Wear PINK!

That delusional doability is rearing its ugly head again.  Let's see - today is Wednesday.  I leave on Monday afternoon for Paducah - that travel day is going to be a whole other story - wait for that!  Between now and then, I have two speaking engagements at guilds - one in Lindsay, one in Orangeville. One guild meeting in Waterloo. THREE classes to prep and teach. Two aditional classes to prep and hand off to someone else because I won't be around. Oh, let's not forget that quilt that I want to take to Paducah with me.  That's in addition to my full-time day job and looking after the girls and I'm alone this week as DH is off on a golf trip.

I'm feeling in control though and things are progressing nicely.  I just packed up the quilts for the trunk shows - I love my gigantic suitcase - it carries a lot. I bet you could put a body in there if you needed to. But now I'm getting silly.

On the e-mail front - more e-mails were deleted last night. Anything that came from a group distribution list - GONE!  People are tracking me down and I'm getting a few more e-mails now that they know where I've been hiding. I did try to add one more e-mail account to Outlook last night - NOPE.  Doesn't like it and it has something to do with the security levels. My software is old (2010 - practically an antique!) and the whole system isn't happy.  I did manage to trick it to get the one account up, but not the second.  Not to worry - at least I can send and receive - I'm good.  I'll get the accounts sorted out at some point.

Actually now that I think of it - it's probably not the Outlook software, but my version of Windows (Vista) that is giving me trouble.  If I was really smart, I'd bring up that fancy new computer I bought last year, install the Microsoft office suite and I'd probably have no more problems. Sounds simple and yet......

But here's me and technology. I tried to log on to our work network with my laptop last week. No go. I asked at work what was happening. Checked out my laptop - everything seems to be working just fine. Came home - no go.  AHA - it would help if I logged onto the NEW router. The laptop was trying to log onto the old one and it doesn't exist anymore. DUH!!!!

Let me give you an update on my Paducah quilt. Speaking of which - you don't even want to know everything happening at work.  There are some exciting projects coming up, some of which will involve YOU!  Documents to write, ideas to generate, and research to compile and present. Never mind the usual stuff like donations, and enquiries from stores and consumers.  It's going to be a couple of totally insane days.

OK - here's the update.


I have had this quilt planned in my head - well at least the basic premise for a long time. Then when we needed another quilt in the ColorWorks collection (the solids), I thought this was the perfect time to make it.

I cut and I sewed.  Well OK - I started by cutting. And I just cut - I had no idea how many squares I needed - what's the fun in knowing everything up front?

Cut squares

Scraps from the initial square cutting process

Then I did a bit of sewing and then some trimming.

Scraps from the trimmings

Technically the above is NOT useable scraps. It did go into the pet mat bag. Would have made a pretty bird nest!

Next up - get out the inspiration and start to do some piecing. Of course, I'm not going to show you my inspiration. That would spoil the entire surprise.

My inspiration - well it's inside the paper!

Part one is complete - now what?   I think it's time to cut some more squares.  This time I used some different colors and cut a whole pile of squares.

An even bigger stack of squares

Big stack - little stack

 I did a couple of sample blocks with the different colors - ICK!   So now I have a gorgeous stack of solid squares and I know exactly what I'm going to do with them.  Same thing I was going to do with this quilt, but they don't look good combined.  Sounds like TWO quilts to me!

Since it's going in our booth at Paducah, it makes sense that all fabric has to be Northcott.  That's a no-brainer. Whipped out some other fabrics that I had - let's try this - let's try that.   Took it to work and got Deborah's opinion which turned out to be the same as mine and I was in business. I think there are THREE seams left to sew and the top is together.

I cut the back and pieced it this morning. It's now on the long arm waiting for the top to be loaded. I love being able to do that.  Although I do have customer quilts that are waiting to be done.  Time to get back to that little priority book which I have neglected for the last couple of weeks. Perhaps the little book was a good training device?  I'm getting things done and I'm not in a panic and I'm meeting my deadlines - just the quantity of work is overwhelming. Well it could be if I let it.

I also have a beautiful bag of scrap pieces leftover from the various projects that I worked on with the ColorWorks solids. Can't wait to delve into that bag and come up with some modern thing.  Oh yes - it should be loads of fun!!!

Scraps for a modern quilt!

Isn't life exciting?  My house looks like we lead an exciting life as well.  I remember walking into the home of one of M's classmates.  This was years ago. They have two kids, both parents work full-time. Their house was immaculate and everything was put away.  Seriously?  How do people do that?  I come home, dump things at the front door and basically leave a trail to the kitchen table at the back of the house where things reside for a bit - currently there is a laptop, and TWO tablets - all belonging to me residing on the kitchen table along with a die cut machine and some mail that has been there for a week.  Here's the thing - it doesn't bother me in the least.

On that same note, I'm very happy to report that I was looking for very specific materials and books in this madness of class prep.  Found them all and I wasn't even in a panic. Life is looking awesome!!!!  

Did you see that video I posted on Facebook yesterday - the one about ageing?  Well - if you don't move, you will lose the ability to move, if you don't keep your brain active, it will shut down and if you don't use your body - it will shut down on you as well.  I feel very strongly that this is a root cause (or one of the causes) of depression.  I just came back from my walk and how could you be depressed after spending a half hour in nature. Checking out the squirrels, wading through the two streams, watching Lexi try to jump into a tree, keeping an eye out for the coyotes and seeing how the forest changed from yesterday.  Yes - that is how to ward off old age and depression.

On that note - I'm about to start off my silly day.  Don't forget to wear PINK today to support anti-bullying.

Have an super awesome day!!!!!


Ciao!