Prepping for a machine embroidery workshop

People always say they can't wait to go on vacation. Do you know that prepping for vacation or even a couple of days away is one of my most stressful things? There is so much stuff to prepare, so much planning. It's one of the reasons my life at home is so routine—same breakfast, same lunch. There's zero mental ability expended on those tasks!

I'm not sure how I'm going to cope with planning for this upcoming vacation. I've left it to DH, which I know I shouldn't do! After Quilt Canada, I can focus on it. I'd rather just go and see where things take me. I am not a fan of structure! 

I'm leaving later today for a couple of days at a retreat. Well, technically, it's a machine embroidery workshop that I'm running, so it's not going to be too relaxing. Plus, I have a long-arm customer out that way, and I have MANY quilts from her to quilt. 

I spent most of the day either quilting or prepping for the workshop. Here is my pile of stuff to load in the car later today. Half of that won't come home with me! I still have to pack a few clothes and my office backpack and pick up some groceries for dinner tomorrow evening. I also need to add my own food container for breakfasts and lunches. 

The pile of stuff to pack grows even larger

I need something to do in the early mornings, so I must prep that. I will work on cleaning up my digital files for the long arm. I had a few spare moments, so I downloaded a couple of long arm patterns from my downloads to my USB. Tomorrow, I need to check what hasn't been downloaded. I will get this task done! I do not see how people could do this every weekend at the cottage. Nope -- not my style at all. But I didn't grow up with it either, 

After the weekend, I have a Facebook Live next week - Wednesday at 3:00 PM EST on Decorative stitches in sewing and embroidery mode. 

Then it's Quilt Canada, where you can see me in the Husqvarna Viking, PFAFF, or SINGER booth (they are all connected). Don't forget to come and celebrate my 25 years of teaching quilt making at Quilt Canada. There is a concurrent show with 29 quilts from my students over those 25 years. The quilts are arriving at my house (almost daily, it seems), and it's so exciting to see them. I can't wait to see them hanging up!  

A few classes are thrown here and there in June, mostly winding down for the summer. And then freedom! Well, not exactly, I have a bunch of writing and more quilts to quilt! But it's all fun! The weather has been so uninviting to sit outside that it's not an issue. 

Speaking of being outside, I got a call yesterday, and to try to eliminate any issues with the call, I went outside to the gazebo. It was sunny and relatively warm in the morning. There were no issues with the phone, but look what Murphy did. She was NOT happy that I wasn't paying attention to her. 

A dead fish in the pond

Yes - she dropped her fish into the pond pump! Oh, Murphy -- you are a silly girl!!!

And there's Lexi, happy to play around in the tall grass.I haven't seen any ticks on the girls, but she would be prone to getting them with her happiness in the grass. Thankfully, ticks are NOT as prevalent as out west—at least not in the city. But how would I find a tick on either of them? They have their medication, and let's hope it works! 

Our long-time vet is retiring, so we need to find a new one, preferably one that we can walk to. This is one more thing on the list. 

OK—what was wrong with this pin? I tried inserting it into some batting, and well, I think the pin is toast! 

The safety pin is dead! 

There is the daily customer quilt. Everything I've quilted is trimmed and ready to load in the car. 

Customer quilt - DONE

The next one is loaded; I just have to cut some batting and put it on. The quilt is not too big, and the plan is to finish it early this afternoon, so I can trim it before I leave. 

Batting to cut for the next quilt

So while I'm not slacking off at work, there doesn't seem to be much time to sew! I managed to get a 60-minute-or-less project done. Well, that's a lie. I advanced a project I was working on, but there are no rules, so that counts. I think the thing is that I want to try to sew a little bit each day. I'm trying to put things away when I'm done with them and puttering at some of the stuff hanging around, and that all takes time! But the cutting table, well, half of it, remains clear to work. 

I got the binding on three more placemats. Just the back, but that's the worst part!

Four of five placemats have binding

I had guessed how much binding to make, and I didn't have enough to finish the last one. So that binding is now made and ready to sew on, hopefully later today. 

Making more binding

And here are the girls. Murphy finally got bored enough to rip her blankets apart to find the ball, and Lexi is just hanging out with Dad, sitting in the chair. 

Just chilling

This morning, I have some paperwork to complete, a quilt that I need to quilt, and a few driving errands. We're doing something unusual for our retreat. We are arriving at 7 PM and staying for two nights, leaving by 5 PM on Saturday. It's a perfect scenario for running a small workshop, but it's sold out—we are at maximum capacity! And it's the second one I host! 

I was running around the house collecting samples to take with me, but there was one elusive one. What the heck did I do with it? I looked everywhere. Don't you hate when people say that? Obviously, I wouldn't have looked everywhere if I hadn't found it. Then I looked in the LAST place I hadn't looked and there it was! But your brain goes into overload - OH - don't forget to pack that. What about this? 

I don't make lists! I could amass everything in the time needed to make a list. I just rifle through my samples. I know what I have and I know what I want to teach. It's easy and works for me. BUT when I'm back home, I desperately need to put the quilts back into their proper spots, as with the last couple of trunk shows, they did not get put away. Hence, it was challenging to find this last one. But I've got everything I need, and if I have forgotten something? There is so much already to see - we won't have time to see it all, and I can make things up in my head! 

Blank pages and empty space do NOT scare me! 

On that happy note, I'm out of here! I hope your 60-minute-or-less projects are coming along nicely! It sure feels good to put some of that stuff behind me! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!