The virtual speed puzzling event!

I will confess that I didn't get nearly as much done yesterday as I would have liked. I was tired, but I managed to unpack all but one suitcase and am sorting for the next event, which is in a week. But it's only two days and close to home! 

Then I got all my expenses sorted out, which was good, since I typically leave it hanging around for a week or so. I chatted with my boss, which is always good for updates, but it may involve another short trip. 

I finished another book, and I managed to go through THREE magazines, which are now sitting in the recycling bin. And I have stories to share about it all! Of course I do! 

First, let me share one more item that has been on the Pony Express for a while. I had purchased a book from a used bookstore many months ago, and a friend of mine picked it up, but our paths never connected, and if they did, the book was not with her. 

We met up on the night I drove up north, had dinner together, and I got my book. 

My book finally arrived by Pony Express.

By the way -- Happy Halloween. I have my Halloween socks on today in honor of the day! 

Halloween socks!!!!

I told you about participating in the Virtual Speed Puzzling event that happened on the day I had to leave. I really, really wanted to stay, but it would have made me much later and more driving in the dark, so I pushed the time as far as I could. I participated for one hour, and then I left. 

This was the status of the 500-piece puzzle after one hour. 

The puzzle status after one hour

When I got home from the trip, I had time on my hands, so I decided to time myself to see how long it would take to finish the puzzle. 

This was how much I got done in the next hour. It's certainly different working to the clock. I was struggling with those green bits where the hummingbirds are, and then I said to myself, "Don't panic - just look for a connection," and I did, and then the pieces flew together. OK—they didn't fly, but I started to see the color patterns more easily. 

The puzzle status after two hours

I had to chuckle, because I had heard someone, somewhere mention the topic of FUR in puzzles. Some people start with the fur, and some people leave it to the last. I guess I'm one of those who leave it to the last!!! I got an even bigger laugh when I was comparing notes with my SIL, who happens to be working on a puzzle with multiple cats in it. All the pieces around the cats were done, but there was a bit of an opening where the cats were! 

It took me 36 minutes to assemble that darn cat. That's just slightly under the time of the person who completed the puzzle in just over 41 minutes!!!!

The puzzle is complete!

So my unofficial time was 2:36:33!!! I am tempted to take it apart and redo it, but I think I'll wait a bit. I might do that several times, and then I can give this one away. At this point in my life, I think I'll be happy to put jigsaw puzzles together, but I'm not interested in speed puzzling. I have another virtual event today, and I suspect it'll have a Halloween puzzle. So we'll see how that goes since I don't have to go anywhere. It's also a 500-piece puzzle, still sealed in its plastic cover. It's a family and friends event, so very casual, and with helpers for the others, I'm sure it'll go fast. 

This is the book I finished yesterday. It's a short read—five short stories, but they interconnect. At first, I didn't really know what to make of it, but it has some VERY important lessons. The book is called "What You Are Looking For Is in the Library" by Michiko Aoyanna. 

A fast but excellent read

It's about life and finding your passion. It's also about finding solutions to problems in life that feel overwhelming. I'm not sure how to explain it, but it's a good read. If something in your life isn't the way you want, there are ways to fix it!!! Every retired man without a hobby should read the final story. It's quite an eye-opener- maybe not for us with hobbies, but for them, whose lives were attached to a job where they were someone. Now they are retired and are a nobody! 

It truly is a fascinating read. But two sentences from the last story stuck with me. 

"Things happen as a result of our points of connection, in the past, and in the future." 

I could go on and on about this sentence, but if you are a person who doesn't connect with someone, even the person in line at Tim's, or the teller at the bank, or the cashier at the store, you are missing out on some potentially important connections. If we shop online, we lose a huge part of society!!! -- the connections of society!!!

Here's the second sentence: "Whenever people interact, that is being part of society. And the things that happen as a result of these points of contact exist in the past and the future."

We are all connected, and if we don't interact with others, we have nothing!!! So make sure you have your connections, and don't be afraid to take time to stay connected!!!

Better yet, read the book! 

I took some pictures when I was out walking the girls yesterday. The way the sun hit the trees at the end of the street was stunning. It's like an explosion of color. 

The fall leaves are still hanging on!!!

And this one tree was amazingly spectacular. It almost looked like the tree was on fire!!!

A blaze of color

I was on the sofa reading my book, and the girls were hanging out next to me on the floor. This is about as close as they get to sleeping together. 

MOM -- we love you!!!!

But Lexi also likes to sleep in her raised bed, and I love when she puts her head on the side. 

MOM - I'm so exhausted! 

Murphy just loves playing in the leaves in the backyard, and there is huge evidence of that in the house. I swept the floor in the morning, and by lunchtime, it was covered with leaves. Am I freaking out? Nope --- I don't care - it's a few leaves. I'll sweep again today, but what's the point of sweeping every time she comes in? I'll get myself in a tizzy for no reason! 

Murphy enjoying the fall leaves

DH is away for a couple of days, and Miss Lexi is missing her Dad bad. She hung around me at the kitchen table, looking for attention. He never gives her attention, so I don't know why she expected to get any from me!!!!

MOM -- where's my Dad????

We had also spotted some beautiful flowers on the walk. 

Flowers still beautiful

What's amazing is that they are still very perfect. I guess we call these the late bloomers! 

The rose is perfect!!!

So are these flowers

As I was unpacking, I remembered that I purchased this fabric, which will give me another option for My Kinda Town. Who knew there were so many fabrics in this style? I now have enough to finish the remaining five blocks. 

Fabric for My Kinda Town backgrounds

I won't be giving you a blow-by-blow of all the magazines I go through, but some of this older stuff is fun, especially if you lived through that era, and if you didn't, you can see where things came from. 

My next issue jumps to Fall/Winter of 1987, and now the cost is $4.75 per issue. This was the 12th issue of Quiltmaker. 

Fall/Winter 1987

The magazine started out as being published twice a year, but by 1990 it had gone to four times a year. Then at some point, it went to 6 issues a year, and now it's back to 4 issues a year. This issue is the 12th issue of the magazine, and I checked - the most recent issue of Quiltmaker is number 226. OK -- so I'm a nut about numbers. I can't help it! 

I love the instructions page, which still has the good instructions for pressing, and includes instructions for hand and machine piecing and appliqué. The first issue (1983) did as well. But still nothing about machine quilting.  

Notice, though, in the machine piecing that they are still talking about templates!!!! 

Hand appliqué had a seam allowance. 

While machine appliqué was all about raw edge! 

I find it fascinating to go back in time to read how things evolved. Yes—wouldn't it be fascinating to make a book from all these nuggets of information in the magazines? But you know what? I'll leave that to someone else! Notice: I did not propose taking that on!!! What do I care once I stop quilting - there are probably dozens of copies of these magazines around, and I'll leave it to someone else to discover and write! 

I'm writing about it here, and that's good enough for me. 

I discovered a ton of other very interesting information, but I don't have time for it today. 

I take a lot of pictures and keep the magazines by the computer so I can refer back to them as I write the blog. Then they will go in the recycling bin. I'm not even sad! But I do feel like this information needs to be documented, and since I am doing that here, I can be happy. 

As I go through the magazines, I see the myths, rationale, and reasons why certain things are done the way they are today. And that makes my little heart happy. I love to know why, and these magazines, which were the predominant teaching tools back in the day, are the reason why! 

What bugs me to no end is when you ask someone, "Why do you do it that way?" and they respond, "Because we've always done it that way!" 

I found that over and over again in my dealings with any guild, and frankly, it would drive me mad. Actually, that is one of the reasons I won't be part of a guild in the future - ever. People didn't like what was happening, yet certain people could not break out of the mold. If you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen! And I did, and I have ZERO regrets!!!

I'm happy to report that my aunt is now completely out of her house!! She will have to bunk with family until her new place is complete, which has been pushed back. But that's OK—she has a roof over her head, a nice place to stay, and company! 

But here's one thing I have learned from personal experience, and this involved moving family members. If you store things on your property for your children, they are the ones who take the longest to remove them. And I would bet part of that is because they don't know what to do with their things, and they don't have time or whatever. 

So here's my advice - if you are storing things for your kids or you have things that you think your kids want, deal with it NOW. Don't deal with it during a stressful time like the actual move, because they will NEVER work at the speed you want them to. Except for a few boxes, and I mean very few (less than five shipping boxes), M has dealt with everything in our house. I'm OK to store them temporarily, and trust me, the day we decide to downsize, I don't care where she lives, but those will be in UPS boxes on their way to her house. 

Well, on that note, I need to start tackling the mess that is Studio B. I still have three days of events to prep for (mostly packing) and a Facebook Live, which I have to rearrange Studio B to film and to make the samples. So it won't be until early December that I can really dive in and fix things up. But I can at least put away the things I no longer need, and I must keep working on the Visual To-Do list and the samples for the classes. 

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!!

The great quilt magazine cull begins!!!

Oh my!!! Yes, Jackie - you have a point. My list was mostly "don't do this," and it's always better to keep it positive rather than negative. So I will turn that list around, but not today. However you prefer to see your lists, that list is a very important one for quilters/crafters. I'm going to blame it all on those marketing people who created the NEED for us to want more and more and more! 

I couldn't agree more about the magazine titles. Some titles are strictly fluff, and I will have no qualms about going through them and tossing them. But Quilter's Newsletter was one of the BEST magazine titles around. Great quilts, great eye candy, and great articles. I was very sad to see it go. I don't think I have the entire collection, but I have most of it! I'm leaving that one for last. 

One of the most common things people do when culling magazines is go through them, rip out the interesting articles/patterns, and put them in page protectors. And it sounds like one of you found someone's binders of culled patterns. I think I have two or three binders in the office. 

The 5.5-hour drive home was uneventful, but I broke it up with several stops. In one town with FOUR Tim's, it took us a minute to get to the right one, but we managed. We had a great visit, as we don't see each other that much in person. Google Maps isn't very helpful with Tim's locations, unless you give it a specific address. 

I'm sure you have all noticed the ordering kiosks in Tim's. You can order at the kiosk, on the app, or directly from the counter person. After seeing this, I suspect they are trying to get people to use the kiosk or the app. 

Hmmm -- a bit impersonal??? 

I will confess, I'm a bit stunned. They are forcing the consumer to act in a certain way. What if I'm a senior and I want to use my card, but I also prefer interacting with a person rather than a kiosk? They have taken that ability away from me. I think that's a bit much. Personally, I dislike ordering on the app, and I hate the kiosks. Although the ones yesterday did work fine. 

I only frequent that place when I'm traveling, so I guess I don't really care, but I thought it was a bit contrived to force customers to use the kiosk, leaving staff to prep orders but not take them. 

On one of my stops along the way, and you have to love hands-free in the car that will enable you to send and receive messages without taking your hands off the wheel. I met a friend in a carpool parking lot, and we completed the Great Disney Puzzle Caper! 

A Disney puzzle to add to my list

One of next year's themes is Disney, and now I have a Disney puzzle to work on! 

OK—after I got home and unloaded the car, I took the girls for a walk; let's make that a forced march. They were like sled dogs, so excited to get out. If they were hitched to a wagon, we'd have been flying around the neighborhood!

MOM - you are so slow!!!!!

Both of them were at the full extension of their leashes. Then, on the way home, Murphy realized she'd overdone it and was calmer, but not by much! 

The big thing I did after unloading the car and taking some stuff downstairs was look at that bookshelf with all the magazines.

Sigh --- where to start?

This shelf has magazines and books on it, and for the most part, the magazines are sorted by title. Not necessarily in order within that publication, as they have been shuffled around multiple times. But the titles are in one pile. And there are a few instances where there are two piles of the same title, but they aren't necessarily on the same shelf. Hey -- it's better than one huge unsorted pile! 

As I browsed the shelves, I settled on Quiltmaker as my target. I wanted to start with something that I considered fluff so it would be quick and relatively easy to browse the magazines and then toss them. When I get to the more in-depth content, I'll be practiced enough to toss them without much thought. 

Now you may think—why don't you just toss them and I could. Since many of them have never been opened, and I spent a lot of money on those, I want to get my entertainment value from them. And since they are my magazines and I'm working on my schedule, I get to decide how to deal with them. If you have magazines and want to toss them without looking, be my guest!! 

I'm also enjoying looking at styles, trends, what's come back, and hopefully finding some inspiration. I am not planning on keeping any patterns, but I may save the occasional article, which I might just scan and tag so I can easily find it again. 

Since this is going to be my entertainment, it's also going to be your entertainment, without the hassle of you physically moving them, browsing them, and then tossing them. 

Here's what happened. I found TWO piles of Quiltmaker on the shelves. 

Two piles of Quiltmaker magazine

That freed up some shelf space, which you can see doesn't get dusted very often. On some of the shelves, the magazines were standing upright between two stacks, so I took some of those and laid them flat. There are no empty spaces - yet! 

An empty space, which soon got filled again

Then I sorted them because Quiltmaker came up with some special issues, and of course, I had to buy those. 

Sorting the titles

And yes, I found a few duplicates. Three of them, to be exact. 

Duplicate (May/June 08)

And another duplicate (March/April 09)

Oh gosh -- yet another duplicate!!! (Jan/Feb 2015)

And yes  - can you believe that I found THREE copies of one issue? Why? I just shake my head. 

Seriously?? This is just wrong.

A couple of issues were still wrapped in the plastic because some insert or CD came with them. 

Still wrapped in plastic.

This is how I marked patterns that I wanted to keep. A sticky on the front. How helpful is that when I want to go back and find something? It'll be interesting to see which ones I earmarked, as I'm sure I have ZERO interest in ever making those. 

The way I flagged patterns I wanted to make (totally useless!)

Once I sorted the piles by special issue or magazine, I sorted them by date, with the earliest ones on top. 

This is the THIRD ever Quiltmaker magazine published. It's the earliest issue I have. 

The third edition of Quiltmaker

And look at that date!!! Spring/summer 1983!!!! Surprisingly, the magazine cost $3, which I think was high for that time. 

Spring/Summer 1983

I have about ten issues from the 80s and early 90s before I started quilting, so I must have purchased those from a members' boutique at a quilt show. 

This is the most recent issue I have. 

My most recent Quiltmaker magazine

It's dated Fall 2025. In the last 8 years, I mostly purchased one per year! I bought most of my magazines in the early 2000s, when I was new and had no clue what I was doing! 

Quiltmaker Fall 2025

Here are all the special editions they published. 

Special editions published under Quiltmaker 

Almost all magazines provide their general instructions for constructing a quilt. I browsed through it to see what had changed since then and now. Remember, this is 1983 - that's 43 years ago!!!! 

Instructions for pressing and blocking

Those pressing instructions still pertain to today; however, I think the quilt world has gotten lazy and just presses seams open. There is NO REASON to do that. Press to one side. I love that they use the word USUALLY to the dark, because sometimes it makes sense to press to the light. 

As for quilting, not even a mention of quilting by machine. Think about it—NO ONE quilted by machine in those days. Wait—some rebels did, but it was frowned upon. 

Hand quilting ONLY

The other option mentioned was to tie the quilt. 

Or you could tie the quilt.

There was no such thing as a quilt backing in those days. They called it a LINING. 

Lining instead of backing!

Bindings were not mitered, nor were they double-folded. Now remember, this is all according to this magazine. Remember, in 1983, there was no internet, there were few quilting books, and only a handful of magazines. Everything was taught in person and techniques were handed down. 

Instructions for binding

After looking at the patterns in the magazine, there were NO articles, just patterns; you will NEVER complain about a modern pattern again. No cutting instructions! You had templates and instructions for making the templates. Yes - rotary cutters were available, but not widespread. I found an ad for the Olfa cutter in the back. 

OH MY gosh—that looks complicated!!!!! 

Diagrams only -- few words, and this one has curved piecing! 

I love everything log cabin and was templated to keep the pattern. 

Beautiful log cabin quilt

But based on how it's pieced, there's no way I'm going to do that. 

The block - can you imagine making that point? 

And even back then, there were drawings of some of the quilts. This is a graphic image, not a photograph. I was very surprised to find that. 

A graphic, not a photograph

There was a great spread on how to choose and use quilting motifs. This would be very handy for someone, but many people take their quilts to a long-arm quilter! The motifs are for hand quilting, and it showed how to combine one design to make larger designs that would fit a block, a border, or whatever shape you want. We can do this on our computerized machines now, but you can still do it by hand: create a stencil and then quilt by machine. 

How to choose a quilting motif

But here is very savvy advice for choosing how to quilt your quilt. This still stands today!!! 

Savvy advice for choosing quilt designs

And let's not forget how lovely the fabrics were back then. That Patchwork Place offered these patterns. Remember them? They no longer exist, but they published many, many books over their time. By the way, Quiltmaker was founded by Bonnie Leman, who also founded Quilter's Newsletter.

Patterns for sale

OMG ---do you see what I see? GEESE!!!!! 

Yes—making stuffed geese back in the day was a huge thing, along with other country animals. But today, PORCH geese are making a big comeback, with people making seasonal clothes for them!!!! 

And even back then, the magazine had fabric you could buy. The tagline is "Easy armchair shopping for beautiful, high-quality fabrics at bargain prices." You could buy by the yard or fabric packets. There's a small order form which you had to mail in! 

The magazine sold fabric.

Oh my gosh—what a trip down memory lane that was, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Was it worth it? You bet! And I got to share the experience with you, too. 

With the duplicates and another magazine I brought on my trip, I tossed six magazines last night! 

The nice, orderly pile is on my puzzle table (thanks, Elle), and I plan to tackle one, if not two, each day. I found ONE page that I kept as inspiration for the scrap quilts, and that will go in a specific box for that fabric. The rest is gone. 

After pulling that stack from the shelves, I realized that if I only get rid of one magazine a day, I'll be at this for years! So it's good I'm starting now! 

I have more to share, but that's all I have time for this morning. 

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!!

PS -- By the way—I have been slowly and sporadically culling magazines; this technically isn't the start! But it's the start of the dedicated cull!