A digital hoarder

OH --- so I perhaps found part of the issue with my email. Someone had mentioned it before, and someone mentioned it in the comments the other day. 

I don't have the pictures to share with you this morning, but here's what happened. I did a disk cleanup -- somewhere on my computer, I found that, and it cleared up maybe one GB. That's nothing -- I need gobs of space.

So, I went into the SENT folder in my email. Hmmm  --- I figured out how to sort them by size and got a chuckle. The first category that came up was HUGE (10 - 25 MB). Yep -- that's what the computer categorized it as. That's hilarious. 

And here's what has been happening over the years—yes, I know years! Do people clean out that folder? I know some of you do, but I don't usually. I've been saved in the past by being able to prove that I sent something. The same goes for the files in that IMPORTANT folder. I found very useful information there as well. Things I deleted elsewhere were in the important folder. 

But I started looking at what was in the sent folder, and OK— there were a "few" emails in there. I manually deleted some in that HUGE category, and can you believe that I deleted 25 GB of data? My email is now only using 75 GB of space, NOT 106. But I'm not done yet. 

I've tried to do a general delete in that folder, but it doesn't seem to work. Do I have to manually delete all the messages? I didn't have much time yesterday to play around with it, but at least I have space, and my computer should be much happier. 

Here's what causes the problem -- let's say that I send a message with a 10 MB attachment to someone. It saves that one message in the sent folder. If I send that same message with a 10 MB attachment to a group of 20 people, it saves the message TWENTY times. So, with all the group emails in the last couple of years and sending them my files, the space got eaten up!!! I doubt any of you will ever come close to having that same issue!

I'm unsure if there are any more HUGE files in that folder or if they are now only VERY LARGE (5 MB - 10 MB). Yep -- again, that is the terminology that GMAIL assigns these messages, which is hilarious. Now that I know, I may go in and delete those messages but keep the rest? I don't know. I just need to empty it for the moment. 

So when I get home again, I'll be able to tackle that folder once more and try to get rid of all those messages with attachments. OK -- I'll just empty the folder, but like I said, I can't just delete the contents as it seems to reach a limit and then stops. So, it may take several deletes to completely empty the folder. Then I'll check again to see how much space that freed up. Then, I still need to go through the inbox and delete more messages! I think I'm good with all the subfolders. I've gotten rid of quite a bit of stuff. 

I guess you could call me a digital hoarder! I collect stuff and don't even know that it's there until I hit a wall! 

Yes, I'm not home again! But this time, it's only a couple of hours by car. I spoke at the Georgian Bay Guild last night, and I'm doing a workshop today. Then I'll be home and no travel for a few weeks. Yeah!!!

Poor Murphy was beside herself yesterday. She was clingy and didn't know what to do with herself because there was no one to share the front window with her! What? Why are the stairs gone? Where's the little guy? And then, when I got the suitcases out to pack the quilts, she was even worse! What is happening? What about me? 

Lexi? She couldn't care less! 

But it was nice when I walked them in the morning because I was in the house before 9 AM, and both dogs had had their long walk. Yeah, high Maintenance—he was high maintenance!!!

Other than packing my quilts and the workshop supplies and reading a book, I didn't really do much. Gosh, all this traipsing around is exhausting. 

I keep forgetting to mention two things. YES, there is a virtual retreat this weekend. It'll be on Saturday evening and Sunday starting at noon. I'll put the links in tomorrow when it's easier. I don't have a mouse right now to cut and paste. How lame is that? 

Secondly, I have a REAL retreat at Springhouse (near New Hamburg), which is a beautiful facility. If anyone is interested in attending for a day or two or all five days, let me know, as I have a few spots open. The dates are May 17 - 22 . Send me an email if you are interested. elainetheriault@gmail.com

No one should be afraid to send me an email for fear of clogging up my space when it's the emails I send that are doing the job. But I now have LOADS of space, and I'm not done yet!!!

Well, I guess I should get myself together. I'm staying at a beautiful house on Balm Beach! I've been here before as when Kim originally bought the house, she used it as a quilt retreat house, and I stayed here twice before. I should get my butt in gear and walk down to the beach, but I don't think I have time for that. Yep -- I'm becoming a slug for sure!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

Back to reality

On the last day of any retreat, we're always allowed to stay until 3:00 PM. That's the check-out time, but without fail, many of the participants are out of the house by 10 AM, having packed up the night before. Gosh - that's an entire day of sewing they are missing. Who cares about laundry? And how long does it take to do laundry anyway?

However, I'm happy to report that this time? Oh no - we took total advantage of the day and the four of us left didn't get out of there until 3 PM. Technically we had one more day, but we did have to get home. One by one, the four of us packed up depending on what other things we had to do (Ronda had some real work to do so she did pack up a bit early). Shelly and Vivenda were working away until well after lunch and I packed up at 3 PM. It was awesome!!  I accomplished a whole lot on the last day so I was very glad for that.

Tidied up, took out the garbage and packed up the car. Let's just say that I'm glad that the extra sewing machine wasn't in the car because I don't know if everything would have fit inside!

Ronda and I stopped at a quilt store on the way home as I had to pick up a quilt of mine that they had borrowed. All the kits are now sold so the quilt can come home to me. This is a picture of the quilt and if you're interested and have all those Sesquicentennial panels at home, here's a link to the free pattern. 

Coast to Coast to Coast

Now here's a wee bit of sticker shock. I bought three meters of fabric, one half-meter, and two FQs. With tax, it was $90!!!!! That's insane, but the price per meter is $19.98.  All adds up very quickly these days which means that we just have to become smarter about what we buy. The half-meter and FQs are RED and I have several more projects to work on that need RED fabric. Two of the meters were for a kit that I bought at the CreativFestival and wasn't quite big enough for me so I'm going to add a border (probably should have only bought one meter - oh well!) and the last meter was just because!

I'll show you pictures of everything over the coming week. I don't have time today to do many pictures.

After our shopping expedition, Ronda and I stopped for a burger (and ice cream - more on the eating thing later this week) and then we went our separate ways. I got home, the girls were happy to see me. Not because they missed me as their Mom, but because I'm the person that takes them for walks and to the dog park.

I had a wee bit of work to finish prepping for today's THREE classes, but I also had to make a trip to Home Depot for some tuffet supplies. Got those and got the remaining three upholstery hoods made for the tuffet class. I was supposed to work on THREE blocks that I goofed on, but only had time to fix one. No worries - it'll all work out.

I'll have lots of pictures to share with you!

Oh, I did unpack somewhat this morning and I took this picture to share with you. It's DONE. The pixelated apple quilt top is DONE!!!!!

Pixelated apple quilt

I'm thrilled to bits. I never thought this would get completed, but I LOVE IT!!!!  I want to do another one.   I have stories about two more of these quilts, but no time this morning.

Now I have to find some cool backing fabric preferably with apples on it. I must check the stash, there could be something there. I think I'll bind it with red? white? (NO) black? green?  That's not important at this point, but I love those black on white prints for the background. And I definitely want to do another pixel quilt. But I have something else in mind first and I'll share that with you later this week as well.

On that note, I'm out of here. We're off to the dog park and then repack the car for today's tuffet class.

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!

Had a good chat with my Dad last night - 85 years young and still going strong. He's a tinkerer and loves building/repairing motors and building parts for vintage tractors that can no longer be bought. I hope I'm like him when I'm that old in about 50 years!

Frolicking on the beach

I was up early yesterday and managed to get most of what I wanted to cut - cut. That was a relief and now the big thing was to get it all into the car. There were bags and bags of stuff. Thank goodness for a hatchback car - it's amazing what can go in there. Not only did I have stuff for the retreat, but I had my two classes and a few bags of stuff for a meeting that I'm going to later this week.

We had great classes on paper piecing and double wedding ring. They are two part classes. I did take pictures and I'll try to find a way to post them. Ronda very conveniently brought a laptop for me to blog on so I'm not going to have to mess with the tablets. Yeah Ronda!!!  I tell you there is no comparison between the keyboard on a laptop and my crappy desktop keyboard. I hate it, but I'm not sure that you can get a laptop style keyboard for a desktop. There is a totally different feel between the two. I notice she doesn't have Grammarly installed on it so I'm on my own (well besides spell check) for the corrections.

Immediately after class, I was in the car for the drive to the retreat. Because I was leaving from the store, it took me almost an hour to reach the major highway. The weather was awesome, the traffic was great and I made it in two hours. Ronda had arrived shortly before me.

We unloaded the cars. I left half of the stuff in my car as I need it later this week.

While this is the second time I've been at this house there were a few things that we had questions about. Like the password to the WiFi. Which was prominently displayed on the wall beside the TV, but we missed that! DUH!!!

My sewing machine is all set up and ready to go this morning. Last night we went to the little restaurant in the beach area. By the way - there is NO ice on the lake. All clear and ready for frolicking. I was going to go down there after our yummy meal last night, but then I forgot. I'll go today. It looks like it's going to be a gorgeous day - the sky is clear and the weather is above zero. Oops - it's just below zero, but it will be above later.

The Surf restaurant was packed when we arrived. Must be all the locals here and they were hungry. I did celebrate by having a beer - the first one in a long time. I thoroughly enjoyed that.

Then we were back to the house where Ronda was watching the hockey game. We played Scrabble although we're finishing the game this morning. I was exhausted and was clipping a rag quilt while we played. Next thing I'm asleep in my chair. Finally at 11 PM, it was time for bed. I was tired.

I"m sleeping in the basement. There is a big room with three beds, but I've claimed it for myself as there is room for the others upstairs. I unpacked all my stuff - my huge project bag and all the tuffet stuff to sew and it's all over the floor. I'm happy!!!

Now we had to figure out our way around the kitchen. Where's the measuring cup? How does the microwave work? I ended up cooking my oatmeal on the stove - no big deal. It cooked up just fine. Then Ronda figured out how the microwave works. Oh well - there's always tomorrow.

We've eaten, we're moving the Scrabble board downstairs so we can complete our game and now we're off to sew while we wait for the others to arrive.

It's going to be an exciting week - and we mustn't forget to frolic on the beach!!!!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!

More updates from the Forest Road retreat

What can I say - the three days that we were at the retreat were VERY productive. Here's the rest of the stuff that I worked on.

I had this in my retreat bag, but it was one of the projects that I didn't get to. This is a bag of Northcott Oh Canada  (and Sesquicentennial) fabric scraps. My intention is to make another one of those slab block quilts that everyone made for the Ronald McDonald houses last year. It's a good mindless project to work on at a retreat. It's back in the bag for next time.

Bag of Oh Canada scraps

 Here are the giant half square triangles that I sewed together. I couldn't trim them as I didn't have a square ruler large enough. So those are on the cutting table. This can't wait for the next retreat, so hope to work on that this week. Fabrics are from Northcott Barbershop.

Large half square triangles - sewn, but not trimmed

 This is the book that we're using for our table runner class at The Hobby Horse. It's an awesome book and there are loads of table runners in there that I want to make. I actually sat down last night and planned the rest of the year. Oh boy - what to choose? For many months, I choose multiple ones so people can choose which one they would like to make. While we're making table runners, the focus of the class is on how to quilt them.

The Big Book of Table Toppers

 Ronda was working on her table runner for the class. At the local quilt shop, Tangled Threads, she managed to find the blue/purple to make her runner pop. It's gorgeous in real life.

Ronda's table runner

I decided the retreat was a great place to work on a couple of other runners. Here's one that I cut from some batik samples that I had kicking around. By the way - if you're in the table runner class, this is one of the alternate ones that I chose for January.

Another awesome table runner - love the colors in this one

 While it was super easy to cut and sew, it was a tad tricky to get everything in the correct place. But it all worked out.  I even cut one for Ronda and we worked on them at the same time.

Ronda and my table runners

I guess it's not hard to pick out whose is whose!!!

Like I said, there are so many nice runners in the book, I cut one more. I didn't have quite the right bits with me. Too many pieces of one color and missing two of another. When I got home, I cut the two missing bits.

Two missing bits to finish the table runner

Here is the finished top of the table runner. I just had to finish off that pieced border and add the outer one. Didn't take long. Fabrics are from Northcott Shimmer. Also an alternate for Janury for the table runner class.

Another table runner top - DONE

While I'm on a roll and because it would be great to get this quilted before the class next week, I have the backing and the binding completed as well.

Binding and backing are ready to complete the table runner

 What to work on next?  I had this small wall hanging that I wanted to get finished. It was mostly done, but the angle pieces on the border were not quite finished. It was so close! And I was supposed to add rick rack between the brown border and the block. I did, but it's very pale pink so you can't really see it.

Mini wall hanging - top is DONE

 The bottom line - the top is now complete. Could be done differently - I could have used a bigger rick rack and brighter pink - I didn't have with me and none in my stash - I used what I had. DONE!!  I could have used a darker fabric in the corners - didn't have any with me - used what I had. It matches - I'm happy. Bottom line - it's done!

And the binding and backing are ready to go as well.

Binding and backing are ready for quilting

 I also worked on this ender and leader project.  I'm not sure how many I got done as they just added to the rest that was already completed. That's by one of the sewing machines at home now, ready for the next sewing session.

Enders and leaders project

 Last night, I laid out the next block for the pixelated apple quilt.

Block four of the pixelated apple quilt  - ready to sew

I decided that I didn't have enough variety in the reds for the next block so I spent some time cutting some more squares so when I'm ready to lay out Block 5, I'll be ready to go.

Cutting red squares for the pixelated apple quilt

 And all the bits are shoved (nicely) into this bag. It's sitting in the retreat bag so it won't go missing.

Bits of the pixelated apple quilt

 I told you - I worked like crazy, yet I took time to eat and visit with the others!!

I worked on my Kaleidoscope quilt. I worked hard on this thing because I really really want to get it done!  The four pieced borders are now together and ready to add to the quilt. These were mostly done, but again  - I was missing about 8 black squares!

Four borders - DONE

 Here are the corners of the quilt. There are four of them. See those setting triangles (with the thin red edge along the long side?). That was the one that I screwed up. I thought I took a picture, but I couldn't find it. Probably just as well.

Corner of Kaleidoscope - DONE

 Actually - all four corners are DONE!!!

Four corners - DONE

 Not sure if you could see above, but YES - I twirled all those darn seams on the back. That took a wee bit longer, but so worth it!!!

Twirled seams

 Here is the center of the quilt - that was together from before.

Center of Kaleidoscope

 So that is absolutely ready to assemble the bits. I think a couple of hours and it could be done. Then to cut and add the final outer border and make the binding and find something for the backing!!!

But that's not all. I started off the weekend with this project. A tote bag. The sides were done, the pockets were on, the handles were made but needed stitching. Anyway - it didn't take long and it was completed - even with the plasticore for the bottom!!!

Tote bag - DONE

 And this one was partially together as well, but it's totally complete and I gave it to Ronda!

Second tote bag is DONE

 This second tote bag is a free download on the Northcott website if you want to download it.

A quick note about food. Now I know why we need sugar in our food. Because it tastes awful without it. Like the burnt steeped tea at Tim's. Honestly - try a regular tea (with the bag in) and not steeped. No need to add sugar. And oatmeal - if you eat the oatmeal on the left - you NEED sugar because it tastes - well, I don't want to write a bad work here. But try the oatmeal on the right - both cooked in the microwave. The steel cut has a much better taste and with a few berries thrown in, it's much better than the one on the left. Going to my last appointment today.

Bad tasting oats on the left - good ones on the right

I don't think I lost any weight or body fat this week and I think that dairy or eggs are not all that good for me. While I'm not bloated, I don't feel as super slim as I did last week! And I have hardly eaten any eggs or yogurt. I'm going to play around with that a bit more in the next couple of weeks.

On that note, I've got a load of paperwork and quilting to do today, so I had better get started.

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!

Motivational Monday updates from the weekend

I'm not sure what the scoop is, but I'm tired! I know that my sleep routine is out of whack. I'm normally in bed by 9 and sometimes awake until 10 and then up at a ridiculous hour. I went to bed later at the retreat and I'm so TIRED. On the last night, I didn't get to sleep until around midnight. I was so tired on the way home that I wanted to fall asleep in the car. Thankfully I wasn't driving. I fell asleep on the couch when I got home - didn't even bother to unpack. Well, I sort of unpacked. Then because I had a sleep on the couch, I couldn't sleep last night so I slept in this morning. I've got to get back on track tonight - this sleeping business is not productive. I mean I need to get to my normal sleep patterns - trust me - I get a full 7 - 8 hours a night of sleep!

So - I've only got a few pictures of what got accomplished this weekend and hopefully, the rest will happen tomorrow.

It was a super productive weekend. Not only did I get a lot done, but I got things done that had been hanging around for a long time and that feels good.

Let's start with what my bag looked like when I left the house.

The orange bag is my Monday sewing bag. I didn't need it and I knew that but it had my sewing tools in there. I really should have transferred the little toolbox to the other bag and I could have eliminated one bag.  So yes - technically I took ONE bag of projects. And I think that bag is smaller than a laundry basket - just saying Tish!!!

Two bags of project taken to the retreat

 I'm a bit of an anal person and when I go to these retreats, I like to put the finished stuff into another bag to keep it out of the "still to do" project bag.

Here are my DONE bag and the "to do" bag when I got home.

Completed projects on the left and "to do" on the right

I think I packed very well. I still have about three projects in the project bag that I didn't touch, but that's way better than I used to be. I sorted through what was left and there are a couple of projects that need to be worked on this week and I left the rest for the next retreat in a couple of months. I think there are three projects for the next retreat. What I need to do is put those three projects ON TOP when I'm packing for that retreat so they don't keep getting put to the bottom of the list. There is one project that has been on MANY retreats and it's actually on my list of UFOs for this year. I might even get to it on a sewing day.

Not much left in the projects bag

 Matter of fact, there are a number of sewing days at my house before the retreat. I should just keep working on this bag on those days so I can start fresh for the next retreat.  Yep - good plan.

So what actually got done? I didn't get a chance to get all the pictures but here is a couple of things that I finished or advanced to the next stage.

One more block is done for the pixelated apple quilt. This block has been hanging around since November. It was partially together as I had posted in an earlier post. Now it's done!

Pixelated apple block - DONE

 Here's what the quilt looks like so far. You can tell I still have a long way to go. But after laying them out, I think I know which block I'll sew next so I can get those four blocks together.

Three blocks for the pixelated apple quilt

 I had all the fabric in my project tote as well in the event that I wanted to work on another block which I didn't get to. I still have to cut a few more red squares, so I'll get those cut tonight and be ready to lay out the next block. It makes a good ender/leader project. And all those little seams are twirled on the back so that thing is going to lay perfectly flat!

The other thing I worked on was the Bonnie Hunter Celtic Solstice mystery. I think there are 49 blocks in the quilt. 25 of one and 24 of another. I had the 24 blocks done and all the components of the 25 were together. I made one block yesterday morning.

One block for Celtic Solstice

 After making the one block, I realized that I couldn't go any further. Why? Becuase I wasn't sure which direction to press the seams. You see it's the alternate block and the seams need to nest with the other block or I won't be happy.

Two blocks for the Celtic Solstice mystery

 I took a guess and it was the right one! But I didn't dare go any further and I didn't even press those last two seams in the event that they were incorrect.

Seams nest together!

At the last sit n sew day, I worked on the one set of blocks so the second set of blocks will be my project for the next sit n sew day which is this weekend!!

That's all I can show today - I have lots more which I hope to get pictures of tomorrow. Since you can imagine that these two little projects didn't take up all the space in the bag. Which they didn't, but a bag of components, a bag of squares - that all takes up space. 

I'm off to Monday sewing today. I'm excited and this time, I'm attacking the projects in the orange bag. It's going to be easy to get all these UFOs done with all this scheduled sewing time. I get so much done - way more than when I'm sewing at home. And these days, most of what I sew at home is for deadline stuff - work stuff. The sewing days are fun and if you're prepped which I was, you can get loads done! If you're in the neighborhood and interested in a casual sewing day, send me an e-mail and we'll see if we can work out something for you.

On that note, I'm off.

Have a good day!

Ciao!

Road trip!!!

Oh my - I've been looking forward to this day for a while!  It's time to hit the road.  I was lucky enough to be invited to the inaugural sewing retreat for Forest Road in Midland or near Midland.  Here's a link to the Facebook page so you can see all the fun stuff.  I think I already posted that link, but in case you didn't check it out the first time, you can see it now.

That brings up the question of what did I pack? The retreat is three days so no need to bring lots, but I managed to fill up one tote bag. It's jam-packed with all kinds of prepped and ready to sew projects. As a backup and because my sewing tools are in my Monday bag, I'm bringing that one as well.

Monday bag and retreat bag - ready to go

I'm leaving in an hour and I haven't packed my clothes yet! That's just how it goes. And I have a bag of good, healthy food. Ronda has been told that if she brings BAD snacks that she is to eat them somewhere else than in front of me so I'm not tempted! I need to finish packing the rest of the food. Mostly snacks - veggies and fruit and almonds.

Yesterday was a great day. I got the upholstery cut for the last tuffet order at the guild. I sewed these pieces together and those were delivered last night. Yeah - that was a great feeling to get rid of that.

Upholstery batting run and prepped to sew for the tuffet covers

 I have another class on tuffets at the Hobby Horse - I believe that is in March and April so if you're interested, you can call them.  BUT they're closed for vacation until Feb 13th. I'll be putting up more details next week of some of the upcoming classes.

I handstitched that sleeve down while I listened to my audiobook. After a frantic search for the label and shipping address, I had to e-mail the coordinator and get that from her. Drat!!  How did that happen that I misplaced that e-mail? I just looked at it three weeks ago. No worries - all is good and the quilt is winging it's way to Los Angeles.

Sewing the binding on the Quiltcon Charity Challenge quilt

Then I hung it up so I could get a picture. Yes - there are a few waves in it. It's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. But I kick myself that I didn't take the time to redo those darn outer borders and split it in the middle and trim, trim, trim!!!!  DAMN DAMN!  Oh well - yet another learning experience.

Our finished quilt

Oh - the name of the quilt?  Go West, Young Rogue.  The name of our modern guild is West End Modern Quilt Guild.

 Before I hung this quilt up, I had to take the other one down and since it was my funky Christmas tree, I figured it was time to replace it with something else. This is what is there now. This is Wolfgang by Yanickca.  I was fortunate enough to end up with the quilt (I paid for it!) and now it's mine. I love it.

Wolfgang by Yanicka Quilts

It was quilted by Marilyn and it's just a gorgeous quilt. It's hanging right at the top of my stairs - that will freak DH out when he comes home later today!

The other thing that I've been forgetting is to post the rest of the links for QUILTsocial. Here are all the posts for this week in case you didn't get a chance to get in to read them. There's LOTS of good stuff in there as well as a temptation for that sparkling new sewing machine which I LOVE LOVE LOVE.  But loads of tips for anyone. Check it out.


QUILTsocial - Monday  - Introducing the Husqvarna EPIC 980Q

QUILTsocial - Tuesday - Tips on Piecing

QUILTsocial - Wednesday - Tips on Applique

QUILTsocial - Thursday - Machine Quilting

QUILTsocial - Friday - Binding


Wow -- so much going on, that it's totally crazy. I'm down to two more urgent quilts to get done - that's a project for next week and then the process starts all over again. There are already three new quilts waiting in the wings to be started on. I really must make sure that number remains manageable and that I time things appropriately so that they get done on time! Well, they are for magazines - they HAVE to be done on time. Submitting quilts to magazines has been a great learning experience for me. I'm still learning, but I'm getting better.

Oh my - I need to run. I need to pack or I'll be in trouble.

Have a great day!!!!  Don't worry - I'll be blogging from the retreat.

Ciao!!!