There are two sides to every story

Before I get into the quilting business of the day, I have to share this story with you. Even today, it bothers me.

I had to stop at the post office to mail a letter to the US. Let me clarify - I was mailing a quilt block to someone in the US. A 12 ½" by 12 ½" quilt block - so not huge. I had it nicely folded and sealed in a legal size white envelope. It wasn't flat but then neither was it bulky. The post office lady (I was in Shoppers Drug Mart which is a Canada Post Franchise) informed me that since it was NOT paper, it would go as a small package. So she weighed and measured the envelope and told me it was going to be $7.80 to mail ONE quilt block. I looked at her in shock. Then she said - you could always put a stamp on it and let it go. Well - DUH! So for $2.05, I mailed my quilt block.

Since when is something in an envelope that is pretty much flat considered a small package???  That's insane. That's one of the reasons I refuse to do a mailing swap. I'd rather keep my money to buy something I want or find a way to pony express something rather than pay for shipping. That's totally insane.

One other thing to keep in mind about my story. They were talking about the first impression the other day on the radio. You have7 seconds to make an impression on someone (or to gather an impression of someone else).

I'm standing in the line to mail my letter. I see a woman (a more experienced woman - hell - she was older) standing in the line. She was wearing over the knee black boots with stretchy pants. But what turned me off was the fact that she was carrying a big parcel that was wrapped in Christmas paper. And it was wrapped as if it were going under the tree. So loosely wrapped and there was an envelope loosely taped to the front for the address. Seriously????  You're going to mail that???

Then when she was 2nd or could have been 3rd in line, she grabs a roll of tape off the shelf and proceeds to wrap her gift in tape. However, she has her handbag on her arm so the stupid thing is flying around and around on her arm as she struggles to put tape around this box.

Oh - it's her turn at the cash and she's still trying to tape the box. At one point, the tape was going on backward. She didn't notice and the "tip-lipped" employee said, "the tape is backward". So after a wee bit more struggling, the employee kindly taped up the box for her. GRRR!!!  My blood was starting to boil. Then it was apparent that she had not included the postal code on the address. Did she know it? Nope - she did not. So she calls her husband on her phone and keeps him on the speaker while she proceeds to talk to him. Then she says, "oh yes - I'm at the post office. They can look up the postal code". GRRRR!!!   Seriously?? She could have looked up that postal code on her phone. The employee finally found it.

I was at the other cash by this point - in shock over the price of mailing my small package. Then I hear "Can you please look at me?"  I looked up startled. You've got to be kidding. While the employee was writing the postal code on the box for this idiot, she has the audacity to tell the employee to look at her. The woman who was serving me was beyond herself. As was I!!!  This woman was the RUDEST, most DISRESPECTFUL person I have seen in a long time.

I told the woman I was speaking to breath deep!  And then I walked away, but DAMN IT - I wish I would have called this woman out for her behavior. That's what she needed and unfortunately, the employees couldn't do that. But she was rude. And I'll bet she went home and told everyone how rude the postal employees were. When we see this kind of behavior, we need to start calling them out on it. Why should they be allowed to continue? Of course, they're idiots. Nuff said!!!!!


Yesterday was a great day - other than the postal incident. No wonder employees go postal!

Anyway - I'm loving this new focused me. I accomplished a whole lot yesterday. Well - it may not seem like it, but I'm happy with the progress.

I should say that I started with a couple of solid hours of paperwork and I got so much done!! I even did some filing and I found those body fat numbers and yep - I was right - 5%. I'm right back to where I was this time last year. Not weight wise, but body fat wise. I've made an appointment for next week to sign up for the detox. And I ate the rest of the icebox cookies so there is ZERO temptation.

I'm trying to get things finished so I can move them out of the studio. I'm tired of moving some of this stuff whenever we have a sit n sew. So it's time to get them done and move them out of the studio permanently.

There are a lot of quilts to be bound - still!  So I started with that. The binding was made for this quilt and now the quilt is done! Yeah!!!!

My quilt - DONE

Shoot - it's hard to see in the picture, but Helen Anne made the binding for this next quilt. She rolled it into a figure 8 that I love for binding. The figure-8 sits in front of the sewing machine and no twists, no binding mess at all while I apply the binding. If you don't know how to do this - check out my QUILTsocial post because it's the easiest trick. No gadgets to buy, no twisting, no falling on the floor - super simple!! That's what I like. Thanks, Helen-Anne!!!

Binding is easy to apply when it's in a figure-8. 

And now this community project quilt is also done! I had to do both sides of the binding.

Community projects quilt - DONE

I had found this quilt the other day. I didn't make it. I don't even remember where I got it from, but the backing has been made for years and I was going to have someone hand quilt it for me. Sadly, she has passed away now. So I'm going to machine quilt it. But in order for me to move it to the "to be quilted" pile, it needed a binding.

Hand appliqued quilt

 I scrounged through my solid fabrics and found this green which is a pretty good match. So it's now in the "to be quilted" pile.

Moved to the "to be quilted" pile

I was on a roll and still had some energy left. So I finished off the binding on this quilt. The binding was on the quilt - it just needed to be stitched to the front. Now it's done. The pile of finished quilts gets higher and higher!!

My quilt - FINISHED

The pink one and this Canada themed one are finish number 80 and 81 for the year.

I still have a pile of things to finish. But it's much smaller than it was. Although I found two or three other quilts under the long arm that I suspect just need labels.

Quilts that need binding or sleeves or labels

I'm still on the fence about the label thing. I do put my little satin label on all my quilts. And while some quilts need labels, there are others that I don't think more than the label. Why???  Well, take that pink bicycle one. It was a kit from a store (I think). Do I need to put that on the label?? It's not an heirloom - it's nothing special so I don't see really why it needs more. If there was a special reason for making the quilt, then I'd put that on, or it if were a pattern - then I'd put that info on. Or if it's one of my samples and I need to have a label with the techniques on it (I link to my tutorials on QUILTsocial). But otherwise - minimal labels.  I might do a more detailed label post - just to help clarify for myself how I want to handle these quilts and whether they need a label or not.

I played a lot of thread chicken yesterday and I won - TWICE.

Just enough red thread!!!

Just enough pink thread!

It was my lucky day!!!

I'm super excited about this finishing up business and it's going to be a happy end of the year party that I throw for myself. It all means that YES - there really is a light at the end of the tunnel. Will I be able to get a few more UFOs completed for the end of the year? I think so - once I get all these bindings on, I can sew all day and when I'm focused on sewing, I can accomplish a lot. There is only one more lap sized quilt to put the binding on. The rest are very small.  Oh - it's a happy day!!!!

Got something special planned for today. Should be fun!!!

On that note, I'm out of here.

Have a super day!!!!!


Ciao!!!!