip, but she doesn't bark. When I spotted the cat beside the car, I realized that no cat can ever come and live in our house. And no cat has probably ever passed through our backyard either! 

MOM - there's a hated cat!

Lexi and I spotted these beautiful roses on our walk yesterday. It's sometimes a challenge to get "perfect" flowers. But these were unblemished, and they are gorgeous. 

It's important to stop and smell the roses!

More roses

Lexi has no problem stopping to smell the roses because she loves walking through the vegetation! I must think of getting a rubbing post for her!! Not only does she have to smell the flowers, but she needs to smell each and every blade of grass! 

MOM - just doing my pee mail!

I'm slowly whittling down the weeds in the backyard. Slow and steady - I just shouldn't have left it that long, but the weeds are larger and very easy to manage! 

There was a rib fest at the mall this weekend, and we could hear the music from our house. We are far enough away, but the wind must have been blowing in the right direction. Because of that and a trading card show in the mall, it was super busy. 

A trading card event at the mall

I got what I needed and then got out. I tried the yarn I bought at Walmart, but wasn't happy with the quality, so I need to go to Micheal's to buy a better, tighter-woven yarn. As a result, that project has sat another day! 

But I managed to get one project almost finished. It just needs a bit of tidying up, and it will be done. Since it was a ready-made item (my $4 table runner from the thrift store), I also had to go out to find a can of spray starch! I know—I hate those nozzles, but I plan to use this thing up before the nozzle clogs! I have several things this morning that I need to starch the heck out of! I am not a fan of fussing, but let's say that a little bit of starch goes a long way to making this table runner look pretty smart!

And the good news is that I cut out my garment. That was after I shortened the front, back, button placket, and sleeves. It will likely be too large in the shoulders, but I'm not going to touch that because of the style of the yoke on this shirt. 

Cutting out the shirt

I started cutting the pieces using those Fiskars scissors, but my hands just didn't like it, so I got out my good shears, which made a huge difference. I needed something like that when I was cutting a lot of garments back in the day. 

What is surprising is, and for anyone who has made garments in the past, I'm sure it's the same for you. There's no need to look at the layout! No need to check if you need one or two pieces - it's simply instinctual - you need two sleeves, two fronts, the back is cut on the fold, etc. 

The only two sections not cut are the front and back yoke. I need to cut those out this morning, but since I'm going to do some embroidery on them, I'll cut them about 1 inch larger all the way around, do the embroidery, and then cut to the size I need. 

The second part of the cutting process

The embroidery is chosen, and I just need to place the designs in the virtual hoop in the software to get the exact placement, and hopefully the back yoke will all fit into one hoop. I'm pretty sure it will. Actually, come to think of it, I may mark the yoke on the fabric (with some margin for shrinkage) and leave it intact, which will make hooping easier. The same with the fronts. Yep -- I'll mark it before cutting. 

So it was a good day, but not quite as productive as I thought it would be. But I'm OK with that. I'll get done what I need to get done, and so far, I'm doing OK. I'm finding it a challenge to embroider and sew at the same time. After several days of that, my brain isn't happy. It is telling me to do one thing at a time. And I'm OK with that. But the place looks like a disaster, with parts of several projects scattered throughout the space. I hope to tidy up a bit during Monday Sewing this morning and as the embroidery on my shirt stitches out!

And on that note, I'm off to the gym to work out by myself! I miss those spin classes, but I refuse to go to the class. I just checked the app—there is NO 6 AM class. I'm guessing that was in protest of Joseph's students. No one went, so the class was canceled. That speaks volumes!!! But would that change the manager's mind? Absolutely not! It's a challenge for people to admit they are wrong! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

New gadgets!!

OK -- so what happened? It's freezing this morning! Of course, the temperature is only 17 and feels like 17, and with the windows open, it's cool in the house. It's crazy weather! 

When I was in the Wal-Mart the other day, I spotted this in the yarn section: Faux Leather. What the heck would you do with that? Yes -- it's long and stringy, just like yarn. WAIT a minute—now that I see this again, I want some! 

A skein of Faux Leather

But I guess the idea is you knit up a sweater or a bag with it. There was a small swatch knit up so you could see what it looks like! Hmmm—I'm not sure I would do that. It came in multiple colors! 

A swatch of faux leather "yarn"

Yesterday was time to get out the garment pattern and have a look at it, as I need to decide what embroidery designs to put on it. 

The garment pattern

You can tell the pattern's age by looking at the pieces. Do you notice anything about it? 

What's missing on the pattern?

Yep—there is only one size!!! It's a mens/misses medium pattern. I'm not going to make any adjustments, but I will shorten it as the shirt and the sleeves are quite long. I may look at the shoulders, but this garment has a yoke, and I don't want to mess with that the way it is designed. I separated out all the pieces I need and ironed them gently. Now I'll shorten the shirt and the sleeves and hopefully get it cut out today. I also did some research for an embroidery pattern, and I think I have narrowed the style down; I just need to find the right sizes. 

It's been a long time since I sewed a pattern with plackets on the sleeves. I don't think that's the exact term, but you know what I mean. I just checked, and it's a placket! It also has a two-part collar! But I've made those in the past, and they are not complicated; they just take a wee bit more time. I have a serger now, so it should be easy!

This is another way to buy patterns. This is the Burda Style magazine, and it contains numerous patterns. You'll find them all on the pullouts in the middle, and the patterns are printed on top of each other in different colors. Tracing the lines to form a single pattern will be the most challenging part. 

The new way to buy patterns

Different times!!! 

In case you are wondering this happened. 

The last stitches of the table runner are done.

The embroidery for the table runner, which required three hoops in the 450 by 450 Mega Turnable Hoop, is done! It seemed to take forever, even though the number of stitches yesterday was HALF of the day before. But it's done. I now have to repair that one spot, then figure out how to trim and hem it. You'll get to see it when it's done. 

Have you noticed that there is NO setting things aside to get them done later - it's get them completed NOW. 

I spent the rest of the day prepping fabrics, finding patterns, etc for things that will be stitched out today or in the next couple of days. That was a lot of work. 

The next time you show someone something you have machine-embroidered, and they say, "Oh - that's no big deal, you had a machine stitch it," you'd better set them straight. It's a ton of work -- prepping the fabric, finding the pattern, choosing the thread colors, picking the correct stabilizer, having the skill to combine the elements, and knowing the many tools on the embroidery machine. Then, to make everything come out right and fix any issues should they arise. It's a whole different set of skills from doing it by hand, but trust me—it's NOT just about pressing START and walking away. People have ZERO idea. 

I was exhausted when I went to bed! 

Here is my finish for yesterday. YES -- it's off center, and I could have trimmed it to fit, but then it would have looked very tight! This is the one where I had randomly stitched the bird out in the middle of a piece of blue fabric. Then I figured out what to use the sample for, and well, it has lots of issues. But I bound the edges because it's a great learning piece, and I will certainly use it in classes for placement, the order of stitching, and many other things. I could always put a flower or something in the bottom right corner. It's not too late. Hmm -- that gives me an idea. 

The sample of the day

I'm in the process of redoing it, but it will be done the correct way or at least more to my liking. I started it last night, but I struggled with the stitches as I was so tired. So I left it and will tackle it this morning. 

If I don't get everything I want to done, I'm OK with that, but I can make a huge dent in the list. I think I'm down to ten things on the list and seven days!

So, do you know what this is used for? 

A new gadget

When I first saw the tool, I got super excited. A friend of mine told her husband, who is still working, that he'd better find a hobby for when he retired. Well, he took her advice to heart and bought himself a 3-D printer. He's not ready to retire for a few more years! He made that tool above, and it's brilliant, and about 6 weeks ago, I was looking for exactly such a thing. 

What's it for? 

Let's imagine you are making a small pouch and need to round the corners. But you can't find anything small enough or suitable for use with a rotary cutter. I swear I had some round templates, but at the time I couldn't find them, so I sort of rounded these corners, but they look messy. 

Messy rounded corners

But if I had had this tool, I could have used that! 

So much easier with the rounded corner tool

I didn't do such a bad job hacking with scissors, but I much prefer using a tool like this. And notice that all the writing is raised and printed in another color! I love it!!!!

Easy to read letters and markings

And did you notice that he custom-made the tool in my favorite color? Thanks—you know who you are!!!

But WAIT --- there's more!!!! 

He also made me a set of cord minders! 

Cord minders

They snap together beautifully, and just the other day, I was looking for a cord minder for my heat gun. Now the cord is nice and tidy! 

A cord minder for my heat gun

And I also got a point turner with a hole at the tip that can be used to hold your needle for insertion into the sewing machine. 

A point turner

WOW --- that is an amazing set of tools!!! Thank you once again!!! I love them all. Now I have to remember to pay for them, which I'll do this morning. What did we do without the ability to e-transfer money? 

I believe they will be selling these tools at the Brant Heritage Quilt Show on September 25 and 26, so if you want some of those quilting items, check that out. Or if you want to place a special order, I'm sure that can be arranged. 

Someone at the last Virtual Retreat, which was at the beginning of July, mentioned this puzzle. Does anyone remember this quilt that raised the most money at the Mennonite Relief Sale ever? I believe it sold for $42,000. They made it into a puzzle. The quilt was created by Renske Helmuth and members of the Waterloo County Quilters Guild. 

What a great way to raise funds for the Mennonite Central Committee. There are many stories about this quilt online, but here is a link to one. 

Threads of Africa quilt

I found a store (In-Season) that sells the puzzle, and guess what? I had an $11 credit with the store because I had bought a number of things last summer, and well, that paid for the postage. The puzzle arrived yesterday. I need to stop buying or acquiring special puzzles because I won't want to give them away, but where the heck will I store them? Yikes—I think we need to have an intervention here! 

I'm not this bad yet, but maybe it's time to purge the quilt magazines and use those bookcases for jigsaw puzzle storage!!!

Someone's puzzle storage (not mine)

Speaking of puzzles, the theme for July with the Canadian Jigsaw Puzzle Association is a Villager-brand puzzle. There are already 181 posts from people this month. You know it's been done this month because you have to post a keyword in the picture. I see two people have done this one. I'm working my way slowly from top to bottom. 

Progress on my puzzle

I haven't resorted to sorting by shape for the trees yet, but I may have to. I think I have all the tree pieces pulled, but probably not! And then comes the challenging reflection, water and boats. Yeah!!!! But it's a nice way to end the day. 

And OH MY - the Villager company just came out with 250-piece puzzles, which are fun because you can do them in an evening, and they will also be releasing an Advent calendar. OK -- I have to get that!

Well, there's a lot to get done today, and I have to say I'm very focused and having fun, even though I'm learning with almost everything I do. There's so much more that I want to play with, but after this event, I need to get back to my quilting UFOs! But I will have other machine embroidery samples to make starting in August, so that will blow my quilting time out of the water! 

And on that note, I'm out of here! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!

Defying gravity!

There are days when I'm dangerous and should not touch anything. That's what happened already this morning, and it's only 6 AM. 

I saw a tiny spot that needed touching up on what I did yesterday. So I got things set up and pressed START, forgetting that I needed to check where it was stitching first. Like, how silly to trust everything to line up on its own? 

Now I have some fixing to do, but it can and will be done. I'm going to finish the rest of the stitching and then go back and do the repair. But seriously? I know better! My brain wasn't quite awake, I suppose. 

Remember yesterday, when I said I liked this pattern from Sew Fresh Quilts but couldn't find it? That's because she is still writing the pattern! That makes perfect sense. Now I can go ahead and place my order and get that one when it's published. I think it would make a great sew-along! 

Down on the Farm by Sew Fresh Quilts (in progress)

 

This is how stiff my linen was after using the Stiffy product! It was almost like cardboard, but the stitching is coming out just beautifully! Even the little area that I thought was going to cause trouble because it sort of bubbled up? It's gone! 

My stiff linen

And if you can't find Stiffy, remember that if you are a machine embroiderer or know one, they always have loads of leftover water-soluble bits. Dissolve that in water, and it becomes a paste that can be used to stiffen fabric. Actually, you don't want a paste; you want it to be a bit more liquid than that. I don't have a formula - I would go by look. 

I am using the Husqvarna Viking Mega Turnable Hoop with a stitching area of 450 mm by 450 mm. Let me say that I quickly moved everything off the table in front of the embroidery machine. Given the fabric's stiffness, I didn't want anything in the way.  

I need a lot of room for stitching that stiff fabric.

We don't know where the future of machine embroidery is going, but personally, I would say they have reached the limit on how big to make the hoops. While they will likely attempt to make the machines bigger to accommodate larger hoops, this one is a challenge to find space to hoop and then to stitch out with all your fabric attached. 

However, I will say that having to hoop the fabric ONCE, instead of four or more times, is brilliant! 

Let's see where they go - that decision is probably already in the books, but make the machine smarter. While mine is very smart, I need one that reminds me to check the placement every time! I'm so silly!!! I know better, but I'm over it - the mistake can be fixed. 

But see what I mean about needing space? 

You need a lot of space.

And when you trim the jump stitches on the back, you need a spot to put the hoop. Oh yes - trimming the jump stitches as you go is equally important. I'm very proud of how this looks on the back as well. It's turning out beautifully. YES -- if the back is going to be visible, then it needs to look impeccable. 

You need space to trim the jump stitches.

It was a huge design with 180,983 stitches, and it took all day to complete. I had to trim threads and wind bobbins, which slowed the process down. I left the machine running while I ran errands, and I swear the bobbin ran out the minute I went out the door! 

That's a lot of stitches.

However, it is stunning, minus the one little spot that I touched! I'm only going to give you this as a sneak peek, and I'll share when it's done. And you can see that little bubble in the center, but it went away. That happens often when you are stitching/quilting anything, and you do the outside first and then the inside. See - the more you do, the more you know! 

A close-up of the stitching

I'm also trying to keep the space super clean. By space, I mean Studio B, so when I am finished with something, it gets put away. Trimmed threads in the garbage, supplies put away, etc. It makes it much easier to do things when nothing is in the way. I desperately need to sweep the floor, though. 

The cutting table is mostly clear.

And all that stuff on the right-hand side? That's the stuff I hope to tackle before we leave in one week. Actually, there are still eight days!!! You can do a lot in eight days!

As for my large design, there are two more hoopings to do, but each one is only 45,000 stitches, so it will take some time to position the designs in the hoop. I had to make a couple of slight changes (3-degree rotations) to two of the sections before I was happy this morning. All I have to do now is to float the fabric and place the design. WITH the design placement tools. This time, I won't forget. 

Hey -- it was a simple little fix that I did, but I forgot that the design on the second half of the hoop had been moved ever so slightly. That was my mistake—again—why is it always my mistake? Fix it and move on! No one will know!

Speaking of sweeping the floor, I spotted this this morning. Good grief - how can that pin be leaning like that? OH -- a spider web!!! Despite my little piece I finished the other day, I am NOT afraid of spiders. 

A pin defying gravity!

So while the embroidery machine was working away, I was sewing on the other machine. I was switching between stitches and presser feet, and I totally forgot to change the stitch, and bang - I broke a needle. I'm not in a rush; I just didn't change the stitch when I changed the foot. I haven't done that in a long time. 

Ooops!!!!

See what happened when I tried to keep that second able clear? I moved the seger to the floor - it really should go under the table to be totally out of the way. I took the samples I want to work on when I'm back and piled them up, but with the vibrations from the tables (YES - I need to get those new tables installed), they fell to the floor. ACK!!!!!

My stitch samples later fell to the floor. 

BUT - the good news is that I finished two more pieces yesterday. I wrote out a list of what I want to accomplish, and there were 12 items on it. I finished one more after that list was made, and now there are 11. Can I make it? I doubt it, but I'm going to get done what I can. 

Anyway, this is the first sample I completed yesterday. And yes, except for the binding, it was all done on the embroidery machine. 

My dandelion sample

Does anyone remember that piece I have taken to various classes and showed you? The blob that looked like fluff from a dandelion or the butt of a cat with a long tail? Well, I love dandelions, so I went with that one. I checked online and found an appropriate quote. The stem was taken from another design in the Design Catalog online; I cut off the flower. The background was quilted with the Quilt Block Wizard from the Creativate Embroidery Software, which I LOVE. And the more I use it, the easier it becomes to do anything. 

The tail of the fluff ball was stitched in place. It was when I moved from the stitch I used for that to a straight stitch that I broke the needle! I was too excited about how this piece was turning out! 

But the big news on this piece is the dandelion fluffs. Where to find an embroidery pattern for that? Yes - I could have bought one, but then I couldn't say that it was mine. And I would NOT have learned anything. So I opened up the Creativate Sketch Module and sketched out the little seeds. Then I opened Stitch Editor and repositioned the points on my rough sketch. And VOILA --- Dandelion seeds. 

MY dandelion seeds

Of course, I am jumping up and down. I am learning, and my pieces are all about learning. 

Here is the second piece I finished yesterday. Again, the designs came from the Design Catalog. That is the SVP Worldwide catalog of designs, available online and used with an SVP Wi-Fi-enabled embroidery machine and a paid membership. 

Sample Number two - DONE

The design is stitched out using chenille yarn—yep, all of it — on an embroidery machine. Again, the background is quilted with something I created using the Quilt Block Wizard. 

Detail of the yarn stitching

And if you are with me and I see some chenille yarn for sale, just tell me that I don't need any more! I must have every color under the sun! And then some! Why have one, when you can have lots? 

That is my thing with puzzles. I had to go to the thrift shop yesterday and was looking for a table runner to embroider. I had a premade one at the house, but it was red, and I wanted green. Guess what? I found exactly what I envisioned for $4. How cool is that? But then I also found three puzzles (I was walking), and I brought those home. I need to puzzle faster! 

Remember my Color My World quilt that I finished last month? I also put some machine embroidery on the grain elevator. 

Embroidery on my Color My World quilt

I was digging through those two boxes of personal stuff a couple of weeks ago and found some scrapbooks. Of course I did!! And I found a picture of one of the village's original elevators. We must have been special because we had not one, but TWO. 

One of the elevators from Baljennie

There's a close-up of the writing on one of them. OK -- so I made up what I put on my elevator!! I guess this was the name of the grain company that owned the elevator. And it seems that all of them were different. I must remember to ask Dad about it.

The detail of the writing

OK -- so when the railroad was discontinued, the elevators became useless and were sold off. Some were torn down, while others were moved. If you want to watch this short video on moving them, it's fascinating. Those structures are NINE STORIES tall. A feat to move the darn things. It's kind of sad, and that video is sad because this is a part of our Canadian history and it's gone! It's called PROGRESS. 

Here's a picture I stole from the internet. Oh my--- when you see them like this, you wonder why they didn't tip over. Like the pin, they are defying gravity!!!

Defying gravity!!!!

Speaking to my parents is a challenge. Not the actual speaking, but trying to get in touch with them. Dad is never home, and if he is, they are just having dinner or watching Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune, or they have company! I'm going to have to book an appointment with them!!!!

Has this happened at your Wal-Mart? Our store is a two-level store that carries groceries. But aside from the groceries, the entire store has been reshuffled. All the departments have been moved, and there are huge gaps on the floor like this. 

Wal-Mart is getting a facelift.

Who knows what they are doing and why, but I had a hard time finding the craft section. I can't even remember why I looked. OH -- I was there to get something else, and I always stop by just to browse. 

They must have gotten rid of a lot of stock, because many of the shelves were quite empty. 

Empty shelves at Wal-Mart

I'm sure they are feeling the crunch of online shopping. Just like the small shops in many downtown areas of small towns across the country felt the crunch when Wal-Mart moved in. Again - that's called PROGRESS. I don't feel sorry for them. 

It's going to be a busy day, and I hope that two more samples can get done. I'm cleaning up threads on one, and it will be bound this morning. I need to find the designs for my garment and, hopefully, get the table runner stitched out, then hem it. To hem it, I'll likely have to wash it first, as it's stiff as a board. Then it's going to be flimsy to handle, but I may have to buy some spray starch and lightly starch it before trimming and hemming. I'm making this stuff up as I go. 

Did I mention that the linen I am using was supposed to be for my wedding outfit? I think I mentioned that. But don't worry—if I still want to make an outfit, I have another piece. Yep -- why buy just one piece when you can have two? It is gorgeous linen - well, I love the color. 

There is one thing I want to mention about the design on the table runner. The sample made using those designs was blue thread on white. A very classic look, but I didn't want that look at all. I wanted something softer, so I went with the green background. The next step was: what color to use for the stitching? I had an idea and started with it, but I was going to use two colors. As I got part of it stitched, I decided to go with one color family, and it looks stunning. TRUST YOUR GUT!!!!

I knew I would get mixed up in translating the colors, so I wrote myself a chart, which came in very handy. I need to be documenting all this stuff for my machine embroidery club. I'll have way more than an hour of show-and-tell!!! 

And I'm planning my trip for 2027!!! It's going to be an adventure for sure as I'm taking my aunt, who has never traveled on an Ancestry adventure. Where are we going? This is how you say good morning where we will be: Bore Da! I am not planning on learning any of the language - it's very hard to learn, but I think that English is pretty much a given. 

Getting there might be a challenge as it's in some remote little place on earth! But I'm up for an adventure. And I see there is a somewhat famous mountain peak nearby (thanks to Princess Catherine)! That's a HUGE clue! 

My apologies to people to whom I owe an email. I'm so focused on Studio B that my mind just can't grasp more than one function at a time! I will try to send out some emails. I'm also trying to tackle those weeds in the backyard! 

And on that note, I'm out of here. 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!