Fun and games

 Gosh - I'm so forgetful. Before I went to bed, I filled the humidifier and got that started, but I forgot the tape for my lips! Shoot! And I woke up with a bit of a stuffed nose -- allergies? Or from mouth breathing? Got to do a bit more experimenting there. But I've definitely got tendencies to mouth breath. Not big gasps -- just slightly parted lips and breathing in. More noticeable when I'm walking. 

There are lots of suggestions -- Breath Rite strips. Hmm - what do they do? Keep the nasal passages open, I suppose. So many things to explore. And did you know that as you get older, your lung capacity decreases? By up to THIRTY percent!

Bad posture probably doesn't help with the breathing, so I'm trying very hard to be conscious of all that. It's not easy -- why do our bodies "naturally" fall into these bad habits? Am I that "lazy" that I can't stand up straight? At the moment, yes! Not always, but I do. I'm trying very hard to get into the habit of standing up straight. Hey -- if it allows me to breathe easier, it also has the added bonus of making you look taller and slimmer, with fewer rolls! I'm all for that!

What a crazy day -- I seem to have spent a good part of it visiting. I had a Facetime chat with someone, Zoom with others, an in-person visit, and hmmm -- I don't think I had a phone call with anyone. Oh, I have two phone conversations, but both were brief! 

As usual, I had a LOT of work to get done, and I'm happy to report that I accomplished almost all of what I wanted to do, despite all the interruptions. I have another 15 minutes of sewing before one class this morning. Of course, I could always have more, but there's enough done to make their heads spin! 

Now to get busy and load all those photos into the presentations. And I will confess that I took some time to sit in the gazebo yesterday. The wind was quite strong, but that little corner of the backyard was sheltered, and I was fine. Miss Murphy is pretty persistent with that ball. "MOM  - you're outside - play ball with me!"

I'm not happy to report that I don't have a new delivery date for that UPS package. Good grief -- I forwarded the information THREE days ago. It should have cleared customs by now. It's the usual thing I send. I'll be calling them tomorrow morning to get this on the way. Maybe they don't do that stuff on the weekend? But they had all day Friday and Thursday afternoon. The darn thing was supposed to be in the US by September 8! 

But on a happier note, I got notification from Spoonflower that my fabrics have been shipped!! I can't wait to see them. It was my first time placing an order, and YES, I could have bought stuff that other people have designed, but my two pieces are custom for ME. Exciting!!!

I needed the design wall, so this quilt top is now done. 

Flannel quilt top - DONE

My class quilt went on the wall, and it looks amazing. It's for the class this morning, so I'll be able to share it with you tomorrow. Lots more sewing got done for that same project. Instead of making one quilt from the book, I've decided to make THREE. Good grief -- I'm a sucker for punishment. All three of them need a lot more work to get finished, but I'm getting there. I'm designing them as I go along. You'll see what I mean tomorrow. Hopefully, this afternoon, I can spend a bit more time with them. 

I got a lot of machine embroidery done. I tried something new to me, and it worked like a charm. You'll have to wait two weeks to see that when it gets posted on QUILTsocial. I was quite impressed, and I just love forwarding my designs from the internet to the software to the sewing machine. 

I really needed one more hour yesterday to get everything done! All that visiting and sitting - but that's OK. I'm good. 

I had to stop by the post office to mail a package, and I picked up some more quilts from Diane on my walk. Three more quilt tops!! ACK!!! They are coming in fast and furious! I'm going to have to take a month and focus on quilting all these community project quilts. December when things are a bit quieter!

Three more quilt tops for community projects

Let's see  -- oh yes, we're starting up the Machine Embroidery club today. If you want to join in, let me know -- today is just going to be a chat about the direction we want to take in the future. I'd like to see the group working on larger projects, so we'll see how that goes this morning. You can e-mail me at elainetheriault@gmail.com if you are interested. I shouldn't just say larger -- I should say EXISTING projects or designs that we have purchased and never started or completed. 

I ran around the house trying to gather all my Kimberbell embroidery stuff together. I had done that a couple of days ago and made a list of all that I have. However, I found more yesterday. Not much more, but a few things! I wanted to focus on a specific project, and I found the perfect one. Yep -- I'll share with you, but not before the group gets to see it. 

However, in the search for all the Kimberbell stuff, I realized that I could not find a Kimberbell quilt top that I made. It's called Jingle all the Way - one of the first quilts they did with machine embroidery. Hmmm -- is the quilt top finished? I think so. I can't find the booklet, so I'm guessing that it's still with the top. I think I was finishing off the 3-D embellishments, but where could I have put that darn thing? 

I even checked the list of quilts "to be quilted," and it's not there. I LOVE that list. So if I can't find it - where is it?? Yep -- I need a LOST list, and that will make me feel good when I actually find the missing things. As DH says -- it's not lost; it's somewhere in the STACK. 

I tell you, those girls are a constant source of entertainment. It's almost as if they "fight" with each other because they know it entertains us. They were in fine fighting form yesterday. 

Mad dogs

But it was hilarious because as soon as they were done, Murphy was asleep! Oh my -- Murphy -- what's happening? Lexi does NOT look happy that Murphy is napping. 

"Murphy - wake up - I'm NOT done playing"

And then, at some point, Lexi couldn't help herself, so she reinitiated the play. It was hilarious. She literally stuck out her paw and hit Murphy to get her riled up! 

Lexi: "Wake up and play with me."
Murphy: "Wait. What's going on?"

Oh, what fun we have at our house!

A couple of dates to keep in mind. 

• Virtual Retreat on September 25 and 26. Watch for the Zoom link a couple of days in advance. 
• Facebook Live -- October 1  - I'll be on QUILTsocial Facebook live chatting about the blog posts from that week. My blog posts are created with the Husqvarna Viking Designer Ruby 90, and I'm doing all sorts of cool things with the embroidery machine. So if you have a question about embroidery in general or something specific that I did that week - come and join Carla and me. It's at 2:00 PM on October 1. 

On that note, I have a ton of pictures to download and put into a presentation. A lot less editing since I've been using that little ratio button on my camera. Yeah!!!!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!