Good things come in threes!

What is with this weather? It's May 12, and we have frost warnings! The heat is still on in the house, and I am mostly wearing my Patagonia down sweater when I'm out walking the girls - with mitts on! At least it did warm up in the afternoon, but I see we have a frost warning again this morning. 

That is life, and one must get on with what we do! It would just be nice to sit outside for a bit! Without being bundled up in quilts and jackets. And the girls are desperate to have that back door open all day! So am I!!!!

I made out OK at my private spin class. I just sat on a bike in the main exercise room and cycled to my heart's content. I notice others from the old class doing the same thing. That is just terrible, but I'm glad others are boycotting the class. I MUST write my feedback to the company. That should be a priority for today, along with completing the Census. 

I'm not sure I even want to voice my opinion about what some people have mentioned about the Census. The Census does NOT represent the current government! How silly can people be? I've found that people no longer have a tolerance for anyone they dislike. WAIT A MINUTE --- that's a very general statement, and I know that lots of people have tolerance, but many do not and are quite happy to vocalize those opinions. I don't want to turn this into a debate, but please—fill out the Census. 

I'm curious because I don't remember, but do they teach politics in school? By that, I mean: do the students learn about what the Prime Minister's office does, the opposition's role, MPPs, etc.? And there are multiple levels of government as well. There needs to be respect for our levels of government and for how they all work. I will confess that I am rather ignorant of all the workings. 

You've heard the expression that things come in threes? Well, I'm now in big trouble! Issue number one is that I found the Puzzles Canada warehouse, which is about 40 minutes away from me (Georgetown), and they also ship if you need. Then someone told me about Puzzle Nerds, which is about 30 minutes away, but in Toronto, so traffic and parking can be nasty. They also ship, and sometimes, I swear, with the hassle of driving, parking, and the time it takes, it's way more efficient to have things shipped. NEVER from that online store -- I want to support the little guys! Even if it costs slightly more—seriously? Support local!!

Anyway, there are many artists designing artwork for puzzles these days, and I now know two Canadian artists who do. And it was through one of the artists that I discovered a third shop! This one, called The Occurrence, is located in Merrickville, Ontario. One of the artists that I know (simply by buying her puzzles and messaging her a couple of times) introduced me to this company. 

The Occurrence

In case you can't read it, this is their slogan. And YES—their puzzles are made in Canada. Surprisingly, there are 21 puzzle companies headquartered in Canada, but their puzzles are produced elsewhere. This one makes their own, and if you want a custom puzzle, they can do that! Now that is something that would be super fun. 

The slogan for The Occurrence

Once the day was over, I spent the evening finishing the puzzle I had been working on. As I mentioned the other day, this puzzle is drawn by a Canadian resident, and their company is Canadian (The Paperhood), but the puzzles are made in the US.  

Jigsaw puzzle - DONE

You can buy all of The Paperhood puzzles from The Puzzle Nerds. What I love about The Puzzle Nerds is that they have a page that lists many puzzle brands, where their head offices are, and where the puzzles are made. Here's the link if that's of interest to you! 

I just found out that FOUR companies make their puzzles in Canada!!! The rest are predominantly produced in China, the US, and other countries worldwide. How cool is that! 

Anyway, I have the next puzzle lined up, BUT I am not allowed to set it out until I get some actual work done!

I had to take the car in for servicing and to get the tires changed. It was a three-hour appointment, which I find excessively long considering our tires are on the rims, but if the time expectation is set up front and you are prepared, it's not a big deal. They take in so many cars that I suspect each car spends a lot of time unattended while they try to do mass activities on multiple cars. Like one mechanic is specialized in buzzing the lug nuts off, the next guy removes the wheels, and so on, until all the tasks are completed. It's not one person working on everything on your car. 

I swear someone tried out all the bells and whistles on the car. The mirrors were not in the right place, and the seat was all weird. But I got everything back to normal. 

The service shop was busy, and I took my laptop and watched some videos as I prepared for the jacket class in two weeks. Well, not quite two weeks, but in two weekends. I'm learning so much by going back to rewatch those videos, and I'm taking notes. Making a quilted jacket really isn't difficult. Fitting can be an issue, but Jen (Grainline Studio) has amazing tips for fitting the quilted jacket. 

This will be my final call for anyone who would like to discuss the information in those videos. My discussion is free, and so is watching the videos. The information applies to ANY quilted jacket pattern. If you are interested, send me an email. If you were in my quilted jacket class that ended in April, you are already on the list. There is no need to let me know unless you do not want to be on that list. Now I need to make another jacket (or finish a couple) before I forget all this wonderful information. 

I did get some sewing done! I got a few more HSTs trimmed. What a long, boring process that is! I will no longer sew and sew those little things together and then store them to trim another day. I think I've almost got them all trimmed. The trouble is, I keep finding bags of them stashed away!

More HSTs trimmed

I got all the shapes for one of the blocks on the seasonal quilt ready to be cut out. I had to trace a couple more shapes. Why didn't I do this on the scan-and-cut? Because there are so many little pieces and only one or two of each, it isn't worth the trouble. And it's only one block. 

The shapes are ready to cut out.

And I got the first round on the log cabin blocks. 

Round one of the log cabin blocks

I will be much more focused today!! But I have another distraction that arrived yesterday. Since I started quilting (25+ years), I've worked on wooden banquet tables, which have served me well. I think I paid about $50 for each, and they are amazing. The perfect height for me to sew on, they are reasonably lightweight and easy to move around. However, with those large embroidery machines on them, they can shake like mad during some types of embroidery. 

I'm afraid they'll collapse one day. So I bit the bullet, and after a big discussion about tables in our embroidery class, I bought two new ones. They were delivered yesterday. 

I warned DH about the delivery since I was away in the afternoon, but they were delivered before I left the house. I knew they would be a hassle to deliver because of the weight - these tables can handle a load of 450 pounds, and each one weighs over 100 pounds itself.

The pallet

The two tables I ordered came on a 6-foot-long wooden pallet, which added to the weight. The poor delivery guy struggled to get that pallet up the slight incline in our driveway, even with his pump jack! It was a LOT of weight. Probably close to 500 lbs in total! 

That's a long pallet.

Last night, I unwrapped the pallet to assess the situation. OK -- each table has three boxes -- two with the legs and supports, and one with the tabletop. Even the small box in front weighs a lot, and that is only the center supports. That's good because they are supposed to hold 450 lbs! I opened one of the small boxes and took each support downstairs separately. 

Three boxes per table

That's as far as I got yesterday. I'll open the long box and bring down all those parts in several trips, and then I'll have to get someone to help with the table top. Not only is it unwieldy at 30" by 60", but it's over 1" thick! It's going to be heavy. It is recommended for a two-person build, but I'll do what I can before I call in DH. 

I'm excited about the new tables. Now that I'll have two free tables, I have a bit of moving around to do, and I'll have a couple of wooden tables to sell, but they are a different style from the ones I originally bought. I'm keeping those, but I bought two more a while back. They are homemade, but still work amazingly well and are very stable. 

Most of the books I'm culling are sitting in various spots in the kitchen. I happened to glance through a small journal and found this!!

How true!!!!

OH MY!!!! That's hilarious! I'm going to keep the small journal, but it accidentally got brought upstairs! I must get those stacks sorted and into bags as well. Then I have a bunch of stuff to take to the garage in preparation for the upcoming quilt retreat. It's all in the living room right now, and it can sit in the garage until it's time to pack. 

Are our trilliums late this year? I noticed the trillium patch was in full bloom yesterday. I thought I had missed them, but nope - I did not!

The trilliums

We've had to make some changes in our household. I've been very lucky that DH took over the cooking a few years back. He was home, and I guess he was bored or he was fed up with what I cooked for dinner. Anyway, after changing jobs a couple of months ago, he is no longer working, and half the time there is nothing to eat in the house, or he is ready to make dinner at 8 PM. So I have taken back control of cooking dinner! Sigh...... no pressure. 

Last night I commandeered KU to make potatoes in the air fryer while I made broiled salmon! And it was good. I'm a good cook - I just choose not to exercise that set of skills unless absolutely necessary! Of course, DH comes in to inspect as if we don't know how to cook. Good grief—where has he gotten these crazy ideas? 

But I had to laugh because his piece of salmon was a wee bit thicker than the others, and part of it wasn't cooked enough. So he put it back in the oven, and next thing we knew, the juices on the tray were flaming!! Yep --- it was quite dramatic! And today, I get to clean the oven. It's in desperate need as it hasn't been cleaned in years, but it's self-cleaning, so let's see what happens. 

And on that exciting note, I'm out of here!

Have a wonderful day!!!

Ciao!