Things I learned yesterday....

There is rarely a day goes by that I don't learn something. It can be quite simple or very complex or it can be one of those AHA moments.  I think yesterday's learning was a combination of all those.

Yes - it was hot yesterday. No - we haven't turned on the A/C.  I know - that's just crazy talk!  I truly believe that if we endure a hard ship or two in life that we are much more tolerant to others and adverse situations.  I sit in A/C all day (not that I have a choice) and there are times when I need a sweater. Let's face it - even in our own houses, it is hard to control the A/C or the heat temperature.  So why bother!

With the windows open, we are pretty good and yes I might sweat a bit, but heck, I sweat at the gym, go into the steam room ON PURPOSE, so a bit of heat at home - no big deal.

Someone asked me the other day what I miss most or how my life changed because I went back to work. Well I know what I miss most.  Before, I wore shorts the entire summer and now I wear pants to work. Yep - that 's what I miss.  Now I could wear shorts to work, but I don't have nice dress shorts and not buying any. So pants it is.

All that to say that when I got home, I wanted to put a pair of shorts on.  I dug through my drawer of shorts and found a pair of white shorts. Hmmm - white shorts - bad news and I bought them years ago - I means years ago - before I moved to Toronto and that was in 1990.  Hey - I don't wear them often so they were fine. Tried them on and OMG - they still fit!  Now that was the good news about the shorts. I learned two things about white shorts:

1. Don't eat chocolate on a hot day - I got a bit of chocolate on the white shorts
2. Dark underwear isn't a good idea!


But I was just at home so no big deal.


However here is the MOST important thing I learned.  I HATE putting on a binding by sewing machine. I don't like the look of it, I hate doing it and well - I do it under "emergency" situations or should I say crisis situations when a quilt needs to be somewhere and FINISHED.

I bit the bullet and decided to try one more time.  The good news - I'm pretty happy with the results and well - I might be liking this binding by machine business as it took less than one hour!  Now that is GOOD NEWS. Have a look...

The front

The back

I decided that it was the stitch that I hated. I was using a blanket stitch and it's awful. This time I tried straight stitch and it worked like a charm.  I did have the occasional blip on the back as you can see below, but really - even I can live with that!!!   I might even do a tutorial on this - I like it that much!!!   I"m thinking that I could do this the conventional way (binding on the front and flip to the back). Yes - I like the results that MUCH!.  OK - where's the next quilt?

One little blip

I was fast asleep last night when something woke me up.  WHOA!  What the heck is going on?   There was noises and I finally realized that it was the wind outside the open window.  We have a great deal of trees behind our house and when the wind blows - it's pretty incredible. Last night, with the wind and the rain and the lightening and the thunder - well it was CRAZY!!!!

Trees behind the house

That big tree was whipping around in the wind - if it ever falls, it MUST fall in the direction it is leaning (away from our house), otherwise, good bye roof!   Lexi was quite entertained by it all and sitting in the middle of the deck watching the lightening and enjoying the rain. I spoiled her fun by dragging her in the house!  I think you can check out her version of the storm on her blog.

I love the forest. This morning when we went for our walk, it was raining. But we don't need an umbrella. There is enough coverage of trees that we can walk the entire distance and not get wet!!!!

On that note, I'm out of here.

Have a great day!

Ciao!