Who is that?

 Today is the LAST day of craziness for this year! Oh - who am I kidding? But it should calm down quite a bit after today. I have two classes today, and I still have two presentations to assemble, and never mind that I had to do the homework for one of them yesterday (and this morning). The girls might have to wait until later for their walk. 

Last night, I had the good fortune to listen to an author speak. This was through my local library. Honestly, these author talks have become HUGE because of Zoom. So this is a very positive thing that has happened because of the pandemic. This would never have happened before - no one would have attended. But now, at no cost, we get assess to authors all over the place, and they get to reach out to new audiences. 

Every month, our library has had an author talk, but last night was the first one that I could participate in. I didn't know the author, but the genre sounded like it might be fun. So I listened in. The author was Genevieve Graham. What a delightful person, and she is PASSIONATE about her subject matter. 

The author talk last night

She writes historical fiction in CANADA. This is not a normal genre for me, but I'm intrigued, and I think I'll have to get one of her books. She talked about The Forgotten Home Child, a heartbreaking story about children sent to Canada in the 1930s to get them off the streets of England and "help" out the farmers in Canada. I think some of them got lucky, and some of them were not so lucky. They were essentially sold as slaves, although that might be going a bit bold in that statement. Slaves versus farm help - you decide. 

She's written other books about the Halifax explosion, and well - I haven't had a chance to investigate all her books. So there we go again - a new author introduced when I don't need a new author in my life! But if you're into historical fiction and want to read about Canadian History - I would suggest this author. 

The library then showed a list of the authors for 2021, and OH MY GOD - Robyn Harding who wrote The Swap, is going to talk in January. I NEED to sign up!!!!  I didn't recognize anyone else on the list, but I'm going to sign up and hopefully get to listen to them all. 

If you are into reading, then I would check out your local library. You need a library card to sign up for this series, where I know some other libraries make the author's talks open to anyone. I hope these author discussions will continue into the future - what a great way to get access to some amazing authors and promote the library, and we can do it in the comfort of our home. 

I plugged my headphones in, and I sewed during the entire lecture!! It was grand. 

So I started a new audiobook yesterday, and well - I'm a bit confused. The moment I heard the narrator's voice, I recognized it (Lorelei King), and it took a few minutes to realize that it's the same person who narrates Janet Evanovich's series about Lizzie and Diesel. I didn't know a thing about this book called A Bad Day for Sunshine by Darynda Jones, but the same person narrating both books and the style of book; I SWEAR that the author is, in fact, Janet Evanovich. I checked quickly, and I don't think it's a pseudonym, but I can't be sure. It's the SAME - I MEAN the SAME style of book and writing. It's very uncanny. 

So that has been keeping me entertained while I've been working! After listening to Genevieve last night, it made me want to write a book. I've no idea what - but I wanted to write. She was so bubbly and enthusiastic. I love her, and I haven't even read her books!!

I managed to get one more quilt done yesterday. I have one more URGENT quilt to do, and I hope to get it loaded later today and start working on it tomorrow. It's not huge, and it's overdue! Then things will be totally under MY control going forward, and well, that's going to be fun!!

Customer quilt - DONE

As I walked around the grocery store yesterday, this display caught my eye. Wait - those are very pale boxes of Cheerios. My first thought, which I'm sure the marketing people would NOT appreciate, was that these boxes had been exposed to long periods of sun and had faded!! But it's FROSTED VANILLA Cheerios. I almost caved and bought a box, but then I don't eat that kind of cereal. Oh - maybe I will next time, but I already had a backpack full of groceries, and a box of cereal would not fit. Has anyone tried them???

Frosted Vanilla Cheerios

Oh my god - who is this person? M was having fun with a filter on her phone, and this is a cartoon version of her. 

M

And who is this gorgeous person? Why that's the cartoon version of ME. I have to laugh because you go from looking like a harsh person to this beautiful creature. Can we do this during a Zoom call? Wouldn't that be cool if Zoom had filters like this? Oh, yes - I want this. I look awesome!

A cartoon of ME

If you're following along with the Spectrum Quilt A Long, here's the link to my Block 6.  And if you want to check out Paul's block - here's the link and the link to Claires. They all look so different. 

Well, it's got to be short and sweet this morning. I've got to get those pictures loaded into the presentations. 

Have a super day!!

Ciao!!!

Check and check

 

Every once in a while, you have a day that you don't want to repeat. Yesterday was such a day. Oh - don't get me wrong, things got done, and I could check them off my list. It was just a wee bit too tight on the timing, is all. 

I'm happy to report the magazine quilt is gone! I should have taken a picture of it sitting on the doorstep. I had to babysit it while it got quilted. Well, that's not really true. There were many threads on the top, so I was cutting threads (it was a scrap quilt after all) while it was getting quilted. The binding got made and put on - I'm getting very good at doing that! And so that quilt killed two birds with one stone. It was a UFO from 2004, and it met the magazine requirements.CHECK and CHECK. That UFO had not even made it to my lists yet. All that remains when it comes back is to put a proper label on it and a proper sleeve. It went with a temporary sleeve pinned to the back. 

The label for UPS was generated, and I taped it into a box. I'm not sure if I did something wrong, but it only cost $35 to ship this box. I need to do an experiment, but I swear that the flatter the box, the cheaper it is to ship. That was a bargain at $35, and I thought the prices had gone up for December. It's scheduled to arrive two days behind its due date, but that's OK. I can't imagine that they don't have buffers on their dates, but I do NOT like to be late. 

And how easy is it to generate the labels, pay for the shipment, and do it all from the comfort of your own home? That's one positive thing that came from the pandemic. Otherwise, I would be trundling to the UPS store. 

Then it was time to work on the block. I can't believe that I messed up the order of the blocks that I needed to make, but I did! ACK!! Anyway, that block got made, and the instructions are written up. So that was a good thing. The remainder of the blocks are now in the correct order, and I'm forging ahead to get them all done ASAP, so they are out of the way. But that's not a task for today. 

I LOVE when authors write back! I wrote a thank-you note to Robyn Harding for her great book, and she responded! She even read my blog! Well, I had NO choice yesterday but to finish that book. It was a page-turner, and thank goodness that it was an audiobook so I could listen (and focus) as I worked. The ending blew me away. All I can say is that I'm putting her on my MY MUST-READ list. Thank you, Robyn, and it's always exciting to find a new author, and she's Canadian! Yeah, Canadian authors. 

I'm making great progress on my new Virtual Challenge - the Appalachian Trail. It starts in Georgia and moves up the east coast of the US. I'm now in North Carolina! I'm a wee bit behind as this week was a bit of a challenge to get in that extra walk, but I'll catch up soon. While it's interesting, it's not quite as fun as Route 66. Why? I'm in the mountains the entire time, and there are no Google pictures to see. And no highways to follow. But that's OK - I'm still enjoying it. And it makes me think back to our trip to North Carolina in 2019. I would LOVE to walk part of this route in real life. 

My position on the Appalachian Trail

Remember a while back when I was grousing about the "new" platform for Blogger? I don't even remember what the old one was like! That's hilarious, and that's why we shouldn't be so resistant to change. However, there was one small issue with putting the captions on photos. I see they fixed that! Yeah!!

Christmas is coming! Thankfully, it'll be low key at our house, but I did manage to hang up my Christmas tree quilt yesterday! That was easy! I also had to move all those quilts off the bed, and in doing so, I found my Santa quilt, which I'll hang up later today. This is the FIRST ever quilt that I had published in one of the US publications. That would be back in 2015 or 2016. Needless to say, I was THRILLED beyond belief that it got accepted. Thank you to F&W Media (now defunct) for accepting that quilt. A humble beginning! I should take a picture of the quilting on this one - I LOVE it. It's dense like crazy, but the texture is amazing!!!

The Christmas Tree quilt

Why did I have to move the quilts? Because some company came! Yes - cute Mr. Bear came for a visit, and his handler, M, came along to help him on the plane! It was great to see them, and now we get a couple of weeks to visit. Needless to say, Murphy went ballistic! I've been warning her all week, but she wouldn't listen and saved all the excitement for yesterday. Silly girl. 

Bear and M at the airport

Notice that M is wearing one of MY masks. I made a couple, and she needed some, so I gave her one that I had made. I'll be making a few more over the holidays. I think Mr. Bear needs one! He's so darn cute. 

Speaking of changes, here's another very welcome change. I used to have to go into Zoom and create a Zoom meeting. Then save it to my Google Calendar. Well, guess what? Now I can click on an existing event in my calendar and make it a Zoom meeting. I LOVE it. That saves a whole lot of time. I love it when people try to make our lives easier, and they succeed. 

And that's a wrap for today! While there are no quilts to finish or even make today, I have homework to prep for tomorrow's class and two presentations to assemble, but those are easy to do. And I have a quilt on the long arm that needs to be done today! 

Have a super day!!

Ciao!!!

You too can write a book!

 

Two more presentations under my belt for this week, and that leaves two for today. I'll stop talking about the internet connection since everything seems to be good! Yeah! 

I listened to a webinar last night from a library (Wheaton Public Library)somewhere in the US. How cool is that? Normally, I wouldn't have been able to attend this author event, but because of the wonderful world of COVID, I could. Boy - when things go back to normal, whatever that is, we are going to miss a whole lot of these kinds of events. The author was Mary Kubica. The book that I read of hers was The Other Mrs. It's an excellent book, and it was so much fun to "meet" her online. Her genre is psychological thriller, and she doesn't disappoint. 

Webinar - meet the author with Mary Kubica

It almost made me want to start writing a book as I listened to her. I've got to come up with a plot first! I know what I like, and well - when I'm out walking the neighborhood, I guess I'd better come up with a plot. 

However, I'm going to ask YOU to write a book for me. We did a group exchange a while back, and I asked the group members to write a book for me! OK - so you just have to make a quilt block that looks like a book and give the book a title. Something that relates to me! Of course, everything is always about me! 

Here are the books that I received. The camera angle must have been off since the books look distorted, but they are not. 

The book block

I supplied the paper pieced pattern, and people chose the colors to reflect something about me or a color that I like. And then the even better part is that they gave the books a name. So this first one was titled "Accurate Quarter Inch Seams & Other Stores from the Cutting Mat by ............ (they did write their names on the blocks - I just blanked them out). 

Accurate Quarter Inch Seams & Other Stories from the Cutting Mat by.......

Isn't that fun???  I just love the concept, and I want to make a larger quilt. I only have eight blocks, and I'd love to have more. 

Here are the rest of the books. 

Night at the Movies by ..........

Memorable in Orange by Elaine Theriault

 I might remake that cover - gosh - a very dense design and so not stabilized enough. Look at all the wrinkles!

OH MY GOD!!!!

All of the books are AMAZING, but this one truly stands out. Look at the detail. Can you guess the title? How Pack for Retreat by.................  It's hilarious!!!

How to Pack for Retreat

And look - there's me in the car on my cell phone!!! Oh my!!!

Detail of the quilt block

The beauty is that a piece of fabric works for the front as well. 

For the love of quilting by .............

Oh - this one is sideways. 

A cup of tea and friends make the perfect blend by .............

Shoot - there's supposed to be two more. I'd better go back and check the box. Or when I sent them to myself, I forgot two of them. Found them. I was so quick to select them on my phone that they didn't actually get selected. 

Sewist Extraordinaire - Tails from Studio B by ..............

Row by Row - A Quilt Posse Road Trip by ...................

Seriously??? Aren't they just the best? They were so creative in the chosen fabrics and the titles. So if you are interested, I can e-mail you the pattern, or I'm going to find a way to put it on the blog so you can just pull it off. But then you need to send it to me so I can send you my mailing address. 

I'm doing a trunk show on group quilts in February, and it would be awesome to get the blocks into a quilt by then. 

Speaking of packing for retreat, after reading Katheleen's book on how to do it (or more likely Tish's advice on ONE basket, I packed this morning for the retreat. This is it. One basket - I have a few more things to add once I find the appropriate thread and a few supplies. I'm ready to go! The retreat is not far away, and I'm so ready to go!!

Retreat basket

When I was out walking yesterday morning, I saw that one of my neighbors had all their grass removed from the front lawn. NO - they are not doing anything funky with it, as I saw them resodding it later in the afternoon. It was kind of sad, really, as I saw the guys shovel a VERY thin layer of topsoil onto the lawn. What's the point of all this? Why didn't they throw a good whack of topsoil on the existing grass and reseed it? Seems like a huge waste of time and effort. Not my lawn, but still!

Getting a new lawn

I actually got in the car yesterday and went to pick up the TWO rolls of batting for the Quilts of Valour quilts that I'll be quilting starting December. Thanks to everyone who made a donation to help out. Those two rolls will allow me to get quite a few quilts quilted and off to the organization!!!

I stopped at Micheal's as I was looking for a few things. Gosh - I haven't' been in that store in a long time. I managed to snag a couple of things. Like that bright orange scrubby yarn to make kitchen scrubbies. Maybe I should throw that in the retreat bag!

My purchases at Micheal's

I got a few more of the double wedding ring arcs trimmed. OK - I need to get the rest done, but what a fiddly job. I looked at the next step, and OH BOY -it's the A arcs. So that's going to be more of the same. But once the arcs are done, the majority of piecing is done, and then I can start to sew the sections together. I'd better get moving - I want to get this done!

Trimming the double wedding ring B arcs

The backing and the binding are now done for PRISM Squared. That quilt has been moved to the "to be quilted" area. Yeah!!! I'm excited about that. I have another one - Aviatrix Medallion, which needs the binding and backing made, and that one can be moved as well. It's still sitting on the cutting table. 

Bind, backing, and quilt top of PRISM Squared

I've been dealing with the samples that I've been making. They literally got thrown in a heap after I took photographs. This is the magnificent lion! 

Magnificient lion made with ribbon embroidery

It's done with the ribbon embroidery attachment! Isn't it fabulous???

Detail of the ribbon embroidery

And it's time to get started on the UFO homework for next month. Oh boy - I see that all the parts of this block are cut - they just need to be sewn together. These eight-pointed star blocks were pieced, but they look too wonky for my liking, so I'm taking them apart or at least partially apart, and I'm going to resew them. I know - I'm a crazy person for doing that. 

Wonky looking eight-pointed star blocks

So life goes on! Things are more or less under control, but to look at the kitchen table, you wouldn't think that. I  need to take some time to tidy that up as it literally became a dumping ground for stuff going upstairs or downstairs. My last presentation finishes at 4 today, so after that, I might take a few moments and tidy up! I've been trying to keep Studio B under control, or I would never find my samples and such when I need them. 

Well, it's time to go! 

Have a super day, and I hear the sun will be out. So make sure you get outside and walk or even just sit out for a bit. Get bundled up!

Ciao!!!!

These are super cute!!!

Not a lot of time this morning if I want to meet my time schedule. Two more days before the weekend. It's still a crazy time, but things are looking up!

On Tuesday night, I went to hear Linwood Barclay present. In case you don't know him, he used to be a columnist for the Toronto Star. He has always wanted to be a writer (of books) and ten years ago, he had his first major book - "No time for goodbye".  It's a very good book. I've read one more of his books. They have a psychological component to them  - not just a murder mystery.

He's an EXCELLENT presenter. I could listen to him all day and I wonder if he reads his own audiobooks? He would be good at it.

Linwood Barclay

I hope to get back to reading in the next couple of days, but there are still too many deadlines to have that luxury. Don't worry - I've got things scheduled in HUGE letters to prevent this craziness from happening again.

I was so focused on Linwood, that I didn't get a picture of the beautifully quilted wallhanging in the church. It huge and hangs perfectly flat against the wall.

The other day I was in the grocery store and I saw these in the yogurt section. I couldn't help myself. I had to buy them. Actually, it was the lids that caught my attention.

The yogurt is in little GLASS pots. They are just the cutest!!!! They are called Petit Pot.

Riviera yogurt 

I bought the lemon flavored and yes it has a lot of sugar (14 gm per serving) but I'm OK with that. Actually, I just checked the Greek Yogurt that I usually eat - hmm 14 gm isn't bad. OK - I'm sold on these guys!

Look at how cute this is.

A Petit Pot of yogurt

 I had to confess to the cashier that I bought them because of the container. She said she did the same thing and that I should check out the other flavors. They make an EXCELLENT dessert and only 100 calories per serving.

Now, what does one do with all the leftover containers? You can buy lids so you could store things in them. And there's a website with 1001 tips. 

You know what the best part was? Eating from a GLASS container. We eat so much from plastic and it just tasted better in the glass container. Hmm - I didn't even check the price. But I want to try the other flavors and I'm sold on the idea of having this for dessert. Even though it has sugar in it, it also has protein and that's better than some little tart. OH - is it time to go the grocery store yet? I want to see what else they have.

Lids for the containers

Yesterday was a crazy day and I had two classes back to back. We're making quilts in one so you get to see the show n tell when the quilts are done. The other one was two young ladies learning to sew t-shirts. They were so enthusiastic and so funny. One of them finished the side seams and the two shoulder seams and then whipped the shirt inside out and tried it on. She did it so fast  - it was hilarious. They didn't quite finish their shirts, but they went away happy. I'll get pictures when they are finished to show you. I have some other pictures of classes and will post hopefully tomorrow.

I didn't have a chance to post the QUILTsocial link for yesterday so today you get two of them.

Here's the link for Wednesday post. And here's the post for today.

On that note, it's Sit n Sew again!!!  The studio is cleaned up for 10 of us to sew today. I won't show you what the area around the long arm looks like. It's an obstacle course, to say the least. I can make it from one end to another, but it's like the hurdles in track n field.

Yes - I have some serious work ahead of myself to get that organized.

Have a super day!!!!!


Ciao!

Home sweet home!

I had noticed when we were riding around that the gas prices were a bit high. I initially thought it was because we were in Windsor.  Alas, I realized yesetrday that there had been a major spike in gas prices. ACK!!!   This is where you wish you lived closer to where you work and you could ride your bike every day.  I could ride my bike, but it would be about 50 K one way!  A tad too far to make it worthwhile however if the price of gas continues like this - I may have no choice!  That would save on the toll highway charges as well!

I had a couple of stops along the way - the first being in Mount Brydges to the quilt store (Sew Creative) so I could pick up their license plate for Row by Row. And while there, I did find a few other things. DRAT!!!  NO more quilt stores for a while. But as the GPS took me off the highway, I went past a gas bar - Bear Creek Gas Bar which is on First Nations land?  At least it was owned by First Nations (I'm pretty sure).  Anyway as I'm sailing past and see the gas price which was 111.9, I was ticked because I had to fill my tank up about 50 K earlier and it wasn't even worth it for a top up!

But I noticed that they had a barn block on the building. Now it's one thing when you're crusiing along on your bike at 25 K and you see something, you can stop, but in the car - well by the time your brain registers that there is something to see, you make a decision to stop and well - you're already several KM away!  OK - I'm not that slow. Anyway, I thought I'll catch the photo on the way out. Well, I ended up having to back track about 20 K to get that photo but it was a lot easier in the car than the bike.  I wasn't in a hurry to get home and good thing because I spotted another barn block by the side of the road that was a stand alone - not attached to a building.

And let's just say that the word got out about the gas prices at Bear Creek because when I was there the second time, there were LINES of cars waiting to fill up!

I'll be getting a copy of the Thames River Barn Trail book and I'm excited to see how many of them I spotted.  Now that would be a fun bike trip!

Then off to Brantford to visit a friend who has recently moved there. She lives in a beautiful neighbourhood in a beautifully renovated home.  I think the quiet country life might be fun!  Would certainly make it easier to ride my bike!  Got to contemplate that but for the moment, I'm quite happy where I am.

At last I arrived home to have two very excited girls greet me! Well, Lexi took one look and walked away in disgust, while Murphy sucked up enough attention for both!

Instead of getting right to work as I should have as I have a ton of things that need to be done, I grabbed my Anne Perry book (the first one in the William Monk series - the one I bought at the used book store) and started to read. I'm liking the book!  And I checked - she helped to kill her friend's mother when they were 15.  Imagine that!  Now she writes books about murder!  Very ironic!  There are books about her life and I may just read one, but now I've added two more series to my FictFact.com lists. It was in 1954 in New Zealand that the two girls committed murder. Anne now lives in Great Britain and wrote numerous books before her first book was published in 1979. She has 87 books to her credit! A very prolific author!  I notice in her profile that she doesn't say anything about the murder and it was only when a movie was made (Heavenly Creatures) about the girls that this part of her background was discovered.   Interesting - this was Kate Winslet's first movie!!!   OK --- let's not get obsessed here!   But there's even a Youtube of the murder scene!  At 15, they were too young for the death penalty and as part of the condition of their release, they were to never meet each other again!  WOW!!!!    I do have an Anne Perry book in my book shelf so I was destined to stumble upon her at some point!

I decided to venture down to the studio after dinner and puttered around for a while. Trimmed the last of the construction quilts and made another binding.

Four quilts - three bindings

And whilte I was puttering, I found this embroidery that I started and finished while I was visitng my parents. Just needs some borders and then figure out how to quilt it!

Small embroidery project - DONE!

Today, I'm madly taking pictures and writing as I have blog posts that are due very soon. And I have some sewing to do as well. Samples for classes and projects for magazines.  It's going to be a busy day, but a fun day.  No commitments except to pick up a piece of fabric that someone has for me.

Oh - the other thing I did yesterday was spend 71 minutes on the phone with the cable company trying to get my MIL's cable TV working. She lives in an apartment building and it appears that the building cancelled their contract for the cable. Now I'm sure they posted a sign in the building to that effect, but of course, she wouldn't notice something like that.  So after realising what had happened, I was able to get the cable reinstated and now it costs three times as much becuase the basic cable was included in the rent.  We must find out what is going on for new cable services, but in the meantime, having her specialty channels or any TV for that matter keeps her happy.

While I was on hold for long periods of time, I was filing stuff in my office.  And I have to say that I'm liking this sort of cleared space.  It'll feel even better after the next round of cleaning, but I don't think will happen for a while. The trick is going to be to not let it get any worse - we must stay on top of all incoming stuff so that I only have the old stuff to tidy up!  I think I can handle it!!!

On that note - I'm out of here for the day! Well this blog anyway!

Have a great day!


Ciao!!!