Who are you - the turtle or the hare?

Interesting—I didn't know you could use a digital wallet for boarding passes. I think I'll keep my life simple and just use the app. It just sometimes takes a minute to find it, plus I need it to request and check upgrades. But I agree—I will NOT use a digital wallet. We were out for dinner last night and guess what? It wouldn't work. Thank goodness I had a real card with me as backup! 

I finished reading that Country Living article on quilting, and I found a few gems for you. This first one is this:

Advice for beginners

Those words of wisdom came from Luke Haynes, who has done very well for himself in the world of quilts. If you want to read more about him, check this out. 

Luke Haynes

While we have been making quilts, Luke has been making quilts as art for the last 20 years. Those words of wisdom for beginners apply to anyone who wants to do anything by hand. You have to make mistakes to learn. I can only hope that I've stressed that enough over the last number of years that people are finally getting it! 

Here was another point from the article. You might have to click on the photo to enlarge it. But quilts are REFRESHINGLY ANALOG. 

Hooray for analog hobbies!!!!

What I love is the sentence that says "rather than relying on an algorithm, you are making personal choices to create something real." How true is that!!!! While we all love a good algorithm to help us find things, being the one to choose matters. Those algorithms show you what they want to show you, not necessarily what you want to see. 

And how the heck are we going to gain confidence in our lives if we rely constantly on algorithms to make choices for us? 

I happen to be reading a book about Frank Lloyd Wright, and I searched his name specifically as we discussed him at dinner last night. Then when I went to type in FAMOUS to look for his houses, of course FAMOUS ARCHITECTS popped up. I had no idea about his personal life, but OH MY --- he did have some troubles. But wouldn't it be fun to visit one of his houses? 

He tried so hard to integrate the houses he designed into the landscape, and Fallingwater is one of his most famous. Check it out. 

I managed to finish my logic puzzle book, and I'm going to send a note to the author this morning, and then the book goes in the recycling. I needed a hint on one of the 50 puzzles, not because I couldn't figure it out, but because one of the clues was badly written (the author also agreed). I mixed up part of the answer on two of them, but after realizing and redoing the puzzle, I got the correct answer. That's pretty good! They weren't complicated and were a good way to get back into the swing of logic puzzles. 

Logic puzzle book - DONE

BUT this was also a good lesson on buying a bunch of one thing unless you are sure that you like it. I had purchased a book of logic puzzles from a different author a few years ago, and I had started it, but it got abandoned, like so many of the things I buy. OK -- I am NOT alone. Some of you also do that. 

I didn't take a picture of it, but here's a link to that series. The book has 100 puzzles, and I had completed 24 of them. I finished number 25 last night and moved on to the next one, which was a different theme, and the puzzles are slightly different. Hmmmm --- I'm not sure I'm going to be a fan of these ones! And what happens when I start another series at number 50? 

WAIT --- I just found the website, and there is a free puzzle from the Murder series for you to try. 

I don't like the fact that the clues also come in the form of pictures, but that's just me. I like the old-fashioned ones with just words. Anyway, I have the second volume, and I see there are at least four books in the series and perhaps more. This author, G. T. Karber, is also a famous puzzler, but I am not that familiar with his work. Let's see how I fare with this book and whether I buy any more. 

I have stood in front of the puzzle shelf in the bookstore and asked myself if I needed Volume 1, but so far, I haven't succumbed to that impulse. 

Speaking of impulses, you'll be happy to know that it was Senior's Day at the thrift store, and I did go, and I took my wallet, but I didn't take a bag. I spotted a couple of puzzles that might be interesting, but I did NOT purchase them. Yeah!!! Learning control! 

Instead, I came home, cracked open this brand-new puzzle, laid out all the pieces on the design boards, and made the border. 

The border for the next puzzle

Let's just say that I wouldn't have won any awards for speed puzzling! But I'm OK with that. It's a tactile hobby, and I enjoy the slow, methodical approach to putting them together. However, I would love to have this one together by Sunday night. Not sure that will happen. 

I managed to get some tidying done, worked on a few samples, and got those repaired or tidied up. The point is to get it done, so it doesn't hang around creating clutter. For one sample, I needed some fabric and pulled out this fat quarter. Oh my --- remember when we paid $3.50 CDN for a fat quarter? 

When did we last pay $3.50 CDN for a fat quarter? 

By the way, and I'm sure anyone who knows the store knows that The Hobby Horse will be closing its brick-and-mortar doors on November 28. The store, which already has an online presence, will be ramping up its online store and "reopening" in January 2027. That information was in a recent email. 

While I haven't been to the Hobby Horse nearly as often as I used to, I am sad it is closing, but all things must come to an end. The store is NOT closing, just changing how they operate. It is because of Gail that I am a quilt teacher! She encouraged me, and I can't thank her enough. I plan to make one last trip to the store before it closes. 

Also, there are several art quilt displays I want to visit, so I'd better set some dates on the calendar because time passes quickly!

I'll share those shows with you tomorrow - no time today. I'll also share my crazy schedule with you for the next two months because I'll be at several stores doing events, and one might interest you. 

This is still the mess I'm dealing with, but it'll all be sorted in time. Slow and steady is the only way to deal with this. 

Slow and steady will clear up the mess

It's like what someone said about our scrap class: "I don't know where to start." Just pick one piece of fabric and decide what to do with it. Then another and another. And soon, you will be on your way to organized, clean spaces. It's "easy!"

And I fixed the waistband on a pair of shorts for DH. While I love the wider elastic in most waistbands, it is too wide, and when it is not attached at the top, it rolls, and it's messy. I uncurled the elastic and sewed it around the top of the waistband! Sadly, my machine does repairs, and I have a few other things to repair! 

I had to confess that I like the magnets for the long arm - now that I finally have one leader with them. It's easy to load and easy to remove. I'm not sure I'm doing it the "right" way, but I have a way that works for me. Now it would be nice to have them on the top leader as well, but the thought of removing all that goop is not exciting. The goop is the glue that is holding the old leader in place. 

Magnets on the long arm

And that allowed me to get one of my winter quilts quilted. 

One of the winter quilts is done! 

Yeah!!!! Today will be more of the same with a bit of computer and phone calls worked in. You do NOT know how refreshing it is to use my cell phone without glitches in the calls. And nothing changed—WAIT—except that they finally decided to fix my number at the cell tower. I don't understand how that was even a problem, but that was the explanation my provider gave me. And my phone worked in other locations, so I can only surmise what they told me was correct. 

I'm off to the gym this morning. I don't feel like—wait—I do, but I'll take it slow since I haven't done much over the last two weeks. 

And on that note, I'm off. 

It's going to be a fabulous day!!!

Ciao!!