What is a collection?

I had an interesting chat yesterday morning. After spin class, I walked the girls separately, and when I was walking Murphy, I saw one of the city workers inspecting the damage in the forest! Yes - I know it's a woodlot, but I call it a forest. I'm allowed! 

We had a great chat, but he was only a worker bee, so he didn't know much. I asked about the removal of the pavement, and he said that it was "lifetime" maintenance, that they were waiting for the ground to settle, and that they would repave just those spots that had been paved. I don't understand why the entrances were paved. In some cases, that was 50 feet; in others, it was close to 200 feet. This area has five entrances, all of which are treated differently. One included a hill, which now requires repair to the gravel surface before it can be paved. 

At least that's good news: they will be repaved. The question will be when? 

Then we talked about the flood damage. Yes, I know we are having some torrential rainfalls, but we've ALWAYS had torrential rainfalls—just not perhaps as many as now. There was never as much damage as there is now. I won't understand that, and I'm not even going to try. 

However, we discussed the preventative measures in Spain and how they prevent washouts on the hills. I asked why the hills only could not be paved and leave the remaining path, which is fine alone. He mentioned they should bring in some engineers, and there goes the neighborhood! For the engineers to do a study will take forever, and in the meantime, they are spending huge amounts of money to bring in workers, new fill, and equipment to fix something that was never broken before. 

I'll write a letter to the city and give them my perspective on this situation. It's a terrible waste of money.  

The other question in the comments was about pre-wound bobbins. I don't reuse pre-wound bobbins, but I suppose you could. You could rewind thread on them; they just don't have the little hole I use to hold the starting thread. And I have tons of bobbins, so I don't need to save something that I will never use. If you don't know what I mean by the little hole, I'll try to remember to take a picture tomorrow. 

Some people LOVE the pre-wounds because of their convenience. I happened to use a pre-wound in the long arm yesterday, and I quilted an entire quilt (a small one) and only changed the bobbin once. Oh, what a pleasure that was. Those pre-wounds are cardboard, and once they are done, they are done. 

I dug the plastic pre-wounds out of the garbage, and they went into a giveaway bag because someone would use them on fidget quilts. They string a cord through them, an excellent way to reuse them. There are now three in that pile!!! Actually, there are times when I could use plastic bobbins on a string to relax!!! I think everyone should have a fidget quilt! 

I should mention that while I spoke to the city employee, Murphy was a pretty good girl. She just had to bark, but after a few attempts, she settled right down. Can she be learning? I doubt it. Maybe she was tired? 

Here is the quilt of the day. 

Community project quilt - DONE

And here is the binding of the day. 

One more quilt has the binding on

The next quilt is ready to be quilted, so that's a job for this morning. Step one of the next binding is already done, so I should be able to catch up on the binding today. 

More applique was done, and I'm right on track. Between those three things, I don't seem to get a chance to get anything else done, so I may have to switch things up a bit as I need to start prepping some projects. But all is good. I have half of the ten quilts quilted, and three are bound, so I should be done with that task in one more week. As for the applique, slow and steady wins the race. 

I also worked on the thimble collection. It has been off the wall since the windows were replaced a few years ago. I'm terrible, but it's time to get it back up. I took all the thimbles out of the case and dusted it. Phew—there was a lot of dust in there. Then, all the thimbles went into a soapy bath—a quick one—and then left on a tea towel to air dry. 

Drying the thimbles

Oh, I see this one is now in three pieces. I didn't bother gluing it back together. Someone gave me this thimble, but it has ZERO meaning and wasn't worth repairing. 

A thimble not worth repairing

I found this thimble that obviously had something glued to the top, or it was supposed to be an egg yoke! 

Something is missing

So this brings up an interesting point. And I'm sure that everyone you ask will have a different answer. What constitutes a collection? Technically, I think it's when you have three or more similar items. So - when you start collecting something, do you have a purpose? Like magnets - there are millions of magnets in the world, so does that mean anyone can buy me a magnet and I can add it to my collection? Technically no! I want my magnet collection to represent places we have traveled. 

But so many people will buy you something if they know you collect it. My sister collected angels, and my mom used to buy her random knickknack-type angels just to add to that collection. My mom was doing it out of the goodness of her heart, but it didn't go over very well. There is a lack of communication in that family of mine! My Mom used to sell Regal products, and I think that's where my broken thimble came from. That company was BAD for adding to anyone's hoarder tendencies. 

As I put those thimbles back on the shelf, I noticed that there were some I had no idea where they came from. But the collection isn't huge, and I haven't added to it in a while, so I'm good. 

I've got all the ceramic ones back on the shelf except for a couple that must be repaired. 

Part of the thimble collection

The metal ones now need to be added. Since those two photos were taken, I've transferred a lot more, so I hope to finish today. 

More thimbles to add

That is one of my biggest issues. I am good at starting things but not so good at finishing them. Here's an example—this is the leftovers of stuff that I was attempting to sort and tidy that I brought down from Studio U. I got bored of a pile and brought more down. So, before I bring anything else down, I MUST deal with all this stuff on the table. It shouldn't take long, and it would be good to say that this is done!!!! This is the kind of stuff that's left in the office. I got partway through, and the leftovers got shuffled into the office. 

STUFF that needs to be dealt with

So here's one of the reasons I don't like sticky labels. This was my binding supply box, which has had a label for many years. When I attempted to pull it off the other day after switching the threads to a larger box, some of the label remained on the tin. 

Label bits left behind

I do not have any Goo-Gone in the house, as my bottle sprang a hole a while back, and I had to toss it. That will be on my list of things to get today on my walk. I also have a couple of thimbles with sticky stuff on them that need some TLC. 

OK—so what's up with Murphy? I caught her coming into the house and heading right for her dog bed in the window. It looks like she has the end of a hotdog in her mouth, but NO—that would be some mulch, and she's taking it to her bed to chew into splinters. Why does she do that? 

MOM -- don't take my mulch away!

And then I couldn't help it. She likes to lie under the sewing table and lick my feet. My sandals were lying there, and well, what a cutie. She's a trooper, to be sure!

MOM -- these shoes are too big!!!!

I wore shorts all day yesterday, but boy, it was cold! Last night, I curled up in a chair with a quilt, hot chocolate, and a book. I fell asleep after I drank the hot chocolate. I even shut the backdoor, which the girls are NOT happy about because they usually have total freedom to go in and out, and now they have to wait to go out. Not good news!!!!

Anyway --- all is good, getting loads of stuff done and trying to remember to look at things in small bits. Like the Camino, like applique --- if you look at the entire picture and attempt to do it all, it's impossible. But break things down into manageable bits, and it doesn't seem so bad. We run into trouble when we leave things to the last minute, so here is my goal. Try to be timely in the planning, so a little each day will accomplish the task with little or no stress. Leave it until the end? And it's a nightmare!!!

On that happy note -- have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!!