Zoom, zoom, zoom

 It was a bit of an intense day. Lots of Zoom and more frustration with UPS. 

I'm beyond frustrated with UPS. After another lengthy conversation and being on hold several times, the conclusion is that customs is sitting on the package. Of course, they are off for the weekend, so nothing will happen until Monday morning at the earliest. I've spoken to a supervisor who wasn't really any more helpful than the CSRs. I'm supposed to get a call from the brokers on Monday morning. Let's pray - a LOT. 

Yep -- I could definitely have walked that package to Colorado! 

Well, let's talk about beer today! I've decided to splurge and get a full body massage once a month as part of my personal improvement. That happened on Friday. And I must confess that I think I had a few wee catnaps while I was laying there! 

Here's the thing about massages. In the past, they have mostly been painful -- lots of muscle tightness in the neck, shoulders, and legs. Everything hurts - well, it hurt. Since I've been trying to do more stretching and being more mindful of my posture, I have to say that things don't hurt. My legs, which were causing some issues a while back, have been feeling STRONG. I now feel like I could walk many more KM in a day, but I'm limited by time at the moment, but I still get in at least 11.5 KM (I slipped yesterday and did 11.3 KM), but that's OK. 

I'm focusing on my breathing - well, trying to! It's hard to remember all these things -- nose breathing, stand up straight, shoulders back, head up! It'll start to be natural one day but still requires focusing. And I'm really of the mindset that our health, our outlook on life, and our longevity can be (to a certain extent) controlled by conscious decisions that we make. 

All of that to say that when I now get a massage, it can actually be relaxing, which is good. I'm sure it depends on what I was doing the day before. If I was strapped to my computer, well, my shoulders might be tense. 

Thanks to Miss Murphy, I had a darn dog hair in my mask, so I had to dig that out during the massage as it was tickling my nose. 

Anyway, when I got out of the massage and went to pay, they had a beer tasting in the spa's lobby.  Would I like some? Well, of course! 

I tried a Stiegl Radler -- I love Radler beer. It's grapefruity but tastes excellent. I actually hadn't had some in a while, so that was nice. 

Siegl Radler

Then, I tried a Fruli strawberry beer. That was awesome too. 

Fuli Strawberry beer

Sorry -- lousy photo. The last beer I tried was this one.  It's called Duchesse de Bourgogne. It's a beer with a strong flavor of wine in it. While it tasted OK, I'm not a big wine drinker, so I wouldn't see myself drinking it regularly. 

Duchess of Burgundy

And we got a full sample of a non-alcoholic beer. That's in the fridge - I didn't even look at the name. That little beer tasting was a pleasant little diversion in the crazy day that is my life these days.

It was a crazy day with four Zoom sessions. Two were for our new ongoing classes that will last until June. Three quilts -- Boho Heart, Wanderers Wife, and Long Time Gone. And then two sessions on the Saturday Sewing with the topic of Borders. It was a bit crazy as some people didn't get the links -- totally my fault with the number of people I had to sign up; I missed a few. Sigh...................

There is still some space in this class (Long Time Gone), but the other two are full. 

You can find the sign-up at the Thimbles and Things website. Check out the classes tab.  

As I realized someone didn't have the link, I had to run upstairs to send them the invitation since their e-mail addresses, and the links were not on the same computer. Long story. 

Now there are more quilts to get working on. Thankfully, the other ones are winding down. One more month of sewing on those four. Yeah!!! None of them are done yet, but all are getting close. Except for one quilt, I'm up to date! That has NEVER happened, and my workload is probably the heaviest it's been in years!

I have to share this photo with you. This is from my virtual walk across Canada. I'm on the ferry from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland. In case you think we get to "take the ferry," we do not. We technically have to walk the distance! I'll be on this "ferry" for a couple of days; it's a long ride from Sydney to Port aux Basques. 

Riding the ferry to Newfoundland

I finished reading I Promise Not to Suffer by Gail D. Storey. She and her husband walked the Pacific Crest Trail for real. Well, Gail made it 900 miles, but her husband made the entire trip. Hmm -- I think I'll stick with the Virtual Walk of this one, but I still want to walk one of these trails in person. I think I think I know what I want to do. Now the thing is --choose dates, block it off and start planning. If I don't, it'll never happen. 

Of course, with Covid -- it's been hard to plan. But time to just get moving!!! 

Oh - my keyboard has gone totally wonky. Not sure what is happening, but hopefully, grammar and spell check will fix these significant mistakes!

During the day, with all the Zoom chaos, the doorbell rang. There was this sweet lady with flowers for ME!!!  Thanks so much, Pauline -- totally appreciated!!!  It pays to answer the door sometimes. 

On that note, I'm out of here! We have UFO, and I need to get some quilts quilted, and well -- there are a few other things that need to be done.

Have a great day!!!

Hello!!!

Keeping fit - Virtually!

 I'm all set -- I finished the Appalachian Trail and confirmed the address for my medal. I started the Pacific Crest Trail. Why not just dive right in? While I will always walk the dogs in the morning, there are some days when I wonder if I need that second walk. But the aggressive goals I've set for the virtual challenges get me off my butt and onto the road. 

And here's the thing -- while it's called a Virtual Challenge, I still have to WALK the miles to make that happen. It's not like I just plunk in random numbers - everything comes from the Fitbit. But here's the thing I need to check out. My Fitbit does NOT register my cycling at the spin class, which I'm good with -- I don't want to log those miles. The Fitbit doesn't recognize the spinning motion. It seems to clock steps, but NOT KM, and I'm using KM these days, not steps. Weird -- I wonder how it works. 

I went for my walk after dinner last night. I know that it's hot outside, but you'd be surprised at the breeze that is out. That little breeze is perfect for keeping you on the cool side, and it sure helps a lot that I've acclimatized to the darn heat. We still haven't turned on the A/C in the house. It's warm but not unbearable. And it's all in how you look at it. We didn't have A/C when I was a kid, and we didn't have windows that opened, and well, I've just learned to live with adverse things. I'm good with that. 

Here's the other thing when I'm walking. I'm TRYING very hard to get my posture back in check. So I try to walk with my shoulders squared, and to make it interesting, I try to keep a smile on my face. That way, it makes people who see you wonder what's going on!!!!  I have to say that the shoulder thing? It's exhausting - until I build up some strength in my shoulders and upper back. 

Everyone was SUPER friendly yesterday; even the two men chatting on their cell phones acknowledged me, and I acknowledged them. It was a great walk!!!

The only negative in the day - well, I need to figure out the eating thing when I do the spin class. By the time I got home and walked the dogs, it was time to take Lexi to the vet, and I was starving. I did have a protein bar and some almonds, but that's not enough for me. I have no idea how people manage to not eat until lunch. I'd be dead. I had my oatmeal for an afternoon snack!

So, Miss Lexi got to go in the car. She never was a super fan of the car, but she was quite good yesterday and didn't go bouncing all over like she normally does. 

Lexi on a car ride

Of course, you know who was MAD. Oh yes - she was at the door when we were leaving, and she was ready to bolt. Then she ran outside to the side gate and barked. And when we arrived back home, she was waiting at the front window. You know Murphy -- it's all about HER. 

Where have you been?

Lexi got her shots, and now she's good until next year. Since I couldn't go in with her, I decided it was a good time to connect the new phone to the car. And I got it figured out! Now, I haven't connected the navigation system, but I'll try that later today. 

At least the phone and all my contacts are there, and that's all I care about..... for the moment. 

Contacts are back in the car communication system

I had to laugh as I was trolling Facebook yesterday; I spotted this picture of my cousin's dog. So if you ever wondered what Murphy and Lexi would look like if they were morphed into one dog - this is it. 

What Murphy and Lexi would look like if they were one dog

Look at those eyes!!!! That's very weird!!!

Here's my finisher badge for The Appalachian Trail. I averaged just under 11.5 KM per day for 276 days. Regardless of the weather -- rain, snow, heat, humidity, and most of the mileage is outdoor walking.  That was a total of 3,168 KM. 

Finisher badge for The Appalachian Trail

The Pacific Crest Trail, which goes up the west coast of the US, is 4,000 KM. I gave myself ONE YEAR to make that happen. 

WAIT -- before you think that there are only long distances, I'm starting with all the long ones. Some are only 42 KM. There's a NINETY-year-old woman who is walking about 2.5 KM a day using her walker. This was a woman who, months ago, could barely make it up the stairs. Now she's outside walking 2.5 KM a day!!! That's impressive. I want to be like her when I grow up!

And on our group walk across Canada, we are at 20%. We started in Vitoria, BC, and are walking north through BC to Whitehorse in the Yukon, then we head east. We're almost at the Yukon border. Imagine that --- we've walked 2,000 KM and haven't even left one province!!! We are only four people, we started July 1, but we are a mighty team. Some people are rushing across - they are almost at 70%. There are 16 people in that group. What's the point? It's not a race; there's no prize at the end. 

Our first milestone for our cross-Canada walk

At our pace, we should finish the walk in 10 months, and that's perfectly fine by me. I get more value from my entry fee!!! 

And yes, I was back at the long arm yesterday. I got one more quilt done. The next one is loaded and ready to go this morning. 

Customer quilt - DONE

I also did a bit of sewing, but nothing I can share! Gosh -- how does that happen? Well, it'll be shareable at some point, just not now. I desperately need to fire up the embroidery machine - I have a few things that need to be done soon. 

I know that some people are not that fond of Facebook and find it intrusive. But I LOVE the GROUP function. There is a group for the software on my long arm. I had an issue that I just couldn't figure out, and I got an answer within minutes. Hmm -- that's why I couldn't figure it out - that little function is NOT intuitive as far as I'm concerned. I see their logic, but it doesn't match my logic, and the error message doesn't give you enough detail to figure it out. 

The person who gave me the answer must have had the same issue because she went one step further than the error message, which was all I needed. 

There's paperwork to do today, but I have a long errand, and I need to get that quilt done. So I might get to some paperwork tonight. Sigh --- why is there so much paperwork to do? However, I'm happy to report that the binding on the double wedding ring quilt is half done!

Don't forget to say hello to someone you see regularly but have never said hello! Why not - most people will say hello back, and it makes you feel good! 

Have a super day!!!! 

Ciao!!!!

Another milestone

 Do you know what today is? That would be April 30, which to most of you means the end of the month. To me, it was the date I figured our team of four would finish our cross Canada walk. Well, guess what? We finished a week ago! I just didn't have time to share it with you. 

How did I come up with April 30 as a goal? After the first month, I predicted that we would collectively finish the 8,000 KM by the end of April if we kept up our pace. 

While we technically did the entire length of the country and reached 100% of our goal, this brought us to Sydney on Vancouver Island. The end goal was Victoria. So even though we reached 100% of the goal, technically, we were NOT done. 

Sydney, BC is NOT the end of the line

So I walked two more days, and here we are ONE day before reaching Victoria. There is a Mile Zero marker in Victoria. I've been there and started my cross Canada bike trip at that marker. I'll have to see if I can find the picture of that. 

One day before reaching Mile Zero in Victoria

And here's our final total of KM walked in this cross country challenge. Go team, go!!!! 

Our total mileage for the cross-Canada walk

Yeah -- now we're off the map, and while some people are continuing to enter their mileage, there's no point.  There'll be another Canadian theme starting July 1st - no idea what it is yet, but I hope it's walking from Victoria/Vancouver to Tutoyaktuk. We'll see. 

And now we get to unveil our medal! It's gorgeous, and NO - I do not have my medal holder on the wall yet. I'm slow with that kind of thing. Shoot -- I've taken a picture this morning but can't share it with you. 

AHA -- always something new to learn. For the Long Time Gone quilt, we had to make the Peaky and Spike unit (that's the name that Doreen Speckman gave the unit). But there are many other names. The book called them 60-degree triangles which they are NOT. But Sue at Thimbles and Things reminded me that Deb Tucker has a ruler that you can use for these blocks as well. So many ways to make the same thing!!!!  No wonder newbies get confused!!!

Deb Tucker's V Block ruler

The other day I grabbed a box of paper from the office and decided to do some sorting. Oh boy -- so much junk in the box. I found all manner of odds and ends, and well, I didn't get through the entire box, but I didn't keep much from what I did manage to sort through. I need to do STOP opening up new boxes and deal with the stuff that's sitting on the chair beside me. 

A box of paper to sort

I don't mind, really, because every piece of paper that goes is one less to deal with at a later date. It'll come together, and the best part is that I'm keeping a good handle on not allowing it to accumulate. More or less. 

But I found patterns in that box. They are now in the pattern area. 

Two found quilt patterns

I found a machine embroidery pattern. It's now with the rest of the embroidery patterns. 

Machine embroidery pattern

And I found this free pattern. Oh my - this was from when the Olympics were hosted by Sochi in Russia. OH gosh -- that was the winter Olympics in 2014. I LOVE this pattern and still want to make it. 

A freebie pattern

Something weird is happening with Outlook this morning, and I don't think I can get the pictures I sent to myself. Hmmm - I'm getting the same results on my phone as my computer, so it might be the e-mail server has a glitch. 

Oh well - thank goodness for saving pictures from other days. 

Let me see if I can find some other pictures that I haven't posted yet. 

Nope -- I don't see anything else. I had a great day yesterday. There was no gazebo time as it was cool and rainy, but that didn't stop me from walking to the grocery store. Yep-- a little bit of rain won't hurt you, and of course, there's no one else on the street. I'm good with that. I don't even check my FitBit to see my daily mileage any longer. Some people would check close to bedtime and realize that they are 200 steps from 10,000 or whatever. I never do that. I don't even look at my steps any longer. I look at KM the next morning. Since the beginning of the year, I've averaged 11.82 KM per day. That's pretty awesome, and I feel great. 

Shoot -- I had great stuff to share with you, but no pictures. Oh well. 

Thanks to everyone who sent me links for the OESD HydroStick stabilizer. I'm obviously not a very good online shopper. I did find a shop within driving distance of me that will order it in. So I went with them. That's Creekbank Sewing Machine Shop near Mount Forest. If I can shop local, I'll go there first. 

I need some zippers, and you'd be surprised at how many places are NOT selling zippers during the lockdown!! Oh boy -- I guess I should check my zipper stock before I go off buying more. I might just have what I need. 

I'm off on another errand today - this time in the opposite direction from the other day. I've got stuff to drop off in a couple of locations and stuff to pick up in others. I'll be making one large loop and then back home. It'll be good to get out of the house, but I'd be just as happy to stay home and sew. 

I've got loads sitting there that needs to be sewn and ideas running through my head as fast as they can go. I just need time!!!

Your decluttering task today? Paper --- get rid of at least TEN pieces of paper today. You know it's sitting there and either file it or trash it, but get rid of at least TEN. 

On that note, I'd better get myself organized so I can maximize the day. 

Have a super day!!!!!

Ciao!!!

Google is everywhere

 

I had such a great day yesterday! I felt like I could tackle the world, and while I didn't solve any global issues, I accomplished loads! Had some great conversations with the Long Time Gone class, and well - it was a great day! Let's see what happened. 

Oh, first - I want to share some walking stuff. Here's the thing about the virtual challenges -- I'm learning TONS about the geography in the areas in which I walk. I'm currently walking the Appalachian Trail, which goes through the mountains along the eastern part of the United States. It's fascinating to see the terrain from the Google maps. You can't appreciate this from driving through the area, nor can you appreciate it from your regular maps. Have a look at what I mean. 

This is just the weirdest range of mountains/hills that I've ever seen. Look at how the river cuts right through the mountains. I don't think I've ever seen that before. Don't rivers usually follow the contours of the mountains? OK - so after looking at the maps again, I really want to walk part of this trail! 

Terrain in Pennsylvania

Let's have a look at a couple of the photos from Google. I've had to cross some major highways along the trail. And look - here's a pedestrian bridge over one of the highways. What you see in the pictures is just the luck of the draw, depending on where you are. And DO NOT forget to look backward - you never know what you're going to find. If you look closely at the bridge, it's marked Appalachian Trail!!

A pedestrian crosswalk for the Appalachian Trail

Now have a look at this next picture. Yes - that is a road, but it sure the heck looks like it's gravel and a small road right through the bush. It's MAPPED on Google. Go figure!! Goggle is EVERYWHERE. 

A gravel road through the forest mapped by Google

To contrast that, on my solo walk across Canada, I'm in the heart of Montreal!! Oh my - I miss that place! Lots of good memories from Montreal!

Google map image from Montreal

But lots of good memories here and well - I like where I now live better than where I last lived in Montreal, so I can't complain!!!

Now let's get into the quilting stuff. I'll do the show and tell for Long Time Gone tomorrow. We're going to have lots of show and tell this week. It's also UFO club day, and I've got the presentation together, and OH MY --- everyone has been busy as little beavers this month. We are all getting so much done - it'll knock your socks off. 

And I ALMOST added to it yesterday. Well, not the UFO, but the stash. I watched the NEW stuff that Sue has brought into Thimbles and Things, and OH MY - I want one of everything!!! I may go looking later today. The problem is that with limited supplies if you don't act fast - it's GONE! There is one book that I'd like to get. Actually, several books, so I might have a peek at that. 

Remember the other day, I was complaining that all my mini design boards were tied up. Well, I lied. For some reason, I thought they were all on the table filled with stuff to sew. Not so - there were two of them in their usual spot. Somehow I missed that! 

Empty mini-design boards

A couple of wildlife photos before we get into the quilting stuff. I didn't get a better shot of the heron as I just stood and watched it. Imagine that - actually watching something without viewing it through a phone screen!! They are such a majestic bird. I bet that devil was scouting the neighborhood. Trying to remember which houses have fish in the backyard! We haven't had them in our backyard for several years. Actually, it wouldn't hurt if they stopped by and picked off a couple of the SMALL fish, but I bet they'd go for the big ones! 

A heron

And I see the woodpeckers almost every morning. I got a nice close-up video one day. I should post it - they are fascinating to watch. Tap, tap, tap........  You can hear them all over the forest!

A Downey Woodpecker

And now onto the quilting stuff. This is why some of my stash buckets are overflowing. The other day, I was searching for some yellow fabric. Well, I found this HUGE whack of fabric in the stash basket. It's now measured and labeled. There were almost 9 yards of fabric there. That takes up a lot of room in a basket. I think that happened because I didn't have control over the larger yardage pieces designated for backings. 

Almost 9 yards of fabric

So this yellow piece got added to the stack of backings that are still looking for a home. There are currently six fabrics that need a spot on the shelf. So the moment I remove a piece of backing from the shelf, one of these will take its place. YES -- I'm not far from having all the backings on the shelf!! And each one is labeled with the yardage. It's so easy to find something that it's obscene, and why didn't I think about doing that years ago? 

Labeled backing fabrics

I was at the long arm for a good part of the day. Here's a customer quilt - DONE. It's not a big one, and I was on a roll. 

Customer quilt - DONE

Then I decided that I had better get a couple of the flannel quilts that Diane pieced. So I loaded the first one on the long arm, and it was soon done. They are about 40" by 44", so not huge. Diane has made the binding, so hopefully, I can get the binding on this one at Monday sewing. 

Community project quilt - DONE

But I wasn't done, and so I loaded another one. I LOVE my Quilt Path (the computer). It's been THREE years since I got that. Can you believe it? Absolutely worth every penny! Hands-free quilting, although it does require babysitting, so it doesn't do everything! I'm still the one in charge!

Hands-free quilting

And who could do those perfect circles by hand? 

The pattern on the long arm computer

This turned out amazing! I LOVE it, and I love seeing the fabrics in the quilt. Some of those are PJ pants, some fabrics came from old projects, and some came from Ronda. So thanks to everyone who made a contribution to getting these community projects done! 

Community projects quilt  - DONE

Look at those perfect circles!!!

Perfect circles

Once the binding is on this one as well, they are ready to donate to Project Linus. I need to try and get a few of these done every month, as well as a couple of Quilts of Valour quilts. I haven't yet cracked the plastic on those two rolls of batting that you all donated money towards. There are a LOT of community project quilts, and if I could get all that out of my house? Why - the studio would be empty. Kidding!!! 

I did a lot of piecing for the Long Time Gone project. Just wait until you see the homework. In the meantime, I got more of my Snail's Trails blocks done. Eight more to add to the stack!!! I believe there are now 27 of 48 done!!! Oh yes -- progress - slow and steady! Before I know it - I'll be done. Which is a good thing as I have a wee bit of homework to get caught up on Long Time Gone! That HAS to be done in the next two weeks!

More Snail's Trail blocks

In case you think I'm taking photos of the same blocks, here's what my design boards look like. I could almost consolidate them onto one board now!! Yipppeeeee!!!!! I wonder if I have the right number of pieces? 

The cut pieces for the Snail's Trail blocks

It's going to be a busy day today, with UFO Club, EQ8 Club, and a handwork session. I wonder if they'd notice if I sewed during handwork? Actually, I should dig out that quilt that I was hand binding and finish that. Still not done. I've been reading in the evening, and there's no time for handwork!!!

I"m not out of the woods yet with my low back and knee issues, but I swear I feel like a new person after all that massage this past week. I feel like I have a new knee!!! It's a miracle! And it's totally a muscle issue. Thank goodness for that. So keep up with those exercises!! It makes my daily walks so much more pleasant, and I'm averaging about 11.5 KM each day - almost totally pain-free. 

I swear, though, that EVERYONE needs to walk or ride a bike around a commercial area. You need to see what I see as a pedestrian. Yesterday some guy just blew past me as I was about to cross the exit from a grocery store. I was close enough that I banged on the back of his stopped car. He opened his window and yelled at me, and I yelled right back at him that he was an idiot and thanked him profusely for stopping! People in cars do NOT get it!! They feel it's their right to do what they want. It drives me crazy!! I know people are probably afraid to have me as a passenger in the car! I would be too!

I've learned that you trust NO ONE on the road, not cyclists, not pedestrians, not other cars. You must be on ALERT 100% of the time! OK -- BREATH  - BREATH  DEEP!!! 

And then you have Miss Lexi. She's just calm and collected all the time. OK - most of the time. She loves to sleep in her kennel, and as I was putting my shoes on for the afternoon walk, I looked up, and there she was, watching me! She doesn't move her head, but her eyes will follow you. It's kind of creepy!!! 

Lexi chilling in her kennel

Well, it's time to get the day started!!! Lots of stuff happening, and I'm happy to report that I won't be at the last minute prepping stuff for today!! It's all done. What has happened to me? Oh, don't worry - I have loads to do - I'm just trying to get ahead of the game. I do have homework notes to send out, and my goal is to get it done today!!!

I also need to get into my garage. I have two bike racks for sale, and I need to get the locks for both of them before they can go up on a website. There's a huge shortage, and well - I might as well sell what I'm not going to use. No hitch on my car - so no bike racks! If the bike doesn't fit in the car - then I'll just ride from home, which is what I'm mostly doing now. 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!

March on!

 It's a bit too early to start reflecting on what happened this past year. And I'm sure that many don't even want to go there. 

However, here's some interesting food for thought. Two days ago, I finished my 2020 challenge with The Conqueror. It initially started out as a cycling goal of 3,000 miles for 2020. When things started shutting down, I lost my spin class mileage, and my cycle trip was canceled. I needed to rethink that goal. I started counting my walking mileage. I did feel like I was double-dipping on this, but who cares. 

I converted it to KM late in the year, which worked out to 4,828 KM. If I realized, I would have upped the goal to 5,000 KM, but I didn't have time to walk that extra distance. As I mentioned, I finished the other day. Here's the revelation. I definitely walked/rode my bike more than I drove this year. Seriously??? Yep - I haven't done the math, but I'm guessing that I've driven about 2,000 KM since March and probably not much in January and February. But I'll have walked and ridden my bike almost 5,000 KM this year. That's the first time ever in my life that that has happened. 

Was it easy? Oh yes - the dogs get their 5 KM walk in the morning (they split it since they are unruly to walk together), and the rest of the walking came from doing my errands (mostly) on foot rather than in the car. So I saved a lot of money, saved wear and tear on my car, and built up my health! 

Here are some pictures of my virtual walks. Don't worry - there's quilting stuff coming. 

The first one is my walk along the Appalachian Trail in the US. Did you know the trail follows the border between Tennessee and North Carolina? I did NOT. 

Following the Appalachian Trail

Wouldn't it be exciting to walk that trail in person? Oh - I'd love to walk part of it, and perhaps I'll put that on my list of things to do when we're able to get out and about. 

If nothing else, I've learned a TON about geography on these journeys. And I've learned a TON about Google Maps. 

This next picture is from my walk across Canada - west to east. I'm in Sault Sainte Marie. A friend of mine grew up on St. Joseph Island, which I assumed was a SMALL island near Sudbury. Wait a minute - that island is HUGE. You can see it at the bottom center of this photo. 

Sault Sainte Marie

The other thing I learned (from Nancy) is that you can drag the little yellow guy (on Google Maps) to any spot on the map you're on and see a view. As long as Google has mapped it. Thanks, Nancy - I did not know that, or if I did, I had forgotten it. That's going to make these trips even more exciting. I learned that if you click on the photo, you fast forward a certain distance along the road. And you could technically do that for an entire trip, I suppose. Don't forget you can turn 360 degrees to see in front and behind you. 

It's totally fascinating! 

But here's the other thing I learned. I dragged the little yellow guy to a spot on the map, and I got a PHOTO that wasn't done by the Google mapping car. Nope - it's a picture of a bunch of Canada geese in a field with some men. Seriously???? 

M tells me that Google now allows people to upload their photos with the geotag so the little yellow marker guy on the maps can land on said photos. Oh boy - that's getting kind of weird. 

This morning, as I exited Sault Sainte Marie, I noticed an island where Murphy should go and live. 

Squirrel Island

She could run to her heart's content - it's an island, and they better have LOTS of squirrels for her to chase. She would be happy!

Here's the final screen on my 2020 challenge - a total of 4,828 KM. I would say that I cycled about 800 of those KM. 

And now onto the quilting stuff. OH WAIT - I got a nasty note from Bear. He's upset as he hasn't been making the blog as often as he feels he should. So here are a couple of pictures. 

This little guy is so darn cute, and I really hate to see him go home, but he'll be home in a couple of days. I should take a picture of his INDOOR sweater, which has squirrels on it. Oops - Grandma walked him in that sweater yesterday, and people who saw him loved it! Parents are so protective! He loves when Grandma is in charge! 

Waiting for Santa?

He loves to visit Studio B and was sleeping peacefully in a basket on the table. Then I heard a slurping sound and found him enjoying my glass of water! Note to self - DO NOT forget that the dog slurped from that glass! I got a new glass! The blue sweater is his walking sweater - how boring is that? 

Getting a sip of water

Here are a couple of photos from the cleanup day. This is the table cleared off and waiting for a jigsaw puzzle to be opened. 

The jigsaw table

The other side of that group of tables is the machine parking area. Embroidery units, accessory trays, machines, etc., hang out on this table. 

Space for embroidery units and other sewing machine parts

And the table right behind has one more sewing machine and an orange bucket (freed up from project stuff) that holds embroidery hoops and extra machine bits, like foot pedals. Gosh, it feels AMAZING to get this stuff organized. 

More storage for sewing machine parts

I emptied three containers. I might need them in the future, so there's a stash of the empty containers under the stairs where there's loads of room. I'll likely need these as I move forward with the last bit of tidying up. 

Empty containers

I still have containers like this to deal with. A small cute tin filled with odds and ends of stuff. This is what causes us issues. Cute little things that we pick up, and then what do we do with them?? I've been a saver of this kind of stuff, and now it's time to deal with it!! I better have a drink first to loosen my hoarding tendencies up!

A container of bits

I emptied this cute little basket that I made, and it now corrals the half-square triangles that need to be pressed and trimmed. It's a free pattern that I made. I see it's no longer on the Northcott website, but if anyone wants it, let me know, and I can scan it and send it to you. A great way to use 2 ½" squares. 

A basket to hold half-square triangles

Speaking of the jigsaw puzzles, I decided that yesterday was the day to crack that one open. It's NOT going to be easy. 

My jigsaw puzzle of choice

Oh, that's an understatement. This is a very challenging puzzle. Not only is there a lot of green in that picture, but the pieces fit in multiple positions! The border is done, but not before I had to switch some pieces around. I did start on the tractor, but holy - it's a toughie!!

Getting ready to start the puzzle

The binding is on the last customer quilt. No rush to get it to the recipient since she lives in the UK and cannot come home at all. It'll be given virtually to her!!!  And Mom has tested positive for COVID here, so what a mess. I'll be taking pictures this morning, and then it'll get picked up later. 

Binding on the T-shirt quilt

I seem to be whipping through spools of thread with great abandon! I'm going to have to place an order in the new year. But I'm going to be sorting through my thread at some point as well. I have lots of thread but am running out of some specific colors. But it's time to dig deep and pull out those other spools that I've bypassed for years. 

An empty spool

I've got one small quilt for Bear to bind today. The binding is made, and I'll get to it later today. 

Binding for Bear's quilt

I also have to box up a serger and get it ready for pickup. Good grief - I'm going to need to open the manual to find out how some of the bits get prepped to go back in the box. 

Packing up a serger

Well, that's it for today. Much more in the decluttering department, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow. 

Have a super day!!!  Hey - it's Christmas Eve!! Don't forget to put out the milk and cookies for Santa tonight!

Ciao!!!