I am whispering this so as not to appear to be gloating, and I certainly do NOT want to jinx myself. I managed to stay in bed until it was time to get up! I woke up a couple of times but was able to get back to sleep. Yes, there is still pain while lying down, but I've found a way to sleep by putting a pillow under my leg to elevate it slightly. YES - I tried that before, but it did nothing at the time. I can only say that waking up with a good night's sleep is precious!
I've been stretching, although there is a challenge to that. Yes - my muscles are tight, and the movements are small, but my challenge is a bit more daunting than that. Have a look.
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| Murphy doing her dead dog exercise routine! |
The second I lay out my mat, guess who is there! She's hilarious and seems concerned, or she's just happy I'm on the same level as her!
Everything went well for the test in the morning—it takes about 30 minutes to walk to the hospital. The doctor was late, but everything was great! There are no issues, so that was good news. There is nothing serious wrong with me, but the latest buzz these days is all about the health of our pelvic floors. As soon as I was back home from the test, I was on my way to the gym to listen to a lecture about pelvic floor health!
And YES --- it is all related to my tight muscle in my butt. I have to solemnly vow to myself that I need to strengthen a LOT of muscles in my body and learn to stretch them out. That is the bulk of my issues, and I swear that even the pain in my knees is all about having too tight of muscles.
To help me out, I have appointments with a personal trainer and a physiotherapist later this week. I must make an appointment with my yoga mat at least once a day—more often would be better, but once a day is better than nothing. If I don't, I will be one rounded ball of muscles that are so tight that I can't unroll myself! I'll be like those balls of rubber bands! Eventually, the bands (muscles) will break down and be useless!
So with Murphy's "help," we might just get there!
I walked the girls later in the afternoon, and you could tell they were not happy that they hadn't gotten their walk in the morning. I had errands, so I took them with me—one at a time, of course.
Here is Murphy waiting outside the bank. What a goof!!!
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| MOM!! I'm trying to be patient! |
I almost lost one of my little hand-mended gloves here. I had stopped to do my dog duty, and when I left the bank, I couldn't find one of my gloves. Oh, no—did I mend that thing only to lose it? Nope—I backtracked a bit, and there it was!
And when we got home - guess what? There was a package waiting for me. |
| MOM - you've got mail! |
What did I get? When discussing some embroidery designs that used buttons the previous day, some ladies suggested I get KAM snaps instead. So I ordered them, and they arrived yesterday.
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| Colored KAM-snaps |
And here's the tool to attach them.
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| The tools to apply the KAM snaps |
Someone reminded me that I couldn't buy anything if I didn't have a home for it! AHA—I got that covered as well. I just happen to have an empty drawer in Studio B, so that's the home of the snaps.
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| An empty drawer! |
If I were smart, I'd go through my container of fastener "things," pull out all the other snap-related things, and put them together. That's a task for another day.
It is so refreshing to have empty drawers! That's what this decluttering is all about. If I can empty a drawer, I don't immediately refill it. Let it breathe! Something will come along to fill it as happened here.
Because of the topsy-turvy day, I only got to the long arm after dinner. But a customer quilt is done! I'll trim it later today.
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| Customer quilt - DONE |
I pieced the backing and the batting for the next community project quilt. It's loaded and ready to be quilted later today.
To vary the work routine, I'm trying to alternate between a community project quilt and a customer quilt. Prepping those community project quilts, making the backings, and piecing the batting takes work, but I'm plowing through the batting, which is great!!
I joined the Monday sewing group for a few hours and assembled all the outer border blocks for that donated UFO.
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| Blocks for the outer border |
Then, I had some extra time this morning, so I got the first two borders on the panel.
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| Two borders on the panel |
There is just the pieced border left to put on, and then it needs to be quilted and bound. Hmm -- can I get that done before Sunday? I should be able to, but I've also got some writing and some prepping. At least I'm feeling better, so that's a bonus. The most uncomfortable thing at this point is the first couple of hours after getting up and sitting on the chair in my office. I may have to just bite the bullet and go for a walk first thing.
Here's another quilt on the bed. This will be the FIRST quilt from my stash to go in the donation pile. I am trying to remember when or why I made this one, so the quilt goes if there are minimal memories. That's how I'm going to start the great quilt donation giveaway. This will go to Quilts of Valour.
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| The first quilt to be donated |
It'll stay on the bed for a week and then into the donation pile.
Yesterday, we discussed sewing machines, and I may have mentioned this last week, but I technically own ONE sewing machine. It used to be an embroidery machine, but I would never consider doing embroidery on it. It's 25 years old. Oh my—some people wondered how I could sell that orange and pink EPIC 2. Easy—it's a thing, not something that will change my life.
Yes, I am fortunate to have the loan of other machines that I'm currently using, and if I no longer had that privilege, I'd buy one with embroidery capabilities. But I do NOT need more than one or two machines. I can only sew on one and embroider on the other, so why take up space in my house? The machines I've sold are now used by people instead of collecting dust in my house. Am I happy? Absolutely, and I have zero regrets!
NOTHING is sacred at my house! NOTHING!
Oh - I should mention Susie! Susie reads my blog, and instead of commenting, she sends me emails and regales me with hilarious stories about her decluttering and downsizing journey! I would like to publicly thank her! She was somewhere the other day and spotted a book about bicycles or something to do with bikes. She said, "Oh - that would be something Elaine would like." And then she told herself I would have to figure out when and where to get rid of it, so it stayed in the store!!!
YES—when we can get to that point, we are CURED! Yes, it might be nice to have, but now I'm thinking about the amount of use I'll get out of anything I buy, where I'll put it, and how I'll get rid of it! If I have an excellent answer to all those questions, I feel good about buying it. If I don't, it doesn't come home. Don't forget that the more you have, the more time you'll "waste" managing that thing.
Having said all that, I will be a hypocrite and suggest you sign up for a new class I'll teach in the new year! We like to sew and need to keep something on the back burner! If you have too many quilts - donate them! I know a lady who is frequently in my classes, and everything she makes, she donates. Seriously!!! That's a win-win. Donating is an excellent solution if you primarily use up your scraps; it keeps you sewing, and you don't want or need another quilt. Or start donating those you never use - but don't hang onto them!
This is Chatsworth. I'm teaching it at The Hobby Horse starting in January, and you can sign up online.
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| Chatsworth class |
Some parts are paper-pieced, but this is easy, so I don't foresee this as a problem, even if you are new to paper-piecing.
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| Paper pieced sections of the quilt |
I'm still sitting and have only had to get up once, so things are moving in the right direction. I have loads of work to do today and a lunch date. But it's all about progress—slow and steady, but progress is still progress!!!
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