To-Do Lists

I see I am not the only one who pushes the long arm to the limits! Yes—you can get away with minimal excess on the backing, BUT only if it is your quilt and you are the operator! It's fiddly, and you must babysit that thing along all the edges! And sometimes things happen, like when the pin (I no longer use clamps) that holds the elastic grip on the side gets caught on the machine bed. I had to do a wee bit of ripping yesterday. But not a big deal because I was standing there and could press STOP. But if I hadn't been there? It would have been a big mess!

Have you ever noticed how so many little things accumulate on your "to-do" list? Just things around the house that need to be put away, fixed, or whatever. It drives me mad, and I finally had to write out a list (a long one) this morning so nothing would be forgotten. I hate having a long list. 

Here is the next community project quilt - done. This one was tight along the sides, and I had to join a small strip of batting on the end. But it's done and trimmed! That is number four of eleven. 

Community project quilt - number 4 of 11

And then I spent quite a bit of time making the backing for the next one. There are three different fabrics in this one. Some of the fabrics were strips, so it took some time to join them. It looks just fine, and it's helping to use up those flannel bits that are hanging around. The batting is also pieced and ready to go, but this one will get quilted tomorrow, so I'm ahead of the game!

The backing for the community project quilt #5

While I'm babysitting the quilt, I'm also trying to clear up those tables - yet again. This is a constant job. Anyway, I have the Trendtex challenge sitting there. I came up with an idea pretty much before I ordered the kit. I missed the April 30 deadline for the quilt to be judged. And I knew the deadline for it to be in the auction was coming up. I checked that date yesterday. Hmm -- May 20. I guess I won't be making a Trendtex challenge (for Quilt Canada in June). You know what? I'm OK with that. I took all the fabrics, put them in their respective color baskets, and tossed the paperwork. 

The Trendtex Challenge kit

I removed the Trendtex challenge tag from the Visual To-Do list and wrote on the back that I did not complete it. Am I upset? Not in the least. Things happen. I find that with this particular challenge, the fabrics are always very difficult to work with, not only in the type of fabric (the one on the left is a heavier weight than the other cotton ones), but also in the colors. 

Personally, I'd like to see a more cohesive coloring that would make it easier to blend (you can't add any extra fabrics), and perhaps more people would participate. Well, they typically get close to 100 quilts, so maybe they don't need or want more people to participate. Bottom line -- it didn't happen for me this year, and I'm OK with that. 

I typically participate in two challenges a year: Trendtex and Cherrywood. I'm not always a fan of Trendtex's fabrics, and the Cherrywood is getting so expensive. I think I might refrain from doing them in the future. I like making challenge quilts, so I may decide to make my own challenge. I'll have to think of a theme and go from there. Hmm --- what could the topic be? Or the fabric? 

Then I found this small table mat that was hanging around. I had used an orphan block (from a raffle quilt for the Brampton Quilter's Guild - many years ago) and tried a new edge finishing. The piece is completely done, and why is it still hanging around? So it went in the binding sample box, and one more thing off the table. 

A small table mat is complete.

And I stitched the final two half-square triangles from that group I was working on the other day, and those are now put away. 

The final two HSTs from a group

All these little things take up a lot of time and mental energy! But I wanted to get back to those two winter quilts. I decided to bypass the appliqué for a bit and settled on the next two blocks, which required a TON of half-square triangles!

This is what I accomplished last night. I finished an audiobook while I was working. If the book is good, that keeps me sewing. If the book is long and boring, then I struggle to stay focused! I know - abandon those books, but I can't!

Working on HSTs for my quilt

But I know why I work in groups of four! I start with a group of squares for the half-square triangles and sew one side of the pairs. And while you can't see it in this photo, the projection setting on the PFAFF creative icon 2 makes it so fast, with ZERO marking! I love that and will never (hopefully) be without a sewing machine with that feature! 

Sewing one side of the squares for the HSTs

Then, so it isn't totally boring and repetitive, I turn the row around and sew the second seam on two squares. Then I cut them apart, press, and trim. 

Working in a group of four

Last night, I finished one book and started another, and I thought it was going to be a bore, but it's quite interesting. I'll tell you a bit more in a minute. So I was on a roll, sewing, pressing, and trimming to my heart's content, and continued this morning.

Lots of trimming of HSTs

I also decided to tackle one more group of HSTs that had already been sewn. So, while I worked on four HSTs for my project, I pressed four of the other HSTs and trimmed the two sets simultaneously. 

And look how many of this group I got trimmed!! I was pretty pleased with my progress. And before you know it, I will be done with this group. 

Trimming another group of HSTs

As for the HSTs for my block, I got this many done! I'm over halfway done, and I should be able to make short work of those. I certainly can't count, though. I had to manually calculate how many squares I needed, and I ended up cutting way too many! 

Progress on the HSTs for my winter quilt

I'm determined to use up these meds that the doctor gave me. The one that requires me to take it at least 30 minutes before eating. The boxes had been sitting on the cutting table all week. And last night, when I closed up shop, I put the container right in the middle of the cutting mat. So it was easy this morning to take the pill, and I consolidated all the pills into one box, which I will leave on the cutting mat. It's now so ingrained in my head that if I forget, well, let's see what happens!

I remembered to take the pill!

Last night, I took some time to work on the puzzle. I find this is a tough one, and with lots of birds and flowers, it's going to be a challenge. I still have not found all the border pieces! But slow and steady! 

Progress on the bird puzzle

I was going to work on the table assembly, but the first step of the instructions, which I had not looked at before, said to lay the tabletop upside down. Oh— I guess I need to bring the tabletop downstairs. A job for later today. 

The other job I had to do was clean the printer's print heads. The blue one is clogged, and I need to print something that requires all colors to work. 

Trying to clean the print heads

I Googled it to see what I could use from around the house, as I don't have an official cleaning kit. I used rubbing alcohol, and it didn't work the first time. So I soaked the heads again, and we'll see what happens. If that doesn't work, I'm just buying a new printer. This one is quite old, and I can't connect the app to my new computer, so it may just be telling me it's time. I hate to get rid of it since it still works, but not the blue ink, which is OK for printing text but not for anything in color. The problem is that we don't print much, so of course, the print heads are going to get clogged. Hmmm -- I need to figure out something, even if we get a new printer, the same thing will happen eventually. 

The print heads

Do you think Murphy is trying to tell me something? She just looks so dejected. How could you not grab the ball and throw it a couple of times? 

MOM - I'm so bored!!!!

And then when she decides she needs a nap, it's RIGHT where I need to stand when I'm on the long arm. Oh, Murphy—we love you, but you can be a bit too demanding!

MOM - I'm exhausted from playing ball

I swear that children would be less of an issue than she is! But we love her to death! 

When I went for my afternoon walk, I spotted some lilacs that were just coming into bloom. I love how they smell! It started off as a warmish day, then it rained, and we did get some sun, but it never got to the point where you wanted to sit outside. Which is probably a good thing, although I have several jobs that can be done anywhere, so I won't mind sitting outside. 

Lilacs in bloom

Let me tell you about the audiobook I started yesterday. It's called The Celestine Prophecy: An Adventure by James Redfield. I'm not sure where I got the recommendation to read this book, but it's been on my HOLD list for well over one year. It's kind of a philosophy/spiritual book, but it's a novel, and I was a bit apprehensive as I started to read. Yes -- it's very contrived, but it does have some very good messages (about life and the earth), and I'm actually enjoying it a lot! Who knew! It's better than women suffering at the hands of their husbands or fathers. 

I was very curious about the book because of the long wait, and I just had a peek at its reviews. There are a lot of cheesy things about the book, and as I mentioned, it's very contrived, but if you look past that, there are a lot of good messages about our planet and how we interact with it. And without saying anything like "forest bathing," he talks about the energy one gets from nature! I couldn't agree more! 

After this one, I have two more audiobooks on my shelf, and then I can release something that is on suspend hold, or I might just get that murder mystery and enjoy the break! 

I have two things to take care of on the Visual To-Do list, which shouldn't take long, and then I'll share a before (January 1) and after (now). I've made good progress, but I still have a lot of things to do this year. I truly believe they are all doable this year, and I shall continue to work on them. It's been a great tool to allow me to focus. 

I didn't see the fish at all yesterday, and I'm starting to remove more debris from the bottom of the pond. There is a LOT of dirt and leaves in the bottom of the section without the lilies, and I am determined to get most of it out this year. Trust me, I'm checking very carefully that I'm not accidentally scooping up one of my expensive fish! 

Well, I'm off to tackle that massive list of things that need to be done. 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!

Questions about the puzzle

Let's start with the puzzle stores - actually, there are many sources of puzzles, but here are the main ones that I know of. 

Puzzles Canada - Georgetown. A warehouse of puzzles that is open to the public, and they sell MANY brands, sizes, and offer free shipping over a certain amount. You also get 10% back in reward points, which you can apply to any future purchase. They also sell The Occurrence puzzles, which are made in Merrickville, Ontario. HIGHLY recommend visiting the store or the website. Check the website for hours as they do NOT open until NOON. 

Puzzle Nerds - Toronto. I have NOT been to this shop, but they sell many Canadian-based puzzles and have an amazing feature on their website listing where the puzzle companies are located and where the puzzles are made. So if that is important to you (I like to support Canadian brands), then it's easy to find a brand that works for you. 

The Occurrence - This is a shop in Merrickville, Ontario that sells and manufactures puzzles. Lots with Canadian artists! I believe they only sell what they make, and you can also find their puzzles for sale at Puzzles Canada. 

Someone told me about a puzzle store in another location—I think it was Smith Falls, but I can't remember. I'll ask her to provide me with the details again. 

There are loads of places to buy puzzles -- they seem to be popping up all over, and puzzles are a great form of entertainment. Many new puzzles cost around $33 for a 1000-piece puzzle; the entertainment (per hour) for that $33 is well worth it. You can also check out your local thrift shop for deals, though you are at the mercy of what's in the store. Most used puzzles I buy are $7.99, and with the 30% senior discount on Tuesday, they become quite affordable. 

Mix the new and used together, and that evens out the price. Why not find a group of people in your area and create your own puzzle swap? 

And now, let's get on to what happened yesterday. It was a super productive day, and I love it when that happens. 

OH -- before I start, I have to say something about the books on my reading list. I'm now into the third book about women back in the day (1700s and 1800s) when they had zero rights and were their husbands' or fathers' possessions. I need to move out of this genre and FAST!!!! The third, and hopefully last for a while, is "The Secret Book Society" by Madeline Martin, which is quite uplifting and shows there was some hope for these women. But the other two? Anyway, I'm not here to do book reviews this morning. But I need a good old-fashioned murder mystery!

So I don't like to waste supplies and keep pretty much everything that still has some life to it. Like the almost-empty bobbins of bobbin-weight thread, which may not be appropriate for embroidery (too tightly wound), but they work just fine for appliqué. I emptied two such bobbins yesterday. Why let that thread go to waste? I get it that it's a small amount, but I finished all my appliqué yesterday using those bobbins. 

YES -- I know the bobbin thread is low!

The same for stabilizer. I was doing some satin stitch, and that requires tear-away stabilizer on the back. I have a bucket of odds and ends of stabilizer pieces, and I grabbed some. 

The scraps of the tear-away stabilizer

Shoot -- you know what I didn't take a picture of? The two completed blocks! So yes, the appliqué is completed. I'll take pictures this morning. 

Then I forged on to the next two appliqué blocks. I had to piece the background first, and they are done! 

The next two backgrounds for appliqué

The shapes are traced onto the fusible, so I hope to tackle this later today. 

PLUS, while listening to the audiobook this morning, I managed to get the squares cut for the next two blocks. 

The next blocks are prepped.

So that's pretty exciting progress on these two quits. I still have a bit of hand embroidery to do on two of the blocks (technically four, since there are two quilts), and I should try to do it today. Perhaps it's something I can do outside because hallelujah - we had a warm day yesterday!

But when I took Murphy out at 7:30, it was only 7 degrees C. So I had my orange jacket on, and I wore mitts because I hate having cold hands. The sun was out, and it was warming up fast. So at one point, I undid the jacket and took off the mitts. When I took Lexi for a walk, I left the jacket and the mitts at home. Later in the afternoon, as I went to the grocery store, I was now wearing shorts. 

As I passed one of my neighbors, she said she had now seen me three different times that day, and each time I had fewer clothes on! I said, "Let's hope we don't see each other again!"

The backing and batting for the 4th (of 11) community project quilts were made, and I forged ahead, pulling fabric (bits and pieces) that will make the backings for the next seven. 

The fabric is ready to make more backings.

Here's another reason why I can't hand these quilts off to someone. As I trim the excess from one quilt, it often gets used (or could be used) as part of the backing for the next one. So while I appreciate the two offers I had a while back, it won't work for me. Once I start on a batch, it's a rolling progression. And I'm OK with that. I love slow and methodical, which is what happens when I assemble the backings and batting from leftovers. 

I had a few extra moments this morning, so I tackled that pile of HSTs. I had to laugh as I neared the end of the stack. Would it work out to even groups of four? And the answer is yes and no! I discovered two pairs that had not been sewn, so they got set aside. That resulted in the groups of four working out just fine! 

The last group of four HSTs in this group

And here is the last stack of trimmed HSTs for this grouping. 

Trimmed HSTs

And that leaves three groups still to press and trim. But I'll work away at them, and they will be done before I know it. 

HSTs still to trim

I will have to start focusing on my classes for next weekend, as I have the jacket class, which is actually a review of the Grainline Studio videos, and the last assignment for Color My World! It shouldn't take long, but we all know what that means. Instead of one day for each, it'll likely be three days, so I had better get started now so I don't have to rush. I hate rushing! And we have the UFO Club that same weekend, and I want to get some fiddly little things done. 

Is anyone familiar with this book? It's an oldie, published in 1989. Mary Ellen Hopkins was quite the character, and she wasn't shy about telling you how to make a quilt. She had a thing for PPMs, Personal Private Measurement, which was used if you just could not get that ¼" seam right! 

A great quilt book

It's a GREAT book for learning to quilt and for expanding your horizons. Someone asked me if I had the book, and I did. I haven't used it in eons, and I'm letting it go! GASP!!!!! I know!!! I also found two of her other books and was going to offer those as well, but I've decided to keep them, as they will be good reference books for the upcoming scrap class in the fall. 

This one is the first one, then there are #2 and #4. OH -- and 4½, 4¾, and 4 11/12, but I don't think there ever was a three. I can't find it in my books, nor online. 

Yes—I could have kept it, but you know what? I have many other books to keep me entertained, and if this book can bring joy to someone else, then I'm happy to part with it. 

Another quilt was completed yesterday, but I can't share it with you at this point. BUT, it was another example of cutting it close and using up what you have. The quilt top was 60 inches wide, the backing (Minky) was 62" wide. And sometimes that shrinks in a wee bit on the long arm. Let's just say that it was a tight squeeze. 

This is all that was available on one side. 

The excess backing on one side

And here's what was left from the two sides and the top! Not much! 

The excess from the two sides and the top of the backing

I highly recommend that you NEVER do this to your long-arm quilter! They will kill you for it and most likely refuse to do the quilt. Yes, I could have added a waste cloth to both sides, but I was too lazy for that, and besides, I know with a bit of extra time, I can make it work.

All quilts that have been quilted are trimmed, and all the bits are put away. That in itself is a time-consuming task, but it's best to keep on top of it, or the bits will pile up! 

Because it was finally nice, I was able to sit outside in the gazebo. The fish are still feeling their way around the pond, and I did spot three or four of them brave enough to come to the surface to enjoy the sun. But with Murphy looming over them, they didn't feel too comfortable. 

I don't know how much I'll be able to enjoy the backyard this year. Murphy has become a total pain. She loves to clamber over the rocks, although I saw her slip a couple of times. Her legs, like mine, just aren't what they used to be. So we will have to be careful and may eventually have to block access to the pond. 

MOM -- this is my jungle gym!

BUT, she was darn insistent about playing ball, and at one time, she had tossed THREE balls into the pond. They are pretty much in a row from each other in the picture. What is annoying is that she doesn't give up and keeps barking if she doesn't get attention! LOUDLY. 

Three balls in the pond

I guess I'll have to play ball with her and then stop so she can rest, or take the balls away when I'm outside. I was on a phone call with a store yesterday, and I was throwing the ball for her. She is relentless! 

It's amazing to watch the leaves on the trees as they grow. This is a maple leaf, and as it unfurls, the leaf is cone-shaped. As it gets stronger, it opens up flat. It's pretty amazing to watch day by day! 

The maple leaves as they unfurl.

Well, it's time to get started on the day. My knees, thankfully, have been decent. Not perfect by any means, but decent. Slow and steady and shorter walks. It kills me mentally, but I feel so much better physically. And getting a good night's sleep can also make a huge difference in how the day unfolds. I had an amazing and long sleep last night, so it's going to be a good day!

And on that happy note, have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!



























 

New residents for the backyard

Alright - Mother Nature! We've had enough! I turned the heat off yesterday morning, but I had to turn it back on later in the day. It never got above 10 degrees Celsius, and it's just cold with the wind. I see the temperature will go up later today, and the sun will come out, which will help. With all the rain, clouds, and wind, those low temps are cold! 

While it was a day for errands in the car, I also managed to start the appliqué. I got the stars done for both blocks. 

Progress on the appliqué blocks

And the fish are done on one block. Now that the machine is set up for appliqué, it shouldn't take too long to finish these two blocks. I know - setting up the sewing machine for appliqué is so easy - change the stitch plate and the foot and select a different stitch. I mean -- we are not talking rocket science here! I must try to get this done today so I can move on! 

More appliqué on those blocks

The day did not start off well, as I had a few minutes before the planned departure for the errands, so I thought I'd dig out the stove's serial number and model and call the support team. OH, great -- I carefully opened the door to see if the serial number was along the edge (that was the first spot I was told to look after a Google search). Sadly, the serial number wasn't there, and the shattered glass took that moment to start collapsing. 

I had no choice but to clean it out, or it would have all fallen into the oven, which I didn't want to clean up. So I got out a spatula to help scoop up the glass. I got almost all the glass scooped up, but broke the spatula in the process. I think I may have to buy a new one, as we only had two. I need to check on that. 

Scooping the shattered glass from the oven door

You can see how dirty the glass was. and how clean the shattered glass became during the cleaning process! 

At least the shattered glass got clean!

I stopped at the pond place to ask questions about our skimmer, which gets clogged so easily, but there isn't much we can do, other than try putting a screen on the front of the skimmer or adding a floating skimmer. Or just plan to clean the existing filter more regularly than we do. If we glue the screening to the existing skimmer, the pond level will have to be lowered, and we will need special glue. I think I'll just schedule cleaning the filter more frequently. It will have to become a job - feed the dogs, clean the filter! 

But I decided to restock the pond with fish. And that was an eye-opener. 

Shopping for fish to restock the pond

When I first bought fish for the pond, twenty-three years ago, I paid 49 cents per fish. Granted, they were small, but still. This time? The smallest fish were $10 a piece! They are approximately 3-4 inches long. Lesson learned: make sure the aerator is working properly in the fall. That was a costly mistake, and so I ended up with seven new fish. The koi and larger fish were even more money, and these smaller fish have room to grow! I did buy a new aerator as well!

Miss Murphy had to investigate what was happening in her pond. 

MOM - Are these my friends?

And then the fish were released. 

The fish, after being released

I think they were in shock. Where's the big blue tub? We have plants? Wow!!!! They swam around and around following each other as they explored their new domain. When I checked on them later, I could only spot part of one, as they had settled amongst the plant debris at the bottom, where they would be safe and warm. 

Hopefully, when the sun comes out later today, we will spot them. 

I had some things to drop off and pick up, and one of the stops was the puzzle warehouse. I know --- do not ask! I had spotted some puzzles a while back, and they were out of stock. They have a system that lets you receive an email when the puzzle is back in stock. How "sneaky" is that? Well, three came in, so I decided to go and have a look. 

The puzzle warehouse

This warehouse is just insane -- it's floor-to-ceiling puzzles, and they carry a wide number of companies, including the latest one I found that publishes puzzles in Ontario! The variety of pictures just blows me away every time I go there. I will NOT go there in the future. Well, for a couple of months! 

Last night, I decided it was time to put away the New York puzzle that I finished last week and start a new one. I'm loving the flexibility of time to do this. And yes -- I feel like I've fallen down another rabbit hole. BUT - when a puzzle is done, it leaves the house. There are a few I'm keeping for certain reasons, but currently, there are only two on the keep shelf. Both will be put together one more time and then given away. 

This one I chose is crazy. It's a 1000-piece puzzle, but the pieces are quite large. I had to use five of the design boards to lay out all the pieces. I managed to get this much completed last night. The border is not together, and I seem to be missing pieces. I suspect the puzzle is much wider than it appears below because neither the top nor the bottom border is complete. By missing pieces, I mean, I just haven't found them yet!

Progress on the new puzzle

The picture is a bunch of brightly colored birds, butterflies, and flowers. 

We had a look at the huge puzzles - the ones that cost $999 and consist of over 40,000 pieces! Can you imagine? Those mostly consist of 10 smaller pictures connected, so, technically, you could do each one by itself. The one I spotted that was different was celebrating Mickey Mouse's 90th anniversary.

I think it's cheating a bit to call this a single puzzle when, in fact, it's ten separate ones put together. It's 22 feet by 6 feet. Where the heck would you lay that out? And in those ones, each puzzle comes in its own bag. Thank goodness for that. 

The largest I have here is 4000 pieces. I think I have two of them that I've carried from the farm back when I left many, many years ago. I think this winter would be a great time to dig one of them out. Hmmm --- those extra tables? I don't think they will be for sale after all! 

And I managed to get one more of the community project quilt done! When things go well, it doesn't take too much time, but everything had been prepped the day before. 

Community project quilt 3 of 11 done!

There is another quilt loaded on the machine for today. It's a gift, so we won't be posting the picture for a while. I'll have to help as the quilt is almost as large as the backing, which is Minky or plush. So that will take some time today, but at least it won't be my job to babysit it. Once I give some guidance, I hope to step back from that one. 

So progress is being made. There are always errands to be done, but today, there is zero reason to leave the house! I hope to start assembling that table and to finish the appliqué. Let's see what happens. I also need to figure out the stove issue and try to help Dad. He is having some pretty bad back pain, and we need to get him some relief from that. It's just so hard when we tell him over and over what he can do, and he refuses to do it. He also doesn't stay on top of his pain meds, so when they wear off, he's in agony. I told him, you need to get on a schedule, so the meds stay working. Yeah!

I finished an audiobook and an ebook yesterday. I have way too many on my shelf (now down to six), but that is way too much pressure to read those books before they are due. Many cannot be renewed. I have put several on suspend and will have to figure out how to unsuspend them at some point. When I get excited about a new book to read, I MUST remember to TAG the darn thing as "want to read" and not put it on hold, even though some of the books I have on hold have been on hold for over a year before I get them. I don't want to suspend or turn those ones away! It gets complicated, but having six books on the shelf at one time is way too much pressure! 

By the way, if you watched the Grainline Studio video linked in my post yesterday, my apologies. That was the link to the series' INTRODUCTION. Here is the link to the first video - Understanding your Sewing Practice. 

On that note, I'm off to start the day!

Have a super day!

Ciao!!!

get some appliqué finished. 

SCAM!!!

Something very bizarre happened yesterday, and it sure gave me pause for thought. We only have one home phone, which sits in the living room. We do hear it ring, but never answer it. There is an answering machine attached to it, and I check it from time to time. It's mostly junk if there are any messages at all. I heard the phone ring and the announcement that it was Bell calling. I had heard this the day before, so I was wondering if they were trying to contact me. 

I thought I had better try to catch it in case there was something important. However, as I was walking away with the phone in my hand because I needed to make a call, it rang. I looked at the number and OH MY --- it's my parents. It has to be monumental news for them to call. They never call. 

It was my Mom, and the first thing she asked was, "Did M just call you?" Well, I had just heard the phone ring, although it wasn't my cell phone, and I doubt that M even remembers that we still have a home phone. Apparently, Mom got a call from a weeping granddaughter, saying she was in an accident, was now in jail, and needed bail money. It does make you think, but seriously ---- if you were in an accident, it would have to be very bad and your fault to end up in jail, not in the hospital! Plus, if it were that bad, wouldn't you need a lawyer? The whole story is just so bogus!

I assured Mom that it was likely a scam. Instead of just hanging up, though, she said, "Why don't you call your mom?" And then the girl hung up on her. So no money parted hands - my Mom wouldn't have the first clue how to access their money anyway! But the sad thing is that someone might fall for it and pay. You just wonder how the victim would transition from sobbing to helping the grandparent send them money. 

Thankfully, we have drilled into their heads not to deal with those calls, but why did she even answer the phone? We have tried to tell them that if there is NO name, it's a crank call. And there are times when they still want to know who it was and try to use a reverse phone number lookup. They do NOT get the concept of robocalls and scams using numbers that look like they came from their area. Sigh..........

However, during the same call, she confessed that Dad drove himself to the hospital because he wasn't feeling well, and she might have thought it was the hospital calling. Dad was admitted, but no news. I'll try to call the hospital today, although I don't know if they will give me information over the phone. 

I got in touch with M, and all is definitely OK. We had a chuckle about it, but a sad one, because someone might have been scammed yesterday. 

Remember what I said yesterday about it being an appliqué day. Well, that was a lie. It's funny how we have such amazing plans for our day, and then we don't get that done! It was still a very good day, but just not in the appliqué department. 

I did get the second block fused in place, but did not get to any stitching. 

The blocks are ready to be stitched.

I even had a helper watching from outside. What I love about her is her intent. She was outside, couldn't see me as she was watching the gate, but when I called her name, she glanced down to see what the heck I wanted!!!

MOM - Is everything OK?

The next customer quilt got loaded and quilted. Everything that is quilted is trimmed and ready to go out the door. 

Customer quilt - done

But of course, I have to wait until all 11 of those community project quilts are done before they go. The backing and the batting are ready to be loaded this afternoon. 

The backing for community project number three is ready.

As you know, if you've been around for a while, there is a huge amount of community project quilts to be quilted. And I need to get myself organized to start quilting those quilts. Well, I am, but very slowly, and when I downsize, the long arm will likely NOT be coming with me. But that is way in the future. The quilting of these quilts takes no time at all - it's the prep work. I must find a backing that fits, and that usually means making it. Then I need to piece the batting because I'm using the cutoffs from customer quilts to make those battings. That is what takes the time! 

But I'll get to it, and that is what I should be doing during some of this downtime. 

The puzzle and the table assembly sat untouched. As the day was winding down, I decided to tackle the HSTs again. And yes—I tackle them in small groups. I press four at a time, and then I trim four. And since I really didn't want to do anything else, I dealt with multiple groups of four, and before I knew it, I had this many trimmed. I typically do those little groups of four between pressing other seams or other small tasks. 

Lots of trimming happened.

And now I can say for this group of HSTs that the trimmed pile is much larger than the untrimmed pile. I may even try to finish that today. There are still three other groups to tackle, but I'm getting there, and that is all that counts. The same will happen for those quilts. Just keep whittling away at it, and it will happen. 

The trimmed pile is larger than the untrimmed pile.

I have to share this story about doing things four at a time. I'm not sure where that number came from, but when I was a kid, we often had canned Saskatoon berries for dessert. I would scoop the berries into my dish and then eat them FOUR at a time. I still do to this day if I have any. I have no idea why I developed that habit or where the number four came from. It was always a bonus day when it worked out perfectly, which was very rare! 

So Quilt Canada is next month! It's hard to believe that it's been one year already. The latest issue of Canadian Quilter arrived in the mail. 

The latest issue of Canadian Quilter

Last year, it was very exciting to see so many people attend the event, but it was also very disheartening to hear so many negative things because of the crowds! I wrote about it on my blog, and I was then asked whether CQA could publish the information in their newsletter; I said yes. It is mostly about avoiding the crowds because, believe it or not, it is possible, but you have to help yourself! Don't just show up and expect the aisles to be empty, just for your enjoyment. 

So if you are attending this or any other large show, please read it. If you don't get the newsletter, then you can check it out on my blog. I get it, it's frustrating to you when the crowds are so large. But there are things you can do to make attending the show easier. So whatever your situation, please read that article BEFORE you attend your next large quilt show. 

My article about attending large quilt shows

There is so much to see and do on the internet these days -- there just isn't time for it all. As is typical at my house, there are MANY windows open on my computer, each with the intent of ordering, watching, or reading something. Yikes!!!! But here is something I discovered, and I think it's very good for anyone going through a studio/sewing space organization. It's from Jen at Grainline Studio, and her videos are very good. 

She has broken down the process into chunks, with the first day focused on Understanding How You Sew. Here's the link to the blog post, or you can watch the video on YouTube. I haven't had a chance to watch the video yet, but I suspect it is the same information except in video form. You can pick one or the other, or do both. I really like Jen - her patterns (clothing) are very good, her videos on the Tamarack Jacket (applicable to any quilted jacket) are amazing. The editing is great, and she's just a lovely person. 

As I go through the videos (I think she is on number 9), I'll share the links with you as well. 

And on that note, I'd better get ready for my workout with Brooke. The knee was pretty decent yesterday, but frustrating. Slow and steady is all I can say, and I don't do well with that style! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!