Life is short - cut it NOW!

I was just looking at some of the destruction created by the storm near Ottawa yesterday. I can't imagine what I would do if that happened to me. The family farm was hit by a tornado years ago. I don't seem to have ever posted those pictures or perhaps they are on my old blog. Yep - just checked and it happened in 2009 so the pictures are on my old blog.  Here's the link.

It's very scary to see the destruction that happens in seconds. I remember seeing what used to be my father's shop that sat on a concrete foundation. The tornado literally sucked the building off the concrete and shredded the wooden walls into pieces that were about the size of the palm of your hand and spread it everywhere. It was incredible to see and not easy to understand. And yet - it left most of the stuff inside the shop. Just pulled the building and ripped it apart. The weather is very weird.

The other thing that has been happening is that the number of people I know that have passed away this year. Three people from the community back home which is a lot considering the community wasn't big. People that you think will live forever - well you do when you're a kid. And there are people here as well that are passing. That brings two thoughts to my mind and also a recent conversation with my mother.

She lamented that no one lets her know what's going on. Seriously? Seriously? She is waiting for others to call her and talk. When I suggested that she pick up the phone and call someone, "Oh no - I can't do that."  I almost drove in the ditch from frustration. Why does she think that she is so special that everyone needs to call her? Drives me crazy.

Recently I've been reconnected to some people that I haven't heard from in years. People that I went to school with or people that I was well connected with and over the years, you drift apart. Well, I have plans to reconnect with them. Now we'll never go back and have the same relationship by any means, but we get to rehash the memories and you know what? I'm looking forward to it.

I hate to say with my schedule that I don't have a ton of time to do that, but I'm going to carve out some time because I think it's very important. I also think it's important that we spend time with our current friends. We're all busy and we need to make time. If we don't, they'll be gone. I do manage to work that in by having Sit n Sew days at my house or the Monday sewing. Yes - sad to say that all my friends at the moment are quilters! I'm OK with that.

Now here's the irony of the above story. I was digging out fabric to start a new project. What color am I going to use? I could use purple since I don't often dig into it. But I could also dig into the orange baskets. For heaven's sake - I have TWO baskets of orange. They are easy to assess but I don't remember the last time I went through the baskets. I usually grab something on top without moving them because they are overflowing.

The stash of oranges

I did pull them out and they are on one of the work tables as I pet my way through the two baskets. I'm going to make an orange quilt. Matter of fact, I better two or three or more orange quilts! What the heck am I saving it for? So it can accompany me as I'm cremated? Good grief - that's just sad.

And to make matters worse, I'm now showing you a picture of MORE fabric that I bought. HELP!!! These were grab bags of Halloween fabric and buttons that were priced to move and it moved into my shopping basket. I know - I have a sickness but it's somewhat under control compared to the past.

Halloween bundles of 10" squares and loads of Halloween Buttons

Yesterday was a totally crazy day - not only with the weather. I entered my 3-hour class and the sun was shining. Left the class in a total downpour. The class was on machine quilting and the students went home with their heads crammed with information. They are probably still trying to process all that information. Then I went to another class at the other store. I'll tell you more about that tomorrow.

Now if you're at home and you'd like to know what I know and can't take a machine quilting class with me, it's easy. All the information that I spew out in my class (well most of it) is all online. Really???  You didn't know that?  Let's not forget that I blog for QUILTsocial and I need material to blog about. If you go to QUILTsocial and in the search bar you type "Machine quilting by Elaine Theriault", you get a lot of links. Not all of them are mine - so you want to be sure to just get my links!! Type in "binding by Elaine Theriault" and you get mostly my blog posts. Here's the actual link for the binding links.  Seriously, you need to check it out. At some point, I'll post a brief description of what's in each blog post and post that in a tutorial page for you. Will try to do that soon!

Here's a good reason why. One of the ladies on Monday was complaining about the tension on her machine. I took one look at her machine and suggested she change how she had the machine threaded. Problem solved! 

Now I have some other links for you to enjoy today.

If you want to know about standard mattress sizes and standard batting sizes, you can check out this link.  That's good information to have on hand. It's amazing when I hear the discussion sometimes - how big is a queen sized mattress, how big should I make the quilt, etc. Now it's all laid out for you.

OH - I guess that's the only link I have today. The other link I had left open is related to Quilt Market which would be boring.

And this next point is a happy/sad situation. One of my classes today is canceled. While I'm disappointed because it was going to be a fun class, I'm kind of glad because I have so much to do and so little time. Once I'm finished my ongoing classes this morning, I'll be back home and heads down at the computer - writing. And I have to clean up the studio but I got word that one person had to cancel which is sort of good (for me, not for the lady who had to cancel - it was because of bad news she had to cancel), but now I have an empty corner in the studio that I can tuck stuff away!

So I got some breathing room and I'm grateful for that. I feel like an airline who overbooks with the hopes (and the past history to prove it) that things do work out and everyone gets to their destination eventually!

On that note, I'm out of here!!!  I've got to get this post done by 7:30 so when Trixy checks - the post is up for her!!!  I'll explain that some day. But lately the posts have been taking a bit of time to write and I couldn't get it done by the time the girls WANTED their walk so I had to walk them and then finish the post!!! Routines!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!