You did WHAT???

We had a great day with the Monday sewing group. It's always a good day -- loads of laughs, show and tell, tips on many things, and a place to vent (politely) if something isn't going your way. OK -- it's mostly me that vents. Here's one of my little peeves. I must be getting old because I seem to do that a lot. 

And this peeve isn't restricted to the quilt world. What I hate is that someone gets recognition for something they did. Let's say that I win a big prize at a quilt show or produce a fabric line. Those events seem to be the permission to charge HUGE sums of money for trunk shows or workshops. Why? They are still the same person. And I will say that MEN are very good at this. Someone who started quilting in 2016 thinks they have created an amazing new technique (paper piecing or teaching some's curved ruler?) and can charge big bucks for it. Seriously??? If that was a woman -- they would in no way get the same recognition. 

Ladies -- we need to make sure that men do NOT take over our quilting business. They will monetize it and make it all about money -- that is making money for them! 

I understand the economics of the entire thing -- don't get me wrong. But what bugs me is that the population says, "Hey -- it's OK if you want to take us to the cleaners, and we LOVE you so much that we are willing to pay these huge prices."  Again, it's the women who go ga-ga over the men.  

There's an instance of this in a well-known pattern designer, although she is female. To teach certain patterns of hers, you MUST take a week-long class for $1000, plus your living expenses for the week. So I can learn how to paper piece? When I already know how? And the patterns are mostly just modules that get rearranged? I don't see the point in that. Yep -- it's creating exclusivity, and the only person who wins is the designer! 

And there are so many instances of this in the entertainment world, I'm not even going there. We are gullible and so willing to part with our money!

Anyway -- there you have it, my rant of the day. 

If you are a member of the Canadian Quilter's Association, today we can register for the workshops and lectures for Quilt Canada. That was how one of my rants started yesterday! I doubt there will be an issue with getting into the class I want. Let's face it -- I don't need a class to learn how to paper piece, but I sure want a class on the software for my longarm! Let's hope there are enough registrations to make that happen. The cost is very reasonable for the entire day, and the instructor is the top educator from the US that will be teaching. There's a huge difference when the educator works for a company versus independent. But I digress again!

So I'm going to say this right upfront. You can totally call me crazy, and you have every right to do so. This is what happened yesterday.

After Monday sewing, I had some fabric to drop off at Diane's, and I had some quilts to pick up. I could have walked directly to her house, but it was a glorious day (cloudy but warm), so I took the very long route to get to her house. And once I did the exchange at her house, I took a long way home. 

More community project quilts from Diane

And here are a few sites along the way. Hmm -- I know they are replacing the mailboxes in our neighborhood, and it seems to be totally random, and HEY -- I've never seen that big parcel box before. Maybe, they get a lot of parcels on that street. 

New parcel box with the new mailboxes

I saw some street art. I read about this where local artists are painting up utility boxes to add color to the area. I love it and wish they would do more!

Street art

And of course, when I got home, the two sentinels were watching. It's hard to see Lexi, but she's there. I have a row of small tables in front of the window, so they can't get right up and damage the window sill like they did before. What silly girls!!!

The sentinels

Then I got some writing done and checked e-mail, only to realize that the book I ordered and was hoping would arrive by this afternoon was at Indigo. NO!!!!  I walked by Indigo on my walk to Diane's. Do I dare walk back? Oh gosh -- I did! But this time, I took a direct route there and back. 

Then at some point late in the afternoon, I realized I was 2,000 steps away from 30,000 for the day. NO!!!!  You are NOT going to intentionally add another 2,000 steps to the day. 

Come on Murphy, come on, Lexi -- let's go for a walk! And we did. They were super excited -- a second walk for the day. And I took both of them, which is always a mistake -- Murphy HAS to be in the lead. Let's face it -- it was warm last night, which made it much easier to get out for that last week than if it had been cold!

And when I got home, I had my 30,000 steps, which was on top of the 32.2 KM I biked in the morning. 

30.000 steps in one day!

Why was it so important to get to 30,000 steps? Well, when my Fitbit went wonky a couple of weeks ago, I was awarded the FitBit medal for 30,000 steps even though I technically hadn't achieved it. 

Badges that I had NOT earned

The other badge awarded that day was for 100,000 steps in a day. Seriously??? I don't think I'll ever do that in real life, but now I have a goal!

So back to the computer for a bit more work. I'm happy to report that I did get one thing off the list that had been there for a while. So it's done, and now I can focus on the next writing task. 

But as I was looking at my Fitbit app on the phone, I realized that I was very close to walking 20 KM yesterday. I KNOW  --- I couldn't help myself. 

What?? Almost 20 KM?

I had some quilts in Studio B that needed to be moved back upstairs, so a couple of trips later, I had my 20 KM for the day!!

I did it --- 20 KM!!!!

And look at the number of calories (3,206) I should have consumed yesterday. I don't think I ate enough, which isn't good, as your body then goes into starvation mode. But one day won't make a difference. 

So you can all lock me up! That would probably kill me! I'll be the little old lady in the nursing home racing up and down the hallway with my walker - trying to get more steps in for the day! 

There's my Murphy -- laying in the dirt in the backyard. She's happy as a clam up there on the bank!! Oh, Murphy!!! 

Murphy in her glory!

And what is it with our dishwasher? We have had it for several years and have no problems with it. Then we got an F11 error message, and I figured out how to fix it. Thank you, Google. It's happened a couple more times since that first time, and this is the SECOND time this year. I guess we need to be better at clearing our plates off. Sigh!!! At least, there was NO greasy water to drain from the bottom like last time!

Dishwasher error -- AGAIN!

Well, that's it for me. Today is all about taking and editing pictures and writing - all day! I know I promised some show and tell pictures, and you'll get those starting tomorrow. 

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!