I'll do it MY WAY!!!!

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who believes that if you fill your retirement with busyness, it's not right! WAIT --- I get it -- it's your retirement, and you can do whatever makes you happy, but why would you want to be filling the days with running around and not have time for spontaneous stuff? Nope --- I will not let that happen to me. 

And I stand corrected, the movie with the book communication is called Interstellar! Thanks for the correction!

Speaking of free time, I sometimes have to double-check my calendar to make sure I don't end up rushing to get something done! Yep -- it's been so full, with always something that needed to be done, that I struggle to realize I'm free! Or much freer than I was, and trust me, I do NOT want to go back. 

I read yesterday, took a walk, and then had a long nap, yet still got my planned work done for the day. That is a huge luxury!

I pulled out all the threads I'll use for the Cherrywood Challenge, and I got all the appliqué stitching done, though I might redo some of it today. I'm not 100% happy with it; some parts look a bit clunky, so I might redo it with a different thread weight or a different stitching style. It's not much to rip out, so it shouldn't take much time. It's something I can do during Monday Sewing. 

Threads for the Cherrywood Challenge

Then I have the next step to do today, which, again, shouldn't take too long and fits within today's workload. I must remember to get to work on my UFO stuff as well. 

Now that we've had our reveals over the weekend, I can share some of the stuff I've been working on. I set myself four goals on the Visual To-Do list for the Many Blocks class. Well, it's not really a class; it's like a UFO group. I have completed Farm Girl Vintage and Vintage Christmas so far this year, and I have even stitched the labels in place. I sort of double-dipped and used these as UFO projects as well. I don't care - they are done! 

Farm Girl Vintage - DONE

 Both of these were taught as a sew-along in recent years. 

Vintage Christmas - DONE

The third quilt on my list in the Many Blocks is Dear Jen, which I taught a couple of years ago. Now, Dear Jen is one of the few quilts (of the 80 in total) I taught this way that didn't make me happy. I don't know if it was the pattern, the style, or the coloring, but for whatever reason, I just couldn't wrap my head around it. Others felt the same about the quilt, and I kept teaching the class. A few students did all or most of the blocks, but many made the quilt smaller. 

I didn't want to have a UFO hanging over my head, so I decided to make the quilt smaller. In total, I made 25 blocks that I was happy with. I added a frame to each block in alternating black and white. The initial frame was wider than this; I have now cut it down, and the top is almost together. 

My smaller than the original Dear Jen quilt

I like the quilt, but the other blocks just weren't cutting it for me. So it will get quilted, and I'll have another quilt to use as a machine cover in Studio B. 

Here are the rejects! I tried making the quilt with a black background, but it still didn't grab me, so I will use the blocks as the backing. 

The reject blocks will make the backing.

And then I can cross that one off my list. The point is -- if something doesn't grab you and you are not enjoying it, then STOP - think how you can use the blocks that you've already made and move on! I did, and I am NOT going to regret my decision. That is part of learning—know when to throw in the towel. Not everything we do is going to work out! 

This is going to be the LAST SAMPLER quilt I ever take on. I've done quite a few, and I'm done with that style of quilt!

When that is done, there is one more quilt in that category, but I suspect it'll take me until the end of the year to finish it. So all is good! 

You know that Dede and I have been working on our Terrifying Tower - the 3D machine embroidery project from OESD. Well, we got together last week to do the final bit - the assembly!

You should have heard us - we were like two kids playing with toys. I'm sure DH was rolling his eyes!!

But seriously, after a bit of sewing and then some hammering as we punched out holes and cut slits, we started. And we had only made the porch and were totally in awe of its cuteness. 

The porch to the Terrifying Tower

It's three stories high, and so we continued. We learned a lot and had to use various tools to assemble the pieces, but oh my - we couldn't stop admiring it as we built!

Here are the two houses from the front. While we used the same black vinyl, we chose different greens and purples, and our thread colors were slightly different as well. 

The front of the houses

YES -- there is a small balcony on the roof of the first level. 

One side of the houses

Some of the windows have "broken" glass, and others are draped in spiderwebs. 

The backs

The other side

But seriously --- that is adorable! It's about 14" high. I was going to take mine apart, but after all the work to put it together, I don't think so. So I'll wrap it in plastic to protect it from the dust and bring it out when the time is appropriate, or I could just leave it out and admire it!!

I had purchased battery-operated tea lights, which make it look super cute!

The houses lit up at night!

I even had time to deal with more digital files. I know - it's going to take forever to get that done, but the more I do, the better I feel, and it's just making me happy. I had to search for a file I'd recently written and saved. Where the heck did I put it? So there are still lots of decisions to make before it's all done. And yes - DELETE is my favorite tool these days. 

What I'm enjoying is looking back and seeing some of the fun things I did. OK - some of them might not have been fun. But I found documentation on the quilt shows that I was part of the organizing team. That show was in 2013 or thereabouts. All that documentation is now gone! 

And I stumbled upon this! 

The logo for Quilter's Quest!

There are a few people around who may remember what this is all about. But in May 2010, a (then) friend and I organized a road rally for our Monday Sewing group. YES -- the same Monday Sewing group that I still run, although almost everyone on the original list has passed, or they are no longer part of my circle! I am NOT going there - it was a messy divorce! 

That road rally was so much fun and brought back some pretty wild memories. I must have blogged about it. Let me see if I can find that. FOUND IT!!! Check this out -- it was a fantastic day!

While I am no longer friends with the person who helped me organize it (not my fault), we had a blast, and it involved finding a castle, interrupting a Mennonite church service, and many other shenanigans!!

So—yes, I could have deleted that folder, since I knew what was in it, but the memory from opening the files—priceless and well worth it. That is why delete is a good tool, but NOT until I do it MY WAY!!!

While it is a lot of work to go through all those files, I'm thrilled. That methodical process makes my brain extremely happy, and I could sit at the computer and do that for hours. Good thing, since I forecast many hours spent sorting files. 

To give you a sense of the mess, here are the stats from my folder titled "Embroidery Designs to Sort."

Look at the SIZE of that folder and look at the number of files!! That is OBSCENE, and it will be interesting to see how many of those are no longer needed. 

I still need to move files between the three hard disks, but I should probably stop and focus on cleaning out this folder, as it's my goal for 2026. But I'll check how many more high-level folders I need to deal with, and I may continue sorting the stuff among the three external hard drives, or I may just stop for now and get into the machine embroidery files. A decision for later today. 

What I am loving is that as a semi-retired person, I have the time to do that at my leisure! I never had time before, which is probably why it's in such a mess. Do you know how luxurious that is? The freedom to finally do the things that I want to do? 

And the ability to travel without having to rejig my entire calendar? Oh yes—NEVER again will I overbook myself. I'm free!!!!!

OK -- enough about that, as I need to get myself to spin class. 

And TOMORROW, it's supposed to be plus ONE!!! What do you think? Will it happen? It's still cold this morning, but two degrees warmer than it was this time yesterday! 

Have a fabulous day!!!!

Ciao!!!