An unventful travel day!

As I sit surrounded by junk in the office, I remind myself of the list I put together yesterday. I don't have time to deal with any of it today, but I'll keep plugging away at it. I just might have more incentive now. 

OH—there is one thing I need to add to that list, and this is NOT new. 

USE the good things NOW!!!! I don't care if this is your favorite china, crystal, or the FABRIC that is too good to cut. If you don't use it now, someone is going to take your precious china and dump it unceremoniously outside a thrift store drop box. That good fabric? It might go on the back of a community project quilt or be chopped into tiny pieces. If you don't use it now and enjoy what you bought, then someone else will do with it as they wish. 

It's like my china tea mugs. I bought them, put them in the cupboard for a special day. Then about ten years ago- no, make that eight years ago, as I bought them ten years ago- I started using them. EVERY DAY! I put them in the dishwasher even though it fades the paint. I DON'T CARE. I have two, and one day I use one and the next day it's the other. I am enjoying them - I get a wee thrill every time I pull them from the cupboard. When I'm gone - those mugs can go in the trash. I'm not kidding about the thrill - I LOVE those mugs, and using them makes me feel special - they have bicycles all over both of them, and they are fun! 

When I am gone, M might say, "I want one of those tea mugs because it was Mom's favorite." And they are my favorites because I USE them whenever I am at home. And only for tea and never in the microwave. Something doesn't become special when it's stored in a box in the back of the cupboard.  

Thankfully, I never got into the china-and-crystal thing. I have NOTHING exceptional in the dish department, EXCEPT for those two mugs. 

LOL --- I just checked my email, and I see that I've been upgraded in advance for my next flight in a couple of days, which is only an hour-long flight. It doesn't matter -- I'll take the upgrade when I can. But I never seem to get upgraded for the long flights. 

Yep—I'm back home, and I'm tired, but I'm off to work today. I'll be doing some demos of the PFAFF creative icon 3 at Sew Productive, in Acton. One session starts at 9 AM and the second one is at 2 PM. It's free, so if you are around and want to see what all the hype is about, come and check it out.

As far as travel days go, it was uneventful, which is just how I like it. I zipped over to my parents' in the morning, chatted for over an hour, and tried to tidy up some last-minute details. Only the bank is giving us grief, and I need to call them because there is one transaction we can't do online, and I'm not sure why. 

I know people drive through Saskatchewan and say it is so boring. People say the same about the Meseta part of the Camino in Spain. People ---- you get to see for miles, and the vistas do not disappoint. As many times as I have seen those wide-open spaces, I never tire of it. It's some of the most beautiful country in the world. The next time you want to drive across the country, please do NOT bypass Saskatchewan. It's beautiful in a different way than the mountains. 

Gassed up the car and dropped off the rental car. Since it was NOT at the airport location, they gave me a lift, so that was good. Then I filled up my water bottle at the refillable water station. And yes—that is my Booster Juice shake. I was running out of hands to hold everything. I didn't have to wait too long, and we were ready to board the plane. 

Refillable water station

I have no idea why I was so exhausted, but I was asleep before the plane even took off! The next thing I know, we have been in the air for almost an hour! I didn't do anything physical, but it was exhausting mentally. I went to bed early, and I could probably still be asleep if I had time. But that's OK. 

Thankfully, I had all my samples sitting on a table in Studio B, so all I needed to do was grab a small suitcase and throw them in. 

I LOVE these logic puzzle books. I'm speeding right along in this one, and I'm somewhere in the 30s. There are 50 in the book, so ONLY after I finish this one will I allow myself to start a new one. Some are quick; a couple of them have given me grief, but it all keeps the brain active. I will do whatever I can to keep my mental faculties working. Dementia seems to run in my family (sigh), so I have to try to prevent it from attacking my brain cells. At least it hits (if it's going to) in the 80s, so I still have time! 

Logic puzzles

Before bed, I tidied up a few things in Studio B. A small gift from someone at the retreat. Two crocheted dishcloths and a scrub pad. You can never have too many dishcloths.

New dishcloths and a scrubby

Those scrub pads are crocheted, and this is what they are made of. The one above isn't sparkly, but this ball that I purchased is. I had thrown it in my bag to work on at retreat. Alas, that wasn't to be this time. 

Yarn to make a scrubby

I also acquired a new puzzle from someone, so it is now added to the pile, and this one isn't going to be easy!!!! I won't have time for a couple of weeks to work on a puzzle, but I'll do what I can. Maybe I can get the next one sorted, and that would be great. It's a good activity for the evening when your brain is dead. 

A new jigsaw puzzle

And darn those new food labels. I wondered if anything would be classified with all three "bad" items, and yes—I spotted this on the kitchen counter this morning. DH bought half a pumpkin pie because you can't live for fall without one. 

The warning label on the pumpkin pie

The trick is to LIMIT, but not eliminate foods with those warnings! I tried—I really tried — to eat better on this past trip, but I wasn't always successful. It is what it is. 

I have to run because I need to walk the girls. They were so excited to see me last night, but I think all they wanted was a walk, and I was tired. So now I will have to walk them together this morning because of time, and they are going to be wild! Slow and steady. 

It will be a WONDERFUL day!!!!!!

Ciao!!!!

Sewing updates!

Let's get back to the T-shirt quilt. All the shirts are cut up and hanging on the wall.

The first part of the T-shirts

Make that two walls. This second wall also includes the backs of the T-shirts, and thankfully there were only seven of those. There are 44 T-shirt fronts and seven backs. 

The second wall of T-shirts

I sent a note to Dillon to ask how to proceed, as they will not all fit on one quilt unless we make a giant quilt, and I'm happy to do that if that's what he wants. 

Let's just say that the T-shirt cull happened when they moved in together. M kindly suggested to him that I could make him a T-shirt quilt, but he had to cull his collection, which is mostly concert T-shirts. He saw the first picture and sent a note back that he wanted one of them back. LOL -- I kindly explained that what he was looking at was no longer T-shirts, but just the logos from them. I also said that if M found out that I returned a T-shirt, we would both get in trouble! 

I told him to take a week to figure out what he wants, and then the fine-tuning begins. 

As I was digging through the laundry basket where the T-shirts resided, I found my collection of T-shirt books. Yep -- why have just one when you can have everything published about T-shirt quilts? Good grief—I don't know why I do that. 

My collection of T-shirt quilt books

Hopefully, I can get started on the math later this week. It will take some finessing to make this one happen. And once that is done, then I have one for myself I'd like to work on. 

But in the meantime, I now have two weeks to complete 4 new samples and make a shirt for myself. The ONLY thing on my schedule is a massage next week. I'm in good shape, but I also need to deal with that garden. The weather has cooled right down, and it's the perfect weather to get out there. What's even nicer is the humidity is gone! Let's hope it lasts for a while. 

What is this new label all about? I only recently started noticing it, and it can intimidate a person. ALL chocolate bars I buy at the grocery store now have this label on them. If that doesn't make you sit back and think! Thankfully, I have halved my daily intake, so I'm good - a little bit of saturated fat is not a big deal. It's really how much you eat. I wonder what type of food has three warnings on it? 

New warnings on food labels

They have not resorted to putting danger pictures (obesity) on the foods we eat, like they did with cigarettes. Like everything, it's all about moderation. Just Googled it and it's a new label system that Canada has implemented. You will find it on packages of food items that are high in saturated fat, sodium, and sugar. Hmmm -- that makes me think of the book: Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss. I read it a while back, and it's shocking to learn how companies deliberately load foods with those three items to make us CRAVE more. 

When I went to the post office to mail that puzzle, I got a bit of a surprise. There was a line because our small satellite post office is closed, and the lady said their location is now quite busy. The line never stopped. Once I was done, several people were behind me. And it seemed that everyone took their time to run their mailing errands. 

And the other thing I noticed is that they changed the size of the flat-rate boxes. Yikes!!!!! I didn't know that. They are now larger, and I think they cost more. Of course, they cost more! 

New sizes of flat-rate boxes

When I stopped at Indigo, they had a puzzle sitting on the table. A few pieces were clearly in the wrong spot, so I took them out. 

The in-progress puzzle at Indigo

And then I stood there and found ONE piece. That was all I did because I could get caught up in the puzzle, and I was already running behind schedule, with a line-up at every place I went that day. 

My lone piece in the community puzzle

I was looking for some strong clips for the long arm. These clips had been recommended to me when I was at Quilt Canada. But where to find them? Imagine my surprise when I was at my friend's as we changed her leaders and she had the same clips (white) on her table and was switching to those clips, instead of the clamps that we currently have. 

She bought them online. I was determined NOT to buy online if I could help it. So on the way to the mall, I stopped at HomeSense and found exactly what I needed, and they were HALF the price of buying online. So I got four for what she paid for two! I have yet to put them on the machine. 

My clips were on sale! 

And in case you are wondering, I got the hem on the leader done the other day. I need to sit down with some peace and quiet and determine which way the leader needs to face and then sew in the channels. I might attempt that this afternoon once I get the long arm (sample-making) up and running. 

Hemming the leader

I'm also trying to get a handle on the stuff that's on the cutting table. That seems to be a constant battle, but that meant trimming more half-square triangles. These are the insane ones that are trimmed to 1¼". I'm not done with the bag, but I believe it's the last bag of ones that are sewn and not trimmed, and I made progress yesterday. Any progress is good. 

Progress on trimming the small HSTs

These next ones are from the sewing I did on a quilt, which I need to share with you this morning. 

More HSTs trimmed

And some others, so everything, except that one bag, is pressed and trimmed. 

More HSTs trimmed

I almost forgot to show you what I've been sewing. My Tequila Lime quilt is in one piece!!! Now I have to remove the paper from the back, but that's OK. It's a mindless task to do while watching some YouTube videos. 

Tequila Lime in one piece

And someone had quilted two community project quilts for me, and I got them back the other day. I must have made these twenty+ years ago! Having them quilted was an experiment, and I realized it's so much work to prep them for someone else, so we won't be doing it again. But the quilting she did is gorgeous! It sounds silly that it's so much work, but it adds another deadline, and I don't need one. 

Quilt number one

While these two quilts look identical - wait, I think I used the same picture twice. But you'll see in a minute that there are two quilts. I had to check - the borders aren't even the same! Pictures tomorrow. 

Quilt number two? No -- that's the same picture.

The backing of one is purple. 

One back is purple

While the backing of the other one is blue. 

One backing is blue

The binding, made from lovely polyester fabric, is on both quilts. How can I tell it's polyester? The smell when it's pressed. It stinks of synthetic. 


Well, I have lots more to share, but I must get the day started. 

Have a great day!

Ciao!!!