NO more donuts!!!!

What will I do with two weeks at home? I should be answering some of those comments! Your comments always make me smile. 

And yes -- those unruly kids? We were saying to each other at our table who would sue whom if that kid fell while playing fireman on the patio umbrella pole. Those parents would be quick to sue because the kid got hurt, completely forgetting that they were not taking care of their kids - it's always someone else's fault. Sigh......... It's a very sad world we live in. 

Victorian houses being a money pit -- you got it. I can't imagine the heating bill for a house like the Fairbanks Mansion. 

But I took a picture of it yesterday. Well, there are big NO TRESPASSING signs on the tree, and you know the morals in me would never let me cross that property line. I remember another instance a couple of months ago where a single sign refrained me from crossing a property. Hmmm -- I think that was the golf course near a quilting retreat. I was going to cut across it, but I was deterred by the signs. 

Signs work for goodie two-shoes like me, but not for others. 

The Fairbanks house is huge, and there are a lot more trees around it than in the picture I posted yesterday. I bet that originally, it was sitting on a huge piece of land with nothing for miles! Now it is just steps from Stitcharie and the town of Petrolia. 

The Fairbanks Mansion

According to the floor plan I shared yesterday, that turret is the library on the ground floor and a bedroom on the top floor. Right beside the turret is a large window in the den on the ground floor. Hmmm -- why a library and a den? Yesterday, the ladies guessed that one might be for the gentlemen to smoke in after dinner, while the ladies shared the library. 

A bit closer on the house

But doesn't it make you want to see inside the house? And that massive veranda on the front of the house? How fun would it be to lounge out there on a summer day? The back of the house is where the kitchen is, with a maid's sitting room, and upstairs in that area are sleeping quarters for the maids. Just fascinating how ornate they built those big fancy houses, and I can only imagine the millwork on the inside.

The rumor is that there is a ballroom on the third floor. And yes - that rumor is true; however, there was a major fire in the house in 2002, and it sounds like a lot of the interior was damaged. OK -- I still want to see inside!!! Do I dare just go and knock on the door and ask for a tour? Of course, I won't do that, nor do I have time. 

I might have to come back, do a bit more exploring, and look for a house! Just kidding -- we are not moving, but I am enamored with this quaint town. Plus it has a quilt shop! That's a bonus. 

OK -- so I said, "NO MORE DONUTS!" However, it seems the world wants me to eat donuts. This is what I spotted at breakfast yesterday morning. 

Mini donuts

The donuts weren't very big, and how many calories can be in one donut? So I had one! The hotel chain I stay at includes breakfast, so I always have breakfast there and then get Tim's tea to start my day. The tea is purchased on the way to work. 

When I was finished yesterday, I went out for dinner; more on that in a moment, and since the dinner was light, I decided to stop at Tim's on my walk back to the hotel. I wanted a muffin. Imagine my disappointment when I saw this. 

The muffin side of the baked goods shelves was empty. 

No more muffins

But the donut side was still stocked. NO...................................... I don't want to eat another donut. 

Of course, there are still donuts!!!!

Thankfully, I asked, and they had removed the muffins from the shelf and still had bran muffins, so I was able to get what I wanted. Phew!!!! I wonder if they will have donuts downstairs this morning? I have never seen donuts at the breakfast bar before. 

While I'm talking about food, let me tell you about dinner.  I decided to explore the local restaurants, and since I had eaten at a dockside restaurant the night before, I checked out a brew house this time. Yes - I had one of their local offerings. They had minimal offerings for dinner - hot dogs- but that's OK, since it was the picture of the hot dog on Google that intrigued me. 

My hot dog for dinner

It was very messy to eat, but it was good. That's why I had to stop at Tim's for the muffin. I'm hungry now, so I'll soon be scooting down for breakfast, and I'll let you know if they have donuts this morning! 

We had a great day yesterday, with everyone learning what Creativate is and how to use its various components to be creative! I know many people went home extremely excited about what they can do in the embroidery/quilt world! I'm excited and can't wait to be home. What will I do first? Unpack? I have a few things to repair. I have a puzzle I want to start. I have samples to finish. But first, I need to get that long arm ready for its spa day, and then weed the garden. With this heat, I'll be out there with a flashlight in the middle of the night!

While I think we are in a very safe area here, I was leery about leaving all my suitcases in the car. What if by some weird occurrence, one of my suitcases disappeared? That is hours and hours of work that would disappear, and I would be devastated. So I lugged them all into the hotel. And now I have to lug them all back out this morning. 

All my luggage on the left 

I had to resort a few of the bags this morning to add a few things to what I'm showing today. And we have some great demos on how the Husqvarna Viking Designer EPIC 3 works with all its amazing placement tools. Be sure to come by Stitcharie if you are free. 

Last night when I was approaching the hotel, I spotted "sun dogs" in the sky. Now I have seen these in the winter, but never in the summer, and it's hot outside. Well, it turns out that they can be visible in the cold and the heat. Where the ice crystals form, allowing the sunlight to refract through them, is always very cold. 

Sun dogs in the heat

And that is our science lesson of the day!

Can you tell me why that hotel in Winnipeg had the controls on the opposite side of the shower from the showerhead? I have NEVER seen that anywhere in my life, and this hotel is back to normal with everything on one end, so you have to stand out of the way while the water heats up. It's just weird. Something as simple as splitting the components on two sides makes life easy, BUT I bet it would drive the plumber mad with all the extra plumbing required. I bet that is why it isn't common—it's much more expensive! 

I had some extra time yesterday morning, so I scheduled all the classes for 2026/2027. You know what that means  - I'll be able to post them soon. Expect that to happen later this week. And there's no need to rush to sign up - the first classes don't start until September. I just want you to make wise choices as you start seeing which classes other teachers are offering. 

The last thing we want is for you to be overwhelmed by the offerings and get so bogged down that nothing gets done. Remember that quilting is our hobby, and we need to have fun with it, or we are in big trouble. While there are times when I get stressed by sewing, machine embroidery, and all my technology woes, it's usually my fault. I didn't plan well enough, and I'm very good at procrastinating. Or I struggle because I can't find the correct tools. However, I am much better than I used to be, which gives me more time to enjoy my hobby at my own pace. 

But I have so much more I want to learn - software, embroidery techniques, and the long arm. I will never stop learning stuff. How could you not? 

I just can't imagine getting up each day and NOT having something or some purpose in life. Being retired and only being there for my children (well, child) and grandchildren would be the most boring thing in my life. Don't get me wrong -- I think it's a good reason to get up, but they won't be around forever. Nor could I read all day. It sounds so exciting, but I would be bored as well. Learning is a way to expand my horizons, and new stuff keeps coming out!

I am not a soccer fan; I don't watch it, but OK -- even I am excited for Canada. This is a historic moment that they have made it to the round of 16 in the World Cup. Go Canada Go!!!!! If you look at this chart, I wonder why it takes so long for these games to be played? I must ask DH when I get home. I could learn it, but there is no room in my brain for the details of soccer! I have more important things I want to learn!

Can you believe it's June 30th today? Where has HALF of the year gone! Make sure you are taking advantage of every day!!! I know someone (no need to mention names, as they know who they are) who is counting the days to Christmas!!!! And before we all know it, it will be Christmas! 

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

Have a super day!!!!

Quaint Ontario towns

I'm so glad I'm not alone in using edge-to-edge designs on a pieced quilt. I'm prepared to put edge-to-edge designs on any quilt unless it is something super special. 

The more I thought about custom quilting on Color My World, the more I realized that you won't see the quilting. While the quilting style isn't really important, it's the texture it creates that matters to me. And it's also the density. If you look at some of the photos of quilting for Color My World, the windows might be heavily stitched or with an X, while the building itself has no quilting on it - just stitched in the ditch. 

I don't like that! And there are many quilts that YES, the quilting is exquisite, but I don't care if that is on my quilt or not. Thankfully, there are designs and styles for all of us! But it brings to mind a story from many years ago. I was a member of a quilters' guild, and we had a lady who did custom quilting for people. She used a computer and would often create special designs that looked great when appropriate. Her work was excellent. 

However, a lady brought in a quilt that had been custom quilted by this person. She was so proud of that fact. I don't even remember the quilt top, but the fabrics and pattern were super busy. During her show-and-tell, she said, "It was custom quilted, but you can't see any of the quilting from the front." She told us you could see the custom quilting on the back. However, the back was pieced with very busy fabrics except for one section, about the size of a fat quarter. She proudly showed off the custom quilting on that fat-quarter-sized piece. 

That was a total waste of money for the owner, and a total waste of time for the long armer, who should have encouraged that lady to save her money and do an edge-to-edge. 

When I first started quilting years ago, I thought everything needed custom quilting. Nope -- it does not. Edge-to-edge works really well. The quilt gets finished; the cost is reasonable for the maker; the long armer can get it done in a day; or, if you have an embroidery machine, you can do it on your embroidery machine; and you can even free-motion edge-to-edge on your domestic machine. There are so many options - the key here is to get that UFO done!!!

I'll be doing a session on edge-to-edge quilting with your embroidery machine today at Stitcharie in Petrolia, Ontario, so if you are around and interested, be sure to pop by. I'll also be reviewing how you can incorporate machine embroidery into your quilts. It's so much fun and makes buying an embroidery machine a no-brainer - at least for me. 

Tomorrow is all about machine embroidery software. It's amazing, and there are so many cool things you can do! 

I bought my first embroidery machine in 1998 when I had no idea what machine embroidery was; the machines were so small, and I had never done it. I was a quilter. But I never regret that purchase and will never be without an embroidery machine. Embroidery machines were NEW at that time. 

I am always leery about travel days - will I be in good shape to drive? Sometimes I get sleepy during the drive that I need to pull over for a nap, but I had zero issues, which was great. I arrived early and walked around this quaint little town. Holy --- if anyone is looking for a place to retire to - this might be the place. I have no idea about doctors and such—who needs a doctor? (Kidding, of course!). 

But seriously—Petrolia, Ontario, is a quaint town with a pretty vibrant downtown, and guess what? There is a quilt store here, and they are a Husqvarna Viking dealer. It doesn't get any better than that. Now if I could persuade DH to move. The cost of houses is pretty decent as well. I know -- I already checked that out. 

There are lots of murals around town. This is one that was near the train station. 

Mural near the train station

The old train station was turned into a library! How cool is that? 

The library

And this is the war memorial. They have a large walkway leading to it from the street. This is the end of it. 

The end of the walkway to the war memorial

And this is the main path. 

The path from the war memorial to the street

I didn't get a picture of the storefront - I will today, but it's right in the downtown area, and it's so quaint!! The store used to be in the little strip mall at the outer edge of town, but now they get a lot of walk-in traffic. 

Petrolia used to be Canada's Victorian Oil Town and has quite the history. What I love are the beautiful old houses along the main street. They are absolutely gorgeous. And then there is this mansion. It's called the Fairbanks Mansion or the Sunnyside Mansion. The house is huge, and I would love to see what it looks like inside. 

I know this is totally silly, but wouldn't that be a fun house to buy and fix up? It would cost millions of dollars and is something to contemplate should I ever win the lottery, which is unlikely since I never seem to buy tickets. 

It's just sad to see some of this old historical architecture fall into disrepair. I shall try to get a real picture of it myself. It's a very imposing building, and I noticed it as I drove into the downtown. It was used as a movie set - obviously for a scary movie several years ago! 

I am staying in Sarnia, which is about 30 minutes away, and I spotted this in the restaurant. 

A sign in a restaurant

Seriously? They shouldn't have to post a sign like that. However, the other night when we were out to dinner at Boston Pizza, they could have used this sign. There were two women, and between them they had five kids, ages 3 to 8? They were done eating, and the two women were deep in conversation over a couple of beers - not sure who was driving. The kids were bored by this time, and they were wild. We were on the outdoor patio, and the one young boy was using the umbrellas as a fire pole, walking on all the furniture and tipping over chairs. They were extremely unruly. 

The kids had thrown stuff on the floor, were using the water hose, and through it all, the moms NEVER said one word to the kids. NOTHING. I was shocked. We eventually said something when they started walking onto the table where the fire pit is. Apparently, other people (from the same nationality) have been banned from the restaurant. I hope these ones are banned as well. We have never seen such rude behavior before. 

I mention nationality, but I won't post what nationality. I've heard a lot of people say, "What does it matter?" And it doesn't, because rude behavior crosses many borders. But apparently there is a group of people from this country in our area, and they are quite rude. That was according to the server. You know they are not from here by their heavy accent. 

The kids were obviously bored, and you can't blame them. The Moms gave them no attention - not a single word. Then they ordered a second beer and moved to the couches. Seriously? So now you think the entire outdoor patio is yours? We know the owner very well, and he didn't say anything, but he should have. We shall chat with him this coming week. Apparently, others of this same nationality were banned for similar behavior. I think it's time these two families were banned as well. 

After eating, it was beautiful out, so I took a walk along the waterfront and spotted this sign. Actually, I spotted the sign from the restaurant on the other side of the bay, so I walked over. There's a sign in every city, it seems! 

Hello Sarnia!!!

And there was this weird structure along the waterfront, and as I got closer, I realized it was a fountain. 

It's a water fountain!

This is the view from the end of it. 

The side view

And as you see in many places, there were beautiful benches along the waterfront with memorial plaques on them. That would be a nice place to have a plaque if you won't be interred in a cemetery or a niche. I still have NO clue where I want my ashes to reside. Probably scattered in the wind since that seems to be my life! A whirlwind of activity. Perhaps outside a quilt store? Or on a bicycle path? 

Memorial plaque on a bench

But this granite bench was a sobering one. It was dedicated by MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) in dedication to all those who were killed by drunk drivers. I just don't get it --- why do people have to drink and drive? I just don't get it—you can get a taxi, an Uber, sleep it off, or whatever, but who the heck do you think you are to get in a car? 

A memorial to those killed by drunk drivers

As I walked through the park to get back to the hotel, I spotted two of these very gnarly trees. I'm not sure what type they are, but it looked like the trunks had a rough start in life and then grew a bunch of branches! 

Knarly trees

And that path is part of the waterfront trail that goes along parts of the Great Lakes. It's time to get the bike out and see where those paths lead!

The Waterfront Trail

I realize we are heading into a heat wave this coming week, but it's cool here at the moment. But I can't stand air conditioning. It is so artificial and so COLD!!!! The first thing I do in any hotel room is turn it off. It's unbearable. I think the heat even came on last night and there I am with my big heavy quilt on the bed. It's great to travel with quilts - you are never cold!!!

A quilt on my bed

Well, on that note, I'd better get myself organized for the day. It's fun to be in the same time zone. I have two days of events, then I'm home for TWO entire weeks before the next trip. I'm so excited, but I have so much work!! The first line of business will be the spa day for the long arm. I was hoping to get the old leaders off before I left, but that didn't happen. Oh well. 

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!

Finished is better than custom quilted

Oh gosh -- my washer isn't working, and I needed to do laundry yesterday! It has been acting up recently: the door catch doesn't always recognize when the door is closed and locked. So if you wiggle the thing, it would work again. Yesterday? The wiggling didn't work. Oh well -- I have enough clothes to make the next couple of days work. 

When I'm back in three days, then I'll have time to try and get some things done around the house. Like weeding the backyard, fixing the washer, and giving the long arm a spa day. And so many more things!

Thankfully, the rest of July is pretty wide open, so I'm looking forward to that. 

I had forgotten to mention that there is no virtual retreat this month. I simply wasn't home enough to make it happen. And while I could let the retreat run without me, I would prefer not to do that. I am the host, and I don't like leaving the ladies unattended! Not that I don't trust them - I just prefer to be there when I have an open call. So there may be TWO retreats in July, as I have a lot of hand stitching and sewing that I can do, and why not? 

So I'm going to host a Virtual Retreat for July 4 and 5, and then I'll figure out the date for the second one. 

I have to leave shortly for my road trip, so I don't have much time to post, but I want to share my version of Color My World. We had an amazing show-and-tell of the Color My World quilts. I will sort through the pictures and post the quilt tops as they are finished. There are quite a few that are done, and many that are almost done; once people got into the process, many started customizing the four corners. I will post finished tops, but that won't happen until later this week.

 We went through the trials and tribulations of designing our corners with buildings that are meaningful to each of us, and wow - the participants went wild with that task. I am so darn proud of all of them for stepping out of the box and making this happen. 

This morning, I'll share my quilt with you.  

I decided to change two of the four corners, so I had the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben, which were patterns included with the quilt. I switched out the Sydney Tower for the CN Tower, and the One World Center for a grain elevator. 

You can't have a grain elevator without identifying its location. This is the name of the tiny village near where I grew up. It shows up on Google Maps - seriously? I can't believe it - it's been a ghost town for quite some time, and there were two elevators in that village. Like almost all elevators in Saskatchewan, they are history. 

Machine embroidery on my grain elevator

Then came the decision of how to quilt the quilt. It is not typical of me to have one of our projects completely done by the end of the class, but I needed to take it to Quilt Canada with me. I thought long and hard about how to quilt it, and many of the ones spotted online were custom-quilted, with many lines of stitching in the ditch. 

You know how that is -- when I was a new quilter, 28 years ago, people used to say - just do "stitch in the ditch!" Well, I have since learned that stitch in the ditch is very time-consuming to do right, and it is NOT easy. I could have chosen to do it on the long arm or the domestic machine. It would have taken a long time to make it happen. Barbara Black said it took her six days to quilt the version she had done for The Quilt Show. 

I did NOT have six days, nor did I have any interest in all that stitch-in-the-ditch, so I decided that finished was more important than custom-quilted, and I loaded it on the long arm and did an edge-to-edge pattern with it. 

This is the pattern I chose. 

Edge-to-edge pattern on my Color My World quilt

And there it is, with an appropriate thread (color and weight), the thread and quilt design take second place to the houses. 

Color My World fresh off the long arm

If I remember correctly, that got quilted before I left for the wedding, and it got trimmed and bound on the "free" day I had between the wedding trip and Quilt Canada. 

I threw it in my suitcase, and when I arrived at the hotel, I had two quilts that I put out on the queen beds. 

Color My World on my bed in the hotel

I forgot how big the quilt is, but it fits beautifully over the top of a queen bed. I much prefer to make toppers for the beds rather than make a full-size quilt. Why? I don't need a full-sized quilt - a topper over the duvet works just fine for me. It takes less time to quilt, less fabric, less time to bind, and is smaller. Plus, big quilts just don't hang well on the corners of a bed, and there's the decision about what to do with the pillows. No more giant quilts for me.

As I lay in the other bed, I could admire the texture of the overall quilting. The quilting pattern was obvious, but it doesn't detract from the houses. I know I already said that, but it's so true. I do NOT regret my decision to do overall quilting on it. That is going to make me rethink many of the quilts I have waiting to be quilted. It will be better to have them quilted than to leave them as UFOs in a pile. 

The texture of the quilt is amazing.

And there it was hanging up at Quilt Canada, and you can see my wildly coloured CN Tower. I didn't want to make it black or grey, as there really wasn't any black or grey in the quilt, aside from the roads. The bottom part was hidden, and many people asked what buildings I put on the bottom - Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower. 

My quilt is in the booth at Quilt Canada

Here is the entire quilt. It looks like there is a ripple near the bottom, but that's because there's one near the top. I hung it up with some clips, and well, even if there is a ripple, it's good enough for me. Notice the orange trees? It's fall in my world - the original had green trees. 

My version of Color My World

And as you can see, the overall pattern does NOT detract from the quilt one little bit! I'm thrilled with the quilt and so happy that it is finished. I must get a label on it as well as several other labels on quilts, and I hope to get that done in July. Hmmmmm—there are a lot of things I hope to get done in July. 

Slow and steady will be my game. 

As a reminder, if you want to see what I am teaching in the fall, you can check out this blog post. I also hope to get the dates worked out in July. And I pray that I do not have another month like June. I have no issues with being busy - it's a stretch for me to be away for so long. I really haven't had time to recover from the wedding before it was time to take off again. That part I don't like. Give me one trip per month, and I'm happy. 

By the way, there will also be a scrap class starting in the fall that will run for 9 months. It's all about how to cut, store, save, and use scraps. More details when I'm back. 

On that note, I'm out of here as I need to get things organized for today. I have many suitcases to load into the car, finish packing the backpack, and hopefully get the girls out for a short walk. 

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!

Conquering technology one step at a time

OH MY ---- shipping to Canada. I didn't even think of that, as some companies won't ship to Canada and vice versa because of high shipping costs. Isn't that just the silliest thing, considering we are next-door neighbors? 

I have found a solution: an account with a cross-border shipping company. If I want something from the US and the shipping is high, I send it to my "address" in the US. Then I pay about $10 to have it shipped from the warehouse to Canada, and that warehouse is about a ten-minute drive from my house. 

I recently ordered something, and it came back undelivered. Hmmmmm --- after some investigation, I realized I had two addresses for the warehouse. The old and the new. Let's just say that the old address is now in the recycling. Why would I hang onto the old one when it had been replaced? I am my own worst enemy sometimes. So when that package finally arrives in Canada, I'll share it with you. Obviously, I don't order much from the US. 

However, if you want one of those fine tips for the glue bottles, check out the dollar store. Yep -- I found some of those applicators with the short needle at the dollar store. It was a smaller, lesser-known store. The tips I bought were on plastic bottles, so you can put the glue in and all is good. 

I believe someone mentioned you can buy them at Michael's in the cake-decorating department as well. 

Here's the thing -- as soon as someone discovers a tool, and it becomes a useful one for quilters, the price goes up! I'll try to take pictures of what I have and share tomorrow, although that might be a challenge since I'll be on the road. I'll see what I can do. 

I'm happy to report that the two presentations for today are DONE! It took a lot of work to make that happen, and I could still fuss with them, but they are as good as they are going to get! 

I can't believe how hard everyone worked over the last couple of days to complete the quilts for Color My World! Of the 50-some people in the class, many have completed (or almost completed) quilt tops. I can't wait to share those with you. 

Here are a couple more items I bought while I was away. This is a cute highland cow, digitally printed, and would be perfect for experimenting with thread painting. 

Highland Cow digital panel

And here's another panel that I didn't really need, but it looked like something fun to play with. It would be good for the sides of a bag? 

A sewing-themed panel

I have learned what causes me great angst in my life. It's when I am not in control of things. And by that, I mean, I may have tons of stuff rolling in my head, and they need to be written down. I have to prep something, and I'm pressed for time, or I haven't even started. Or it can be a technology issue that needs to be resolved because I need the technology to do whatever I need to do. 

Yesterday was no exception, but I'm happy to say that as the day went on, my stress level decreased. The thing that I have to combat is that I'm a stress eater, so when I'm stressed, I want to eat chocolate. In particular, milk chocolate, so I won't even allow it in the house! 

I don't think I mentioned this the other day, but when I went to the gym, I stepped on the scale. OH, and that's all I'm going to say. I know it's only a number, but I can't afford to let things get out of hand. I have worn-out tendons in both knees, and I can't afford to be carrying any extra weight. Let's say that I ate a few too many donuts over the past couple of weeks. I was not happy. 

I know what the culprit is - SUGAR. I might as well tape anything with sugar in it to my hips, as that is where it goes. And when I cut sugar completely out of my diet about 12 years ago, I weighed the least I have weighed in a long time. I don't want to become anorexic, and that will never happen in my life. But I'm starting to cut out sugar again. 

I do like my small bits of chocolate every day, and I won't eliminate that. I have decided to halve the quantity—from four Ritter bar squares to two. Guess what? I'm OK with that, and with my high stress level yesterday, I was able to talk myself out of eating more. I don't need it - it's a crutch. No alcohol, which is easy to eliminate, I barely have anything to drink. No pop, which I don't drink much of anyway. It's the desserts -- those are the killers in my world. So there will be no more desserts. 

Nope—not even a taste, because I don't need it. I don't want it, so why should I eat it? That will be tough, but I should be able to manage it - we don't have desserts in our house, and it's easy to just say no. But I've become lax in that department, and the scale shows it! 

Just say NO!!!! I'm a big girl, and I need to think about my mobility! Someone recently told me that the majority (I've forgotten the percentage) of fire department jobs involve picking up people who have fallen in their homes!!! And if you are heavy, it becomes an even greater issue. I refuse to let that be me. 

Now back to the technology woes. I needed to scan a document, but my printer wouldn't connect. Nope - it was offline, and I struggled to get it back. However, I managed to make that happen and scan what I needed. But why? Can you tell me why the printer was offline when I had no issues printing something the day before? 

Then, when I tried to print, the page was entirely blank. But it worked just fine the day before. I didn't have time to fix that issue. 

The biggest issue was that I had to update some software that I needed. I kept getting reminders that an update was available, but every time I checked, it said that all was OK. I knew it wasn't because I was missing a couple of features. Sigh....... Yesterday was the day to fix that - of course it was, when I was under the gun for time!

I sent a note to the support team, and then I thought, all I have to do is uninstall the software and reinstall it. That leads to signing in and passwords, which are a struggle for me, but guess what? It worked, and the new features are there. That was a long overdue update! 

I sent another note to the support team, and can you believe I got a response a few hours after I sent the original? Yep!!!! That was impressive. And they essentially told me that uninstalling and reinstalling was the only way to solve the problem. I should have done that months ago!

Anyway, this is the result of my messing around. I'm experimenting, and while it didn't work quite as I wanted, getting all the technology to work was huge. 

The results of my experimentation

I'll mess around with it later today and see what I can do to improve it. It's interesting to see how the different fabric (green) was much more successful than the red. It's the type of fabric (batik versus regular cotton), and it's also the size of the letters and the fonts! So much room for experimentation. There is NO fusible on the back of this, and those pieces are very tiny! 

So much for a guard dog!! Lexi was sleeping on the job! I guess that is why she was stretched full length so that anyone had to step over her to get into DH's office. 

Mom - I'm on the job - privacy please!

And Murphy? She likes making a mess! Her blankets are now strewn across the floor! 

Mom - just doing a little housekeeping and fluffing the blankets!

Bob Ross is still going strong! It's hard to believe, but I spotted this magazine at the drug store. 

Bob Ross - still going strong.

Well, I need to get myself going. I have to walk the girls, then head off to do the two presentations. Then I'll spend the afternoon prepping for my three-day road trip. It's by car, so that should be easier than the plane? OH -- I just checked -- it's only 2½ hour drive, not three as I thought. That half hour makes a huge difference! 

If you are in the Petrolia area, be sure to check out the events on Monday and Tuesday. Lots of stuff about quilting and embroidery software. It's going to be super fun!!! The store is Stitcherie in Petrolia. 

Here is the link to one of their events. You can find the others on their Facebook page. 

Have a great day!

Ciao!!!!

 

A pop of orange

I think travel and age are creeping up on me. I would like to be totally in denial, but I guess I can't deny any longer. I was so tired yesterday, and I think I had two naps. That's OK. The travel of the last three weeks, the carrying of heavy luggage, setting up machines, traveling in different time zones -- it's getting harder and harder! 

While I did tidy everything off the floor in Studio B, I did NOT get everything done. I simply moved some of it onto a table so it was easier to access. However, I did manage to get a lot done. 

I am about half-prepped for the second presentation, have dealt with some urgent emails, and quickly got answers in two instances, so that is all taken care of. Then I have most of the second presentation done as well. So it wasn't a total loss of a day. 

However, I found an ebook somewhere along the line last week, and, well, I started reading it on the plane, and I NEED to finish it. That consumed a bit of my day yesterday while I was lying in bed, relaxing! I have 80 pages left, and I guess it will have to wait until the dogs have their walk! Too bad it wasn't an audiobook -- I would have stayed up and listened while working! 

I also got distracted last night and was looking at house listings. Some of these pictures came from houses in another province, but what's the deal with the pop of orange? 

I suspect the orange in the first one is actually wood, but that can't be—it looks orange, not wood tones. At least the walls are beige! Most pictures of house interiors, including the furniture, are black, white, and grey. 

An orange dining room set

This is definitely a pop of orange in an otherwise neutral environment. 

An orange sofa

And the same with this one. 

An orange chair

And here we have a pop of orange and deep blue. 

Two orange accent chairs

I sometimes look at houses in my neighborhood or random houses that pop up for sale. Not that we are selling, but just for the fun of it. 

The houses are all so sterile. Can you imagine feeling comfortable in that room above? Nothing on the walls, just places to sit. It looks so uninviting. 

I know the houses are staged for the photos, but seriously—these people need to stage differently. Stage it so it looks inviting to live in, not just to eliminate all the clutter. I get it—get rid of the clutter, but then make it look pretty. I will struggle with the real estate agent when it comes time to sell our house. 

Speaking of houses for sale, there are now THREE houses for sale on our street. How did that happen? I suspect they will be on the market for quite some time, as the market is slow and two houses are overpriced. And there are two other houses that I suspect will go up for sale in the near future. Or maybe not. The people living on the street are aging out, and who needs to live by themselves in a huge house? 

I remember when we sold our last house. The price the neighbors got was incredible for that time. I suggested we put our house on the market as well. I don't think I'll do that here. I like it too much. 

Here are a couple of reasons why my suitcase weighed more than 50 lbs. This is the puzzle that I purchased at McNally Robinson. Lots of puzzles have been designed with a puzzle in the picture. Apparently, this one has clues to all of the books in the Miss Marple series! I may just have to reread Miss Marple, as it has been years. 

Miss Marple puzzle

A hardcover book that weighs a lot, and I also found this at McNally Robinson. 

A new addition to the bookcase

There are a few other things that I bought, but I'll share with you in a bit. This canvas fabric was bought at Quilt Canada from Emmaline Bags. So many cool things to make with stuff like this! 

Canvas for a tote bag

At one point during the day, I spied Miss Lexi lying outside DH's office. She is his protector, to be sure, and she is on guard for a good part of the day. I almost feel like I should put a mat in front of the door, but then DH will trip over it. She doesn't want to sleep in the office, as she is NOT good in a room, but prefers wide-open spaces. 

MOM - I am on duty - no pictures please!

We had a tremendous thunder and lightning show last night. Murphy was pretty upset and hung around upstairs all night, which is something she hasn't done in a very long time. 

I spotted this online a while back and keep forgetting to post it. 

It's a tip that you can add to your big bottle of glue to get a fine tip. 

A fine tip for a big glue bottle

This is way smarter than the one that came out originally on glue bottles for quilters. That tip was super long - someone said it was a medical needle? I don't know, but I guess that's what we had available to us at the time. The glue just clogs in those long skinny tips -- this shorter one makes a whole lot more sense.

Which reminds me that when I was at Quilt Canada, I had to be in the classroom to help the students with their machines. It's surprising how some teachers work. One of the teachers had a cap that you could put on a tube of glue to make the wider glue top smaller, making it more useful for quilters. 

They are glue precision tips. Someone asked the instructor where she bought the tip. She refused to tell them, so, of course, within seconds, someone googled it. You can buy them at multiple places, and you can also find a file to have them printed on a 3-D printer. I believe this is the one the instructor was using. 

I think she wanted to be a "hero" and email them the information, but as mentioned, it is easy to find this stuff online. If you have the right information or even half the information, or even a photo, Google will find it for you! 

I probably mentioned this before, but I certainly wasn't impressed with some of the teachers at Quilt Canada. 

Anyway -- it's time to get the day started. And I have a lot to do since I didn't get quite as much done yesterday as I would have liked. 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

Mom - are you really home?

I'm home, and the girls are happy! 

As far as travel days go, it was pretty uneventful, which is exactly how I like them. The only issue was getting all that luggage home. I love traveling light, and so when I have three suitcases and two carry-on items, that is a LOT to manage. Thank goodness for carts at the airport. 

I got everything packed into the three suitcases and my backpack, except for a few things which went into the handy-dandy tote bag that I had with me. 

Packed and ready to roll!

Upon reflection, as I was packing everything, I realized I had taken a few too many things, both in the quilt and clothing departments. I must have had a few wild moments before I left. And I bought a few too many things, given that I was already tight on space. But all was good. My airline status sure comes in handy, and the one bag was 61 pounds, but I didn't care, except that it was a pain to get around. 

Since it was still early in the morning when I left my room, I tried to be quiet. However, when the suitcases don't roll well on the carpet, and they tip over as I'm trying to get out of my room? Thankfully, this was the worst incident on the trip, so I didn't really mind. 

Great Scott - the bags won't roll on the carpet.

I made it to the elevator, and then downstairs to check out, and waited for the Uber to arrive. I just warned them that the one bag was heavy, and I love that all the Uber drivers during the entire trip got out of the driver's seat to load my suitcases. They got a tip for that. If they just sit in the front seat? No tip. 

In all fairness to the Winnipeg airport, I thought I needed to get a picture of the tiles in the women's washroom. I always take a picture when I am in Vancouver, where the tiles are more intricate, but these ones are orange! 

The tiles in the women's washroom in the Winnipeg Airport

I must be living a very sheltered life because I had never heard of Corn Hole, the game, until recently. We were at a quilt retreat a few years ago, and one of the ladies was talking about a friend of hers who was making the bags for Corn Hole. Corn what? I had never heard of the game. Apparently, this friend makes a LOT of the bags, and since they have to be a certain weight, she has quite the system to make that happen. 

We were at the same retreat; they had recently had a wedding on the farm, and there was a customized Corn Hole game with the bride and groom's names. My own daughter rented a Corn Hole game for her wedding, and then there I was at the Winnipeg Airport, and they had a Corn Hole game set up in the waiting area. 

Playing Corn Hole at the airport

It seems that this game has taken the world by storm, and it's not new. If you go back in time, it is very similar to Quoits, which was first mentioned in an 1883 patent. In September 1974, Popular Mechanics published a pattern to make your own game, and the rest is history. Can you believe there are tournaments? World-class tournaments for Corn Hole? I'm way behind the times!

In the baggage area of the Toronto Airport is this very sparkly maple leaf. I'm not sure of its significance, but there it was. So as we waited for our luggage, which seemed to take a bit longer than usual, I got a picture. 

Very sparkly maple leaf

I noticed that when I grabbed one of my bags, the surface was wet, but there was no rain on either end. That was worrisome, but when I got home and unpacked, it was just surface water and had not penetrated the suitcase filled with quilts. 

As per DH, I took a limo home, not an Uber. It would be a challenge to get those three suitcases down the stairs to the Uber pickup spot, even with an elevator. The limo is right there, and there is much less confusion at the limo pickup spot.  

As I was getting the bags to the house, Miss Murphy spotted me through the window and went mad. She was barking and wouldn't be quiet. Then, when the door was open, she zipped out and wanted to get in the car. She equates my being away with being in the car! She doesn't like to be left behind. 

Needless to say, the two of them were pretty excited. Although neither of them looks excited in these pictures. 

MOM - how dare you leave me behind! 

Mom - seriously? Alone with that idiot again? 

But I swear, as excited as they are to see me, they don't really care that I am home. All they want is a walk! And later in the afternoon, we went for a walk, and all peace was restored in their worlds. 

I got home around noon and had the entire afternoon to do as I wished. Although I have a ton of work to do, I really wasn't in the mood. So the first line of business was to unpack everything. 

Any items I will not need or that don't require any follow-up work were put upstairs. The quilts that I need for the next round of events went into their appropriate pile in the living room. And the rest of the stuff got taken downstairs. Yikes—that is a huge pile of stuff that got put on the floor, and I need to process it later today. 

Stuff to put away or process today

Some of it won't take very long, as some just need to be put away, but some of it needs a bit of repair work, or finding something that was missing, or whatever. I hope to clear the pile today, but I still have two presentations to prep for the weekend. One of them is almost done, and I'm only waiting for student photos to come in. I haven't started the other one, and it will take a few hours to get it ready. 

Then that jigsaw puzzle called my name, and I had no choice but to answer the call. I had the two shades of purple to finish. These last two colors were the hardest, or perhaps I just needed to get my puzzling brain back to work. I had no choice but to assemble that line, and of course, I was missing a couple of pieces. But it soon went together. 

The line between the two shades of purple

And before I knew it, that one section of purple was together, leaving the final color. That was the hardest section of all, as the colors and shapes were very similar. 

One band of color left!

I even had to take the border section apart because it had not been assembled correctly. That's the thing about this puzzle: You think the piece fits, but it doesn't. If the pieces are in the correct spot, they fit smoothly, but they can also fit without being smooth. That is not correct, and you need to find a new home for those pieces. Some of the shapes were so similar, but not exact. It was the kind of puzzle where you count the number of pieces left to assemble, and the number kept going up as I reworked sections of that color. 

Reworking the border

But I had my trusty companion on the floor beside me, and I persevered and got the puzzle together. 

The puzzle is DONE

I really enjoyed that one, and while it was a challenge in certain colors, it was a lot of fun. It came down to shape, and in some instances, I took one piece at a time and tried it in various spots. There was no one section that I had left to do at the end. The last ten pieces were spread out all over the puzzle - well, in that final section. The missing pieces from that border? They were on the puzzle piece boards - I had missed them when transferring the pieces over. I got this puzzle from the thrift store! 

I need to take a picture of this and post it on Facebook in the CJPA with the keyword of the month and the box. And then I have one more puzzle I want to get done ASAP so I can post it. It's a special puzzle, and I can't wait to share that one with you. 

I was exhausted last night and went to bed right after dinner. I have an early-morning date with Brooke. I have to start taking responsibility for all those donuts. What is wrong with me? Oh yes -- I was enjoying life, but reality hits today, and no more donuts for a while. 

But as I was reading in bed, I heard Murphy come up the stairs and into the room. She looked at me and then went right back downstairs. I think she was just checking to make sure that I really was home. It was so sweet. The poor girl, well, both of them, are so used to us being home, and when we go away, they are not happy, despite having lots of company. It's never the same as when Mom and Dad are there. 

I see more student pictures have been posted, and I'll add them to the presentation. The participants did such an amazing job on their homework, I am beyond words with pride! Some of them stretched themselves to personalize this quilt, and I couldn't be happier! They did a stunning job, and I hope to start posting some of the pictures next week. 

On that note, I'd better get myself organized so I can get to the gym on time. 

Have a super day! 

Ciao!!!!